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In this episode we welcome Steve Silver to the podcast to discuss the now and future of the metaverse - in particular how creators can approach this space. From Tesla's complete virtual rendering of San Francisco and Apple's upcoming VR headset to the latest in Web3, Steve takes us on a ride to the nexus of technological innovation and entertainment - eloquently explaining how these innovations can benefit storytelling and creators. Steve is the Games Industry Strategy Manager for Autodesk, makers of best-in-class design and make tools like Maya and 3ds Max. His role involves thought leadership and guidance on industry trends and strategy for the Gaming Industry as well as the Metaverse. Prior to Autodesk, Steve’s experience in the Gaming Industry included roles in companies like Electronic Arts, Kixeye, and Zynga. His professional expertise has focused on Experience Design, Live Operations, and Content Production which has put him in a strong position to understand the process complexities unique to game development. Additionally his lifelong passion for games provides valuable insight to what drives consumers to seek experiences that delight and entertain.

Brian Newman is Founder of Sub-Genre and one of the world’s leading experts on brand-funded films. He consults on content strategy, distribution and marketing for some of the top brands in the world. Current and former clients include: The Climate Pledge (Amazon), GoDaddy, Oatly, Patagonia, REI, Stripe, Sundance, Tazo, and Yeti Coolers. As well as being film's leading 'brand whisperer', Brian is a bonafide feature film producer in his own right and has an impressive film track record across festivals and production - including as CEO of the Tribeca Film Institute. His free weekly newsletter on the industry is simply essential reading and is available at www.sub-genre.com. In this conversation Brian outlines the opportunities for filmmakers to tap into brand money, sharing the latest case studies and strategies for success in this still emerging area.

"We talk about going Direct to Community" Diana Williams Diana Williams is the CEO & Co-founder of Kinetic Energy Entertainment, a multi-disciplinary company that partners with creators at the intersection of story and technology to develop and produce story-based IP. In this podcast, we discuss Kinetic Energy Entertainment's strategy, projects and the opportunity Diana is addressing in the marketplace. We also dive into the story IP creating process - why it is vital in today's market and the techniques Diana uses for this. From the MCU to Exploding Kittens, Diana also shares numerous examples of projects that have successfully developed franchises and reveals some of the steps they took to achieve this. About Diana Williams Diana Williams is the CEO & Co-founder of Kinetic Energy Entertainment. She has a wide range of experience in the entertainment industry, developing IP and producing creative content for distribution across storytelling media. Throughout her career she has been at the forefront of working with emerging and established talent to ensure a diversity of voices are included in an ever-evolving industry. Kinetic Energy Entertainment is a multi-disciplinary company that partners with creators at the intersection of story and technology to develop and produce story-based IP. Kinetic’s project slate includes a series in development at HBO, the cross-platform storyworld of The Gatecrashers, political sim videogame Political Arena, Founder Hustle podcast based on venture fund 1863 Ventures’ focus on entrepreneurs of color, Crimson an epic fantasy/thriller take on Alice in Wonderland, recipe-memoir Adventures in Starry Kitchen, and a documentary feature film with Apple+. An award-winning producer, she produced the critically acclaimed feature film Our Song, which earned her a nomination for an Independent Spirit Award in the Producer category. Other credits include documentaries Room 237, the Emmy© award-winning Sylvia Drew Ivie, Student Academy Award©-nominated Another First Step, Industrial Light & Magic: Creating the Impossible, Method to the Madness of Jerry Lewis, and Dear Mom Love Cher. In addition to producing, Diana has held various positions in the entertainment industry. She was the Creative Development and Franchise Producer at Lucasfilm within the Story Group, the team responsible for developing and maintaining narrative cohesion and connectivity throughout the Star Wars universe. While at Lucasfilm, Diana developed film and tv (including Star Wars Rebels, Rogue One), mobile and console videogames (including 2015’s Battlefront), publishing (Marvel’s Star Wars comics and novel expansions). Diana helped launch ILMxLAB, an immersive entertainment and mixed reality lab, with projects including Vader Immortal, Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire, and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Academy Award© winning VR experience Carne y Arena. She was also a production consultant for BET on Let the Church Say Amen, Gun Hill Road, and Untitled Kenya Barris Project. Currently the Chair of the Interactive Board of Jurors for digital and immersive storytelling for the Peabody Award, Diana is also on the Strategic Planning Committee of The National Academy of Sciences’ Science and Entertainment Exchange; the advisory committee for the Royal Shakespeare Company/Digital development; the advisory board for UK-based organization Future of Film; and the boards of Diverso (a non-profit organization by students for students, dedicated to empowering the under-represented storytellers of the next generation), The Overlook Film Festival (genre festival), and Here/No Proscenium Summit for interactive and immersive events, theater, and creators. Diana began her career in production as an Assistant Director and is a member of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).

