Sensory Driven Storytelling
Taught by Stacey Mulcahy
Narratives are often linear, with a start and an end, and sometimes even formulaic. How can we create new stories, reactive or even dynamic ones using sensory input to help direct or even define the direction of the narrative? We will explore narrative driven games or environments in either 2d or 3d focusing on how sensory input can contribute to play and or performance.
Technologies and software to be covered will be Unity3d, communication protocols such as Web Sockets and OSC within the context of Unity3d to capture and share data, and the Kinect. Other hardware input will be addressed as needed through lab times.
Storytelling with Non-Linear Video
Taught by Alon Benari
Throughout history, as new storytelling mediums have emerged, content has adapted to fit the developing form. From oral narratives to theater, cinema, and television, storytelling will always evolve to fit the possibilities enabled by the platform. Yet, despite being interactive by nature, digital storytelling has not fully adapted to the medium. So - how is non-linear video shaping the future of digital storytelling?
This 6-week workshop will combine filmmaking and classic storytelling with gaming mechanics and interface design. The class will introduce the depths of non-linear video and allow students to create their own interactive experience. The focus is on what makes a good story in an interactive narrative environment. Students will have access to the Interlude platform - the industry leader in interactive video (behind videos such as Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone”). In addition they will be given "backdoor" access to further customize the software for their own projects.
During the course of the semester, they will works in teams of 2-3 students to produce a short interactive video experience. Weekly lessons will mimic their project creation process - providing tools and knowledge for creative ideation, scriptwriting, film production, and product integration. Students will acquire basic Javascript and CSS skills in the class. This is a 2 credit course. Syllabus
Prototyping Movies
Taught by Dan O'Sullivan
Have you you ever seen a movie set take over several city blocks with trucks and trailers, tents and a crew of one hundred. Even in movies that rely more on special effects than location shooting you can see thousands of names roll by in the credits. Who can afford to tell stories that way? How can you interact with stories made that way? This course will look at how tools like the kinect camera, panoramic video, and XML transmission might allow people to sketch stories out of parts that are more easily composed, reconfigured and shared. The goal is not seamless special effects but rather the rough juxtapositions in the tradition of comics or storyboarding. Using these traditions as templates we will look at the dramatic parts of a story in addition to the audio visual parts. Stories in a living storyboard that can be created by anyone, evolve and intersect with others may never need to be made into a more finished movie. This class will draw on ideas coming out of ITP’s “Consumer Light and Magic” research project so students will be expected to have a pioneering attitude. Student will have assignment to gather compose and distributes parts of a story. Examples will mostly be in javascript with Unity being a viable alternative platform. ICM is a prerequisite and the Comics class might make an interesting compliment.
Playful Communication of Serious Research
Taught by Lillian Preston
Exhibition design is the art of marrying experience and information. The best do so seamlessly; the very best surprise and delight you along the way. In this class you will explore the craft of interactive exhibition design through practice. Working in small groups, you will select an NYU researcher whose work is of interest to you and create an interactive experience that presents this research to a broader, public audience. In the process, you will learn to interrogate content and form, audience and environment, medium and message to create a meaningful and playful exhibit experience.
Open Source Cinema
Taught by Dan O'Sullivan
Have you you ever seen a movie set take over several city blocks with trucks and trailers, tents and an an army of crew members? Even in movies that rely more on special effects than location shooting you can see thousands of names roll by in the credits. Who can afford to tell stories that way? How can you interact with stories made that way? Stories told with motion pictures are the strongest tool for change in our culture and need to be in the hands of more people.
Tools like panoramic video might save the need to shoot on location by allowing directors to later change their shot angles. We will look at how depth cameras like the kinect can separate foreground elements like people and props from a scene so they can be rearranged or substituted. New scanning technology has made it easier creating 3D models instead of more immutable images and new abilities to realtime render those models is finding its way into small inexpensive devices. We will look at how story plots and sequences might be templated into reusable formulas for no experts to find dramatic arcs. Most importantly we will look at how these new elements are usefully addressable to be shared and compared in a way that pixels are not. You could find exactly how your story overlaps and intersects with other in a shared “space” of stories. Once filmmaking becomes a process of arranging shared elements within the frame instead of just sequencing clips, it could produce cultural advancements like what followed the analogous innovation of movable type in the printing press.
In the near term the aesthetic will likely be rough juxtapositions in the tradition of comics or storyboarding. The goal of this class is not to make the lives of professional film directors easier but rather empower the end user to be a director of a motion storyboard that may never be finished. While it is the mutability of “VR” tools that enable this class, the aim is towards democratizing conventional stories probably delivered on a conventional screen. This class will draw on ideas coming out of ITP’s “Consumer Light and Magic” research project so students will be expected to have a pioneering attitude. Student will have assignment to gather compose and distributes parts of a story. Examples will mostly be in javascript with Unity or Unreal being a viable alternative platforms.
This class used to be called "Prototyping Movies". This is a 2 credit course. Syllabus
One Story, Seven Ways
Taught by Elena Parker
Course Title – One Story, Six Ways – 7 Weeks
“A work of art is realized when form and content are indistinguishable. When they are in synthesis. In other words, when they fuse.” – Paul Rand
Storytelling – the rehearsal of a narrative in a structured and meaningful way – can take many forms. This class asks how each form in which you tell a single story changes the way that the audience receives that narrative. You will choose a public domain short story and iterate upon it in seven different media. We will examine how to leverage the unique tools of each medium to best communicate a narrative. How do you articulate a character differently in audio versus performance? What part of your narrative is better suited to physical expression? Are there aspects of storytelling that a image or game just do better? After choosing your short story, you will adapt it to performance, audio, image sequence, physical/installation and as a system or game. Along the way, we will look at outstanding examples of storytelling in each medium and examine how the authors fused form and content.