StoryFutures and StoryFutures Academy: The National Centre for Immersive Storytelling

Professor James Bennett is Director of StoryFutures Creative Clusters R&D Partnership and Co-Director of StoryFutures Academy: The National Centre for Immersive Storytelling. He’s worked on lots of things to do with digital television, multiplatform and social media, but none as exciting as this. He likes Vegemite and triathlons.

Dr Jon Wardle is the Director of the National Film and Television School and Co-Director of StoryFutures Academy: The National Centre for Immersive Storytelling. Prior to his work in education and training Jon worked in Television Production. Jon’s first job in Television was with Hat Trick Productions on Father Ted.

Will Saunders is an independent media consultant, and executive producer. In 2018 he co-authored the DCMS “Culture Is Digital” report. As Creative Director, Digital, BBC Studios he ran Digital Development and Production for the UK’s leading media company. His recent focus has been with organisations that want to understand the storytelling potential of emerging technologies.

Rebecca Gregory-Clarke is Head of Immersive for StoryFutures Academy: The National Centre for Immersive Storytelling. She has worked in various disguises as a technologist, producer, and programme lead on immersive projects for Digital Catapult and the BBC. She likes travelling and all forms of avocado.

Amanda Murphy is a BAFTA award winning Executive Producer for StoryFutures Academy. She’s produced a range of content from digital shorts including the BAFTA-winning Missed Call and digital collections such as Adapt, to large scale TV productions like the first Big Brother & SuperNanny. She’s excited about the future of storytelling in new immersive media.

Professor Jen Parker-Starbuck is Head of the School of Performing and Digital Arts at Royal Holloway, University of London. Jen is Theme Leader for the StoryLab strand of the StoryFutures Creative Cluster, and the author of Cyborg Theatre (2011), co-author of Performance and Media (2015), and co-editor of Performing Animality (2015).

Adam is Reader in Screenwriting at Royal Holloway University. He has published extensively on narrative and also writes for Film TV and Radio. His play The Gestapo Minutes was nominated for best Single Drama in the BBC Audio Drama awards. He studied Directing at the National Film & Television School.

Sarah Smyth is the Immersive Programme Manager for StoryFutures Academy: The National Centre for Immersive Storytelling. Before joining the National Film and Television School, Sarah worked as a Production Manager with independent production companies, in factual programming.

Elaine is Partnership Manager at StoryFutures Academy. Previously, she produced Sheffield Doc/Fest's Alternate Realities Market, a co-financing and co-production forum for immersive non-fiction projects. She advises on BFI London Film Festival’s Short Film Programme and Underwire Film Festival. Her interest in immersive lies at the intersection of art and technology.

Kyle has worked as a freelance producer for television and feature film companies in Outreach and Post Production roles with a particular focus on Impact Producing for companies including Keo Films in the UK and Madman Entertainment in Australia. As a Producer Kylie brings skills from a successful career as a diplomat in South Korea for the Australian Trade Commission and work in the Education and IT start-up sectors.

Polly Dalton is a Professor of Psychology and Head of Royal Holloway’s Psychology Department, where she is also the Director of the Attention Lab. Polly’s research examines multisensory perception, attention and awareness, all of which are essential for achieving effective audience engagement in immersive experiences.

Professor John Ellis is co-director of StoryFutures work on metadata flows in production. John founded an independent production company in 1982 and returned to academic life in 1999. His research on archive TV and the history of analogue TV production technologies has made him eager to work in three dimensions.

Ian is an innovation specialist with a background in professional practice and academia. An award-winning product designer and now an innovation coach, he has worked with a diverse range of organisations including the Design Council, universities such as Oxford and UCL as well as a large number of B2B and B2C businesses including WL Gore, Samsonite and Tupperware. He now advises SMEs on achieving business growth through innovation.

Kristina leads our business network activities and on enhancing the business impact of StoryFutures R&D. Kristina’s background is in creative, digital and social innovation and business support. She has worked at Nokia, Ofcom, Royal Holloway, mySociety.org, and co-founded Impact Hub Brixton and Makerhood where she led entrepreneur network development.

Claude Heath is Senior Research Fellow in the ethnography of collaboration and data-sharing in creative workflows. Claude’s research will feed into the StoryFutures understanding of storytelling practices in immersive. He has a background in HCI, participatory design research, prototyping, and visual art - and is often to be found drawing, mapping and diagramming.

Niki moved from television production into creative digital media delivering innovation events for global brands including Visa, PwC and Thales. An assessor for Innovate UK, Niki has published and co-edited books and articles on digital production exploring media independence, social media and public service broadcasting. A lifelong Spurs fan, Niki lives in Brighton with her husband, son and a cockapoo called Betty.

Mark specialises in the ways that value can be derived from big data. Prior to academia, he spent several years in industry in project management and consulting. At StoryFutures, Mark leads our work on understanding future business models and value chains in the immersive sector, as well as working on specific innovation projects with SMEs.