This episode explores the evolution in interactive filmmaking with filmmaker Paul Raschid and Ru Howe, the Founder of Stornaway.io the development tool for interactive video. Paul is the director of a number of branching narrative feature film/FMV games including 2022's THE GALLERY - comprising of over four and a half hours of video content. In this conversation, Paul and Ru share insights of how they took a 450 scene 'FMV Game' script into the finished feature film utilising Stornaway’s bespoke platform. We also talk distribution and audiences and how releasing the film on gaming platforms has provided Paul with greater control over the releasing of his storytelling. About Paul Rashid Prior to his work in the interactive format, Paul's second feature as a writer-director was 'White Chamber', which was shot in 12.5 days. In 2018, the sci-fi thriller/horror/drama played 10 film festivals around the world including Edinburgh, Sitges, Frightfest, Mumbai, BIFAN and Brussels. Lead actress Shauna Macdonald received the BAFTA Scotland Best Actress award for her tour-de-force performance. Between August 2019 and February 2021, the film was available to stream on Netflix in the UK, USA, Canada, Israel, Australia and New Zealand. Paul entered the interactive arena in 2019 when he directed 'The Complex', a sci-fi interactive feature film/ FMV video game, which released in 2020 on all major gaming platforms. Penned by Lynn Renee Maxcy, it stars Michelle Mylett, Kate Dickie and Al Weaver. It was produced by John Giwa-Amu and Jade Alexander. In 2020, Paul wrote and directed 'Five Dates', a romantic interactive feature film/ FMV video game. It was being made entirely remotely during the UK's national lockdown due to the Covid-19 global pandemic. It stars an ensemble cast including Mandip Gill (Doctor Who), Georgia Hirst (Vikings) and Marisa Abela (Industry). In 2021, Paul wrote and directed 'The Gallery' - an interactive hostage thriller that contains two narratives - before the film begins, the viewer must choose between a female protagonist (whose narrative is set in 1981 London) or a male protagonist (whose narrative is set in 2021 London). The cast is headlined by Anna Popplewell ('Chronicles Of Narnia' & 'Reign') and George Blagden ('Versailles' & 'Vikings'), who interchange roles as both protagonist and antagonist across the two narratives. It is set to release on major gaming platforms in September 2022. Paul is also in post-production for ’Ten Dates’, a sequel to ‘Five Dates’ following its critical and commercial success. About Ru Howe Rupert started trying to code his first “Choose Your Own Ending” video game aged 9 years old. Frustrated with the limits of technology, he began working as a director and producer in TV and film making award-winning 16mm short dramas and documentaries including “The Real Bridget Jones” series for C4. From 2004, he began experimenting with interactive films online and became a pioneer videoblogger and online video artist. He was featured in Trine Bjorkmann Berry’s PhD Thesis “The Film of Tomorrow (pp 19-25) as the world’s first mobile video blogger and created YouTube’s first interactive video story “Indecision” in 2008. From 2010-2018, he worked as a creative workflow consultant, leading digital transformation & workflow projects for the BBC, Disney, News UK, the Financial Times and Melody VR. Stornaway.io is his design. A unique application to enable creative producers to map, script, edit and deliver interactive stories, simply and easily with no coding.

"Big vision and small execution. That's the sweet spot to attack the market" Houston Howard How can creators stand out in today's ocean of content? Super Story Architect, Houston Howard has answers… Houston Howard is the Chief Storyteller at One 3 Creative, a transmedia design firm, and a co-founder of Fulcrum Worldbuilders, an organisation that designs large-scale storyworlds that are meant to shift culture and catalyze large-scale social impact. He has written three books about transmedia design including the brilliant, You’re Gonna Need a Bigger Story, a title on the Future of Film Incubator 2022 Reading List. He is a professor of Transmedia Storytelling and Worldbuilding at the Arts Center College of Design and the host of the Super Story Podcast. In this conversation we discuss how creators can, in Houston’s words, attack the market in 2022. What is the significance of this market becoming commoditised - and what are the specific creative and commercial strategies that storytellers can adopt to navigate and succeed in the new landscape? This episode was recorded as part of Future of Film Incubator 2022 and is brought to you in partnership with Epic Games and Unreal Engine, Autodesk, Dell Technologies, Nvidia and Garden Studios.

