Technology, Story and the Art of Performance

This talk by ITP Alumna, Elena Parker and Co-Founder & CCO Mike Monello, will use the work of New York based interactive agency Campfire to demonstrate how to build responsive entertainment experiences. We will discuss implementing a combination of writing techniques, experience design and artificial intelligence to create technological systems that facilitate stories that evolve with an audience. These systems can be adjusted for audiences much like an actor varies each stage performance, becoming more dynamic and impactful over time. Projects covered will include: 

"Slaves for Santanico," phone call and social campaign for El Rey Network's From Dusk til Dawn. 

"Deja View," a responsive film introducing Infiniti's Q50 sedan. 

"Byzantium Tests," a transmedia campaign for Cinemax's Hunted. 

Elena Parker: Creative Technologist, Campfire 

Elena Parker is an award-winning interactive writer, producer and creative technologist, comitted to exploring narrative on new platforms. A graduate of New York University's Interactive telecommunications Program, she currently works at Campfire where she acts as Creative Technologist on projects such as "Deja-View", a responsive film, "Byzantium Tests" for Cinemax' Hunted, and "Slaves for Santanico" for Robert Rodriguez' El Rey Network.

Mike Monello: Co-Founder & CCO, Campfire www.campfirenyc.com

Mike hustled as an indie filmmaker before producing “The Blair Witch Project” in 1999. This integrated, interactive experience built a community around the film’s mythology, resulting in a pop-culture phenomenon with over $240 million in worldwide box-office, changing the way marketers approached the Internet.

Excited by this marketing/entertainment hybrid, Mike co-founded Campfire, and has been intimately involved in the creative development of every project that has come through Campfire's doors. He has led work that has been awarded top honors at the One Show, Clio, Mixx, ad:Tech, and OMMA awards. Campfire is widely considered at the forefront of immersive brand storytelling, winning OMMA’s 2011 Small Agency of the Year and AdAge’s 2013 Small Agency Campaign of the Year. Mike has spoken at many prestigious events, including Futures of Entertainment at M.I.T. and SXSW.