Immersive

Matt Locke	J C Hutchins	Marcus Brown	David Varela
Paul Ashton	Julian McCrea	Paul Rissen

Matt Locke

The changing audience

Before starting Storythings, Matt was Head of Multiplatform Commissioning at Channel 4. In this role, he was responsible for running the Multiplatform Commissioning team with a £7m budget for multi-platform projects around some of Channel 4′s biggest brands, including Million Pound Drop, Skins, Misfits, Embarassing Bodies and Big Brother, and developing a new commissioning strategy based on emerging audience behaviours. In addition to managing a restructure of the MPC team based on this strategy, Matt also recruited and managed the team responsible for building Channel 4’s online presence for the 2012 Paralympics.

Prior to this Matt was Commissioning Editor for Education at Channel 4, where he was responsible for a £5m annual budget, commissioning many cross platform and transmedia projects. Matt was hired by Channel 4 to shift the Education department’s focus from linear TV to solely cross-platform commissioning – the only time a mainstream broadcaster has shifted an entire department’s budget from TV production to cross-platform production.

http://www.storythings.com

J C Hutchins

Touch and narrative: How gestures change the story

J.C. Hutchins is an award-winning fiction writer best known for using multimedia narratives and participatory storytelling techniques to entertain online audiences. He is a published novelist, represented screenwriter and experienced transmedia storyteller.

In 2009, after three years of unconventional online distribution and promotion, Hutchins’ acclaimed human cloning thriller 7th Son: Descent was published by St. Martin’s Griffin. 2009 also saw the release of Personal Effects: Dark Art, co-written with game designer and transmedia storytelling pioneer Jordan Weisman. This thriller featured an innovative "beyond the book" narrative with online-exclusive plot twists. Personal Effects is now in development as a Starz TV series, with Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean, The Ring) executive producing.

Hutchins recently completed work as Lead Writer and Co-Creator (with Jordan Weisman) of a transmedia experience designed to engage and educate high school students. His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR’s Weekend Edition, Fast Company, the BBC, Time.com , AdWeek.com and BoingBoing.net.

http://JCHutchins.net

Marcus Brown

Character Design in the Digital Age

Marcus has been creating characters and making up a lot of stories online. It's what he does. Online he has been the The Kaiser, The Dead Artist, Sacrum, Charles Stab, The Joker, The Lord God Almighty and Jack The Twitter. In 2010 he tried to walk from Munich to Hamburg for a chat with Dr. Peter Figge but failed. One day, however, he will do it.
In 2011 he joined Booming as Head of Social Media.

“Marcus Brown is turning in some of the finest, most important culture criticism being produced today. I know you've heard me say it before, but this time, really: you'll thank me. If you don't die laughing first.”
Chris Locke, author of “The Cluetrain Manifesto”.

http://www.twitter.com/marcusjhbrown

David Varela

How to be a showunner in the digital age

David is a writer and producer who works across a huge range of media – sometimes all at once. He has recently written and produced two epic transmedia games for Reebok and Sony PlayStation, attracting a truly global audience from over 150 countries.
Before all that, David was an in-house writer on Perplex City and was heavily involved in Frozen Indigo Angel, the crossover co-production between Perplex City and BBC Radio 1.

Outside transmedia, David’s stageplays have been performed at the ICA, the Royal Court, Hampstead Theatre and RADA, and his short films have premiered in Leicester Square and been broadcast on ITV. He has also written several one-off dramas for BBC Radio 4 and BBC7.

http://www.davidvarela.com

Paul Ashton

Story and Character

Paul Ashton is the Development Producer at BBC Writersroom, where he finds, nurtures and promotes new writers for BBC drama and comedy. Paul has previously worked as a script reader, editor and tutor for a variety of companies and universities, while his own writing has been produced for stage and screen. His book The Calling Card Script was recently published by A&C Black.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom

Julian McCrea

Introducing the Protagonist in Social Networks

Julian is an expert in telling stories across multiple platforms, providing strategic planning and production. Prior to launching Portal Entertainment, Julian McCrea worked at the forefront of multiplatform digital strategy in the advertising industry, working with engaging 6-12 year olds with the CBBC brand and show properties (MI High, Sarah Jane Adventures), CBeebies, BBC Switch, BBC iPlayer and main BBC One properties Eastenders and Bang goes the Theory, winning two PROMAX awards. He also launched the Doctor Who global facebook page, with over 1 million fans at the time of press.

In addition, Julian was shortlisted in the Top 5 in the world by BAFTA and Sir Ridley Scott for the horror short ‘The Craftsman’ as part of the Philips Cinema award 2010 and officially selected for the Werner Herzog Rogue Film School 2011.

Julian McCrea featured discussing multiple platform storytelling in Imperica
http://www.imperica.com/features/transmedia-stories

http://www.twitter.com/julianmccrea

Paul Rissen

Relationship of things - how the internet can help continuity and theme

Paul is an Information Architect at the BBC, having wanted to work there since he and his brother started watching repeats of a certain popular science-fiction/family drama programme on UK Gold in the mid-nineties.

Having served an apprenticeship with Siemens, working on iPlayer in the year before it launched, he joined the BBC in late 2008, working on bbc.co.uk/programmes. In April 2010 he moved to work on the BBC's Learning and Knowledge portfolio.

Having been introduced to the ideas of the Semantic Web and Linked Data by the clever people on the /programmes team, Paul asked the obvious question - well, how can I apply that to Doctor Who?

Since that day in 2008, he's widened the scope to investigate all kinds of drama, entertainment, documentaries, news and sport, and see how the principles of the Web can be applied in a way that's accessible, entertaining and useful for everyone. In doing so, he's been involved in various prototypes such as the Doctor Who Mythology Engine and Storybox.

http://www.r4isstatic.com