Spreadable & digestible information about StoryLabs for it’s launch end August 2010.

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MORE STORYLABS INFO

Twenty plus mentors at launch

• US – Matt Costello, Brenna Hajek Humphreys, Brian Seth Hurst, Robert Pratten
• Canada – Brooke Burgess, Evan Jones, Siobhan O’Flynn, Tony Walsh
• UK – Sean Coleman, Neil Richards, Maurice Suckling
• Australia – Marrisa Cooke, Kelly Chapman, Sohail Dahdal, Guy Gadney, Gary Hayes, Laurel Papworth, Jim Shomos, Timothy Wilde, Jennifer Wilson

Labs summaries

• Games Lab – Aimed at traditional media creators or existing games developers who want to develop their story skills across a range of game genre
• Transmedia Lab – Aimed at all producers of content but particularly film and TV who want to extend and tell stories in an integrated way across multiple platforms and new forms
• Innovation Lab – Aimed at corporate organisation, these are introductory seminars and workshops to engender strategic product and service development and engage both internal staff and potential consumers with rich narrative component
• Community Lab – Aimed at a wide range of media practitioners who want to engage with predominantly online communities across social media networks and it’s participant, social audience
• Ad Lab – Aimed at marketing and ad agencies looking for alternative approaches to multi platform creative and new form targeting by using the latest multi platform story techniques
• Mobile Media Lab – Aimed at traditional media producers who want to develop their skills in understanding and producing compelling story and game content for geo-social networks, highly connected smartphones & tablet devices

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FOUNDING MENTORS PHOTOS

Tony Walsh - Canadian Founder

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SOME PROJECTS, BRANDS AND COMPANIES MENTORS HAVE WORKED ON

ABC Second Life – Transmedia	ABC TV	Academy of TV Arts and Sciences
American Express – Transmedia	BAFTA	Bangkok Dangerous – ARG
BBC New Media	Big Brother – Community	BioShock 2 – Game
BlueBird – ARG	Broken Sword – Game	Channel 10
Channel 4	Channel 9	Conspiracy for Good – ARG
Da Vinci Code – Game	Deepend	Diaspora – Game
Disney	Doom 3 – Game	Dream the Impossible – Transmedia
Driver – Game	Emmerdale Online – Transmedia	Fallen – ARG
Fat Cow Motel – ARG	Find 815 – ARG	First Australians – Transmedia
Forget the Rules – Transmedia	Hercules – Game	ITV
Just Cause – Game	L Word – Transmedia	Long Journey, Young Lives – Transmedia
LowLifes – Transmedia	McDonalds – Transmedia Ads	Microsoft – Transmedia Ads
Mordy Koots – MOGIE	Nike – Transmedia Ads	Nintendo – Transmedia Ads
Pirates of Caribbean 3 – Game	Primeval Evolved – Transmedia	PS Trixi – Transmedia
Rage – Game	Regenesis – ARG	Sesame Street – Transmedia
Showtime	Sony	Spooks Interactive – Transmedia
Spooks: Code 9 – Transmedia	StarShip Titanic – Game	Telstra Second Life – Game
The Musical Nomad – Transmedia	Thursdays Fictions – Transmedia	Top Chef – Transmedia
Top of The Pops – Transmedia	Ultima Online – Community	Walking with Beasts – Transmedia
Warner Music	Xcreatures – Transmedia	ZoogDisney – Transmedia

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MENTORS VIDEO

A small selection of recent ‘found’ videos featuring mentors talking about new story or audience development (on-going insertion):

[vimeo clip_id="8563463" height="" width="500"]

TVOT 2009: Tim Kring, Exec. Prod. “Heroes” in conversation with Brian Seth Hurst, CEO, Opportunity Management Company – Part 2 from Tracy Swedlow on Vimeo.

TVOT 2009: Tim Kring, Exec. Prod. “Heroes” in conversation with Brian Seth Hurst, CEO, Opportunity Management Company – Part 3 from Tracy Swedlow on Vimeo.

TVOT 2009: Tim Kring, Exec. Prod. “Heroes” in conversation with Brian Seth Hurst, CEO, Opportunity Management Company – Part 4 from Tracy Swedlow on Vimeo.

