Martin Percy, BAFTA Award Winning Interactive Video Director
Prof. Dinah Lammiman, Creative Producer at BBC, Course Leader, MA EDF Studio 4 (Immersive), UCL
The first panel for THE EVOLUTION OF STORY symposium features Martin Percy, an interactive video director alongside creative producer Prof. Dinah Lammiman. Both of whom specialises in harnessing the latest technology to create new film experiences.
Martin has won a BAFTA British Academy Award, five Webbys, a Grand Clio, Best in Book in the Creative Review and many other awards. He has made films for brands including Google, British Telecom, 7-11 USA, Jamesons Whiskey and Tate Modern. He has directed talent including Daisy Ridley, Gordon Ramsay, Sir Derek Jacobi and Sir Ian McKellen.
Dinah has been working with the BBC making ambitious and captivating VR and distributing it while developing UCL’s new MA strand in Immersive Factual Storytelling. She also creates cool installations with PastPorte, bringing heritage and museums to life. Her activities in creative consultancy, game production and digital story development, have led to the creation of a number of award-winning pieces of VR.
Having started out as a skeptic about VR and its appeal, Dinah has been convinced that Immersive is the obvious future of our media consumption. However, what’s most interesting is VR’s potential beyond entertainment. As a societal tool, building our understanding of the world, ourselves and others, VR has the power to shape our future. Storytelling is at the heart of that.
So far, our understanding of effective immersive storytelling is that it requires a very different mindset to linear film making but draws from theatre and other media. We’re still in the early stages of this medium but it’s clear it offers a new direction, not just in the kinds of stories we’re telling and how they’re told but what deep impact they may have.
Assessing the evolution of story through the lens of immersive media takes us right back to the very reason early humans told stories and the huge potential for change and influence embedded in those experiences. The Evolution of Story symposium is a timely opportunity to explore some of these ideas with a community of storytellers and those passionate about the craft.
On the other hand, it’s easy to assume that everyone should be enthusiastic about innovation in storytelling. However, many people – especially with budgets – are extremely suspicious of it. In Martin’s presentation, he will look at examples of innovative storytelling where the innovative form – in this case, interactive films – is more effective at teaching than more expensive traditional alternatives.
Martin’s interactive film LIFESAVER is being screened at the symposium so you will get a chance to see exactly what he means when he tells us that the interactive approach is 29% more effective than far more expensive traditional face–to–face CPR training using plastic mannequins. We’ll also look at HEART CLASS, Martin’s classroom-based interactive CPR film which he claims is 46% more effective than traditional school CPR teaching with trained instructors and linear videos.
So, what is it that makes an interactive video more effective than traditional face to face teaching? What is the secret sauce that interactive brings to the experience? Well, Martin is not guaranteeing a Hollywood happy end! We will see that in spite of this demonstrated success, funders such as major charities STILL refuse to fund anything of this kind – even when directly presented with the research. Instead, they continue to fund more expensive, less effective traditional alternatives. It’s a complex story. We can see that the future of storytelling can deliver great results. The challenge is to bring commissioners and funders on board for this journey into the future.