Call for Talents: The R/O Institute Is Looking for the Next Generation of Storytellers
by Ernesto Leotta

19/05/2016 - CANNES NEXT: The 2016 edition of NEXT draws to a close with some great news – the birth of the R/O Institute

Cineuropa editor-in-chief Domenico La Porta.

As dusk started to fall over the NEXT week, a new kind of “Bat-Signal” was lit up by Cineuropa’s editor-in-chief, Domenico La Porta. Instead of the well-known bat, though, the sky hosted a different symbol, this time summoning more than one single hero: R/O.
Its French pronunciation, /ˈeʀo/ (lit. "hero"), suggests a true call to arms in order to rescue something precious – in this case, intellectual property (IP). La Porta's new venture is, de facto, an incubator for the next generation of storytellers, aimed at providing them with the right tools to develop and market their ideas and projects.

After a swift introduction by Wallimage's "man in the white glasses", Philippe Reynaert, La Porta highlighted the importance of IP by picking the aforementioned DC Comics winged hero as an example. "The whole concept behind Batman was inspired by Zorro. While the latter met with mild success only in the 1990s, thanks to Antonio Banderas' movies, the former saw its success gradually escalate over its 50-year life span, culminating in a record-breaking PlayStation videogame. So technology matters when designing a project, but content is key. The Smurfs was a Belgian comic strip, but no one knows about that – kids only know the two 3D movies about the little blue men, and only 0.2% of the copyright revenues came back to their mother country. The R/O Institute aims to keep the project IP in the hands of its rightful owner, without selling it to bigger companies."
Putting the story at the centre of every creation, the Institute will help its participants to develop a transmedia approach, focusing on the subject's mythology, story world and characters, as well as providing them with a social-media strategy in order to build and activate their community.

Furthermore, a gamified app will allow the "student" to evaluate his project, reach goals, get ranked, rewarded and even communicate with fellow creators, especially resident ones. That's right – the R/O Institute also features a residency hub (more of a high-profile hotel) called the R/Ω (pronounced /ʀɔm/), based in Charleroi, Belgium, and including a Creative Sandbox in which technicians, developers and artists can gain access to the most advanced technology in order to develop, prototype and design their content.
"Our website has just been launched here at NEXT! Feel free to apply by sending us your story and telling us the way you think it can be adapted – you might be one of our 40-plus selected projects. We're looking for heroes, but not only male ones – if no female hero shows up, there can't be no R/O Institute!" joked La Porta.

Build story worlds.
We stand at the dawn of a new narrative era. Those formerly known as an audience have left the single screen for a multi-platform odyssey and digital has turned viewers into users and tech savvy explorers. Films, TV series, gaming, mobile apps, graphic novels, virtual reality, mixed reality (...) are pushing the boundaries of vast story worlds ruled by tomorrow’s creators and the next generation of heroes.
R/O {ˈeʀo} is an institute that fosters the creation of original content and the acceleration of transmedia projects built around tomorrow’s heroes and rich intellectual properties.

Apply now!
Learn from the best.
R/O is a 6 to 9 months immersive training that aims at tuning strong narrative projects for today’s convergent market. On top of solidifying their story architecture and building their cross-platforms storytelling, the talents are offered numerous networking opportunities and business deals ranging from development grants to post-production services and publishing hooks.
The origin: stories.
The world belongs to those who tell stories. Do you have a story to tell? Sometimes one platform is not enough to cover the full spectrum of your idea. Do you already have plans for a film, a TV series, a comic book or maybe a game that you want to develop? How about ambitions for all of them and more? But you are a storyteller and you probably don’t know where to start…

Convergence.
Apply now to the R/O institute. Let’s expand your story world across platforms and prep your intellectual property (IP) for the convergent market.
If your narrative project is selected, you and your team will benefit from a professional coaching packed with multi-disciplinary insights coming from a large variety of experts in the form of:

• Public and private talks
• Access to R/O sandbox (tech, artistic and software toolbox)
• Workshops
• One on one sessions
• Group sessions
• Case success/failure stories and analysis
• Benchmarking challenges
• Project evaluation and milestones objectives
• Pitching opportunities
• Networking
• Transmedia watch
• Follow-up over an extended period of time
• Access to market acceleration and possible output deals

Gamification.
Thanks to gamified analytics and an interactive evaluation app, talents are stimulated to reach objectives and improve their skills. The R/O training aims at tweaking the complete spectrum of the project from the essence of storytelling to the marketing strategy and the architecture of a case by case revenue model.

Commitment.
Cult stories did not blossom in a week. That’s why we ask the core selection of our talents to commit to the R/O institute for a 6 to 9 months period of training. The institute programme is sidebarred and followed by active prospection in order to breach the global market and finally meet the project’s audience on different platforms. The R/O label ensures that commitment goes both ways.
Duration: 3 months (Oct-Dec, 2016)
Following a pre-selection phase, around 40 projects are granted access to the R/O bootcamp. It is a programme of curated conferences followed by participative Q&A’s that stand as a source of inspiration to broaden the horizon of our future talents. The bootcamp introduces them to the opportunities of the convergent market. It is about bringing an overview of what the R/O institute can do for your Intellectual Property (IP) while acquiring the basics of any solid franchise. The R/O bootcamp also provides useful workshops that will help applicants to set up their final application to the R/O institute.

The R/O Institute.
Duration: 6 months (Jan-Jun, 2017)
Once selected on the basis of a promising application file, an exclusive batch of 10 project teams of talents are physically welcomed to the facilities of the R/O institute to start enhancing their project. Our creative methodology breaks down an IP in a series of skills regrouped in 6 different skillsets. Each skillset forms a module that is roughly unfolding over the course of one month. The 6 skillsets are:

1. Story World
2. Crowd Design
3. Tech/Art Craft
4. CrossMedia Architecture
5. Revenue Model (and financing)
6. Marketing M.O.

Each skill from every skillset is developed through a gamified process based on skill assimilation and collaborative milestones to reach. Projects are constantly monitored through an evaluation app that also allows talents and experts to communicate and share watch material. Each project is modulated in order to bring more focus on its weakest skills and specifically address them. Around 20 skills that are essential to any narrative IP’s are taken into consideration across the whole duration of the training such as #characters opacity, #IP iconography, #raconteur, #social currency, #environment, #mythology #revenue streams… Improving each of those skills will level the project up to global market standards.
Between 50 and 80 international experts will meet with the talents in order to work on their skills. Talents are encouraged to collaborate with other teams, R/O’s partners and guest projects. Rewards can be earned along the way…

The R/O Line-up.

Duration: +18 months
By accessing the R/O institute, projects become part of the R/O catalog that our agents are submitting to the attention of our partners and to market places around the globe. Being part of the R/O line up of IP’s does not end with the training at the institute. It goes on over an extended period of active prospection in order to bring the project to life and meet its producing and broadcasting partners all the way to its audience down the line.
The R/O team.
Domenico La Porta
Institute Director
dom@ro.institute
+32 476 702 732

Stéphanie Thirion
Operations Manager
stephanie@ro.institute
+32 491 56 77 02
Belgian Heroes SA and R/O are original initiatives initiated by François Pernot,
CEO of Media Participation BE.