Welcome to a new era in storytelling, where audiences expect and even demand participation! Over the past few years, while creating interactive shows for Twitch, Netflix, BuzzFeed, and Legendary, we’ve learned some questions you gotta ask to ensure success.
What is your mission?
Notice we didn’t start with technology. That’s because you want your mission to illuminate the way—like a trusty lighthouse beaming through the fog. This first question remains vital whether you’re creating a dynamic episodic narrative or delivering a fantastic client engagement.
During development of our original sci-fi series “Orbital Redux” we defined our mission this way: “create a show that will put our studio on the map.” This made it easy for us to embrace giving the audience control over plot points when Legendary asked us to build in interactivity for their new platform. This type of live interactivity had never been done for a scripted sci-fi show and it instantly garnered press attention and fan adoption.
The mission question is particularly relevant for client projects. Earlier this year we created a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 Unboxing activation for Samsung and Twitch. However, the Internet is chock full of this type of tech video, so we defined our mission as: “make this unboxing stand out while keeping it organic to Twitch.” The story then followed fairly quickly: a puzzle-based unboxing, where lead streamers worked with their communities to solve clues in real time.
What is your story?
We say “story” rather than “script,” because your key show flow document will look like anything from a classic TV show to a loose and highly improvisational “run of show” that a dispersed creative team updates in real time.
When Reggie Watts asked us to create a one-night-only live stream of his fully improvised sitcom, “Crowe’s Nest”, our mission was to “create an uninhibited ad hoc performance space.” From there we recognised the need to develop a story that could freely flow between three easily reachable sets (living room, bedroom, coffee shop) in any direction of movement that facilitated interactions with the unique “family” at the heart of the show.
Story is just as important for corporate clients. Twitch came to us with a mission to “host an Amazon Prime Day event customised for the irreverent spirit of Twitch Streamers.” Thus, “Twitch Sells Out” was born, and we designed our cheeky story to unroll over thirty-six (36!) continuous hours of live streaming where dozens of famous Twitch streamers would have to sell products in order to “pay the rent” (in case you aren’t familiar, Amazon owns Twitch).
Who is the audience you want to reach?
Viewers are often described as a monolith, but in practice your audience will have specific desires that your story must carefully speak to. If interactivity overall is about velocity, this question is about granularity.
Earlier this year, we worked with Netflix to celebrate fifty (50) of their genre series and movies for an online celebration called “Netflix Geeked Week”. Over the course of a week of live streaming, we asked how content about each individual show could best delight a given audience. We endeavoured to give fans a reason to tune in for each new announcement and then stay for a unique execution that would keep them involved in the stream. For instance, when we spoke about the next season of “Shadow and Bone,” we brought on fan-favourite Milo the goat to “answer” questions.
For Twitch’s online-only convention-replacement show “Glitchcon 2020 /twitchpresents”, we asked how we could bring an “Artist Alley” story to fans who would normally interact with creators in person on a booth-by-booth basis. We worked with host Will Neff to “bring” the audience along with him as he “traveled” from one artist to the next, engaging chat participants about their work as if they were standing next to him in real life.
What platform does your audience use?
Once we have the mission, story, and audience locked in we adapt the project for our audience’s preferred platform. This isn’t about technology yet—at this point we’re speaking about tone, expectation, and general capability.
When BuzzFeed asked us to build out a series of fun lifestyle quizzes that would speak to millennial consumers in a new way, we took advantage of the whimsical branching narrative focus of the eko platform. This drove us to create complex story choices that would result in a range of payoffs from comical to inspirational and everything in between. “Create Your Boss Look” shows how we paired these parameters to create a one-of-a-kind series of interactive payoffs.
During the internal-only CX-30 Training show we created for Mazda, we wanted to empower individual dealers with knowledge through a live expert conversation and demonstration. Once the platform Brandlive had been selected for the event, we adapted our approach to their corporate-friendly audience interface, carefully populating it with reference documents and an expert text Q&A to create a simultaneous sidecar educational experience.
What technology can you access on your platform?
If the platform question is about breadth, then the technology question is about depth. Our final analysis for any new project asks, “what specific interactive tools exist on the platform?”
At the beginning of this year we designed a series with Twitch that would inspire gamers to improve their game play with light and playful challenges. We knew our show was already in line with the platform ethos, but we wanted to make “Hit the Lab” stand out by applying some unusual technology integrations. Thus, we chose to deepen the interactive payoff with add-ons like eye-tracking and pulse monitoring along with on-screen overlays, so audiences could examine gaming from entirely new perspectives.
One of our favourite projects, directed by our colleague Travis Stevens, really stretched our wings narratively, with a series of spooky multi-hour interactive live streams collectively known as the “Twitch Horror Trilogy”. Our technology prep for this show expanded our horror story hand-in-hand with the audience. For example, we used Twitch extensions like the heat map overlay so we could direct our improv actors to make choices based on where the majority of viewers were clicking on a particular area of the screen!
Closing Thoughts
In practice, you’ll ask these interactivity questions back-and-forth across multiple phases. But your overall guidepost will always remain the same: keep your execution flexible. That mindset will allow your show to thrive in an environment where audiences, platforms, and technology change on a daily basis.
Did you know?
Raindance is the only top ten international film festival where you can earn a HND, BA or MA degree in Filmmaking and Screenwriting.
Lillian Diaz-Przybyl and Steven Calcote are directors and producers at Butcher Bird Studios. They create at the intersection of technology and humanity, telling stories across a wide spectrum of interactive and traditional platforms. They have developed projects for Apple, Netflix, Airbnb, Twitch and many other brands, as well as original projects such as the sci-fi adventure series, “Orbital Redux.” They are both members of the Television Academy’s Interactive Media Peer Group.
