Return Participant Wins May 2025 Story Xperiential Grand Prize!

Stefan Gerads

Stefan is a visual storyteller from the Netherlands with a background in communication and multimedia. His name reflects his creative passions: ‘St’ stands for storytelling, ‘e’ for editing, ‘f’ for film, and ‘an’ for animation. Stefan has been an active member of the Story Xperiential community since 2022.

Tell us about your current Story Xperiential story/project and how you feel about winning a Story Xperiential Award.

The storyreel Ebb and Flow tells the story of a meeting between a small land turtle and a sea turtle. Despite their differences, they help each other move forward. With this short story, I wanted to highlight the value of offering help to those in need. It also emphasizes that everyone has unique talents that can support others - there's even a subtle environmental undertone. I feel honored to have won a Story Xperiential Award. I’ve been part of this amazing community of visual storytellers for a while now, and I’m really happy to have been recognized.

What if is land turtle fell in love with a sea turtle ?could find

A clay version of Ebb

How did you hear about Story Xperiential?

From a young age, I’ve been fascinated by Pixar and how they bring stories to life. That fascination led me to search online for books, analyses, essays—anything that could teach me more about Pixar’s unique storytelling style. One day, I stumbled upon the Xperiential website and, to my surprise, it turned out to be a program where you could go through the storytelling process step by step, just like they do at Pixar. It felt like exactly what I had been looking for.

Why did you decide to continue participating in the Story Xperiential program?

I’ve been participating in the program since 2022. The first time, I didn’t win with my storyreel. The second time, I quit early on because I felt like it wasn’t going to work out. But on my third attempt, I focused on giving valuable feedback to other participants. To my surprise, I ended up winning the Excellence in Feedback Award.

That recognition gave me a huge motivation boost to really focus on developing my own storyreel. And it paid off—on my fourth try, I won the Grand Prize for my story.

What challenges did you face during the program, and how did you overcome them?

You can start out full of excitement with a strong “what if,” but the real work begins when developing your acts. For me, Act 2 was the biggest challenge. It's often easy to envision the beginning and end, but the middle—the obstacles—can become roadblocks, even for yourself. What helped me push through was staying focused on what I really wanted to tell. When I got stuck, I reminded myself of the central theme of the story: helping one another. That became a reliable compass—it’s the heart of the story, and something you can always return to.

Can you share how the peer feedback aspect of the program influenced your storytelling projects?

Peer feedback influenced the process in multiple ways. On one hand, analyzing other participants’ work helped me give focused, valuable feedback—and that, in turn, made me more critical of my own story. On the other hand, receiving feedback allowed me to see my project from a fresh perspective. During the creative process, you can easily become blind to the weak points in your own work simply because you've been immersed in it for so long. The fresh eyes of others keep the process dynamic and help you gain healthy distance. Even after the Exhibition, I’m still seeing new ways to improve, thanks to the feedback I received.

How has the program impacted you?

The biggest impact for me has been learning how to turn an abstract idea into a concrete, visual story. Sometimes you have a single image, character, or scene in your mind but no clear idea of how to turn it into a full story—with a beginning, middle, and end. This program shows you how to approach that process by going back to the basics: simply starting with the question “What if?” From that single question, you build your entire story step by step.

What were some unexpected benefits you experienced from participating in Story Xperiential?

One of the unexpected benefits was connecting with other visual storytellers from around the world. Going through that creative journey together, watching each other grow throughout the different stages of the program, and supporting one another with feedback along the way—it was inspiring and meaningful.

Facial expressions of Flow

Flow from different angles

Ebb's facial expressions

Ebb from different angles

What advice would you give to someone considering joining the Story Xperiential program?

Just start, and don’t give up when you hit obstacles. Your creative process is a lot like a character’s journey in a story: you’ll face challenges along the way, but by pushing through and showing resilience, you’ll ultimately reach a strong and compelling end result.

What projects are you busy with now and what have you been doing since you first completed your first Story Xperiential session?

Right now, I’m working on a new storyreel. My previous story, Ebb & Flow, felt like a fun and adventurous journey. This time, I’m focusing on a story with a deeper emotional layer and more nuanced character development. While Ebb & Flow was about friendship, my new project revolves around the theme of letting go. I want to tell a story where the main character has to truly give something up in order to grow.

What insights did you gain from your one-on-one video meeting with story artist, director and producer Christian Roman?

The meeting with Christian Roman was very inspiring. He gave me valuable tips for further development and even connected me with someone in the Netherlands who specializes in storyboarding—which was extra special, since I’m from the Netherlands myself, across the ocean from the U.S. It’s amazing to build a global network, but just as valuable to make local connections too.

What stuck with me most was the insight Christian shared: if your passion lies in storytelling, focus on creating as many storyboards as possible, rather than immediately trying to produce a full film. It’s in the storyboard phase that your story truly comes to life visually. And if that’s the part that excites you most, then that’s where you should invest your time.