Seances and Hidden Window Powered By Tech Redefining Movie Making

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Every movie fan dreams of being the hero that saves the day. Some of us even have guilty thoughts about being the villain. Now that's possible with Imposium, a pre-developed system that lets filmmakers literally pull audiences into their stories like never before. Imagine being stalked like Pullman or Arquette in Lynch's disturbing Lost Highway, and it's footage of you sleeping in that bed that plays on VHS. Or what about being the voice of Charlie, guiding your Angel's next move in every action-packed episode - who just so happened to be played by your friends.

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Those are just a few of the new groundbreaking creative choices filmmakers have with Imposium, proprietary software that puts audiences into movies and shows - and puts dynamic video creation at your fingertips. As seen in celebrated short films powered by Imposium like Hidden Window and Seances, the gold standard in dynamic video production provides solid examples of audience-immersive experiences, which integrate user-generated content to drive the story and leverage social data to create a personalized film experience.

Hidden Window's mysterious storyline involves a journalist investigating a murder, who in the course of her investigation, uncovers a disturbing, secretive website that literally pulls viewers into the plot. By uploading footage of unsuspecting friends through the app, Imposium triggers a dynamic video featuring audiences stitched directly into scenes from the movie. The resulting short film is then intended to be sent to unaware friends for a truly unique film watching experience.

It works in a number of interesting ways, but the most compelling experience is with friends. You download the app from the app store and begin creating the story by capturing footage of friends (or yourself), uploading photos, and supplying the narrative with other juicy tidbits of information that is creepily put into context for the Hidden Window story arc. But that's not all. Friends who receive a story customized for them. The Imposium-powered Hidden Window follows on the heels of the incredibly successful Seances project, a short film produced by the NFB and shown this past Spring at the Tribeca Film Festival. It uses the same system but in a much different way.

Seances was created by applying algorithmic storytelling to filmmaking, utilizing Imposium's custom clip-swapping, a feature offered by the cloud-based software platform that can stitch together near-infinite combinations of narratives. As a result, billions of short films could be generated by using different scenes from 18 live performances captured by legendary director Guy Maddin. By generating a film from 'cinematic purgatory' (as only a seance can), the system renders a new film in real-time personally tailored to that particular audience - only never to be seen again.

"The result is that each and every film created is utterly unique, and, in the spirit of a seance, is neither recorded or ever created again: once it has finished it is once again lost, and over 2,500 such short films have already come and gone," wrote Filmmaker's Randy Astle. "If the real-time compositing weren't impressive enough, [they] also created a way for this to be done in the cloud, allowing an online version of Seances to potentially create thousands of new films simultaneously for individual viewers around the globe."

Greg Webber, Lead Developer behind both undertakings, says that technology is helping usher in a new era of storytelling. "Narratives have always been considered linear, but we're able to break that stereotype using Imposium to make stories extend beyond just the start and finish, and into an infinite universe filled with compelling twists and turns." For example, Hidden Window lets friends send the video anonymously to leave them looking over their shoulder, wondering who has been secretly filming them. Those same friends can then keep the story going with a few similar interactive episodes that contextualize real life situations into the film.

"Seances and Hidden Window break down barriers of how films are traditionally made and watched by opening the door for audience participation, blurring the lines between reality and fiction," said Imposium creator and Nickel Media founder Jason Nickel. "We continue to lead the way in providing solutions for filmmakers to help bring algorithmic storytelling to life, which some writers, and directors still have trouble understanding conceptually. But with Imposium we make it really easy to understand what dynamic video is to not only help inspire ideas but also affordably produce a finished product that is cinema-quality and ready to entertain the masses."

Hidden Window can be seen at the North Carolina Gay and Lesbian Film Festival August 12-20th as part of the Red Lipstick Trilogy and at hiddenwindowapp.com for those who want to experience the alternate reality game online.

About Imposium

Imposium is proprietary personalized video software that is used by the world's biggest marketers and a rapidly growing number of global brands who are turning to the benefits of personalized, dynamic online video campaigns developed by Nickel Media. The Imposium software platform was developed by in 2012 and is used by storytellers and marketers from around the globe. More information about Imposium can be found on its website, http://www.imposium.com.

About Nickel Media

Nickel Media was formed in 2006 and is based in Halifax, Canada with offices in New York and Los Angeles. They work with some of the most recognized award-winning brands and agencies in North America, and are responsible for such groundbreaking work as Take This Lollipop and Remote Control Tourist.

Media contact:
Danielle Prager
Email
(858) 256-6344

SOURCE Imposium

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