B-Reel executive producer Niklas Lindstrom

There's a new quest for the holy grail in today's digital landscape: creating the perfect interactive narrative. So says B-Reel EP Niklas Lindstrom, who provided insight into the creative and production challenges associated with creating branded narrative explorations in the Boards Summit '09 panel, "Evolving Story and Brand Narrative in the Digital Age."

"It's a trial-and-error process since there haven't been many good examples yet," says Lindstrom in an after-panel discussion with Boards' Christine Clarke. "We can learn a lot from the gaming industry, but it's really special when it comes to doing it live action - especially doing it live action and mixing it with animation and the interactive component."

"In gaming it's normally a 3D engine...and you have completely different possibilities because everything can be programmatic," continues Lindstrom. "That's hard when you're dealing with live-action - dealing with too much dynamic options. You need to find a balance. When it's used the right way... the user can be so much more engaged in the content."

Lindstrom also discussed what would later become Stndrd_, B-Reel's open-source initiative to create industry-wide digital production standards and practices. At the Summit, B-Reel project managers Nicole Muniz and Linda Essen-Möller conducted a Master Class titled, "Understanding the Digital Bid Process." Here, Lindstrom discusses the key differences between traditional and digital contracts.

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