[vimeo clip_id="7193477" height="" width="500"] [vimeo clip_id="7586488" height="" width="500"]

[vimeo clip_id="7388180" height="" width="500"] [vimeo clip_id="7387382" height="" width="500"] [vimeo clip_id="7387651" height="" width="500"]

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STORYLABS MISSION AND GOALS

StoryLabs Mission

• To stimulate innovative story focused digital content creation in partnership with the industry and under the guidance of internationally recognised mentors
• To disseminate new ideas, research and resources through on-line networks and educational training events
• To assist production teams get their projects commissioned through the development of strong ideas and presentation and proof of concepts
• To link creative teams with the transmedia industry players across broadcasting, mobile, new media and technology sectors
• To create a neutral ground for collaboration between creative teams, global mentors and the Australian, Canadian, US and UK entertainment industries

StoryLabs Goals

• StoryLabs will pioneer next-generation storytelling techniques by pushing the limits of digital entertainment practices and technologie
• StoryLabs will consist of a series of presentations, seminars, workshops and incubators – enabling the conception and development of original IP future story and audience centric services
• StoryLabs will equip participants and project teams with the tools they need to create compelling interactive and multi platform services by being made aware of the range of deployed and emerging distribution channels available to them
• StoryLabs is strategically content and service focused but with a healthy balance of technical and business relevance

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STORYLABS OVERALL PROCESS

• note: each lab track (eg: community, transmedia, ad lab, games etc) will have variations on this main structure
• Regular talks and connected events promote StoryLabs as one of the best ways to develop your story and project with an online community of mentors
• Throughout the year individuals or project teams (participants) can submit their project as an expression of interest to become involved in the lab athttp://storylabs.us/submit/
• The StoryLabs online network will connect mentors remotely with projects of interest and initial guardian mentorship will begin
• When enough projects are linked to a specific territory (eg: 6 Australian and 3 Canadian) a physical lab will be triggered in partnership with sponsors and other events
• The projects selected for the incubators will be based on a rating system from ‘active’ mentors and sponsors
• Depending on dates and times mentors will be brought in internationally to the incubators based on their original attachment
• Once a date is set the mentors have between 1-2 months to ‘groom’ the projects and get them ready for an intensive incubator
• The incubators will be preferably residential with a basic structure detailed below
• After the incubators a private ‘business’ relationship may be setup between guardian mentors and projects and/or managed continued support from the online mentor group
• StoryLabs will track project progress and publish case-study updates when appropriate
• Project participants will be invited back to various events to either present at relevant events, to new participants, invited audiences, investors etc:

For the incubator element story projects will be assessed on:

• Level of innovation of story
• Narrative depth & strength of story world
• Appropriate audience interaction and level of involvement
• Market focus & audience reach

Applicants must satisfy the following eligibility criteria:

• You have a demonstrated ability in some element of linear or interactive production in the past
• You have demonstrated a willingness to assemble a creative team for the project
• Your team members are allocated specific roles and have some history of working together
• You demonstrate potential to benefit from the StoryLabs process, i.e. that your project submission is open, expansive and shows room for growth and evolution

The Incubator Labs

• note: each lab track (eg: community, transmedia, ad lab, games etc) will have variations on this main structure
• StoryLabs will not completely reinvent the incubator wheel but use best practise in the residential labs
• The arc of the week (after bonding and introductions) is in three simple acts/phases (roughly 2 days each) – 1 Possibility/Expansion, 2 Filter/Focus and 3 Distill/Present
• Each participant unit (team/project) will have an original guardian mentor attached throughout for a variety of reasons
• The labs will be very ‘story’ focused so there will be more focus on audience centric design and engagement with story in evolving markets
• Technology possibility and business models will be a parallel track
• Phase 1 – A range of exercises and activities alongside presentations from mentors to ‘stimulate’ broader conceptual story thinking. A focus on new models and case studies of storytelling. Mentors to present their own design methodologies and ‘theories’
• Phase 2 – To help focus various ‘StoryLabs’ design tools will be brought into play. Aimed to help with distributed narrative design process. A mutually assigned mentor rotation based on reinforcement vs contradiction will filter the best story ideas and design
• Phase 3 – Distilling a good solid take-away to move the project forward post lab. Clarity and distilling the key story ingredients leading to a strong linear presentation of their transmedia or service design story concepts. There may be

Top Level Legal Stuff

• This is a not-for-profit entity – apart from cost recovery for ‘team’ time and materials and on-going marketing/next step capital
• StoryLabs will be registered in each territory
• In the case of sponsored or government funded elements of the incubator elements of StoryLabs there will be a small ‘admin’ fee from teams to cover costs in case process default
• Projects taken on-board the StoryLabs process the original IP remains with the incumbent team and after the physical lab any on-going IP share relationships with mentors are between the team and attached mentors, not with StoryLabs
• The StoryLabs process (as it evolves) will be copyright StoryLabs as an entity

Logos

These are current placeholder logos as we settle on a final long term design. There are three versions in order below

1 – transparent  2 – on black  3- on white.