The Future of Storytelling

The first, foundational book on the next media renaissance, from one of the foremost thought leaders at the intersection of storytelling and technology. These days we don’t want to just watch our media—we want to be a part of it. To touch, feel, and test our surroundings, to make decisions that directly affect the story’s outcome. Immersive events—such as the Stranger Things Experience and productions like Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More —are growing at such a staggering rate that their revenue will soon outpace film and television combined. Investors, creators, and technology leaders from the likes of Apple, Facebook, and Netflix have quietly invested billions of dollars in this new medium. But what makes immersive experiences so appealing, and why? What does it say about us as a culture? And who is behind this revolution in entertainment? For more than ten years, Charles Melcher, founder and director of Future of StoryTelling (FoST), has been invited into the studios, garages, offices, and academic corridors where the rules of storytelling are being rewritten. And in this eye-opening book, he has curated a selection of the very best immersive experiences from around the world—Meow Wolf in the United States, teamLab in Japan, Hobbiton in New Zealand, and many more. It’s a celebration of both the projects themselves and the extraordinarily creative people who have brought them to life, and a clarion call to better understand and appreciate this paradigm-shifting moment and the opportunities immersive entertainment offers for the next generation of creators, businesspeople, and audiences.