Interview with Advisory Board member Corine Meijers: ‘Dare to take risks!’

The Advisory Board of CIIIC consists of over 24 carefully selected members who provide solicited and unsolicited advice to our program team on substantive main lines. As representatives of the IX community and ambassadors of IX in the Netherlands, they are crucial for the connection with the industry. But who are these members, what do they do, and - most importantly - how do they view IX?

In the concluding part, Corine Meijers, owner of Studio Biarritz, producer of internationally successful/acclaimed immersive experiences such as Lesbian Simulator, Lacuna, Future Botanica, The Imaginary Friend, and Symbiosis.

Who are you, what do you do?

‘As a creative and financial producer, I am closely involved in the development, production, and distribution of narrative immersive projects. I come from the film industry and have worked at various international film festivals and co-production markets since 2000.

From this background, in 2012, I moved in a more digital direction, collaborating through various innovation labs and my work as a producer at Submarine Channel (from 2014 to 2019) on the concept development and production of various interactive projects. The focus was always on the use of new technologies, new ways of storytelling, and audience reach.

When I started my own production house, Studio Biarritz, in 2019, it was only natural to build on this – resulting in a unique cross-disciplinary slate, a collection of projects, consisting of both interactive and immersive as well as traditional film productions.’

Why "immersive," what is your connection to new content/technology?

‘IX projects can bring up and present stories and topics in a different way, aiming to achieve more engagement with the user and/or the audience than is the case with various other, more traditional media.

The social value is enormous and offers a lot of new opportunities in terms of thematic impact, R&D and innovation, talent development, and strengthening the creative industry in a broader sense. Economically, there are still significant challenges; in terms of investments and subsidies for production and distribution, the infrastructure, and new business models.’

Why did you want to join the Advisory Board, what specifically appealed to you in/about the program?

Do you have a moment? ;) For quite some time, I have been involved as a producer of immersive, interactive, and digital projects in the development of our IX industry. I do this, as mentioned, from my background as a (film) producer, on one hand from a creative, artistic perspective, and on the other hand from the financial, business, and (international) side of producing an IX project, including its distribution and promotion.

I try to set up and direct all this from ‘Biarritz’. I enjoy collaborating with cross-disciplinary creative makers (including filmmakers, artists, developers, scientists) and partners from all over the world to produce stories with heart and soul that are relevant to the current times we live in.

I have therefore been following developments within the creative industry for quite some time and have, from my daily practice (and from my involvement with Moonshot Digital Culture, an initiative to strengthen the digital culture sector in the Netherlands, and my role on the board of the Netherlands Audiovisual Producers Alliance, NAPA) had many conversations about what is happening within the artistic creative IX industry, how the practice works, what our ambitions, opportunities, and challenges are, and brainstormed about what is needed for the future.

Since the formation and establishment of CIIIC, I have therefore tried to actively share my experiences and advise those involved based on my expertise. I am very happy to continue doing this within the current advisory board of CIIIC.’

What is your IX dream/mission?

'In short, my dream for the future is: collaboration and daring to take risks. Supporting individuals and companies with beautiful, serious ambitions, building on already established track records. What do I like to commit to? Further expanding my existing collaborations at various levels, with creators from different disciplines, cultural organizations, research institutions, technical parties, educational institutions, etc. In this way, I want to continue to build an environment where we dare to move forward together.'

What developments in the field do you see that you find important to strengthen and why?

'I think that a fair amount of research is already being conducted by various players and projects within the creative industry, resulting in a considerable number of interesting and relevant collaborations – which yield new information.

For example, consider initiatives like IDFA Doclab, the interdisciplinary program of IDFA that not only offers a platform for interactive and immersive content during the festival but also provides a home for creators, audiences, and research institutions to experience projects, test them, and conduct research. Additionally, they manage to bring together the international IX industry (in the Netherlands!) to meet each other, strengthen existing collaborations, and 'kickstart' new initiatives.

I would also like to mention the project called Nu:Reality in this context. This initiative researches how to bring high-quality VR to a broader audience. They have been doing this for a few years now in close collaboration with various cinemas and are about to expand this to multiple cities in the Netherlands, and soon also to Belgium and France!

From the part of the creative industry I am involved in, everything is still quite project-based and low budget, but nevertheless super relevant and time-intensive. Building on the aforementioned, I would like to focus on how we can make our activities more sustainable across the board; on the one hand through fair pay, on the other hand regarding knowledge sharing and creating impact, and how we can make both the production of the projects and the larger audience reach more diverse and inclusive.'

Public values play an important role at CIIIC, what is your view on this? Extra stimulating or a potential obstacle?

‘Public values are obviously of great importance. Especially now, given all the complex international developments and power shifts that are taking place. I am currently in the middle of preparing a grant application within one of CIIIC's schemes and am therefore also working on the self-assessment Public Values in Immersive Experiences. It is part of a larger dossier, so we are steadily working on all the different components. Then I can provide more targeted advice on this aspect later on.’

Finally, the Advisory Board gives advice – what is your message to the community? And how can people find and ‘use’ you to possibly share their ideas with the community?

‘Keep innovating, experimenting, and realizing special projects. Collaborate, have confidence, and enjoy the creative process. And define early on who you are creating something for, who your target audience is, and involve them during the realization of your production.

Would you like to discuss this further? You can reach me via adviesraad@ciiic.nl or info@studiobiarritz.nl.’

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Composition: Nils Adriaans

Photography: Maarten Delobel