Purefold Wants You To Write The Next ‘Blade Runner’
June 5th, 2009
Imagine a gritty, futuristic science fiction series spread out across TV,
cinema and the web. And imagine being able to make comments about the story line, suggest twists and turns in the plot, invent complex sub-plots, introduce characters based on your friends, set scenes you’ve had in a dream or simply give constructive criticism to the makers. And imagine the most talented writers and directors of our time weaving all of this together into a dramatic symphony of sight and sound. And finally, imagine your involvement as easy as sending a tweet or updating your FriendFeed. Sound good? Well, this is what Ridley Scott Associates and Ag8 has in store for you with it’s new “open media franchise” Purefold.
The theme is ‘What does it mean to be human?’ and is set 2 years from now and will continue right up to 2019, the year in which Blade Runner was set. Although it shares the same themes as Blade Runner it will not be a prequel to the film due to licensing restrictions.
What is perhaps the most arresting thing about this concept is that it will be released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license. This means it can be ripped, ported, mashed, re-shot, re-told or fried with mung beans and served with bacon providing you do so under the same license and credit Purefold accordingly. It is exactly this form of social open-ness which will allow this idea to thrive.
Brand Agenda
The shorts are paid for by brands. Ag8 work with advertising and marketing agencies to devise ways in which a brand can weave it’s product into the plot. This won’t be just product placement, brands will pay a fixed fee for the making of an episode which may or may not turn out to be a success. Their brand may appear in some futuristic form and may allow brands to road-test or prototype new concepts. Ag8 will have no problems funding the shorts and is already in agreement with agencies such as Aegis, Naked Communications and WPP.
Crowdsourced Inspiration
This isn’t really user generated content, as such. It isn’t fully created and produced by users, it is informed, inspired and sparked by user commentary and it’s fed back into the community and can be legally re-used but the community.
Many have criticized that it’s a ‘design by committee’ approach, which it isn’t. There is a distillation process, a bit of refining and then it’s shot by very talented directors. There’s no automated bot that picks up the most talked about idea and there’s no voting. It’s simply monitored by some very clever people who are good at spotting interesting little insights and ideas.
Going Transmedia
To begin with, there will be a series of 5 – 10 minute shorts which may pop up anywhere, however, once momentum begins and brands start to pour more money into the venture, it may be that the story line is carried through to cinema or TV.
Each of the films, movies and other bits of content act as threads within the same story. The only thing they have in common is the story line. This is the fundamental concept behind transmedia storytelling. Now, that concept is alien to most of us but Ag8 co-founder David Bausola goes one step further by adding an additional dimension. Purefold mines the idle chatter of the masses and funnels that into a refining process. The chatter might be direct advice about the story line, vague inspiration or simply references which are completely unrelated to the story but offer intriguing or diverting inspiration.
Talking with David 6 months ago, he said “This idea is like a big ball of string which needs to be unpicked”. It’s certainly complex but the open licensing principle, the incredible directors and the immensely creative potential of crowds should ensure the success of this very daring project.
