Creatively Failing Forward – Using two key properties, Sony XI ARG and Lewis Hamilton Secret Life ARG, this talk looks at the nature of interactive, finding need and developing community thinking. David also refers to his earlier ARG Perplex City and how to choose appropriate platforms for users. A presentation by David Varela given at the inaugural Screen Australia & StoryLabs digital ignition lab held in Robertson in late November 2011. Podcast Recorded and Produced by Gary P Hayes.

David Varela (UK) - http://storylabs.us/mentors/#DAVID-VARELA -

David is a writer and producer who works across a huge range of media – sometimes all at once. He is currently producing and writing a global ARG sponsored by Reebok and starring Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton. Lewis Hamilton: Secret Life is running in nine languages for eight months, with live events staged in Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Prior to that, David wrote and produced the world’s first console-based ARG, Xi. Based in Sony’s virtual world PlayStation Home, the adventure spilled out across the web and into the real world too, attracting over 600,000 players.

David’s background is as an award-winning writer for theatre, radio and advertising. It was as a writer that he first got into transmedia back in 2005, working as in-house writer on the influential ARG Perplex City for 18 months. He was heavily involved in the adventurous crossover between Perplex City and BBC Radio 1 known asFrozen Indigo Angel.

His stageplays have been performed at the ICA, the Royal Court, Hampstead Theatre and RADA, and his short films have premiered in Leicester Square and been broadcast on ITV. He has also written several one-off dramas for BBC Radio 4 and BBC7.