What Is Immersive Storytelling? - Margaret Kerrison

BUY THE BOOK - IMMERSIVE STORYTELLING FOR REAL AND IMAGINED WORLDS: A Writer’s Guide
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Born in Indonesia and raised in Singapore, Margaret Kerrison received her Master of Fine Arts degree in Screenwriting from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. Her career spans television, film, digital media, games, brand storytelling, location-based entertainment, and immersive experiences. She has worked as a Story Lead, Story Consultant, and Writer for multiple projects around the world, including Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Star Wars: Launch Bay, Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, Avengers Campus, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, National Geographic HQ, and the NASA Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex’s Journey to Mars: Explorers Wanted. She was the writer for five projects that won Themed Entertainment Association (THEA) Awards. She has appeared in the Disney+ series Behind the Attraction, the Freeform television special Star Wars: Galaxy‘s Edge - Adventure Awaits, and the online educational program Imagineering in a Box. She was a Disney Imagineer from 2014-2021. She is currently a Sr. Experiential Creative Lead at Airbnb. Immersive Storytelling for Real and Imagined Worlds - A Writer’s Guide is her first book.
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#film #movies #story

[@samsungminlee]

I love Margaret's point on connecting with characters that are different to us through emotions and experiences. This is exactly why I love international films too. Thank you FC!

[@filmcourage]

Cheers Sam!

[@alyssabaquir]

I just pictured the world as a pop-up story book. We are the people in this book. This world is one book, and we're constantly interacting with other characters and moving the plot forward...

[@wonderwomanx1268]

Great insight, thank you. Stories are all around us, we just have to pause and let ourselves see and feel.

[@WordsPictures997]

This was such a fantastic interview! I never knew there were people who focused on writing for theme parks, museum's etc. This was so fascinating. 🤯 Thank you so much for sharing Margaret! Thank you so much for doing this film courage.

[@filmcourage]

Much more to come!

[@Shutter-Writer]

Yeah i get that. Everyone has a story to tell and i think she captures that very well.

[@quentilpompey6827]

This is a great! I just taken a class on immersive storytelling. Dealing with VR, 3D and AR and using your screenwriting skills or more less the formatting to create your own immersive story. Using this platform name Twine. Writing in pov's, different pov narrative whether it's Embodied and Non-Embodied, it really places you in that world when writing. Best part it you are in control a bit more than screenwriting. At least what it seems to more. And I'm a devout screen filmerFun!

[@Vi.luc5]

I have a friend who's an author and I have a question that maybe could be kinda on topic with the video. (I hope this won't get too lengthy, but my English isn't perfect, so maybe I won't be able to express myself properly in a few words.) He once asked my opinion on this topic, but I guess he could use some opinions from impartial people. So, he likes details. Not to the point where there's more details than a plot, but enough to make that world seem real. The piece he's currently writing is, although set in a fictional land, kinda similar to our own through the Stone Age until High Medieval times. The people from this land doesn't document their history, but religion plays a huge role in how they live their lives. For example, if you're a good hunter, some would say you're blessed by the God of Hunting. Kind of like Ancient Greece. So, he's also writing the story of these gods and the holy book of this religion. The gods' names would mean something in their language, so he's also creating a conlang (not to the point you would be able to have a conversation, maybe. But enough to make words make sense) to explain the root of the words and their meaning as in the gods' names, for example. He also made maps (for the lands, climate, heights, vegetation, etc.), defined the culture and traditions of every part of that land, made some family trees and wrote a "creation" and a "discovery" myth for that land. There's also some other details in the worldbuilding, but I fear this comment is already too long. So, long story short: is this too much? Like, part of him feels it's better like this, since his goal is to make that world "believable". In a sense you would think that place really exists, since every question you could have about there would have a definite answer. But, considering this is fiction, wouldn't this be, like, "too realistic" or so detailed it kinda loses its meaning? Thanks in advance for the answers!

[@dinsfire8489]

it's not too much if he's putting his heart & soul into the world building process. tell him someone going the exact same path said that he's doing glorious work & he should keep at it especially if it's what's in his heart. there are worlds within us that must be shared with the world, for others to connect to & grow from & even grow to love. we humans LIVE for fantasy. fantasies are in everything, not just the fantasy genre. he should write to his heart's content & bring his world to life if it is in his heart to!

[@Vi.luc5]

@@dinsfire8489 Thanks! I'll let him know that. Wish you a successful career!

[@gamewriteeye769]

Well, how I approach it is to have enough world building merely for the storyline you're telling. Larger world building pieces to expand beyond that initial story is what other media related to it is for. Remember the heart of any good story should come back to its characters.

