Immersed in Story! Writing for Virtual + Augmented Reality

Event Date: Saturday, May 26, 2018 || Speaker: Chris Pack  || Check-in: 12:30 pm ||

The workshop provides an introduction to everything immersive, the tech and tools, the players, how it’s being used (for better or worse) and why writers are essential for advancing immersive narratives.  We will explore how immersive storytelling builds upon, but is different than “traditional” storytelling. The power of immersive stories is directly related to neuroscience. However, writing for VR is not a science, it is a pioneering way of telling stories that engage people with the full power of our senses, surroundings and our viewers individual and collective agency.  Ultimately, these tools need to serve and elevate the power of the narrative, and not the other way around. To write for immersive, we will explore the power of the senses and how the brain, body, and audience experience immersive differently. Immersive stories are expanding how and where stories are being told. See more details below:

**The deadline has passed and REGISTRATION is now CLOSED for this event. Please view our calendar for upcoming events.

More details:

Immersive stories can be found in dome theatres or multi-screen theatres like 4DX that transform the theatrical cinema, into an unbelievable 4D experience.  For example, 4DX cinema technology features a large screen, motion seats, and environmental sensory effects, transforming the viewers’ experience. The canvas for your stories is expanding. Virtual Reality headsets fully immerse our audiences in the worlds we have created. Augmented and mixed reality headsets, phones and tablets take our stories to into our audiences world.  Immersive is popping up in films, tv shows, games, commercials, brands, theme parks, tourism, education, military, architecture and medical industries. Now that immersive technologies are being integrated into the ecosystems of  Apple, Intel, Microsoft, Facebook and other major brands, leading film companies, TV outlets, distributors, theme parks, and advertisers have or are forming immersive divisions and creating cinematic immersive content. The tools for us to tell stories are advancing at an exponential pace and may be coming to a production near you in the future.  Having these skills may help your stories stand out to producers, studios, and networks, many of whom are exploring how immersive storytelling fits into their business models.

The focus will be given to how to create companion immersive narratives that expand your universe and engage your audience.  Immersive is a tremendous tool for character and story development, pre-visualization, location scouting, set-design and full immersion into a world you are exploring as a writer.  Linear and non-linear narratives are a reality in the immersive story space. Immersive narratives help expand the worlds and characters we create and engage our audiences in ways we’ve never imagined, or perhaps, have always hoped would be possible, just it wasn’t technologically feasible.  Learn how to expand characters and storylines beyond the “main” screen to engage and immerse your audience.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN:

• State of Immersive Tech: 2018 + beyond
• Connecting the Science with the Soul of a Story
• 360 of immersive Storytelling: How to write VR from concept to completion.
• Immersive Storytelling do’s and don’ts
• Immersive Production: “How do you light the set and hide the equipment from cameras that see everything?”
• Directing and Acting Immersive
• Can it help your bottom line as a writer?

Chris Pack is the Co-founder of Story Gardens: A Global Immersive Collaborative and Think-tank.   Story Gardens seeks to elevate and expand how stories are created and experienced in virtual, mixed and augmented reality.  Story Gardens gathers experts from diverse disciplines to develop best practices and to find practical solutions to the challenges facing immersive storytelling.

Story Gardens also works with writers, directors, producers, brands, production companies, networks and studios in the development and production of their immersive projects and strategies. Story Gardens also helps companies leverage existing IP’s assets and develop new assets that can be integrated into their virtual and augmented reality strategies.

Story Gardens, in partnership with Master ideaworks,  is a collective powered by A-level talent that helps clients produce anything immersive.  The Story Gardens network has leading creative, business, technical, and immersive innovators from the theme park and experience design, location-based entertainment, film, TV, animation, motion capture, photogrammetry, gaming, augmented reality, holographic reality, medical, multimodal interaction and mobile-based experiences.   

