Nightingale, beActive in Cross-Platform Project
Jenn Kuzmyk
Feb 28th, 2008
From C21 Media
Toronto-based indie The Nightingale Company and Portugal's beActive are in production on a new online interactive story project that claims to cross the boundaries between online and televised entertainment, gaming and real-life adventure.
"We've partnered with Nuno Bernardo and his company beActive, producers of the smash hit online series Sophia's Diary, to develop up to five innovative multi-platform projects of this type and this is the first one out of the gate," said Debbie Nightingale, president of The Nightingale Company.
Do You Believe Me follows Maya McCarthy, a 17-year-old girl who suffers nightmares prompting her to believe she must protect her younger brother from some looming threat, and with the help of her tech-savvy geek friend Gord, she begins investigating her family's past. What she finds will transform her into a reluctant hero with the fate of the world in her hands, if only she can convince her friends and family to believe her.
The first volume of the series will be widely distributed online twice a week as two-minute episodes, via free video sharing sites. Video delivery via the project's website will be made possible by online video platform mDialog.com.
The property will also be available for download via iTunes, optimised for the iPod, iPhone and AppleTV, and it will also be offered up online through RSS feeds.
Pat Mills (The Affected Turtleneck Trio, Babysitting Andy) is directing the video components, alongside creative producers Denis Coyne and Adam Clare, who were also behind the multi-platform urban alternate reality game TorGame. "We don't believe in treating the online world like a television screen," said Coyne. "The internet provides the opportunity to constantly communicate with our audience and build that feedback into the story as it develops."
To develop the story, Clare and Coyne worked with Marta Gomes of beActive, one of the writers of Sophia's Diary. Joseph Kay, executive story editor for TV drama series such as This Is Wonderland and The Weight also worked closely with the team as story editor.