Creative Media Labs: Innovations in Screen Storytelling in the Age of Interactivity and Immersion

讲故事是人类活动的核心，是我们理解世界的方式之一。在致力于故事创作的一长串技术和文化实践中，银幕产业是最新的。电影、电视、视频、电脑游戏和其他互动媒体现在以数字方式讲述故事。但数字技术正在迅速变化，为观众和用户带来了新的创作模式、新的叙事方式和新的体验。屏幕产业如何才能跟上这种变化？他们怎样才能最大限度地利用新机会呢？他们如何发展必要的技能来使用这些新技术？他们如何利用这些技术以令人兴奋的、商业上可行的、能够产生显著经济增长的方式进行创造？这些都是创意媒体实验室（Creative Media Labs，简称CML）试图回答的一些问题，因为它能够在互动性和沉浸式的时代推动屏幕叙事的创新。CML的重点是约克郡和亨伯（Y&H）地区相当大的丝网工业企业集群。该合作伙伴关系旨在使该区域集群成为英国下一代数字故事讲述的卓越中心。这是一个已建立的创意产业集群，在英国电影学院（BFI）创意集群挑战基金的支持下，得到了约克郡银幕（SY）增长计划的大力支持，并在创意产业部门协议文件中被列为五个“杰出创意产业集群项目”之一。SY、BFI和约克大学（University of York）携手合作，将世界领先的数字叙事研究与国家战略愿景和无与伦比的区域行业知识结合在一起。集群是当代影视产业发展的关键，集群有多种形式和规模。2009年至2015年，Y&H地区在其五个主要城市实施了关键举措，是英国屏幕行业增长最快的地区。它是ITV仅有的三个制作中心之一，每年制作约500小时的电视节目；真北，英格兰北部最大的新闻制作公司，现在归天空电视台所有；Warp Films，可能是英国最重要的伦敦以外的电影公司，多次获得英国电影学院奖；Rockstar，世界上最大的游戏开发商之一；Sumo Digital是英国发展最快的游戏公司之一，拥有300多名员工；Revolution Software，大获成功的《断剑》系列的开发商；Viridian FX，英格兰北部最大的视觉特效公司之一；以及Church Fenton Yorkshire工作室，这是Mammoth Screen为ITV的《维多利亚》制作的主要制作设施。在这个领域也有大量的微型企业。创意媒体实验室将围绕这个区域屏幕产业集群、众多中小微企业和大型创意企业的分支机构，建立可持续的协同研发伙伴关系。其核心交付合作伙伴是uwey、SY和BFI；该地区的主要地方当局、企业伙伴关系和大学都参与其中；投资者、几家领先的全国性行业协会、组织和创意企业也是如此。共同创造和协作工作将是我们工作的核心。uy在多学科研究方面有着出色的记录，在艺术、人文和科学领域的创造力方面投入了大量资金，这体现在耗资数百万英镑的数字创意实验室中。在数字叙事方面有广泛的研究专业知识，从写作到媒体具体化，再到基础技术的开发。通过确定行业主导的挑战，这些专业知识将与Y&H屏幕产业集群分享，使我们能够实现将该地区建立为英国数字叙事卓越中心的雄心。

Storytelling is central to human activity, one of the ways in which we make sense of the world. The screen industries are the latest in a long line of technologies and cultural practices committed to the creation of stories. Film, TV, video, computer games and other interactive media now tell stories digitally. But digital technologies are changing rapidly, enabling new modes of creation, new approaches to storytelling, new experiences for audiences and users. How can the screen industries keep pace with such change? How can they make the most of the new opportunities available to them? How can they develop the skills necessary to engage with these new technologies? How can they create with those technologies in ways that are exciting, commercially viable and capable of generating significant economic growth? These are some of the questions that Creative Media Labs (CML) seeks to answer, as it enables innovations in screen storytelling in the age of interactivity and immersion. The focus of CML is the considerable cluster of screen industry enterprises in the Yorkshire and Humber (Y&H) region. The partnership aims to enable this regional cluster to become the UK centre of excellence for the next generation of digital storytelling. This is an established creative industries cluster that has been earmarked for significant support through Screen Yorkshire's (SY) Growth Plan, backed by the British Film Institute's (BFI) Creative Clusters Challenge Fund, and showcased in the Creative Industries Sector Deal document as one of five "prominent creative industries cluster projects". SY, the BFI and University of York (UoY) have come together in a collaboration that blends world-leading research on digital storytelling with national strategic vision and unparalleled regional industry nous. Clustering is key to the development of the contemporary screen industries, and clusters come in many shapes and sizes. With key initiatives across its five major cities, the Y&H region saw the fastest rate of screen industry growth in the UK in 2009-2015. It is home to one of only three ITV production centres, producing around 500 hours of TV annually; True North, the biggest factual producer in the North of England, now owned by Sky; Warp Films, probably the most important out-of-London film company in the UK, and winners of multiple BAFTAs; Rockstar, one of the largest games developers in the world; Sumo Digital, one of the fastest growing games companies in the UK with over 300 staff; Revolution Software, developers of the hugely successful Broken Sword series; Viridian FX, one of the largest VFX houses in the North of England; and Church Fenton Yorkshire Studios, a major production facility used by Mammoth Screen for ITV's Victoria. There is also a wealth of micro businesses working in the sector. Creative Media Labs will build a sustainable, collaborative R&D partnership around this regional screen industries cluster, its numerous MSMEs and branches of large creative enterprises. Its core delivery partners are UoY, SY and the BFI; the key local authorities, enterprise partnerships and universities in the region are on board; so too are investors and several leading national trade associations, organisations and creative enterprises. Co-creation and collaborative working will be at the core of what we do.UoY has an excellent track record in multi-disciplinary research, with huge investment in creativity, across the arts, humanities and sciences - a combination reflected in the multi-million pound Digital Creativity Labs. There is an extensive pool of research expertise in digital storytelling, from writing, through media embodiment, to development of underpinning technologies. By identifying industry-led challenges, this expertise will be shared with the Y&H screen industries cluster in ways that will enable us to fulfil our ambition to establish the region as the UK centre of excellence for digital storytelling.