Nigh Journal

Archive for the 'ARG' Category

Friday, May 21st, 2010

What’s next for ‘Found Footage’ Movies?

Attending a double-bill of Spanish horrors [REC] and [REC]2 last night, three hours of ’shaky-cam’ can’t help but make me think about the pros and cons of the ‘found footage’ genre. Following two fire-men on a routine call, a two-person news crew quickly find themselves quarantined in an apartment building with the bewildered and increasingly bitey tennants. And it works. Mostly.

But is there anywhere left for this genre to go? By denying themselves numerous film-making techniques by making the cameraperson a character, are film-makers actually forced to be more creative in telling their stories? For horror, I find that the lack of classically-centered shots or cooky angles sign-posting a scary bit actually made films like [REC] or Blair Witch far scarier. I didn’t know when or where some beastie might spring out and clever sound design means I’m always worried the monster is actually behind the camera/’me’.

And while none of the films so far have convinced me 100% that the characters would keep filming, I’ve been very impressed by smart techniques such as the events of Cloverfield’s monster invasion being taped over a previous perfect day of its two leads, effectively providing us with flashbacks and character context. 

But while Cloverfield, [REC] and its ilk provide exhilarating, rollercoaster/ghost train-style experiences, possibly the biggest criticism against this style of movie is in their characterisation. Personally, I thought Blair Witch’s Heather was a really interesting lead. Not overly-likeable and certainly not rich in backstory, but was that important? These movies allow opportunity to really see characterisation through action. In Heather’s case, her almost-dismissive attitude when interviewing the locals in Blair Witch’s opening salvo not only told us what we needed but also snuck in the set-up for the film’s climax as well as Heather’s final monologue to camera.

Similarly, a lot of flak is also aimed at Cloverfield’s mostly-white, middle-class, ‘priviliged’ core characters. I don’t think the makers did this accidentally. A group of people who don’t think the warnings to evacuate the city apply to them and a party who instantly produce their mobile phone cameras rather than taking in the horror around them is as central to the film as the monster. In my opinion, whilst subtle, the 9-11 imagery wasn’t restricted to the destruction of buildings.

But where do we go from here? To some extent the recent trailer for JJ Abrams and Steven Spielberg’s SUPER 8 makes me feel that their film will prove whether this sub-genre will either continue to be innovative or just repetitive. 

What interests me is that a number of these films offer an ‘expanded experience’ online, with the film itself just being one aspect of a bigger story world. But that shouldn’t excuse films from being stand-alone entertainment. With fears of surveillance, increased technology and self-publishing online, if anything, these films are very much ‘of their time’. Great thrill-rides while you’re in the cinema but then you’re done with them. But isn’t that a lot of ‘normal’ films these days too?

But why only horror in this style so far? I honestly think there’s an innovative rom-com to be had in this genre. Has the ‘handheld’ movie run its course? Was it a blip to begin with? Or is this just the beginning? 

Monday, September 28th, 2009

FLASH FORWARD - via TV and ARG.

Tonight sees the UK premiere of Flash Forward, a new serial sci-fi that sees the whole world get a vision of what lies six months ahead. It’s being billed as ‘from the network that brought you LOST’ but what it doesn’t say is that it’s created by David S Goyer (writer of the Blade Trilogy and co-writer on Batman Begins) and Brannon Braga (who a lot of people blame for making the later Star Trek series so…good?)

The hokey concept for Flash Forward is grand enough, but, as always, this will rely on the show’s writing and characterisation to make this a lasting hit with crossover appeal. But, also as always, there’s some funky online accompanying material in the shape of the The Mosaic Collective

This is the actual project featured within the show that tries to piece together a global big picture from every one in the world’s perspective. However the show turns out, I think this is a great site that really expands the world of the show for any audience who really want to immerse themselves in it. I hope this is a trend that continues in drama shows.

But what are your thoughts for the show itself? Next big thing? Or more of the same? As you all know, I am a big fan of LOST - but this doesn’t mean I want every show to be an ongoing tease of a mystery that I always worry will get cancelled before we get close to getting answers. There’s probably a reason my other favourite show these days is House.

But, then maybe the fact that Flash Forward’s leading man Joseph Fiennes doesn’t seem to have aged at all since Shakespeare in Love indicates this new show will be a timeless classic! What are your thoughts?  

