Immersive
Fiction Lab

North Yorkshire, 22-28 November
Online Pitch, 12 December

XR isn’t funny.
Time to fix that.

The Immersive Fiction Lab is a talent development programme for creatives exploring humour in XR.

About the lab

During a 6 day “hothouse” lab, participants will evolve their project concepts into market ready proposals and deepen their understanding of how humour works in XR storytelling. Along the way, participants will be carefully guided by a team of expert industry mentors from XR, comedy, theatre, film, games and scriptwriting. 


The lab will focus on developing existing projects, but will equip participants with Crossover’s adaptable toolkit of processes that can also be used into the future.

The Immersive Fiction Lab curriculum will include:

  • Comedy Workshops

  • XR Production

  • Audience Experience Design  

  • Audience & Outreach Strategy

  • Technical Advice & Prototype Planning 

  • Budgeting & Finance Planning

  • Honing Proposal Documents

  • Pitch Training

  • Mentoring

Participants will leave the programme equipped to seek financing for their project with a carefully honed pitch and proposal document to accompany a well developed concept that finds the funny in XR. 

The programme will culminate in a closed pitch to an invited audience of funders, producers, exhibitors, market organisers and distributors during an online session to receive feedback and launch their projects as they go on to seek prototype or project funding. 

Immersive Fiction Lab is delivered by Crossover Labs, through the BFI Creative Challenge Fund, made possible with National Lottery funding.

Who is it for?

This programme is open to writers, directors, artists or producers who are developing their first, second or third immersive fiction experience. Applicants must apply with a project that sits within a category of genre fiction such as: comedy, sci-fi, horror, crime, ect. It is essential that the project uses humour within its narrative. 

Applications will be assessed by a panel of industry professionals who will be looking at the quality of the creative approach, the relevant experience of team members and the audience engagement potential.

Immersive Fiction Lab is a residential workshop programme which will take place at Gisborough Hall Hotel in North Yorkshire from 22-28 November. A maximum of 2 team members per project can attend for whom travel, accommodation and meals are all included. Participants will also be paid a daily stipend of £110 for each day of the programme (a total of £715 per person for the 6.5 day programme). 

The Immersive Fiction Lab actively encourages applications from talent across the United Kingdom including creatives from underrepresented groups, including but not limited to, those from the global majority, LGBTQIA+ people, those who identify as a gender minority, those living with a disability or long term illness and/or those from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

 We will accommodate accessibility requirements as required and on a case by case basis to ensure your needs are met to the best of our ability. The lab venue is accessible and there is a provision of accessible accommodation within the hotel.

  • Information Webinar - Register Here
    Monday 9th September
    1000-1100 BST

    Applications Close
    Wednesday 9th October
    1700 BST

    Applicants Notified of Decision
    Tuesday 22nd October

    Immersive Fiction Lab
    Friday 22nd November - Thursday 28th November

    Live Pitch (Online)
    Thursday 12th December 
    1500-1700 GMT

  • Applicants must be over 18 and not in full time education.


    Projects should focus on genre fiction outside of drama (for example, comedy; horror; thriller; sci-fi) and have the objective of achieving some level of humour within the experience. 


    Applicants must be either:

    • UK resident writers, directors or artists who are developing their first, second or third immersive fiction experience — those working on their first immersive project must be able to evidence a body of existing creative work

    • UK resident producers of any level who are developing projects with writers or directors who meet the experience criteria above


    In line with the purposes of BFI National Lottery funding, all projects that are taken through the programme must, once made, be capable of being certified as British through any of the following:

    • the applicable Cultural Test for Film or Video Games

    • one of the UK’s official bi-lateral co-production treaties

    • the European Convention on co-production

    You can read more information on British certification on the BFI website

Mentoring Team

  • Annette Mees is an award-winning artist, immersive director and dramaturg known for her innovative, immersive work on the intersection of live performance and technology. She works with interdisciplinary teams to create artistic work that defies definitions, undertake interdisciplinary R&D and spark new thinking.  

    She is currently making projects with The Public theatre (NYC), National Arts Centre (Canada), NITE (Netherlands), Substrakt (UK), European Cultural Foundation (EU), Screen Industry Research & Training Centre (Canada), Southbank Centre (UK) and Agora Now.  

    She is the chair of FutureEverything and  a co-host of global conversation on The Future of Culture supported by Arup and Therme.