This episode is about involving the audience in the creative process and how a Danish startup is realising this using a unique combination of AI and anthropology. Niels Alberg is CEO and co-founder of PUBLIKUM.io (the Danish word that translates literally as Audience). For the past 20 years, Niels has worked in applied research, strategy and creative business development. Niels, who holds a Master's Degree in Sociology from the University of Copenhagen, specializes in designing innovative research methods for a large number of clients in projects that combine human insight and business strategy with the goal of developing new, creative connections between companies, organisations and people. Now, Publikum.io have taken this innovative process into filmmaking to develop a new method designed to empower the creative team. In this conversation he discusses how this works and is being adopted by filmmakers and funders across Europe. This episode was recorded as part of Future of Film Incubator 2022.

Nguyen-Anh Nguyen is a filmmaker based out of Montreal Having began his career as a dentist, he then focused on filmmaking, specifically science fiction, with the viral hit THE AKIRA PROJECT (2014) followed by acclaimed short films TEMPLE (2016) & HYPERLIGHT (2018), all of which garnered over 12M views online and received widespread international acclaim. Anh has now applying his craft in the realm of real time animation, to realise his expansive filmmaking ambitions with the cyberpunk animated series, BABIRU, with writer Philip Gelatt (EUROPA REPORT, LOVE, DEATH & ROBOTS), for which Epic Games financed the pilot episode. in Anh’s words he is a “filmmaker bringing what I can from the real world to the Unreal world“ and this episode is full of insights into this process as Anh explains how and why he is making this transition and the opportunities - and challenges - realtime filmmaking presents. This episode is presented in partnership with Epic Games and Unreal Engine. For more information visit www.futureoffilm.live

This episode is a deep-dive into the pivotal role of audience research in film with Kevin Goetz. Nicknamed “the doctor of audience-ology,” Kevin has been at the centre of what Hollywood calls the movie research industry for more than thirty years. His firm, Screen Engine/ASI, conducts research for a majority of all movies that are widely released in America and around the world. With decades of experience, Goetz has worked alongside all of the major film studio chiefs, network and streaming platform executives, and production company decision-makers. The Los Angeles Times Magazine counted him as one of the 100 most powerful and influential people in Southern California. As well as sharing fascinating insights into the testing process, Kevin makes the compelling case that every movie should be profitable if researched and budgeted correctly! His new book, 'Audience-ology: How Moviegoers Shape the Films We Love' is available now. This episode is in partnership with the Movie Marketing and Distribution Podcast. More info at www.futureoffilm.live

Kevin Baillie's career at the forefront of visual effects and screen storytelling began in 1999 and is now part of industry folklore. As an 18-year old high school senior, he and his friend created a short film involving a futuristic speeder race through his school, primarily to attract the attention of Star Wars producer Rick McCallum. The short was hugely successful and the tactic worked with Kevin soon finding himself working alongside George Lucas in the visualisation department on STAR WARS: Episode One. Since then, Kevin has continued to blaze a trail in innovating the storytelling process. He formed a long-term creative collaboration with Robert Zemeckis, supervising the visual effects on films such as FLIGHT, THE WALK and THE WITCHES. Recently, this has started to incorporate increasing amounts of real-time and virtual production techniques into the workflows of his projects. In this episode Kevin reflects on the evolution of these creative tools, the benefits they offer to the storytelling process and explains why "virtual production will allow filmmakers to tell stories that would otherwise be untellable". About Kevin Baillie Kevin's VFX career started at age 18 when he when he joined Lucasfilm's JAK Films as a pre-visualization artist on Star Wars: Episode I. In the following 25 years, Kevin has blazed a bright path, helming VFX at The Orphanage on features including Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Night at the Museum, Superman Returns, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Hellboy, and supervising cutting-edge motion capture feature films at ImageMovers Digital. In 2010, he co-founded the groundbreaking VFX studio Atomic Fiction, whose outstanding work on films such as The Walk, Allied, and Flight garnered awards recognition and critical acclaim. In 2018 Atomic Fiction, having grown to over 300 employees in 2 countries, was acquired by Deluxe Entertainment. Kevin's VFX Supervisor credits also include two Star Trek movies, two Transformers features, Welcome to Marwen and The Witches. Most recently, Kevin acted as VFX Supervisor and 2nd Unit Director on Disney’s live-action Pinocchio - another title in his long collaboration with Director Robert Zemeckis. Kevin also founded the venture-funded cloud rendering technology company, Conductor Technologies, is active with the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, and is an active member of the Directors Guild of America. This episode is presented in partnership with Epic Games and Unreal Engine. More at www.futureoffilm.live

