Digital Media Plan

As hinted at in the story’s prologue, the world of RISEN has an established history and chain of events that lead us to our first encounter with Jacob. In the opening scene of the film, we quickly establish the main focus of his tireless information searches: an apparent ‘conspiracy’ surrounding an EVENT years earlier, that may or may not be tied to a groundbreaking advanced bio-mechanical Intelligence.

The goal of the digital media strategy for the property is to focus on this information – anything and everything surrounding the AI-triggered EVENT, and the fallout from it – in order to build the ‘world’ of the story in convincing and uncanny detail through an ARG (Alternate Reality Game) experience:

• A collection of ‘nested’ websites (science journal, news story, conspiracy buff, etc) detailing the worldwide scientific community rallying behind and against the ‘activation’ of hyper-advanced algorithms in the late 90s.
• We seed these sites through related forums, real world science and tech maga- zines, and conspiracy hubs. As users begin to dig deeper through the material, they would uncover richer media ‘proof’.
• As the campaign evolves, stylized/dated ‘interviews’ with scientists, retired military figures, and fringe/cult ‘researchers’ would add additional layers to the sense of REALITY surrounding the ‘Event’.
• Within a few months of the film’s eventual launch/distribution (either through festivals or traditional distribution – we can taper the transmedia campaign to be linked to specific territories or release dates), we can begin to ‘leak’ more spe- cific information surrounding the EVENT. This could include ‘lost stories’ from newspapers that covered the world shutting down 15 years earlier, but few people knowing WHY. It would also be effective (and economical) to shoot mock newscasts and stories from that era, covering the strange worldwide technological breakdown that was never explained.
• ‘Skeptics’ would then come forward with blogs, twitter and Facebook accounts, and YouTube interviews, attempting to explain away the mounting evidence surrounding the Event as nothing more that paranoia and conspiracy cranks trying to make drama out of modern phenomena including well-documented electrical blackouts, strange weather patterns, UFO sightings, and solar flare activity.
• The crown jewel in the campaign would be the ‘discovery’ of a series of secret MEDICAL INTERVIEWS with women being considered for the procedure that would eventu- ally give birth to Jacob. could be presented as a mix of text, audio, and grainy video – an unseen interviewer (voiced in non-text versions by the actor playing Dr Brahman) would interview several women and explain the procedure and its risks/rewards. The final interviewee would be with the actress playing Jacob’s mother in the film – LILITH – and would tie beautifully into the information that Jacob and Eve discover during their detective work in the film.