Film Courage: How does suspension of disbelief factor into a great opening?
Margaret Kerrison, Immersive Storyteller, Narrative Director and Writer: A great opening is extremely important in terms of how quickly your visitor or audience member buys into the world that you’re creating. It really starts from the very first moment when you think about how you walk down a path to get to the experience or the door that you open or the person that greets you. I think that every single detail and element that leads you to the main experience is something that helps to create that suspension of disbelief. In my book [Immersive Storytelling for Real and Imagined Worlds – A Writer’s Guide] I talk about the Walt’s Haunted Mansion and how you think about the fact that the pavement that you walk on, the graveyard that you go through, the wrought iron gate, the cast members that greet you and have that tone, immediately you get a sense that you’re no longer in the place that you were just moments before. I think that being able to think about a story in all of those elements, not just telling a story verbally or a story that’s written, to think about how you create this immersive environment that makes you believe you are in a different place. When you think about going to travel to a different country for example, the moment you get off a plane and go through the airport and get into a taxi (whatever it is) and arrive at a place, immediately you get a sense of it’s a different people, different culture, a different language, a different way of doing things, different sounds, different smells, different textures, different temperature. Every time I think about creating an immersive story world I think about traveling because that’s one of my greatest passions in life is to immerse myself in different countries and different cultures…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
BUY THE BOOK – IMMERSIVE STORYTELLING FOR REAL AND IMAGINED WORLDS: A Writer’s Guide
BIO:
Born in Indonesia and raised in Singapore, Margaret Kerrison received her Master of Fine Arts degree in Screenwriting from the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts. Her career spans television, film, digital media, games, brand storytelling, location-based entertainment, and immersive experiences. She has worked as a Story Lead, Story Consultant, and Writer for multiple projects around the world, including Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Star Wars: Launch Bay, Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser, Avengers Campus, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, National Geographic HQ, and the NASA Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex’s Journey to Mars: Explorers Wanted. She was the writer for five projects that won Themed Entertainment Association (THEA) Awards. She has appeared in the Disney+ series Behind the Attraction, the Freeform television special Star Wars: Galaxy‘s Edge – Adventure Awaits, and the online educational program Imagineering in a Box. She was a Disney Imagineer from 2014-2021. She is currently a Sr. Experiential Creative Lead at Airbnb. Immersive Storytelling for Real and Imagined Worlds – A Writer’s Guide is her first book.
CONNECT WITH MARGARET KERRISON
Advertisement – contains affiliate links
(As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases)
More affiliates:
Camera we use for interviews – https://buff.ly/3rWqrra
Sound we use for interviews – https://amzn.to/2tbFlM9
Writers, try Final Draft free for 30-days – https://ow.ly/Gz4w30rDSKt
Other books on Amazon that Film Courage recommends – https://buff.ly/3o0oE5o