This episode is a deep dive into the revolutionary world of NFTs, Web 3 and the blockchain, with new media and technology entertainment industry executive, Rouslan Ovtcharoff. As the former head of marketing at Millennium Media (famous for blockbusters like The Expendables and Olympus Has Fallen), Rouslan is highly experienced in film and traditional media. More recently, however, he has dived deeply into the world of NFTs and the blockchain, founding Blockchain Global Entertainment Alliance and Groovesetter, a peer-to-peer platform for real-time online music collaboration. In this conversation, Rouslan shares his knowledge and passion for the subject including: What is an NFT ? How can we buy one - and make one? What is Web 3? Why are NFTs and Web 3 so important to the metaverse? What are some of the ways NFTs can be used in film? Why does every filmmaker and media company now needs to have an NFT strategy in 2022?

Kaya Jabar is a multidisciplinary visualisation supervisor with unique experience leading previs, postvis, techvis and virtual production for tentpole film and TV projects including Game of Thrones, Star Wars the Rise of Skywalker and Dumbo. Kaya is on a mission to develop real-time adoption and virtual production workflows with the aim of making visualisation more efficient and interactive. In other words she as at the forefront of the virtual production revolution and in this discussion we explore how realtime engines are transforming the filmmaking process, the role and potential of visualisation in achieving 'creative consensus' and why Kaya believes we are just at the start of a newly democratised future of film.

Robin McNichols is co-founder and Director of the award-winning creative studio Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF) where he has directed a myriad of immersive experiences, large-scale installations and live performances. Exploring new sensory perspectives that challenge our relationship to the world around us plays a key role in Robin and the team at MLF’s work. His interest in full immersion lead to a 5 year deep-dive into virtual production and interaction techniques which has informed the development of mixed-reality storytelling methods for new forms of audience engagement. Earlier in 2021, this manifested in the pioneering collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company’s online interactive interpretation of A Midsummer’s Night Dream. In DREAM Robin and the MLF team utilised virtual production and realtime techniques to create an interactive, immersive digital WORLD for the RSC performance - which was critical in the show’s pivot to a fully online experience during lockdown. In this episode we explore the creative and technological process of DREAM and how virtual production tools can be utilised in a live theatrical experience. Robin also talks about the business of interactive storytelling and shares his incredibly thoughtful and articulate perspectives on the future of audiences and screen storytelling. Check out more on virtual production in Virtual Production Revolution available now at www.futureoffilm.live

Mahin Ibrahim and Phillip Domfeh are the executives behind Disney Launchpad, the new programme for untapped filmmaking talent. Available now on Disney+, Launchpad is a series of bold and new stories from emerging creators. In this talk, Mahin and Phillip share how the programme worked and the process of nurturing new talent. We also talk about inclusion behind and in front of the camera and the reasons that so often prevent a wider range of talent progressing through the system. More at www.futureoffilm.live

Jack Attridge is Creative Director and co-founder of Flavourworks, the London-based digital entertainment studio. Originally trained in filmmaking, Jack pivoted into the gaming industry, working at leading studios like EA, Rebellion, Mind Candy, and 22cans. In 2015 he co-founded Flavourworks to realise a new form of interactive storytelling. This resulted in the acclaimed game-film hybrid (or as Jack prefers, 'filmed game') ERICA which fuses live action storytelling with interactivity via an innovative new control system developed by Flavourworks called Touch Video. In this conversation we explore the new medium that Jack and Flavourworks are pioneering at this intersection of film and games. Jack does an amazing job in deconstructing these two forms and sharing his vision for this new kind of story experience they are driving forward, that combines the aesthetics and sensibilities of filmmaking with new levels of intimate, tactile interactivity. More at www.futureoffilm.live About Jack Attridge Jack Attridge is Creative Director and co-founder of Flavourworks, an innovative content and technology studio based in London that develops and produces filmed games. Specialising in design, audio, and filmmaking, Jack’s career spans studios including EA, Rebellion, Mind Candy and 22cans. In 2015 he set-up Flavourworks alongside his co-founder Pavle Mihajlovic to realise their vision of creating live-action cinematic narratives imbued with responsive gameplay features which are simple and intuitive, allowing them to be played by anyone, on any platform. Soon after forming, Flavourworks was funded by games industry legends Peter Molyneux OBE, and Ian Livingstone CBE, who also serves as Non-Executive Chairman. Flavourworks’s patent-pending Touch Video technology allows them to function simultaneously as both a game studio and film production company with the studio’s first game, “ERICA,”, now available on both PlayStation and iOS and coming to PC in May 2021.

