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Rik Lander's Blog (14)

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How to make the QR experience amazing.

I recently read that in 2011 only a third of the population know what a QR code is and only one in ten have ever used one. They were quoted as disappointingly low figures but I think they are quite high. …

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Added by Rik Lander on September 18, 2011 at 14:30 — No Comments

Sensory storytelling - Food, smell and physical confinement as storytelling tools.

It’s not a new concept to think of food as theatre, with a three act structure and a sweet and happy ending, but I’m thinking about this because last night I was at a lovely pop-up restaurant by Collage. Some chefs, waitresses and catering professionals put on a three course meal, plus canapes, cocktails, art and music evening in my garden and studio. No narrative, but a great way to bring people together in an episodic structure. Quite inspiring. As was the recent …

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Added by Rik Lander on July 4, 2011 at 14:30 — No Comments

Social Advertising - beyond better targeting

Search and social networks have transformed the possibilities of advertising. A billboard or TV spot attempts to reach the right people with a scatter gun approach. Google or Bing know all the things a user has searched for and the websites they frequent and social networks contain masses of data about each user. All this data allows advertisers to hit the right people more accurately. 

 

But the internet also offers more than just better targeting. It also offers the chance to…

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Added by Rik Lander on February 18, 2011 at 11:21 — No Comments

RFID for art, theatre and gaming. Initial research.

The Oyster card is a wonder of the modern world and shop lifting is so much harder these days. RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is all around us and some people, like the authors of  Spychips fear the implications for our privacy. You can even buy an RFID proof wallet to prevent the chips we all carry on credit and work ID cards being scanned by criminal skimmers. 

Leaving such technofear aside, I see it as…

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Added by Rik Lander on February 2, 2011 at 15:00 — No Comments

Digital Literature Part 2 - Non-linear Lit.

The most important question you must ask before doing an interactive project is, why do it this way? In the context of the book the answer might be: If literature were supposed to be interactive Dickens would have done it, or Homer. Likewise, Shakespeare, the great narrative innovator, never tried a choose-your-own adventure. Interactivity might be useful in cook books, but in literature there is little pre-computer precedent.



There is a strong and unstoppable drive towards digital… Continue

Added by Rik Lander on December 6, 2010 at 21:30 — No Comments

Digital Literature. Part 1 - The industry response.

The arrival of the Kindle and the iPad have shaken up the book world. One doesn't have to look far to find much fear and confusion in the book publishing industry evoked by the possibility of so much change. But don't panic book people! Just as TV didn't destroy radio, digital media will not destroy the book. Instead new hybrid forms of text, image, sound and data will evolve to compliment the pleasure of holding the printed page. Or will they? Maybe the book is…

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Added by Rik Lander on November 1, 2010 at 13:00 — No Comments

Augmented Reality Drama? Get real.

The arrival of AR on smart phones brings the commercial reality of AR drama ever closer. It is an area that is so ripe for exploration by dramatists and I've started a trawl of interesting AR apps that shine a light on future dramatic possibilities. I wanted to find a really cool example for Vonviral readers, but so far, as is common with emergent technology, most of the examples are of games. I like games, but I'm much more interested in the narrative possibilities of technologies. We will… Continue

Added by Rik Lander on July 7, 2010 at 18:40 — 2 Comments

Return on Investment - What does ROI mean to web dramatists?

Brands more and more are using online video to connect with their customers. Beauty brands make beauty tip shows, food brands make cookery shows. This is good news for video producers, even drama producers, but having brands as commissioners requires us to learn some new ways of thinking.



Return on Investment or ROI is the term used by advertisers to quantify the benefits of an advertising campaign. It's the brand manager's bottom line. But why am I proposing that writers and… Continue

Added by Rik Lander on May 23, 2010 at 13:30 — No Comments

Web funding part two. The truth about Bebo

In 2006, Lonelygirl15 was the great breakthrough web drama. It was the first series that an ordinary member of the public might have heard about due to the phenomenal viral success surrounding the question, 'is Bree real or not?' When Bebo commissioned Kate Modern from the same team, funding it with brand sponsorship and product integration and declaring massive viewing figures it seemed that the web finally offered a viable alternative to TV as a place to get drama made. I had just produced… Continue

Added by Rik Lander on May 4, 2010 at 15:30 — No Comments

Transmedia Theatre and Web Drama

Theatre is in very good health if West End box office take is anything to go by. Attendance has grown every year for seven years to over 14 million bums on seats. Good news if you like musicals. Meanwhile, in quiet corners, away from all these stage versions of movie brands like The Lion King and Sister Act, there are significant trends in new forms of theatre and new methods of reaching and engaging audiences:



• Productions are stepping out of those big old buildings and inviting… Continue

Added by Rik Lander on March 18, 2010 at 17:00 — 1 Comment

Towards a Vonviral Glossary. What the hell is 360 cross-platform pervasive transmedia?

When I used the term 360 in the name of a course I ran at the NFTS (The Essential 360 Storytelling Lab) some people thought I meant panoramic photography. New media (itself an old term now, a bit like new labour) is still new enough to not have a settled nomenclature. Buzzwords are bandied very freely and few of us like to admit that we aren't sure of their precise meanings. Now Vera Vonviral has invited me to attempt to nail some of the terms down. Please do add comments, suggestions or… Continue

Added by Rik Lander on January 10, 2010 at 12:00 — 2 Comments

Web drama funding (part 1)

For most of the 20th century the funding model for media such as movies, TV, press, publishing, computer games and so on, was straight forward (if not easy to achieve.) Most TV, for example, was fully funded by broadcasters who sold advertising to a greater value than the costs of making the programmes. Flop movies were underwritten by the massive returns from ticket sales of blockbusters. News papers sold advertising and had a cover price.



We're not here to discuss the future… Continue

Added by Rik Lander on December 29, 2009 at 12:00 — No Comments

Webbyness

Webbyness is my term for what makes a drama appropriate for the web rather than tele. A lot of web drama is not webby, it emulates the dominant medium – American TV – and is in effect an inferior imitation. I'm interested in web drama for its webbyness. This comes in many forms:



1.Interactivity. Meaning the user can choose pathways through the narrative. This is rarer than it should be as web drama has become fundamentally linear. Examples are Wannabes, or Online… Continue

Added by Rik Lander on November 3, 2009 at 22:00 — No Comments

This is the new VONVIRAL site...

Vera has asked me to share her collection of web dramas with a wider audience. The original collection on BoreMe, started in May 2007, has 51 videos but little documentation about how they all fit together as an evolving entertainment form. Now, on this new site, anyone can add a series and it offers all the features of a social network such as Comments, Forums and Blogs.



If you are interested in web drama, social drama, cross-platform story telling and ARG's you are in the right… Continue

Added by Rik Lander on October 26, 2009 at 18:00 — No Comments

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