The Guardian reports today on a Finnish TV show, Accidental Lovers, that uses NM2's ShapeShifter TV system which provides an SMS interface to an interactive TV drama. It's interesting to see that "repeat showing" is touted as a key benefit in much the same way as BDE's proposition for animated interactive drama worked, or rather didn't work, in the mid-90s. Are NM2 re-inventing the flat-tyre or are audiences genuinely interested in this stuff? Time will tell.
Looking forward to experience this new attempt at combining non-linear narratives with TV but I suspect that this format may, once again, prove to be more fun for the creators than the intended audience. It is incredibly stimulating to design an interactive storytelling system around a particular narrative. Those like me who have been beavering away at this for years do it for a reason. But without the hands-on creative experience, do you care? It remains to be seen whether limited control is any better than no control when it comes to drama.
My hunch is that such a system lives or dies on how successfully it woos the audience into believing it is in control. There's an art to that, well understood by game studios, and less so by linear programme-makers. At the same time, my money is on giving audiences REAL control over a narrative. They have it anyhow.
The idea of creating extra content up front to increase the appeal of a show really does seem to be a flawed assumption. Once you unleash audience expectations that they can have real input into a fictional drama, any set of pre-fab options lives up to the hype. Hence the appeal of YouTube and Big Brother - for all the rules, they aren't closed systems... if Ken Russell wants to pick up and leave the show to escape from Jade Goody he can... and that's paradigm-shifting!
Want to see a happy ending? Just text while you watch | The Guardian | Guardian Unlimited
First comics, now the PSP moves into TV terroritory. DubPlate Drama is being billed as the world's first PSP (video) drama. Episodes will be premiered on PSP and then on terrestrial TV 24 hours later.
The BBC is conducting interactive video trials around Spooks and Shakespeare Retold and looking for feedback.
I started participating in the BBC's iMP trial today. Powered by Windows Media Player's DRM and Kontiki's P2P network, iMP is a revolutionary media on-demand service that will let UK Internet viewers download and view programmes across all BBC TV and radio channels for up to seven days (after which the files are rendered unplayable by DRM). All I can say is that it does what it says on the tin and this is going to shake up the media industry when it's released. Bring it on!
BBC - iMP
The BBC Creative Archive project has released a new set of clips aimed at VJs via the Radio One website.
No one is predicting huge sales but five in the UK is now selling "Fifth Gear DVD-quality" downloads of car reviews featured in the series.
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | TV and Radio | Five offers programme downloads
Google is beta-testing an indexed video service on US tv. Search using the familiar interface and call up what's on the box.
NM2 is a European Union funded project to develop software tools to support audience-driven interactive worlds around TV productions. The partners include BT who will develop software and the BBC who will provide access to content material.
Another TV content syndication project has been slashdotted. Torrentocracy is open source software and an approach to running a grass-roots TV station.
The approach relies on using MythTV, a Linux media server, for playback, RSS feeds for content programming and BitTorrent for p2p distribution.
In 1995, the GALA Committee inserted original public art into each episode of Melrose Place as props and set design.
The Australian spoof news site, CNNNN, is packed with video clips from the show and elegantly satirises the slick packaging of television media. The audience-contributed news ticker is a nice touch too.