The Nightingale Company announces start of production of online interactive story experience “Do You Believe Me”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Wednesday February 27, 2008
Toronto – The Nightingale Company has started production of the unique online interactive story experience Do You Believe Me.
“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. “Do You Believe Me crosses the boundaries traditionally drawn between online and televised entertainment, gaming, and real life adventure,” says Debbie Nightingale, President of the Nightingale Company.
The story follows Maya McCarthy, an average 17-year-old girl who is thrown into a world of mystery and deceit. As the story begins, Maya suffers recurring nightmares, prompting her to believe she must protect her younger brother from a looming threat – she doesn’t know what or why, but with the help of her neighbor and tech savvy geek friend Gord, she begins investigating her family’s past. What she finds will rock the foundation of her life and transform her into a reluctant hero. The fate of the entire world is in her hands… if only she could convince her friends and family to believe her.
The first volume of the series will be widely distributed online twice a week as 2 minute episodes, via free video sharing sites. Video delivery via the project’s website will be made possible by mDialog.com, a high-resolution online video platform that utilizes advanced h.264 encoding technology. This innovative mDialog.com platform will bring Do You Believe Me to audiences everywhere – not only on PC and MAC’s, but available for download via iTunes, optimized for the iPod, iPhone, and AppleTV and widely available online as well as through RSS feeds.
Do You Believe Me is the perfect content for young audiences craving rich and exciting video series online, offering dozen of ways to interact with the characters and get involved with the story.
Creative Producers Denis Coyne and Adam Clare are among the creators of the groundbreaking multi-platform urban alternate reality game, TorGame, and bring experience with developing, producing and deploying alternate reality components necessary to the story. “We don’t believe in treating the online world like a television screen,” says 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 closely with Marta Gomes of beActive, one of the writers of Sophia’s Diary. Joseph Kay, Executive Story Editor for This Is Wonderland and The Weight also worked closely with the team as the Story Editor.
Pat Mills (The Affected Turtleneck Trio, Babysitting Andy, Marjorie) is directing the video components of Do You Believe Me. Mills is the recipient of the Norman Jewison Filmmaker Award, the City TV Best Film Award, and was a recent participant in the 2007 Talent Lab at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The Nightingale Company is a boutique film, television, and new media production firm led by Debbie Nightingale and Shain Jaffe. Since launching in 2000, the Toronto-based company has produced all types of projects from feature films to dramatic series, documentaries to interactive adventures. Currently, The Nightingale Company is in post production of The Weight, a television series co-written by George F. Walker and Dani Romain for The Movie Network and Movie Central, with a second season in development. Nightingale also recently wrapped production on the feature film The Last New Year. Other recent credits include Zixx: Level One, Two & Three, Chicks with Sticks, Get Outta Town, Mob Princess, and Bailey’s Billions.
beActive Produções Interactivas S.A. is now celebrating its fifth anniversary with a slate of new interactive formats that include Flatmates, Young CSI and Doyoubelieveme.com. Created in 2002 under the Digital Businessman Program (a partnership initiative between Aitec, Vodafone and Microsoft), beActive became a pioneer in the development and production of interactive cross-media properties, which are broadcasted and published simultaneous in different medias, from Mobile to Internet and TV and Radio.
For interviews and production stills, please contact Jeanette Cabral at 416.628.1355 or jeanette@thenightingalecompany.com