Chris is also the EVP of Development and Production and Executive Producer for II Jam Casting and Productions.  II Jam Casting and Productions has multiple lifestyle, sports, travel and celebrity interview shows, either in development or production.  These shows are traditional TV hybrids with companion live streaming, web, virtual reality and/or augmented reality series.

Prior to VR, Chris produced and managed four seasons of HGTV’s hit TV show, Island Hunters. Island Hunters averaged 4.1 million viewers tuning in from 1.5 million American households.  Chris’ Emmy nominated and award-winning productions have spanned 42 states, 30+ countries and 200 islands around the world. These shows aired on networks such as Bravo, Lifetime, Style Network, FOX, USA, TLC, History, Spike TV, MTV, E!, Comedy Central, OWN and the Discovery Channel.  He has consulted as an executive for pop art, production, and streaming television network start-up companies. Chris specializes in brand integration.

Prior to entering the entertainment industry, Chris’ training as an anthropologist led him to travel the world researching music, cuisine, reconciliation and storytelling in places like Egypt, Kenya, India, Mexico, Canada, Puerto Rico and South Africa.  As an ethnomusicologist, or rather a sensory and spatial anthropologist, Mr. Pack focused on how the senses and space help tell stories and build bridges between diverse cultures and people around the world.

Chris’ mother tongue is sign language.  Chris grew up in the deaf and hearing cultures, learning how our senses can increase when one sense decreases.  The deaf culture is rich with stories, and those stories and language use space unlike verbal languages. Sign language is visual poetry.  His love for people, diversity, and stories coupled with immersive field research has shaped his approach to virtual reality.

Story Gardens is also democratizing immersive technologies globally through educational and apprenticeship initiatives.  Story Gardens, in partnership with the Belize Film Commission, is working to train filmmakers and technologists in Belize, Central America, and the Caribbean in Virtual and Augmented Reality Production.  Chris helped establish the Belize Film Commissioners Final Draft Writing Scholarship to support emerging Belizean screenwriters. The first recipient will be announced in 2018. Mr. Pack is also supporting the Belize Film Commission and their partnership with The Arc/k Project’ to train Belizeans in the immersive preservation of their culture, historic sites, and artifacts.  

Chris spoke on “Discovering Your Story” at Belize’s Deputy Prime Minister and Film Commissioners’ 2017 Hollywood event. Chris was a panelist at the 2017 Los Angeles Comic Con’s Final Draft and Scriptwriters Network panel on writing for virtual reality.  He also led a workshop during the 2017 Belize International Film Festival called: “Introducing Cinematic Virtual Reality & Beyond: Immersive Storytelling, VR Travel & Tourism, Augmented Reality,” followed by a hands-on VR demo with Experience 360. Chris has served as a panelist on “The Social Impact Of Films” and “The Film Financing Forum,” both part of the 2016 Belize International Film Festival. Chris has also lectured on topics such as “Rhythms of Leadership & Listening,” “Role of Rhythm, Story & Learning,” “How space and place tell stories,” and “Bridging the Deaf & Hearing Cultures.”

Chris, along with other immersive storytellers, is working with Final Draft to develop their Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality templates for writers. He is also partnered with education philanthropists to create a VR Academy as well as in partnership with the Belize Film Commissioner to form a film school that will serve the Caribbean, Central America, and Latin America.  

Chris is a member The Scriptwriters Network Foundation, FilAm Creative’s Talent Network, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and the Producers Guild of America. Chris is also the 2018-2020 West Coast Co-Chair of the Producers Guild Employment Committee and a member of the Producer’s Guild Education Committee. Chris has served on the boards of DeafVision Filmworks and United World Media.

Join us on the Fourth Saturday at:

Westside Pavillion
Community Room B
10800 West Pico Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90064

**Located on level 3, behind Landmark Theatres. Park in the parking structure close to the theater. Go up to level 3 and follow the signs.

**Parking – first 3 hours free. Plenty of parking.

Meeting Timeframe: 1:00 pm to approximately 3:00 pm.

Members, please remember to bring your SWN membership card!

Any questions, email us at [email protected]