NBC Studio Tour
Most of us know NBC, which stands for the National Broadcasting Company, one of the largest andost popular television network companies in America. It’s responsible for successful television series such as Friends, Saturday Night Live, many Late Night shows, This Is Us, Seinfeld and so much more. They offer a tour of their studios in the heart of New York City and four of their productions, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, NBC News and SNL are part of it since they’re all shot in the building. I was lucky enough to take part in one of their tours this summer.
A quick description:
Now, a lot of tours mostly entail showing, showing and more showing. The NBC tour actually used to be no different until they recently added something that inspires more creativity and interactivity. At the end of the scheduled tour, attendees are led to a small studio set up as a mock version of a late night talk show. In the small studio we are put into roles including, host, guest, band, announcer, control room and cameras. It’s then up to us to put together a short talk show.
From a critical point of view:
Interactive/Immersive
The level of interactivity and sense of being immersed is rather subjective and largely depends on the role you play. Since I was the guest, I felt very immersed, had a good experience and fun. Whereas the ladies who were in the band pretending to play music felt as though they were simply goofing off rather than actually being immersed in the experience. Overall the level of immersion and interactive nature depends on the role and state of mind of the individual participating.
Narrative
The entire production was scripted, minus the adlib given by the guest. Therefore the exercise/experience followed the structured narrative of a talk show.
Compelling
At first, the experience wasn’t very compelling because I was nervous and didn’t want to mess up my part. Once everything started and I decided to relax by keeping an open mind, everything was easier and more enjoyable. Moreover, since we weren’t allowed to take pictures throughout the tour this turned out to be a great keepsake. The opportunity to have a physical memory to take home made the experience much more compelling. It’s really entertaining and interesting to watch after the fact.
Lessons
Analyzing this experience makes me think about “control” in interactive experiences. In this particular instance, it turns out that I didn’t really have that much control. While it may have felt interactive at the time, looking back, it becomes clear that it was scripted and that there was a planned outcome. Now, myself and the rest of the tour group had some control. We were able to determine the quality of our final product and how open our minds were to the experience. I may not have had control over what I was experiencing but I had control over how I experienced it.
Final thoughts:
In short, interactivity has as much to do with the individual as it does with the activity. Simple activities like a tour are becoming more interactive with their use of new technologies. No matter how advanced the tools are or how interesting the experience itself may be, everyone has a different experience. After all, we all know that if you take ten people to the same concert or movie, you end up with just as many different opinions.
