Immersive Fiction are potent buzzwords within the Creative Industries fraternity, from Writers, Film Directors, Software Developers and Virtual Reality Engineers, the term has different meaning.
Yet, there is a mutual understanding that new technology is enabling new types of audience experiences, new artistic practise and new business models – raising the question, what is the future of storytelling?
To answer this question we built #hexology, an app that empowers everyone with the ability to create a rich multi-media message and store it in a real location, such as a video in an outdoor location. Imagine:
I go to a museum and pick up a welcome message when I arrive at the entrance – just by being in the room. Perhaps a skateboarder shares a video of a trick he just filmed in the location it was shot, for other Skateboarders to discover when they go to that location. Suddenly, the world around us is filled with pictures, films and stories. For #hexology, the creative and commercial opportunity is rich!
The shift in New Media is reminiscent to the movement in American film history between the mid-to-late 1960’s (Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate) to early 1980’s (Heaven’s Gate, One from the Heart). “New Hollywood” sometimes referred to as the “American New Wave”, usually refers to the generation of young filmmakers that came to prominence in the United States whose ability to reach younger audiences changed the producer-driven Hollywood business, they influenced the types of films that were produced, their production and marketing, and the way major studios approached film-making. In New Hollywood films, the film director, rather than the studio, took on a key authorial role.
For Writers and Film Directors who understand the power of cinematic storytelling, #hexology gives them an ability to extend their storytelling experience into the physical world. It challenges them to consider how the narrative changes when there is more than one medium. The term 360 Degree Media is not new, yet there is a difference between story content that has been re-versioned and published across different platforms to a seamless storytelling experience that has been integrated across multiple platforms. Preserving the sweep and grandeur of a story like that requires bold, innovative thinking and a freeness of form.
At #hexology we know that film-makers are resourceful, innovative, robust, free-thinking, collaborative, reliable, courageous, independent and often self-made. Immersive Fiction is the business of telling stories in a new way to the post-millennial audience – whose media consumption habit spans multiple devices, different platforms and sophisticated social media channels. To become a part of this new wave join #hexology.