Film Courage: What is suspension of disbelief?
Margaret Kerrison, Immersive Storyteller, Narrative Director and Writer: It’s a way for you as a storyteller to really immerse someone, make them believe that they are in that world, in that space. It’s storytelling, a way of explaining how you can really immerse someone in an environment and in a situation where they forget everything else and they can be truly present in the world that you’ve created, in the story that you’ve created. Being able to suspend your audience’s disbelief in creating, if you’re walking into a space that’s supposed to look like you’re going into a space shuttle for example, can you suspend your audience’s disbelief that for a moment they truly are. A lot of the times when an audience or a visitor goes into an experience like this they willingly want to suspend their disbelief because they want to experience something that transports them into this other world. As a creator and as a storyteller, how can you best have that environment, have that world truly capture their imagination and meet and exceed their expectations of what being in a space shuttle would feel like right and how can you do that with not only the environment that you create but maybe through movement, through murmur, through sound, through scent, through what they feel and touch and hear and experience. I think that’s something as an immersive storyteller you need to think about is How do you suspend your audience’s disbelief so that they feel like this is truly…(Watch the video interview on Youtube here).
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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
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