Monday, August 31st, 2009

Arkham at ‘im (two cross-platform thingies I like)

Just a quick post tonight. The monologues are coming along slowly but surely. I think I’ve realised what has to go and, as is often the case, it is because I am trying to do too much in the page count I have - but I think I’ve cracked a better way to structure (and have cut out some of the crapper gags) so that they shall be finished. Oh yes.

. . . . .

But, in the meantime, here’s a few new online extras I’ve spotted. The recently released Batman: Arkham Asylum game is definitely one of the reasons why I’m asking for an X-Box 360 for Xmas. I thought I was going to have to make do with reading people’s impressed-sounding tweets all weekend but then I saw this little informational site for the titular asylum: 

It’s brilliant. So thorough. I wish I’d been there soon as, presumably, the build-up to the game’s release would have factored into its updates.

Similarly, you may have heard about the new Bruce Willis sci-fi actioner Surrogates coming later this year. I must admit that I thought ‘well, might be alright for a Saturday night’ - but there’s a fun little feature on the site to let you ‘choose your surrogate‘. Have a little play.

I find both of these interesting as the Arham site makes an effort to make the fantasy of Batman seem more plausible and realistic whereas Surrogates is taking us away from reality into the future. I think there’s a question about how these actually expand the story world - or is it just obligatory these days?

However, one has me even more hooked on buying a game for a console I don’t even own and the other has caught more attention for a film I wasn’t too fussed about. Do either of these do anything for you?

Oh, and in other news, I caught the giant spider-beast that has been stalking my flat for the last week. No need to burn down the flat now

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

Nearly Full Circle for TOCAN LIVE

I know narrative puzzle http://www.tocanlive.com has had a few mentions here of late, but I just wanted one final push before the final installment tomorrow. 

I’ve enjoyed and learned so much running this ARG all week. But I was asked to do it to help promote ‘They Only Come at Night’ series of live vampire spectaculars by the fantastic Slung Low Theatre Company (and featuring music and sound by the very lovely Heather Fenoughty) which are going to be brilliant.

We can sometimes moan about how lazy and dim we can all be as an audience. But this week, I’ve really been reminded how amazingly bright and enthused audiences can be too. What’s impressed me most is the little community that formed, piecing things together that I would never have thought of. So to those who’ve been clicking through, thank you.

And to anyone who has patiently read my shameless plugging (for http://www.tocanlive.com) but hasn’t had a chance to log on, Please do.

And thanks for playing along. Normal service will resumed shortly

Monday, August 10th, 2009

Everyone loves Nosferatu

What’s that? TOCANLive, the new online narrative puzzle by Slung Low goes LIVE today? To promote and expand their THEY ONLY COME AT NIGHT series of vampire themed shows? Well, it’s a good job you told me! I hear you can follow cryptic clues all week that mean you can win free vampire comics or tickets to a live show at the Lowry if you piece it all together. Word is there’s more information here as well!

Yeah, I’d be a terrible salesman

But it seems that vampires sell themselves these days, judging by the influx of vampircal properties hitting TV and cinema (I’d like to quickly point out that Slung Low’s first vampire show happened back in 2007 - long before most of us had even heard of Twilight or True Blood ) 

Is post-millennial let down steering us audiences into a new acceptance and understanding of horror in which we cathartically exorcise our everyday anxieties into anthropomorphic monsters who dispose of those who break the rules while leaving the indentifiably chaste heroine to fight another day? Frankly, no. The cinema listings suggest the same old machete-wielders still dominate the big screen (literally with Leatherface, Freddy Krueger and Jason all being constantly remade - but that’s another blog post).

So what is it? In my opinion, it’s not the horror genre that’s expanding, it’s the tropes of horror sneaking off into other genres. It sounds pretty stupid but in terms of emotional journey, there’re a lot of similarities between Let the Right One In and Son of Rambow, regardless of what you think of either film.

 

Vampires as iconic pop-cultural figures are becoming much more archetypal: Despite looking like us,  they’re probably much older than us, they live by their own rules or moral code (whether they’re good, bad, seeking redemption or somewhere in between) plus, due to expanded ‘lifetimes’, they are much more likely to have gained enemies or something in their past that haunts them. Humphrey Bogart would’ve been an ace vampire!

