Melissa Bosworth and Lakshmi Sarah will be discussing their new book, “Crafting Stories for Virtual Reality.”

We are witnessing a revolution in storytelling. Publications all over the world are increasingly using immersive storytelling—virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality—to tell compelling stories.

The aim of this book is to distill the lessons learned thus far into a useful guide for reporters, filmmakers and writers interested in telling stories in this emerging medium. Examining ground-breaking work across industries, this text explains, in practical terms, how storytellers can create their own powerful immersive experiences as new media and platforms emerge.

Melissa Bosworth (’16) is a visual storyteller, immersive media nerd, reporter and idealist. She’s passionate about using emerging technology to find a new lens on stories that need to be told. In her work as a reporter, features writer, producer and filmmaker she has covered the environment, technology, immigration and the arts across the Americas and Europe.

Her virtual reality work has published through KQED, the New York Times and Fusion Media Group. She has developed coursework and taught 360-degree video production at the Berkeley Advanced Media Institute and guest lectured on immersive storytelling at UC Berkeley. She holds a Master’s degree with an emphasis on new media from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

Lakshmi Sarah (’16) is an educator and journalist with a focus on immigration, migration, identity and the arts. She has produced content for newspapers, radio and magazines from Ahmedabad, India to Los Angeles, California including AJ+, KQED, Die Zeit Online and The New York Times. With a passion for experimental innovative projects, she was an Oculus Launch Pad grant recipient and member of YouTube’s VR Creators Lab in Los Angeles. She has presented for the Online News Association, SXSW and BinderCon since co-founding Tiny World Productions, an innovative immersive journalism studio.

She has developed curriculum training journalists in video and immersive storytelling skills in the U.S., India and around the world. As a lecturer at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and Berkeley’s Advanced Media Institute, she has also taught multimedia and VR workshops. Her teaching and reporting brought her to Hamburg, Germany as a Fulbright Fellow and Berlin as a Arthur F. Burns Fellow with Die Zeit Online. She is a graduate of Pitzer College and the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and divides her time between Berkeley, Berlin and southern India.

RSVP: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/book-talk-crafting-stories-for-virtual-reality-tickets-53580186781

Purchase: You can buy the book directly from the publisher Routledge, or buy it on Amazon.  Books will be available for purchase at the event.