[@gnarthdarkanen7464]

@@Vi.luc5 I know this is an old thread, but Tolkien also wrote "The Silmerillion" regarding most of Middle Earth, the setting for the Lord of the Rings... AND he pioneered a lot of how Fantasy works as a genre ever since, standing as the stick by which we frequently measure other authors to separate the "half-asses" from the "visionaries"... That said, just caution your friend about "info-dumping" in his actual story. The information he compiles through his "World Bible" (as I frequently call such a work) is best considered a reference from which he answers questions that arise through the story. Trying to "spoon feed" the audience without questions is what draws down a story to a slog... not the information, in and of itself... AND if he wishes to publish the "World Bible" at some point in the future, there are plenty of platforms, Game Masters, and World Builders who would be interested in working with him to find a TTRPG system like D&D (for instance, there are a LOT of systems) and help him establish a series of GM and Player sourcebooks, splat-books, and guides for running whichever game in HIS world... add it to the masses of such books on "DrivethruRPG.com" and make the deals to get physical publications out as well as allowing for digital copies to be downloaded... The masses of fans he builds with his stories will then be given an avenue to GO and adventure and TRULY interact with his world AS HE WROTE IT... and then info-dumping (in the sourcebooks) is EXACTLY what you're "supposed to do"... SO long as he's at it and interested, it might be worth taking occasion to check out Authors like Jody Lynn Nye, who wrote guides to Xanth, Pern, and even Narnia if I recall... Pop over and glance through some of the sets available on DrivethruRPG.com, and see what "the competition" has been up to... and then a glance through documents like D&D's and/or Pathfinder's "SRD" (the core rules, which are FREE to download and use)... Pathfinder can be found at the Archives of Nethys, and D&D can be readily Googled, since the Wizards of the Coast recently put the SRD into Creative Commons, so third parties can use it FOREVER and they nor Hasbro can ever EVER change that... Moving from the purity of creation to a game full of rules and dice and particular workflows can be dubious and complicated, but there are LOTS of folks readily working and frequently looking for projects to get involved with. Many of them run channels on YT, too... SO it shouldn't be a terrible process of getting together or finding a group on Discord somewhere and with a little conversation, build a workable relationship to move forward on it... Hope this helps, and GOOD HUNTING!!! ;o)

[@ronniecreed6023]

Very cool guest and interview.Thanks for the work

[@filmcourage]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@creativityrevealed3659]

have been enjoying the new content 🥳

[@shannonstadnik8478]

When I think of immersive storytelling I think of tell-tale games my teens enjoy like Cyberpunk. It truly could be the wave of the future.

[@filmcourage]

What is the best immersive storytelling experience you have participated in?

[@Thenoobestgirl]

Hmmm this is hard! By participate do you mean when I tell the story or when someone else? Or it can also be literally participating like in role-playing games and multiple choices games. 🤔

[@creativityrevealed3659]

stories told by my grandparents. especially when there were photos, movies, or gifts to go along with them.

[@lokesh6734]

Dune (2021) film

[@ciara8530]

This was an awesome video and helped me a lot with my creative writing assignment that specifically focuses on immersive writing/storytelling.

[@filmcourage]

Glad it was helpful!

[@leonoradompor8706]

Well said

[@leonoradompor8706]

Amen

[@_Johnny_BRAV0]

Can we hav som examples for good immersive stories in movies.

[@naturescandy6591]

Willy wonka and the choclate factory

[@luigi_border]

A bad movie might use the location as a background to stiff dialogue, or it could immerse you on the feeling of being in the a restaurant with the sounds, textures, smells, sounds, points of view, realism, zoom ins, etc...

[@PakeSalmon]

Love it!

[@ArnFilmmaker]

Thanks for video.

[@philprice5712]

which 2 senses did you choose to ignore?

[@gnarthdarkanen7464]

GURPS is probably my best resource for immersive storytelling, and it's the system by which I got the best immersive storytelling experiences to date. I have to do the "heavy lifting" from the RP System, and build out the Role Playing GAME as it's going to work in my world-setting... AND then I pass that structure around our Table so everyone can run the Game through an Adventure or two in turns... adding to maps as needs be, and creating new monsters when they desire, building up enemies from the "usual" monsters or Character types available... whatever. AND I KNOW FOR A FACT that I have my Players/Audience engaged when I can present a homo-erotic romance between a Vampire and a Werewolf, and nobody bats an eye at the homosexuality... No more than a chuckle is had for the Vampire requesting plaintively, "Don't knot me, bro'." AND YET... They'll debate at great length whether society is going to balk over the Werewolf's necrophilia or the Vampire's bestiality as the greater Taboo... It means they bought in... It's not the only acid-test... It comes down to noticing when the Table is engaged in a conversation or an outright argument that you COULD NOT POSSIBLY have "IRL". When you get those kinds of conversations and the emotional context to go with them, you've got the Audience deeply engaged... and you can "sell" them anything. ;o)

[@danieljackson654]

No offense, but I found the sales pitch for this kind of storytelling confused & contradictory. In statistics, this is called a model that is "over identified" where everything is explained. If seduction is about the fantasy brought to the table, storytelling must stimulate Imagination. Otherwise, what is left for the reader. I had a writing teacher who taught: there are two types of writers--those put in & those who take out. Good writers take out. Ironically, the great storytellers of the Old World were unabashedly Take Outers. Certainly this was the practice of The Bard. Or the opening paragraph of the Red Badge Of Courage, or Moby Dick. Such storytelling puts the reader into the Story IMMEDIATELY.

[@dinsfire8489]

fantastic interview

[@filmcourage]

Thanks for watching!

[@dinsfire8489]

@@filmcourage thanks for sharing!! love this channel

[@genethedancinmachine5483]

Isnt an immersive story just a good story?

[@gopro_audio]

Does she play D&D? People like Brennan Lee Mulligan know this type of story telling!

[@leonoradompor8706]

I like you

[@ajthemc]

It's really hard to tell your story 😕

[@GhettoFabulousLorch]

Sounds a lot like role-playing games.

[@virtualcircle285]

I can make due without smell thanks

[@jackwilliamatkins5602]

Jesus Christ appeared on Nunawading Mountain