    Previously she was a Creative Fellow for WIRED and The Space, Guest-Artistic Director of the Danish Inspiration Lab. She started her career as an immersive theatre director and was co-Artistic Director of the internationally renowned immersive theatre company Coney. She was awarded the “Theatre Encouragement Award” by the Writers Guild of Great Britain for her collaborative approach to working with writers.

  • Chris is an actor and member of Mischief Theatre with whom he has appeared in Olivier award winning The Play That Goes Wrong, Peter Pan Goes Wrong, The Comedy About A Bank Robbery as well as The Goes Wrong Show for the BBC. He recently wrote and starred in Office Royale, a surreal comedy short film. He trained at London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art and runs courses for performers on clowning and comedy. Chris is also part of the hit D&D comedy podcast Hell or High Rollers.

    IG: @leaskchris

  • Jasmine is a writer and performer. Her debut play, Baghdaddy, premiered downstairs at the Royal Court Theatre in 2022 and was nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize 2024. She was commissioned by The Globe Theatre as part of Burnt At The Stake, a co-production with Hannah Khalil and Morgan Lloyd Malcolm. Jasmine has written several short plays and co-wrote the musical The Sisters which premiered at Latitude Festival. She has several scripted projects in development and was writer on attachment at the Royal Shakespeare Company.

  • Lawrence is the Creative Director and co-founder of No Ghost, an immersive story studio in London. He began his career in Visual Effects, working with leading studios Double Negative and Industrial Light and Magic on blockbuster franchises such as Star Wars, Marvel, and James Bond. Driven by a desire for more hands-on creative work and the rise of VR technology, Lawrence co-founded No Ghost in 2015. Since then, he has been a pioneer in the immersive space, exploring various XR mediums. Lawrence co-wrote the studio's first original project, Madrid Noir, which won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Interactive Media and was named VR Experience of the Year at the VR Awards. He also served as Gameplay Director and Narrative Designer for Wallace & Gromit in The Grand Getaway, a VR experience currently in contention for another Emmy. Lawrence is passionate about blending technology and storytelling to push the boundaries of narrative and experiential design. He is also an avid reader, writer, and eater.

More to be announced…

LED BY CROSSOVER LABS

Immersive Fictions is led by Crossover Labs. We believe in the power of unconventional media to create transformational experiences for broad audiences. To achieve this, we nurture a diverse network of creators, thought-leaders and technologists of all ages, abilities, persuasions, cultures and gender expressions in Britain and beyond. 

Crossover Labs have over 15 years experience leading development labs at the intersection of film, art and technology. Our alumni have won and been nominated for a variety of awards including Emmy’s and BAFTA’s, and have gone on to occupy influential positions in arts and media internationally. Past participants have been invited to exhibit at major festivals and venues around the world and have subsequently attended programmes at Sundance New Frontier Lab, MIT Open Doc Lab, Venice Biennale College, ONX in New York, and marketplaces at Sunny Side of the Doc, New Images, IDFA Forum, Venice Market, Tribeca Producers Market and Geneva Digital Market.

The training will be led by Crossover’s Directors Mark and Tom:

  • Tom is an award-winning interactive producer as well as a curator and trainer specialising in immersive arts and storytelling. He is a director of Crossover Labs and Electric Dreams Festival of Immersive Storytelling. 

    Tom regularly curates programmes of digitally infused installations and performances for audiences around the world, including in the UK, Australia, Europe and India. His work has been shown at a variety of events and venues including most recently: SXSW, Ars Electronica, Latitude, Paris Design Week, Kaohsiung Film Festival, Geneva Film Festival, arebyte Gallery and Magnetic Fields Festival.

  • Mark is a director of Crossover Labs: pioneers in the production and exhibition of XR in the UK. He curates the Inter:Active exhibition at CPH:DOX, Denmark; Electric Dreams at Adelaide Fringe Festival; and public art at Silbersalz Science and Media Festival in Germany. He is the Head of Studies of the CPH:LAB, CPH:DOX’s talent development programme that supports visionaries to push the existing boundaries of factual storytelling, and runs Labs and workshops around the world designed to empower the creative community to express themselves through digital technologies. 

    Through Crossover Labs, he is responsible for training, funding, and markets with Immersive Arts, a new development programme for XR in the UK. He has produced 10 theatrically-released live cinema films and his award-winning immersive and interactive work has been exhibited at major arts institutions around the world, including The Barbican, arebyte, Royal Academy of Arts, V&A, MoMA, National Theatre, Latitude, and Internationaal Theatre Amsterdam.