BBC Earth: Life in VR – a new way to experience stories from the natural world. From coastal kelp forests to deep sea trenches, users can witness first-hand the creature behaviours and relationships which sustains this ocean’s rich and diverse ecosystems, and discover the secrets that underpin it.
The lecture will explore the grammar and language of this landmark format and the storytelling techniques adopted to connect emotionally with the audience.

A range of emerging technologies, from virtual and augmented reality to data capture techniques like photogrammetry and videogrammetry, are offering journalists powerful new ways to tell urgent stories. This talk will look at VR’s ability to generate intense emotional, empathetic responses on the part of viewers; give an overview of the latest data capture techniques; and touch on some of the ethical issues involved in recreating real-life events in VR and AR.

Igor Coric has been working in the field of web animation for the last 15 years. He will tell a story of how he created his own way of digital storytelling, how this took him on a journey to the end of the world and back to create an animation studio with a heart and soul.

Joyful, intrepid, excited, calm.  Starting with how we want our audience to feel, this talk explores how Nexus blends linear and interactive storytelling techniques to create work that moves people.  Who is our audience and why will they care?

In the game Not Tonight we created a post-brexit 2D dystopian vision of Britain. With post-launch hindsight, what resonated emotionally with the players?

Emerging media like VR and AR have enabled socially conscious storytellers to immerse their audiences like never before as they address topics ranging from the immigration crisis, to global warming, to domestic violence. Yet these new formats present challenges both technical and ethical. Is it appropriate to use a video game environment to address issues like homelessness and poverty? Does the heightened level of emotional engagement created by VR make viewers more susceptible to manipulation? Do ultra-realistic environments and characters give VR journalism more substance, or do they distract from the content? This panel will address all these questions, as well as others being debated in the vanguard of immersive media.

Video Games are one of the most fascinating medium for emotional storytelling at the moment. They can evoke strong feelings – and not just excitement and fear but humour and passion and sadness. 11–11 is a painterly game on World War One made by DigixArt and Aardman Animations. Discover how the game was designed in order to explore our History throughout different perspectives and how emotions drive the story forward.

Let’s explore why and how technologies developped by some of the most innovative startups from the field are about to change how 3D worlds are created and exeprienced through a combination of AI-based methods, real-time and collaborative technologies. What impact will this have on either content creators but also consumers? Where can or will this be used? Let’s walk the talk with a live demo of PocketStudio.

Abstract of the lecture: PocketStudio is the first digital content creation tool allowing several users to work together on the same 3D animation project and see each other’s changes with real-time feedback. A sort of Google Docs applied to the creation of movies. In this workshop you will have a chance to explore how it feels to create movies with others in real-time using PocketStudio authoring app and augmented reality.

During this workshop, you will work on a scene of the game « 11-11: Memories Retold” in order to experiment how narrative can be delivered in an interactive environment. You will learn about the issues attached to non linearity storytelling and how to create emotions without mastering the exact pacing of the sequence.