Doc.Lab.Interact 2023

Four to six projects teams will be selected to take part in a two-hour workshop at AIDC’s Innovation day, then undertake 1:1 mentoring sessions and pitch training exercises with Anagram to develop their documentary project into a ready-to-pitch interactive or immersive blueprint to pitch to potential funders, developers, creative tech collaborators, and exhibitors. 

As part of the Lab, participants will receive intensive workshopping and support from leading experts in the field to:

• investigate their project’s interactive storytelling potential
• explore the most suitable format for their project 
• learn the language tools to communicate their ideas to tech developers and collaborators
• develop a comprehensive understanding of the technological requirements for their project
• map out their project from initial concept to ideation; and
• develop a sound blueprint for pitching their interactive or immersive project.

At the culmination of the Lab, all teams will send a pre-recorded pitch to be reviewed by Anagram, VicScreen and AIDC. From there, teams will be given feedback as to which commissioners, exhibitors and/or festivals seeking projects in the interactive / immersive space may be suitable for their project.

Anagram is an award-winning creative studio specialising in thought-provoking interactive storytelling and immersive experience design.

With a background in documentary film, animation and interactive game design, the studio specialises in exploiting the most recent advances in immersive technologies – including VR, AR and other XR tools. From meticulously designed theatrical sets to ancient buildings to just anywhere outside in the wild – each piece gets you entangled with a place. 

Recent works include Goliath: Playing with Reality narrated by Tilda Swinton (2021), Messages to a Post Human Earth (2021), A Face to Open Doors (2020) and The Collider (2019).

Winners of the Grand Jury Prize for Best VR Work at the 2021 Venice International FIlm Festival (for Goliath), Anagram have also been awarded the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival Storyscapes Award, the 2019 Sandbox Immersive Art Award, part of the Best VR in 2019 at the Venice International Film Festival.

Anagram was named in the Createch 100 ones to watch for 2020 by the Creative Industries Council and selected twice for Columbia University’s Digital Dozen Breakthroughs in Digital Storytelling (in 2015 and 2019).

weareanagram.co.uk
@weareanagram

MAY ABDALLA
Co-Founder, Anagram

May Abdalla is an experimental documentary filmmaker who has won numerous awards for her work in the immersive and interactive arts. She began her career as a radio journalist for the BBC, Channel 4, and an English-speaking version of Al Jazeera, reporting from Latin America, South Africa, Europe and the Middle East. She founded Anagram in 2013 to explore immersive technologies, especially in the documentary genre.

Her last virtual reality film, an experience about a woman who fought for the right to vote in Great Britain in the last century, was shown at the Venice Film Festival and permanently installed in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in 2019. She is on the Sheffield International Documentary Festival committee and she is a regular member of the jury for BAFTA’s documentary and interactive categories, as well as for the World Press Photo and One World Media Awards.

With Anagram she has been testing the boundaries of documentary storytelling and new technologies and exploring the endless possibilities for the design of experiences. Since its inception, Anagram has built up an impressive international reputation.

AMY ROSE
Co-Founder, Anagram

Amy Rose is a highly acclaimed director and maker, known for creating sensory stories that experiment with new technologies. In all her work, she seeks innovative methods for creating connection with audiences – playing with the body as much as speaking to the mind. 

In 2013, together with May Abdalla she co-founded Anagram, to explore the use of emerging immersive technologies and audience participation in non-fiction storytelling. Their work spans many forms – ranging from a blindfolded experience about being lost that took place in a 6000sq ft sensory set (Door Into The Dark, winner of Tribeca Film Festival Storyscapes Award 2015), to a VR piece about power and control for two people at a time (The Collider, winner of 2019 Sandbox Immersive Art Award) to numerous interactive audio pieces for museums and public space.

Originally a documentary filmmaker with an MFA in directing from Edinburgh College of Art, she made finely crafted and playful observational documentaries for the international film festival circuit for many years.

Ideas are being sought from practitioners and production companies from all over Australia working across documentary and factual content.

To be eligible:

• Applicants must be 18 years of age or over.
• Individuals, teams or companies may apply.
• Applicants must be the rights holder of the idea.
• Prior credits are not required but applicants must be able to demonstrate they have the skills to deliver the story elements of the concept 
• Successful project teams will be required to take part in a two-hour workshop at AIDC on Sunday 5 March 2023 (AEDT). Preference is for teams to take part in person at AIDC in Melbourne however provision will be made for virtual participation pending COVID-19 restrictions.
• Entry for each project must be submitted via the Doc.Lab.Interact portal.

If successful, applicants will be required to purchase a Sunday Day Pass to take part in the lab. Refer to relevant submission guidelines for further details.

For more information on what materials you can submit, download the Doc.Lab.Interact Submission Guidelines.

Applying is free and easy with no previous experience in interactive storytelling necessary.

Doc.Lab.Interact is open to all Australian nonfiction storytellers looking to explore the possibilities for transforming near completed or completed documentary or factual projects into a new interactive or immersive work.

To submit, you just need to provide the following:

1. An outline of an idea (up to 2,000 words).

Please include in the outline:

• A story outline of current project including access to key talent/participants and use of pre-existing materials
• Describe why and how it will be suitable for an interactive or immersive format 
• Outline your initial interactive format preference (i.e. playable game, MR [Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality], online interactive documentary, large-scale immersive experience etc.); and
• Provide a description of who you envisage as your key audience and what you would ideally like the audience to experience from your interactive or immersive work.

2. Materials that you think can support your outline.

This could include key scenes (of no more than ten [10] minutes) from a project in post-production or completed, animations, character studies, pitch decks, etc. 

We welcome all ideas, but particularly encourage those that highlight diversity and inclusion. 

For more information on how to submit, as well as details on the submission questions, download the Doc.Lab.Interact Submission Guidelines.

Doc.Lab.Interact Terms & Conditions.

For all enquiries, please contact: industryinitiatives@aidc.com.au

APPLICATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED.

Ideas submitted for Doc.Lab.Interact will be judged by a panel of experts from AIDC, Anagram and VicScreen, and evaluated on the following criteria: 

• The strength and distinctiveness of the story
• The suitability of the story as the basis for a new interactive or immersive work
• The execution and quality of the submitted materials
• The ability of the team to deliver strong documentary/factual projects
• How your application addresses diversity in terms of protagonists, themes and narratives and project leadership

The selected teams will be notified Friday 10 February 2023.

Main Image: A Face to Open Doors © Anagram
Second Image: Ghosts of Solid Air © Anagram

Click the link below to view 2022 Doc.Lab.Interact projects.