StoryFutures
Will Saunders MBE is a Professor of Creative Industries at Royal Holloway, University of London, where Will serves as Creative Head of the UK's first National Lab for Creative Industries R&D, CoSTAR. As Chief Creative Officer for WPS Ltd's StoryFutures & StoryFutures Academy, Will is at the forefront of pioneering immersive experiences within the UK's Creative Industries, supported by UKRI's substantial investment in the immersive economy. Will's extensive background includes consulting for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, where co-authorship of the Culture Is Digital report occurred, and a notable tenure at the BBC, where management roles encompassed Digital Development and Production, Executive Producer of BBC TV Comedy, and leadership in BBC Radio Comedy. Will's career is characterized by editorial leadership, strategic planning, and innovation in digital and immersive media, coupled with proven expertise in shaping and delivering public output services. Educationally, Will holds a degree in American Studies from The University of Manchester.
StoryFutures
StoryFutures is a 4.5 year £12m (FeC) project led by Royal Holloway. It is a new kind of research project that brings together a consortia of HEIs and creative industries companies. It is funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) as part of an unprecedented investment in creative industries R&D via the Creative Industries Clusters programme. Our aim is to create innovative and risky projects that address the need to create compelling content and story experiences in next generation technologies, focusing particularly on Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality. StoryFutures focuses on the future of: 1. Story form 2. Business models 3. Creative data processes 4. Audience experiences. Who is involved in the StoryFutures partnership and where is it located? StoryFutures is led by Royal Holloway. It is located in the the ‘Gateway Cluster’, to London’s immediate west. Our partnership spans film, TV, gaming, VFX and immersive. Our partners include: Pinewood Studios, Immerse UK, Pact, Ukie, Resource Productions, BFI, Connect TVT, Imaginarium Studios, The National Gallery, BBC Studios, Sony Interactive Entertainment, nDreams, Heathrow as well as our Local Economic Partnerships: EM3, TVBucks and TVBerks. What are the aims of StoryFutures? StoryFutures is a R&D base for screen industries to meet the challenge of next-generation storytelling, producing compelling content for emerging creative technologies. The stories of tomorrow will reach audiences in new and complex ways, fuelled by immersive technologies, data-driven personalisation, smart devices and AI alongside evolutions in contemporary screen form that threaten our very conception of the ‘screen’. Screen industries' creative story processes, techniques, business models, value networks and workflows are thus challenged to iterate a next generation of storytelling that can engage audiences in novel and commercially viable experiences.