Co-founders of Vanishing Point Studio, Charles Anderson and Allan Walker.
Digital pioneers Friends and business partners Charles Anderson and Allan Walker are breaking new ground in immersive storytelling. The award-winning duo at Vanishing Point Studio are getting global attention for their work. They talk to Paula Hulburt about their rise to recognition.
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mid the background chatter of fellow wedding guests, old friends Charles Anderson and Allan Walker are deep in conversation. An idea they first batted between them as 15-year-old schoolboys is again up for discussion. Wine glasses are set down and forgotten as the chat takes a more serious, weighty turn as the dream of digital storytelling finally waivers on the brink of becoming reality. The pair grin at each other as they shake hands. With Charles, now an award-winning journalist and Allan a celebrated interactive designer and developer, Vanishing Point Studio was born. Fast forward five years and behind a nondescript door on a small Blenheim street, a flight of stairs delivers visitors to the hub that is home to Vanishing Point Studio. The space is bathed in morning sunshine and Charles and Allan are bouncing jokes and good-natured barbs across the desk as the smell of coffee lingers. The setting somehow seems too pedestrian for a duo who are setting the standard in digital storytelling across the globe.
Digital storytelling can be used to explain a concept, to reflect on a personal experience, to retell a historical event, or to make an argument. Digital stories can combine audio, images, video, data, interactivity and gamification to immerse audiences in an experience. For award-winning journalist Charles, the move to digital platforms was a natural one when it came to storytelling. It was a way to bring a fresh approach to narrative, he explains. Their first project came in the form of an interactive documentary on New Zealand’s growing housing crisis. Funded by NZ on Air, the challenge was to tell the story in a fresh way, to capture interest. “Duncan Greive [founder and publisher of The Spinoff] wanted to do something in-depth on the housing crisis and wanted to know what we could do to make it less of a dull affair,” Charles says. “What could we do to make it interesting for people who don’t want to read more about the housing crisis?”
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