Sophie Alicia Shaw is an up-and-coming immersive events director and a graduate of the National Film and Television School’s Creative Business (CBEE) diploma course. In 2015, she will be directing the tour of ‘2.8 Hours Later’ – the world’s largest street game. Here she talks about the creative business she developed while on the course.
"I come from an eclectic background in the arts growing up in theatre with training at the Bristol Old Vic Young Company and performing with Dark Island Dance Company. I left school to join The Invisible Circus and found my passion in life – immersive events. What I love about immersive events is the Frisson.
Frisson is defined in the dictionary as: “A moment of intense excitement; a shudder”.
It’s that rush of adrenaline you get when you listen to your favourite song, on a rollercoaster, or about to step on stage. I recognised that this feeling of frisson is what drove my life and wanted to create something that would evoke a similar feeling in others.
After leaving the circus, I studied film production at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. With every film project I was driven by that desire of evoking frisson in my audience. I wanted to find ways to make the film experience more immersive, so I set up a gothic club night in Glasgow. I wanted to see how people would respond to something different in the clubbing environment – whether they would welcome a more immersive style of clubbing. The club night featured gothic films, fire performances and fashion from Glitter & Trauma, it was incredibly popular and people asked for more. But I didn’t know how to develop it.
Then I discovered the Creative Business for Entrepreneurs and Executives (CBEE) course at the National Television and TV School (NFTS) - a new course that prides itself on developing cross-sector business ideas.
The 10-month course introduced me to leading industry professionals within the entire creative industry. From lawyers to artists, I gained an insight on how the business of each sector operates from the perspective of individuals on the entire spectrum of the industry.
With ‘lectures’ delivered at the headquarters of Ingenious (the investors of films such as Avatar and Life of Pi and music festivals such as Rewind – The 80s Festival and Love Supreme Jazz Festival). I was mentored by people such as Colin Nightingale (Senior Producer of Punchdrunk Theatre Company), Jamie Byng (MD of Canongate Books) big names from music, film and television and even Patrick McKenna (Founder of Ingenious) himself.
Inspired by the industry professionals and with support from the tutors on the course I developed my business idea: Frissonic: A touring pop-up club night that aims to create ‘collective frisson’ in an audience through collaboration with core members and guest artists.
This pop-up club night will pair elements of design, technology and visual projection with a set playlist that should result in evoking ‘collecting frisson’ in an audience. As Frissonic tours, it will crowd-source the best emerging creative talent the UK has to offer and challenge them to use their craft to create these immersive experiences.
In the summer and winter of 2015, Frissonic will host its first two events based on the theme of The Otherworld, in London. I am currently seeking potential collaborators who are interested in being part of the first Frissonic event. So please get in touch: sophie.alicia.shaw@gmail.com
We are interviewing for the last places on the Creative Business for Entrepreneurs & Executives diploma course, which starts in January 2015. APPLY HERE.