This episode is about how filmmaker HaZ is reinventing his craft through realtime game engine-powered animation. Having originally started his career in VFX, Hasraf 'HaZ' Dulull transitioned to directing and producing, with the Netflix-acquired sci-fi. THE BEYOND. He then followed up with another sci fi feature, 2036 ORIGIN UNKNOWN before directing a major show for Disney, FAST LAYNE. Throughout a career characterised by innovation, HaZ has particularly made use of realtime game engine tools and Unreal Engine. In 2019 at Future of Film Summit , he showcased how these helped unlock finance for his projects through a 'pre-vis to pitch-vis' process. In 2020 he directed the groundbreaking Virtual Production live action short, PERCIVAL with Rebellion Studios. Now, working with a small global team, HaZ is using the same tools to realise his vision through completely animated films. In this conversation, HaZ shares the tools, techniques and workflow he is using to create the latest HaZ Films project, the animated anime feature film RIFT. He also explains how this process is enabling him to retain creative independence and achieve commercial success in the new streaming landscape.

Jason Blum, founder of Blumhouse Productions, is a three-time Academy Award®-nominated, two-time Primetime Emmy Award-winning and a two-time Peabody Award-winning producer. Blumhouse is known for pioneering a new model of studio filmmaking: producing high-quality micro-budget films and television series, and his multimedia company is regarded as the driving force in the horror renaissance. Throughout his career Jason has relentlessly innovated and defied collective wisdom on the business of filmmaking. His low budget approach is much more than about 'keeping costs down', it's about fundamentally reducing risk and retaining control. And the result of this? For Jason it has meant staying INDEPENDENT, empowering artists (like Damien Chazelle, Spike Lee and Jordan Peele) and building a global direct to consumer and industry brand. In this very special interview with journalist Wendy Mitchell, Jason discusses his work and the future of the film and television business. It was recorded in November 2020 for the Future of Film Summit.

Jeff Gomez is CEO of Starlight Runner and one of the world’s leading experts in story and narrative design. He works with executives, visionaries, and global leaders to develop vast fictional story universes on properties like Avatar, Pirates of the Caribbean, Transformers and Spider-Man This conversation is really an exploration of narrative design. In particular, Jeff describes how conceiving and developing stories as worlds that can be told across multiple platforms can unlock incredible value for creators and brands. We also discuss the movement of audiences to participants and how, as storytellers we can not only engage and learn from the audience as well as harness this incredible feedback in our work. This leads us to explore what Jeff refers to us the Collective Journey narrative modality which, he argues, is a more relevant way to think about story in today’s hyper connected world. We dig into what this means for film, for culture and how we are moving from Hollywood-centric storytelling to more global, diverse and inclusive narratives. www.futureoffilm.live

Johanna Koljonen is a media industry analyst, broadcaster, writer and experience designer. She is also the author of the Göteborg Film Festival’s annual Nostradamus Report, which is an industry leading analysis of the near future of the screen sectors. I recently had the honour of being invited to participate in the 2021 Report (subtitled "Transforming Storytelling Together") and in this episode I took the opportunity to 'turn the tables' to ask Johanna about her findings and thoughts on the future of film and screen storytelling. Johanna is incredibly articulate and insightful about where things are heading within film and media on a global basis and there is so much valuable information in this episode for anyone involved in the business of storytelling on screen. As well as writing The Nostradamus Report, Johanna lectures internationally on changes in the media sector, as well as on participation and narrative design for games and experiences in analogue and virtual spaces. Her background is in public service broadcasting in Sweden and she serves on the board of the Swedish Film Institute. In 2011, she received the Swedish Grand Journalism Award in the Innovator category. Her latest book is Larp Design: Creating Role-Play Experiences (2019). More at www.futureoffilm.live The 2021 Nostradamus Report can be downloaded for free here: https://goteborgfilmfestival.se/nostradamus

