ARG - An alternate reality game (ARG) is an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, often involving multiple media and game elements, to tell a story that may be affected by participants’ ideas or actions.
For several months, I’ve been working on writing and directing a top secret project to create a live-action thriller alternate reality game campaign. 2 weeks before the launch of the new Fox show “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” a website for an unusual company appeared. In their first video they claimed to have developed a tachyon camera that sensed faster-than-light particles and could therefore generate images of the future. Their first blog post generated significant online controversy, with 53 posts suggesting ways of testing the camera’s capabilities. In their second video, the researchers followed the audience’s suggestions, taking photos of mirrors, newspapers, and cityscapes. The images they revealed suggested a dark and apocalyptic future. Soon the audience became directly involved in the story, digging up similar camera devices around the United States. Finally, the researchers found themselves being hunted by a deadly entity seeking to stop their work permanently. The drama built to an explosive conclusion in the Sausalito parking lot of Enitech’s offices:
Now that it’s concluded you can watch the full story from start to finish. If you want to know more, check out Enitechlabs.com.
This is a project I produced recently that took a rather interesting approach to virtual worlds. Rather than explain it, I think CNN’s article probably does a better job than I could:
November 12, 2007 — Updated 1649 GMT (0049 HKT) CNN enters the virtual world of Second Life
(CNN) — So, what exactly is news in a virtual world?
CNN aims to find out by opening an I-Report hub in Second Life, a three-dimensional virtual world created entirely by its residents.
There, CNN will look to those most familiar with the virtual world — the Second Life residents themselves — to determine what constitutes news “in-world.”
Developer Linden Labs opened Second Life to the public in 2003. According to its Web site, Second Life is inhabited by millions of “residents” from around the globe. However, traffic at any given time hovers around 40,000 users. Photo See the many views of Second Life. »
Just as CNN asks its real-life audience to submit I-Reports — user-generated content submitted from cell phones, computers, cameras and other equipment for broadcast and online reports — the network is encouraging residents of Second Life to share their own “SL I-Reports” about events occurring within the virtual world.
“The thing we most hope to gain by having a CNN presence in Second Life is to learn about virtual worlds and understand what news is most interesting and valuable to their residents,” said Susan Grant, executive vice president of CNN News Services.
When Second Life residents observe an in-world event they deem newsworthy, they can take snapshots, shoot video, or write a report about the event and submit to CNN.
Submissions selected by CNN I-Report producers will go back into Second Life for residents to view throughout the virtual world. SL I-Reports may also be viewed and discussed in the real world at CNN.com’s SL I-Report Blog.
CNN’s in-world I-Report hub includes a news desk where CNN producers will hold weekly editorial discussions, and an amphitheater for larger in-world events, such as training sessions and appearances by CNN anchors and correspondents.
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CNN’s first in-world training session will be held Tuesday, November 13, at 5 p.m. ET at the I-Report Hub.
At the I-Report hub, residents can also meet other resident reporters, as well as access I-Report kiosks, free-standing terminals where residents can pick up free gear and tools for gathering and viewing in-world user-generated content.
Winning awards is always neat, and this project was especially fun and thrilling. We brought World Wrestling Entertainment into Gaia Online with an alternate reality experience like no other… Kind of a celebrity meet and greet that turned into a coordinated disaster. Hard to define but here’s a video that helps explain it…
Sometimes it can be tricky for a company to figure out exactly how to enter Second Life. A few have tried and struggled with setting up a storefront that mimics their real life presence, only to find that users in Second Life had a completely different set of needs and expectations. For international electronic appliance company Electrolux, the challenge was even more unique. Electrolux is a company that sells items like washing machines and vacuum cleaners. Useful in real life, but not so in a virtual one.
So the minds at Millions of Us and the marketing firm Gronstedt Group teamed up with Electrolux to come up with a unique and creative solution to this challenge. Electrolux spent months researching and talking with Second Life users to identify their needs and problems. Instead of simply setting up shop and waiting for the community to come to them, they went to the community to understand what made it tick.
UPDATE on the Cinematic Geography of LA project: CNN Headline News wanted to interview me about the movie we created for YouTube. This was basically a brief behind the scenes piece to talk about how we created the film:
A tribute to the glorious accomplishments of many decades of communist governments around the world. After so many attempts in history, it seems the ideology still has legions of fans and supporters. The notion behind this film was to quickly explain how and why communism works exactly as it does on the state and the people living there.
After driving all over Los Angeles for many days taking photographs, and researching iconic cinema locations, this film is the end result. A whirlwind tour around the various locations around the city of Los Angeles and photographs of how they appear today compared with how they appeared on the cinema scenes.
A video made to help publicize a criminally underrated masterpiece. Alfonso Cuarón’s amazing dystopian vision “Children of Men” was completely ignored by Universal and dumped quietly at the box office despite glowing praise from critics. I made this short to help generate more buzz behind this overlooked masterpiece.
Here’s some of the press reaction from our grassroots viral campaign:
Sometimes it can be tricky for a company to figure out exactly how to enter Second Life. A few have tried and struggled with setting up a storefront that mimics their real life presence, only to find that users in Second Life had a completely different set of needs and expectations. For international electronic appliance company Electrolux, the challenge was even more unique. Electrolux is a company that sells items like washing machines and vacuum cleaners. Useful in real life, but not so in a virtual one.
