Lighthouse and Creative England present Reframed, a new programme of talks and workshops exploring immersive and interactive storytelling.

The worlds of film, gaming, theatre, design, art and technology are becoming increasingly converged, with interactive and immersive environments such as 360°, virtual reality, augmented reality, mobile apps, games and interactive web-based video bringing us closer to a seamless blending of physical and virtual worlds.

“Immersive storytelling is everywhere and there’s no going back” – The Guardian

REFRAMED TALKS – Thursday 27 April

Reframed brings together leaders and innovators from the fields of film, games, sound, contemporary arts and media who have created bold and inventive work across VR, augmented reality, immersive theatre and games to explore emerging practices within the realm of immersive and interactive storytelling.

Aimed at those wanting to learn more about designing and producing interactive and/or immersive work, Reframed will shine a light on the intrinsic and underlying principles of non-linear and interactive narratives, and the platforms and technologies which best serve them across different types of projects.

SPEAKERS

Landia Egal is a producer working on innovative projects using the New Media technologies to tell interactive stories across multiple platforms. She was part of the team producing Notes on Blindness: Into Darkness, the stunning VR companion piece to the acclaimed feature documentary of the same name, which won the Storyscapes Award at Tribeca Film Festival, the Alternate Realities VR Award at Sheffield Doc/Fest and the Best European Online Project at Prix Europa. In 2016 she co-founded Wigal, which focuses on interactive and international VR and AR projects.

Rob Morgan is a game writer, narrative designer and Creative Director of Playlines, the Augmented Reality theatre studio. He collaborated with J.K. Rowling to write the Augmented Reality PlayStation 3 game Wonderbook: Book of Spells and its sequel Book of Potions and has written scripts and consulted on numerous VR and 360 projects including Gunner, The Assembly and Carnegie Mellon Entertainment Technology Center's Imago. He speaks frequently on designing experiences for immersive media and how literary tropes apply in games.

Christopher O’Reilly is co-founder of London-based animation studio Nexus, who have produced an Oscar-nominated short film, two Cannes Grand Prix winning commercials and an interactive project for The White House. At the forefront of exploring real-time storytelling in VR and AR, Chris was executive creative director on the VR story Rain or Shine, a collaboration with Google's ATAP research department for Spotlight Stories.

Kim-Leigh Pontin is a multi award-winning creative interaction director and researcher at Kimeleon.TV, whose design research speculates about the future of entertainment and the implications of prolonged immersion in emerging technologies. Transitioning between live performance, blended and virtual reality, their work looks at the blurring of realities, and ways of designing inputs, boundaries and outcomes to suit future humans.

Resh Sidhu is a pioneering VR creative, who has worked on a variety of award-winning projects for clients including J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros, PlayStation, HBO, Xbox, Nickelodeon, and Samsung. In her current role as Virtual Reality Creative Director at Framestore, she led on the groundbreaking Fantastic Beasts VR experience, launching on Google’s Daydream Headset. Recently, she was awarded The Voice of a Woman Award for her pioneering creative work in VR and named as a leading female pioneer in VR by Marie Claire Magazine.

Daniel Locke is a Graphic Novelist and his work has regularly featured in a wide variety of illustration and comics anthologies, and publications. His first full length graphic novel, Out of Nothing, will be published by Nobrow Press later this year. Daniel has completed a large number of commissions for organisations such as the Wellcome Trust, The Arts Council and The National Trust. He often collaborates with other artists and scientists. Alongside producing the final artwork for Out of Nothing, Daniel is currently illustrating a history of the careers of noted neurologists Profs. Uta and Chris Frith, with writer Alex Frith.

Reframed is produced in partnership with Creative England, and supported by the University of Brighton.

Creative England invests in and supports creative ideas, talent and businesses in film, TV, games and digital media. They aim to grow the brightest, the best, and those with the most promise so that individuals and businesses can achieve their full creative and commercial potential. They help identify future opportunities to grow the economy and generate jobs.

The University of Brighton is focused on realising potential and shaping futures. They foster a vibrant, agile learning and research community; supporting established experts and nurturing the next generation of talent from their undergraduates, postgraduates and early career researchers.