Leaving Planet Earth is an award nominated transmedia project that encompasses a main theatrical event, a variety of online websites, footage, posts, social media accounts, pop-up installations and projections, all helping to unfold a story of humanities mass migration into space. Transmedia storytelling is a process of unfolding the narrative over multiple channels in order to create a deeper, richer experience. Preferably each of the channels tells a different, unique part of the story (Jenkins, 2007). Leaving Planet Earth was produced by the famous Scottish theatre company, Grid Iron, in collaboration with Edinburgh Napier University and The University of Edinburgh. The show had its world premiere as part of the curated programme of the 2013 Edinburgh International Festival, and was performed in The Ratho Edinburgh International Climbing Arena, with the audience departure point in The Edinburgh International Conference Centre.
MY ROLE
Branded as a transmedia designer, and responsible for the creative output, my main responsibility lay in the expansion of the narrative online, as well as creating events in the physical world, including projections and installations.
My duties included finding and implementing story hooks, which could be further expanded online and which would provide incentives for the audience to engage. As part of the Grid Iron team I also liaised with fellow stakeholders such as Universities and their designers and developers, EIF, and also worked closely with the co-directors/co-writers and producer. I had to design, deliver and launch transmedia platforms on time and on budget, with the distribution and orchestration of them crucial in order to achieve cohesion with the main theatrical event. While the transmedia campaign was 'live' I was responsible for live audience interaction, and managing seven internship students who worked in the capacity of transmedia assistants, and were helping out with pop-up installations and blogging.
Visual identity of some of the online experience was also designed by myself. Some aspects of that designed aesthetics were used within the show.