Directing the Invisible: Crafting Stories in XR | XR Innovate Masterclass 3
Southern Regional College, Banbridge, BT32 4AY
Admission: Free
Admission
Free
Run Times & Intervals
1pm–3pm (including up to 30 minutes for participant Q&A)
Age Guidance
18+
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In immersive media, where stories unfold without a fixed frame, traditional rules of directing are being reimagined.
Delivered by: Director, Dee HarveyThis masterclass will explore the unique creative challenges and opportunities of shaping narratives when the audience becomes part of the space.
Led by award-winning XR filmmaker Dee Harvey, the session will delve into how direction operates in virtual and interactive environments, from guiding attention through gesture and gaze, to sculpting presence and performance within a 360° world.
Drawing from her internationally recognised work in immersive storytelling, including Heartbeat and IF, Dee will share her creative approach to blending story, technology, and emotion in a way that deeply connects with audiences.
Participants will gain insight into how to translate linear ideas into spatial and responsive formats, and learn techniques to create immersive narratives that centre lived experience, empathy, and impact.
Ideal for artists, filmmakers, writers and creatives who are curious about how XR changes the rules of storytelling and how to adapt their own voice within it.
Meet Dee Harvey
Dee Harvey is a filmmaker and immersive storyteller based in Belfast, specialising in verbatim and immersive narrative. Her creative practice explores how emerging technologies can surface overlooked stories through directorial approaches that centre emotion, embodiment, and space.
She is the writer-director of Heartbeat, a VR documentary that has received international acclaim, winning Best Narrative at Raindance Immersive (2024), the Audience Prize at Art*VR, and was a finalist at SIMA 2025. Her earlier works include IF, a 180 VR project commissioned by Google exploring infertility.
A former BBC interactive producer with over a decade of experience, Dee studied at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts on a Fulbright Scholarship and was previously selected for the Lighthouse Reframed residency and Sundance’s New Frontier Story Lab shortlist. She is a BAFTA Connect member and a leading voice in immersive storytelling within the UK and Ireland.
About the XR Innovate Programme
The XR Innovate training programme is open to a wide range of creatives including those from the screen industries looking to transition into immersive technologies or pursue CPD opportunities, those eager to explore immersive in their creative practice, and students and graduates seeking to gain practical skills to begin their careers.
Funders
The XR Innovate programme is funded by Northern Ireland Screen, supported by the BFI and The National Lottery.