Case in point, I imagine that most of you reading this quite liked Buffy the Vampire Slayer - yet in 144 episodes (nerd alert ) I’d say that we could probably agree on the same half-dozen episodes that were actually intended to be properly scary. Why did you enjoy Buffy? Vote on as many options as you like…

But I’m not sure that this is anything particularly new. More that vampires themselves are being used more as darker protagonists rather than antagonists or just shadow-dwelling nightmares. Which means they are not being used as much for horror - they’re being used for character.

So what do you think of vampires in storytelling? Are they good for human metaphors? Are they sexy bad boys and girls? They’re just cool because they look like people but can do more? (except sunbathe) How long will it be before the current vampire archetype becomes cliche and has to be re-invented again? 

. . . . .

PS - Big thanks to my best bud Tom for the vampire painting above as featured in TOCANLive. Check out Tom’s amazing daily art blog here.

Sunday, August 9th, 2009

Final TOCAN Gesture

With Slung Low’s narrative puzzle http://www.tocanlive.com going live first thing tomorrow morning, I’ve just been nervously doing some final tweaks and changes to the story text - the biggest thing that needed fixing being that a main character’s surname changes halfway through - nice one, me

(Don’t know what I’m talking about? Check this blog post for more info)

I think everything is set to go so I just hope it does go as soon we click the button. If you haven’t done so already, I’d really appreciate your support if you wanted to sign up as a facebook fan of Slung Low’s They Only Came at Night and maybe select that you will be attending the event here.

But in the meantime, here’s a newspaper article I wrote for the story that we didn’t use in the end. As loyal blog readers, you get a sneak peak (kind of like a film maker trying to lure you to watch his film by showing you the deleted scenes first… Hmmn)

I will be blogging about it (amongst other things - don’t worry!) day by day next week as I will be virtually (heh) living on the internet for the next five days, checking everything is working, responding to readers (as well as hovering at the analytics page to see if anyone is actually logging on!)

Please do feel free to offer any queries or comments but, if you do stop by this week, I hope http://www.tocanlive.com provides as much fun to read as it was to write and that someone reading is the lucky winner of the tickets to the live show or the graphic novel. 

And thank you for all the tweets and messages of encouragement. Cheers

Thursday, August 6th, 2009

Spreading some Viral Love.

Wow. Thanks to numerous re-tweets and links yesterday, my blog had its highest ever traffic. And all without a crash. Lovely. Thanks everyone

As our campaign builds up for http://www.tocanlive.com going live next week (don’t forget to join the facebook group too #shamelessplug) I’ve also been checking out some of the bigger viral marketing campaigns in order to… well, just make myself feel small I suppose But they’re really good!

Even thought it’s a good year away, Iron Man 2 has already started firing up. As Newsarama put it, even though there’s a global recession, it’s good to know Stark Industries are hiring! Even if the application form is a bit tricky.

But the campaign that caught my eye is District 9. Whether it’s the beheaded Statue of Liberty for Cloverfield or that weird little meerkat in the Compare the Market/Meerkat ads, the iconography seems vital for viral. Several times already, I’ve mentioned my anticipation for District 9 only to receive blank stares - but everyone seems to have seen images like this, even if they can’t remember where…

We watched a film called Push last night that seemed to have so much trouble introducing the world of its story (filled with telekenetics, psychics etc) that it had to resort to Dakota Fanning narrating everything that had happened since the second world war over the opening credits (those were some long credits!).

Now there are arguments as to how you should deliver exposition (you can argue here that film was getting out of the way so it could get on with the action) but I felt that it was actually explaining the world of the story that audiences can usually absorb pretty quickly.

For story worlds as far removed as Gotham City, something like the campaign for District 9 instantly sets the tone of the world and, despite the complexities of political situations and not even alluding to the inciting incident that launches the plot of the finished film, their fantastic website clearly sets up the world the characters are living in.

For both these films, I am excited to see how the campaigns unfold as much I’m looking forward to sitting in the cinema and watching the end product. Any other viral campaigns you’re enjoying or have enjoyed?

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

New Online Project: TOCANLIVE goes LIVE!

Finally. I can unveil www.tocanlive.com

For months I’ve been hinting and alluding to it. And for months, I’ve been staring at wordpress trying to plot the thing. But it’s finished and ready to go. From next Monday, The hunt goes live online!

www.tocanlive.com is designed as an ARG (Alternate Reality Game) to expand the world of Slung Low Theatre Company’s ‘THEY ONLY COME AT NIGHT’ series of vampiric theatrical extravaganzas. With live shows coming up at the Lowry in September with TOCAN: Resurrection and at the Barbican in November with TOCAN: Visons, www.tocanlive.com allows the opportunity to present the world of the story to an audience who wouldn’t otherwise be able to attend (I’m looking at you, international vampire fans!)

