Subject: Paid Creator Opportunities & Season's Greetings!

Hey Friend,

Season's Greetings from your friends at Story City. We hope the holidays bring chances to get together with friends, and have wonderful adventures.

We've had a pretty crazy end of year, and are excited to wrap up 2023 with several paid creator opportunities launching and some new film experiments in the bag. Read on and enjoy!

Creator Callouts LIVE - Edmonton & Calgary

Due 22nd Dec 2023

Calling all Edmonton & Calgary Creators! We want your proposals and pitches for interactive stories and adventures in the heart of downtown Edmonton and Calgary.

In partnership with the City of Edmonton Downtown Vibrancy Fund, the City of Calgary Downtown Strategy, and Common Ground Arts Society, Story City is commissioning:

Writers | Visual Artists | Composers | Voiceover Actors

to join our production team to create new choose your adventure, or outdoor escape room style stories for the Edmonton and Calgary streets.

See full details, payment rates, and application forms here just select the most relevant city.

Remember applications close Dec 22nd.

Holiday Listening - Adventure Hour!

We had the pleasure in the first half of this year going on choose your adventures with the story creators.

Well by go on, we mean some serious surfing of Google Street View and the dubious acting talents of hosts and guests.

In any case, we recorded the lot and it's available via YouTube or podcasting channels for your holiday listening pleasure.

Be inspired by other creators, laugh at our horrible attempts at accents, and armchair travel to exotic places. Find the feeds here.

Experiments in Film

Wedding Pre-Game

Earlier this year we received funding from the Canada Media Fund to develop 5 unique experiences that could be played in any city in the world, and in the process build the tools other creators would need to easily do it too. One of those experiences is a highly experimental interactive film piece.

What's so experimental about it?

The idea is to allow any filmmaker to film scenes in front of a green screen and be able to load those files into Story City so they could be overlaid over the appropriate location in an adventurer's home town.

What's it about?

In this quirky Brides Maids meets Hangover adventure your friend Casey has gone mission on their stag/hen night celebrations. Can you hold your liquor (and hold it together) well enough to find them?

What's the update?

We filmed our first three test scenes the last week of Nov! We decided to shoot vertical video, as the camera was meant to be the POV of the adventurer, which meant the cameraman needed to 'act' and a full rig was going to be difficult for that.

Each 2-3min scene had to be shot in one take which meant a LOT of rehearsal with our chosen actors Emi (playing Sasha), David (playing Robin) and Yvette (play Marianne).

We also had to figure out how to fake the cameraman drinking real liquid, and get everyone performing to camera rather than away from it. See all the behind the scenes here.

From here we have to work out the tech piece, how do we manage the overlay???

New Universal Adventure Feature on the Horizon!

You heard us right in the section above, we're creating functionality that allows creators to make Universal stories that could be placed by an adventurer in any city on the planet. Meaning your potential adventurers aren't restricted to a single city to enjoy your stories but can play from anywhere.

We'll be dropping little sneak peeks of the system (and it's possibilities) as we build it over the next 6 months and asking for your opinions both in your inbox and on social media.

Stay tuned!

Your Questions, Answered!

This week's question: I'm no where near Calgary and Edmonton, how do I get a project in my town?

Story City has been pulling apart its process and trying to see how we can take our magic sauce and put it in a box for anyone who wants to get a project up in their town. We're calling this idea a create-a-thon, a 2 day event where creators from across the city come and create stories together - with a cash grand prize for the best experience of the weekend. All that's needed is a couple of eager volunteers and a local business sponsor.

Just reply to this email if you're interested in organising a create-a-thon in your city!

We look forward to bringing you more fun and interesting topics in our next newsletter, until then we hope your month is full of adventures!

Warmly,

The Story City Team