Traditional story telling techniques used in cinema are generally one-way lean-back experiences. We go to a cinema, we sit down and watch the director's vision unfold.

I love going to the cinema. The very process of leaning-back and going with the flow is key to the cinema-going experience - we are offered an hour and half of escapism in return for the price of admission. And what's wrong with that? Nothing!

That said, I for one am excited by new opportunities to combine traditional storytelling with interactivity, and this is something I am very keen to experiment with and discuss. Hence, my development of the Who? project.

The Who? project aims to formalise a loose interactive framework that will allow anyone to contribute and participate in the story we will create together.

The Concept:

• 3 films based on the ordinary lives of 3 different characters;
• 3 creative teams
• one for each character;
• several cross-over points were one characters actions have an impact on another character;
• several jump-off points were users have the option to jump from one narrative to another;
• in each episode a new character is introduced to the audience;
• the audience is invited to participate in the development of the Who? project by submitting a short video suggesting the personality or actions of a new character;

The Pilot:

In the pilot, I have tried to very gently combine the traditional with the interactive. For example, when you watch the pilot you will follow one character/story at a time. There are cross-over points (with the other characters/stories) built into the film but these are not "jump-off points".

When you do decide to jump between stories you will realise that there are elements in one story that are a direct result of another story, and this effects the direction of future narratives.

E.g's.

1) If character A makes a phone call to character B, A and B will both have to be speaking on the phone at some point in their own film. 2) If character B leaves an object out of place this can have an influence on A’s routine.

Other Information:

This project is cross platform (web, mobile, DVD players, HD systems) and it supports subtitles and additional audio tracks.

Creative Parameters:

• We start with 3 different characters/story arcs;
• Each character/story arc is to be developed by a different team of writers and directors;
• Each of these 3 different character/story arcs must have a natural cross over point allowing the audience to jump from one to another;
• All the characters/story arcs must meet at the end of each webisode in order to allow the audience to propose a new character that will be added to the next episode;
• Ideas generated by the audience are then developed by each creative team and an actor will be selected to play the role created;

High quality submissions will be invited to not only participate in the development process but may also be offered the opportunity to act and play the role of the character they created. We aim for the webisode to act as a talent finder and offer people real-world production experience.