Jude Middleton worked for over 10 years as a freelance photographer before joining the StoryFutures team. After moving to the UK from Australia in 1999, she has fully embraced football (soccer) as a sport, but still loves Australian music.

Moira Noble was a TV documentary producer before moving into Head of Production, Director of Operation & Business Affairs roles, working with independent TV production companies delivering factual entertainment to all the major UK and US broadcasters.

With a background in film and theatre production, Chloe specialises in marketing within the creative industries. She publishes on consumer research, marketing and management.

Chair of the Arts, Heritage, Non-Profit and Social Marketing Special Interest Group of the Academy of Marketing, she is on the editorial board of Arts and the Market.

Dr Laryssa Whittaker’s background is in ethnomusicology and her doctoral research focused on the experiences of young people participating in South African music-centred development programmes. As part of the StoryFutures team her ethnographic research helps her explore attitudes, values and patterns of engagement around immersive experiences to understand the industry’s future audiences.

Andy has a background in academia, industry and the start-up world. His focus is on the interplay between audience insight, software development, and new immersive measurement technologies. Andy can help deliver new solutions to audience insight, based on a mashup of cutting-edge technologies and developing new innovative psychological audience insight techniques.

Isabelle has an industry background in international consumer marketing and degrees in business and clinical psychology. She researches audience behaviours in immersive content to help develop innovative approaches to storytelling. When not thinking about the future of storytelling, she enjoys travelling and experiencing different cultures.

Olivia Hinkin is the Network & Outreach Officer for StoryFutures Creative Cluster. She is the first point of contact for all of StoryFutures programmes and engages with local SMEs to keep them informed of the latest opportunities. She has a background in event management and media studies and is working part-time towards her PhD in Japanese television.

Chris is a Teaching Fellow at RHUL. He teaches creative social media, podcasting. He is also a playwright who writes from the corner of digital and human. In 2018 he won best BBC Audio Drama Podcast. Also in that year he became a writer in residence at Theatre 503.

Johnny Johnson is a Senior Technician of StoryFutures Academy: The National Centre for Immersive Storytelling, based at the NFTS. He has produced many VR productions and spends his days working with the latest and greatest in XR technology.

Roderick is a technologist and performance maker who integrates digital technology to enact meaningful moments of connection. His MA in Advanced Theatre Practice from Royal Central School of Speech & Drama was the catalyst for his shift from a background in immersive theatre. As Artistic Director of Trajectory Theatre, Roderick has created a number of projects including an AR circus piece Circus in a Bottle.

Neil is a Senior Technician at StoryFutures. His previous roles were in video production,including post-production, graphics and interactivity and his MA is in screenwriting. He has recently moved into the field of XR and game design, specialising in Unreal Engine 4.

Prior to joining academia, Marianna had been working in media where she gained a first-hand understanding of this industry that inspires her research. She studies
new ways of creating and monetizing value in the immersive field to understand how creative companies can successfully innovate their business models and incorporate new technologies in their products.

Jura is the go-to for all things digital content at StoryFutures Creative Cluster. From video, to social media, to websites, to branding, to write-ups, he's on it. Jura hails from Glasgow and last year wrapped up a Masters degree in research practice at The Glasgow School of Art.

Christos is a doctoral researcher in Creative Data Tools. He has studied Computer Science at Royal Holloway since 2015 and is now working towards his PhD in Media Arts with StoryFutures. He also has an interest in creative writing and aspires to publish a novel.

Eirini’ research explores the negotiated agency of audiences regarding uses of their personal data in the context of digital ecosystems and interconnected data infrastructures featuring digital platforms and VR environments curating and disseminating personalised content. Eirini has a background in film, audience design, digital communications and digital content management.

Jack is a Doctoral Researcher specialising in cultural and political geographies with his PhD research focusing on freelance labour in the video games industry. He has been at Royal Holloway in the Department of Geography for 4 years, completing a BSc in Geography and MSc in Geopolitics and Security.

Rich is researching personalised experience in virtual environments. He is engineering bio-adaptive audio systems in the Electronic Engineering department and measuring levels of presence in experiences with the Psychology department. He has a background in game audio and is using procedural and spatial audio in conjunction with bio-sensing hardware to drive mechanics of immersive experiences.

Expertise: Museums and heritage, storytelling, audience engagement

Hannah has a research background in history and archaeology, particularly with regard to multisensory engagement with artefacts and the built environment. She has applied this knowledge to various projects including a forthcoming book on multisensory living in ancient Rome, and a virtual reality Roman villa that allowed visitors to experience recreated sights, sounds and smells of life in Roman Britain.

As well this insight into the multisensory experience of the historical past, as project leader for a network that connects heritage institutions and technology companies in the UK and US and a member of a large History department, Hannah can draw upon a wealth of historical and museological expertise.

Jack is a cultural geographer whose research engages with various forms of digital media to investigate the processes through which places become meaningful. He can assist with insights on place and environment in digital narrative experiences as well as share learnings from his own location-based game development.