The story I want to tell just came to me. It was only once it made its nest in me that I realized it wanted to be told in a completely different way. In a way that would allow audiences to make it their own story, a place that they could project into because that particular story would create a space for everyone to transform it into their own.
The problem is that what the story is about has to remain untold for yet some more time. Not because I am a secretive person, but because it deals with elements that by nature need to be discovered only when the story world starts to be experienced by the audience.
This story will unfold over a period of 4 months, starting exclusively on the internet and in real life, hopefully engaging thousands of people around its daily bounds and rebounds, videos, blogs, meta-databases, sites and forums. It will then move into a quest in real life and on the internet, taking more and more a game like shape as it evolves over the weeks.
And finally a feature film, collated, directed and edited by one of the main characters will be shown on television simultaneously in France, Belgium and Canada (and possibly Switzerland) as a conclusion to the whole project. The collective work during the Writer’s Room at the TorinoFilmLab allowed the project to develop into this complex multi faceted story thanks to a unique group authoring process, typical of a transmedia approach.
I was introduced to the world of transmedia by Josh Shore, Lance Weiler, Liz Rosenthal and many more about 4 years ago. Coming from the old world of cinema and television, I became immediately aware of the power that transmedia storytelling has as an interactive experience. Since our lives are now driven by the Internet and game culture, there is no reason why the traditional forms of storytelling, such as film, should not be impacted by these new behaviours. I believe that we must explore those new participatory narrative options: films can now become more involving story worlds, where the spectator becomes a participant, a character in our tales… I am now committed to exploring this new language through our co-production choices at Arte as well as through my own creative research.
Audience engagement strategies are my favourite challenge now that I understand that we are no longer just about making films but designing experiences through telling stories.