Kiri Hart is an executive, writer and producer with nearly 3 decades experience in film and television. She is probably best known for her role as Senior Vice President of Development at Lucasfilm between 2012 and 2018. Here she formed the now legendary Lucasfilm Story Group and oversaw the creative development of all Star Wars content across film, animated television, publishing, gaming, immersive media, and theme parks. While at Lucasfilm, Kiri also co-produced the films THE LAST JEDI and ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY and produced all four seasons of the award-winning animated television series Star Wars Rebels. Kiri has more recently formed a producing partnership with Stephen Feder at T-Street, the independent media studio started by filmmaker Rian Johnson. Kiri is currently producing filmmaker Gareth Edwards’ upcoming untitled original film for New Regency and also serves as a Creative Consultant at Pixar Animation Studios and is an Executive Producer on Pixar’s next film SOUL. This episode is fundamentally about the practice of storytelling and Kiri reveals the collaborative process she has developed across her extensive career working with artists and filmmakers like Gareth Edwards. Kiri also shares what she believes are the qualities of a successful storyteller as well as her advice for new creators coming through. We also discuss diversity in film, how this is changing and, in particular, how we can do more to accelerate storytelling diversity further. In one of the most inspiring conversations I've had on this show, we also talk storytelling in the context of theme park attractions, the benefits of virtual production to the process and learn why Kiri is so optimistic about the future of film. More About Kiri Hart Kiri Hart has worked in film and television for 28 years as a story analyst, film executive, writer and producer. After starting her career in 1992 as an assistant in CAA’s Literary Department and later at the Ladd Company, she moved to HBO Films as a creative executive, developing a slate of original movies. She then spent ten years as a screenwriter and television staff writer, writing projects for Universal, HBO, Showtime, and NBC. After working as a development executive at the Kennedy/Marshall Company, Kiri became Senior Vice President of Development at Lucasfilm in 2012. She formed the Lucasfilm Story Group, and oversaw the creative development of all Star Wars content across film, animated television, publishing, gaming, immersive media, and theme parks. While at Lucasfilm, Kiri co-produced the films THE LAST JEDI and ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY, and produced all four seasons of the award-winning animated television series Star Wars Rebels. Kiri departed her Lucasfilm post at the end of 2018, and formed a producing partnership with Stephen Feder, who worked with her at Lucasfilm. Kiri and Stephen are now producers for T-Street, an independent media studio started by filmmaker Rian Johnson (LOOPER, STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI, KNIVES OUT) and his producer Ram Bergman. Kiri is currently producing filmmaker Gareth Edwards’ upcoming untitled original film for New Regency. She also serves as a Creative Consultant at Pixar Animation Studios, and is an Executive Producer on Pixar’s next film SOUL, directed by Pete Docter. Kiri is a member of AMPAS and the WGA. She is a California native, and a graduate of Stanford University.

Jess Engel is an award-winning, multidisciplinary producer focused on blending storytelling with art and technology. As founder at Crimes of Curiosity, her recent mixed-reality projects include BREATHE, PERSUASION MACHINES and the groundbreaking SPHERES (2018). Produced by Darren Aronofsky, SPHERES not only won the Gran Prix in VR at the Venice Film Festival in 2018 but also achieved the then highest sale price for a VR project to date, at its Sundance premiere. In this episode, I talk with Jess about the VR space (including how this is being impacted by Covid) and explore her strategies as a storyteller which include brand funded work, documentaries, interactive projects and feature films. This episode is going to be particularly relevant if you are a creator, producer or filmmaker as Jess shares so much valuable insight into how to structure your business in the new media landscape. Jess reveals the different approaches and models that are proving effective, as well as her advice for storytellers and thoughts on the future of film. More about Jess Engel Jess is an award-winning, multidisciplinary producer focused on blending storytelling with art and technology. As founder at Crimes of Curiosity, her recent mixed-reality projects include BREATHE (Sundance 2020), PERSUASION MACHINES (Sundance 2020), and the groundbreaking SPHERES (2018), which won the Gran Prix in VR at the Venice Film Festival in 2018. Her work has been shown around the world at major festivals and institutions, including Sundance, SXSW, Tribeca, Cannes, Venice, Telluride, NYFF, MIT, and Art Basel. Jess is a 2018 Emmy Awards Finalist. She is a participating producer of the Sundance Institute's inaugural "Future of Culture" Initiative and is a member of the Guild of Future Architects. She has been a Sundance New Frontier fellow and advisor.