From our facebook group:

Updated daily from August 10th-14th, join an anxious scientist’s online journal from the comfort of your own computer as she stumbles into the world of the undead and needs your help to find answers.

 

Follow a series of cryptic puzzles and interact with the characters to help the scientist find three answers that make up a hidden email address. When emailed, the hidden email offers the chance to win tickets for the live Salford show at The Lowry (Sept 2nd-12th) or copies of the graphic novel that may have incurred the vampires’ wrath to begin with (which can be sent by post to wherever you are)

Monday’s posts give you the chance to read back through our intrepid scientist’s journal since making the strange discovery that persuaded her to start blogging. Each subsequent daily entry will then offer a coffee-break sized puzzle to piece together into the elusive e-mail address.

If you belong to facebook, please please please join the facebook event and then click through to become a fan so you can see what’s happening in your facebook stream. Otherwise, keep checking back here and bookmark www.tocanlive.com to keep up to date.  

This has been a lot more challenging than The End is Nigel with a lot of the focus on making it more of a game rather than an online narrative. It’s been really fun to write and a real challenge to plot so I would really appreciate any questions or feedback.

I hope you can join us next week and play along. Fingers crossed this works!

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

POLL: How would you like your online story?

Would really appreciate your help on this. As I mentioned in this blog post, I am writing an online narrative for the Slung Low Theatre Company’s new vampiric theatre spectacular, ‘They Only Come at Night: Resurrection’ at the Lowry in Salford. (click the lovely spooky picture below to watch the kick-ass trailer and find out more)

My brief is to not only provide a good build up to the show in September but also provide a fun story for those who can’t make it or who aren’t even in the same country. Something for everyone!

And, as it is intended for everyone, I wanted you to have your say. My current idea is to run the narrative intensively (and interactively) over one week with two or more brief updates a day (as well as the fictional characters responding and interacting with the audience). This way the audience can drop by when they like and the narrative does not become drawn out. There are also puzzles to solve and the chance to win tickets to the show as well as copies of the fantastic spin-off graphic novel that proves integral to the plot of the play.

But, plagued by my usual neuroses, I’d like your opinion on my plan. So please vote below and leave any comments on my ideas for the format. And thank you in advance!

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

COMING SOON: Vampires + more Sandwich-Boards

Following Monday’s post about Choosing Your Battles, I now somehow seem to have the rest of the year’s work fully lined up. Writing-wise anyway. With my actual scriptreading work seemingly drying up and unfortunately not getting the librarian job I was hoping for, I will be going back to being an office temp for a while. But at least I’ve got these fun things to be thinking about by night.

And speaking of things by night, please check out the promo video for ‘They Ony Come at Night: Resurrection‘ - the vampire themed show by Slung Low playing at the Lowry in Salford from September 2nd - 12th.

They Only Come at Night: Resurrection from Slung Low on Vimeo.

I’m not actually working on the show directly (although it will feature spectacular music and sound design by the lovely Heather) but have been working on an accompanying online narrative intended to bring the world of the story to audiences who aren’t able to attend the Salford show or its London sequel/counterpart ‘They Only Come at Night: Visions’ performing at the Barbican in November. I’ve really enjoyed contributing to these shows but also can’t wait to see them

This week I also found out that a project of mine was selected to be guinea-pigged by those training for the professional diploma in script development at the Scriptfactory. A friend of mine did the diploma a few years ago and is one of the two sharpest minds I’ve met when it comes to drama development so, while my project will act as someone’s ‘practical exam’, I’m really looking forward to collaborating on a project solidly for five months.

I hope you’ll understand if I don’t say too much about the project at this stage, but I will say that it is an apocalyptic comedy and features that familiar trope of mine - the sandwich-board man I know…what’s wrong with me! The sample script I’d already written featuring the two characters above was genuinely the most fun I’d ever had writing. There’s lots of work still to be done but I’m really looking forward to it and really pleased I decided at the last minute not to submit the bleak Brit-thriller idea!

Anyway, I’ll update as and when for either project and I am really looking forward to launching the online stuff. In the meantime, I am now vanishing as me and that lovely Heather have finally managed to arrange a proper summer holiday for the first time in years. See you in a week… Barcelona here we come!!