Why 'Crossing the Streams' Creates Great Storytelling

I remember hiding behind the sofa in amazement, watching Zeus battle Medusa with all his might. I remember mythical beasts super-imposed into the real world. The year was 1981, the place was my home and the medium was the oversized box in the corner of the room. 

Above: Ben Jones, founder, Bull in a China Shop

Clash of the Titans was before its time, and the mastery of Ray Harryhausen-blended a world of fantasy with the real world for a new type of entertainment was a small step towards the notion of a mixed reality world.

Fast-forward just three more years and whilst Moore’s law was doing its work, another step was taken as Ghostbusters’ Slimer, the globule (great word, globule, say it out to yourself loudly, in the voice of Rowan Atkinson’s Mr Bean) of green goo flies down the hallway straight at Bill Murray, leaving him covered in slime, or the more scientific term, ‘ectoplasm’. Three more years and Who Framed Roger Rabbit saw cartoons come out of the television and into our world.

Above: Bill Murray gets 'slimed' in Ghostbusters

The script writers of Hollywood always help us to rehearse the future and the world of mixed reality is getting closer and closer. But what will it mean? 

"If he had been alive today he just might have been the next Spielberg or creative guru helping Facebook and YouTube work out what to do with 360-video."

It’s the way you tell ‘em

Since the dawn of man, we have told stories. It’s how we pass on history, and visual communication became the best way to convey a message. Don’t they say a picture is worth a thousand words? It began in the cave. Our ancestors painting wild animals, hands and figures on walls in an instinctual desire to communicate, share and express.

The art was crude, the medium limited to stone, and the concept of ‘sharing’ required an individual to walk into that particular cave and stare at the wall. This was a story in its most original, enduring yet restricted phase. It was the beginning, but with unlimited potential.

In 1787 Robert Barker thought about stories and pictures in a different way. He created the first 360-degree, immersive story, the panorama [Barker painted and exhibited images of Edinburgh on a cylindrical surface] and if he had been alive today he just might have been the next Spielberg or creative guru helping Facebook and YouTube work out what to do with 360-video.

The key to all this is the evolution of technology. Whether stone to canvas, canvas to parchment, parchment to pixels; this progress enables storytellers to unfold their tales in richer ways. Ways which heighten more than one sense to create a deeper connection. Just like in 1928, when synchronised sound was possible, and unveiled by Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willy, the first appearance of the character and the first cartoon to use the technology.

Above: Mickey Mouse's debut appearance in Steamboat Willy

Simply put: as the mechanisms to immerse and engage an audience make their debut, the scripts written for them have to be rethought, and mixed reality gives so many options for reimagination.

"Remember the horror film The Ring. Personally, it scared the shit out of me anyway. However, if the storytellers of the future have AR to augment our visual experiences, can you imagine the level of immersion and reality that can be garnered?"  

When content is everywhere. When engagement is anytime

So far, we have seen the likes of Magic Leap and Hololens [below] show what will be possible in augmented reality. These examples are created to showcase the hardware and while it’s exciting to see whales explode through the floor of a school gymnasium, this really is only one dimension of what is to come.

We are about to enter a time where the stories we tell can be written to jump from channel-to-channel, where the channels are no longer silo’s, and where the stories aren’t either. Augmented reality offers a new way to integrate channels resulting in immersion like never before.  Where the channels we have had for so many years are given another dimension. For example, TV.

"[3D] was not enough of a step into the future. Plus, the glasses gave you a headache."

They said that TV was going to die. Ok 3D TV was a complete failure, but come on, whoever thought it was going to truly take off? The reality of the failure wasn’t the fact you looked and felt like a complete twat sitting on your sofa with a pair of wonky glasses. It was that enhancement in the experience was not good enough for you to endure the humiliation in your own home, or different enough for the script writers to adapt the story from 2D to 3D.  It was not enough of a step into the future. Plus, the glasses gave you a headache.

Integrate the humble TV, with AR glasses and The Amazing World of Gumball will entertain children not just via the confines of the screen, but the characters will jump out of the TV and into the room. Kids will giggle and dance with Dawin and Gumball on the coffee table. 

"The new world is one where dreams are mixed with reality. Where entertainment, education and -  though I hate the word - advertising, will never be the same again."

A simple trigger mechanism is all that is needed to take what you see on the screen and hand over that experience and story to the AR glasses.

Remember the horror film The Ring, back in 2002. Personally, it scared the shit out of me anyway. However, if the storytellers of the future have AR to augment our visual experiences, can you imagine the level of immersion and reality that can be garnered? 

For example, the scene when the girl climbs out of the well, walks towards the camera and then out of the TV and into the room. Well, mixing TV with AR will ensure that can actually happen. 

Above: The girl in the TV, from The Ring

"Take a leaf out of the Ghostbusters playbook; go cross the streams because as storytellers and experience designers the power we are about to have is simply incredible."

Where the magic will happen

And this is only the start. Imagine when the story plays out wherever you are. When Darwin and Gumball are playing pranks in the high street of your local town or in the middle of Top Shop. Not only will the way we write scripts never be the same again but, in fact, shopping with kids might actually be a pleasurable experience for both parent and child. Where Pokemon GO intersects with TV. Where TV intersects with toys.

We don’t know where this new world will take us or exactly how it will entertain and immerse, but since defining and developing concepts and prototypes in this area for the last 10 months, all I can say is it has transported me back to the future. Back to 1981. Back to that little boy sitting in his front room wanting to be Zeus and wanting a Minotaur to walk out from the kitchen and jump onto the sofa.

The new world is one where dreams are mixed with reality. Where entertainment, education and -  though I hate the word - advertising, will never be the same again.

So, to take a leaf out of the Ghostbusters playbook; go cross the streams because as storytellers and experience designers the power we are about to have is simply incredible. Welcome to a new world of immersion, where magic will happen.