Storyworlds

NORMALUM – Mixed Realities develops and supports the creation storyworlds – distributed, coordinated stories around a product or theme – which aim to connect multiple channels (Films, Games, Books, Websites, Live Events, etc.) in a meaningful and coherent way. We consult clients, who seek new ways to reach and grow their audience organically through interactive experiences and viral entertainment.

We conceive and produce Feature Film / Documentary story expansion, Alternate Reality Games, Viral Interaction and Transmedia Storytelling reaching everyday life. A blend of technology and social engineering blending realities to provide fruitful ground for attention and mind-shifts in human experience. We provide commercial and non-commercial research adventures to enrich human interaction through games, social interaction and mobile applications – through an orchestrated, functional storyworld architecture.

An ever growing offer of information is fragmenting our attention more and more, therefore a storyworld invites a broader audience into a participatory and interactive story through numerous “entry points” opening up a compelling theme world. Instead of simply placing messages and repeating them, an experience gets created, which engages participation and facilitates a dialog.

“[...] emerging on these new innovations [...] they will be suitable and open up new ways to innovate and enhance the user experience.” The Daily Inquirer

We live in a world where our options to reach out for information and entertainment multiply every day. As providers of entertainent, information or certain products you face a more and more fragmented audience which is usually overwhelmed by the amount of offers accessible to them. Variations like multimedia, crossmedia, interactive storytelling, narrative design, experience design, 360º, branded entertainment, connected entertainment oder integrated design have in common that they use numerous channels or platforms to focus the attention of the audience. The best way to do this is with a good story.

Lance Weiler´s project “Collapsus” illustrates this approach, walked through by the producers.

Collapsus Walkthrough from Submarine Channel on Vimeo.

We have known Lance Weiler for years, as well have participated in his workshops and path of thinking…we know how hard it is to engage the audience nowadays and have the greatest respect for any producer and writer who throws their story out and tries to promote it so that people follow down the rabbit hole.

The world of transmedia and crossmedia is so diverse that it dos not mean to compare apples and pears if you speak of the bible, the Wizard of Oz (being also a Broadway Musical) or Spiderman. Everytime we try to convey something with a narrative we tell stories with the resources we have. Every movie does. We may be at a campfire or with our thumbs on the smartphone – something engaging the audiences imagination has to be good and meaningful.

Why would anybody care otherwise?

Storyworlds focus your core story into a multiplatform narrative design with multiple entry points to collect and expand your audience (or clients) using a carefully constructed array of media channels.

Storyworlds do not simply repeat one story but disseminate relevant parts in a meaningful way. It is critical however, how the parts of the story provided are designed so they engage users, draw them into the storyworld more deeply without losing or confusing them. But the goal is that an effective storyworld architecture is more than the sum of its parts, distributed across a number of different media. It demands sophisticated narrative design, interaction design, and user engagement design to create a narrative that draws user in, keeps them engaged, and supports their exploration of its contents – not just to place a message, but to create a compelling experience – and a good story.