Adapting Linear Storytelling in an Interactive Age

Henry Jenkins, Sande Scoredos, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Thomas Hersehy, Sony Pictures Imageworks

Join us for a week of lectures and workshops where student teams will consider and develop story concepts for emerging media, including motion picture visual effects and computer games. Sponsored by the Program in Comparative Media Studies (CMS) and Sony Pictures Imageworks (SPI), this is a non-technical activity that will focus on the theoretical, historical, cultural, social, and aesthetic elements of narrative structures. Morning sessions will include lectures about linear and non-linear storytelling across media, as well as presentations on game theory, and interactive techniques to increase the depth of interactive console games and enhance storytelling. Screenings from Sony’s motion picture libraries will be included. Afternoons will be coordinated in workshop format where participants will work in teams to design an interactive story scenario to be presented during a final session on Friday afternoon. Participants will interact with faculty and graduate students from Comparative Media Studies, as well as with professionals from Sony Pictures Imageworks and game developers. Internship opportunities with participant companies will be also be discussed.