A few months ago, Ted Hope (the iconic indie film producer) asked Hal to write a few posts on HH&T, Social Films, and the Transmedia movement. Here’s a rundown of the posts to date:

Watching Games and Playing Films

My Film Has a Virus? WTF?

Virality and The Potential Of Social Films

We’ve really psyched about all the great press coverage Him, Her and Them has received to date. It’s a great validation of the project, but more importantly the idea of Social Films. Here’s a quick rundown of the articles to date:

Fast Company:
Now Playing On A Facebook Wall Near You

The Creators Project:
Him, Her and Them — The First Ever Facebook Film

Social Times:
Watch The First Ever Social Film on Facebook

Workbook Project:
Transmedia Talk #24 (Podcast)

JWT Intelligence:
Social Films

Cynopsis Digital (scroll down the page)
Website of the Day

We are very excited to announce the world premiere of Him, Her and Them - a Social Film only on Facebook. You and your friends can add to the story. Watch the film now!

Him, Her and Them premieres on Facebook tomorrow!

We are in the midst of post-production for Him, Her and Them and have learned quite a few lessons about the process of creating a Social Film. Since this is essentially a new type of film genre, we’ve had to figure out many things out as we’ve gone along. There is no existing road map for this process. Hopefully these notes will the be the beginning of one.

Social Films are a Film/Software Hybrid
Because a social film is a blend of motion pictures and interactivity the process for creating one is informed by traditional film making and application development. This means we have two teams working in parallel. One team is editing and mixing the video we shot and audio we recorded. The other team is building the technical framework for the application that will display the video as well as the interactive scenes in the film.

One of the more complicated aspects of this hybrid production process is determining integration points. We have followed a standard software milestone model:

• Prototype - this milestone includes the initial build of the overall framework. With it we flesh out how the videos will be displayed and how the interactive scenes will work. We prototype the user interactions here. We have completed this milestone and are now able to use it as a “static” demo. It is static because nothing is integrated with Facebook yet.
• Alpha - this milestone includes the first batch of Facebook API (application protocol interface) integration. We use this milestone to validate that our process for tying the film into Facebook is working. We have completed this milestone, but have kept the look and feel very rough. This is not anything we will show to those outside of our team, it is an internal milestone.
• Beta - this milestone will include a full build and complete integration with all Facebook functionality (adding to the story, liking your friend’s additions, and sharing the film). At this stage will will include outside beta-testers who will help us test full functionality. Thanks in advance to those who have volunteered to help!
• Launch - this is the final milestone and will represent the final Social Film.

Developing Social Applications
Another layer of complexity in producing a Social Film is developing and testing the social aspects of its functionality. How do you do this without exposing it the real world? We are developing the project in a Facebook App “sandbox” (basically it’s a development environment within Facebook). Then we had to create a fake social network of viewers. This way we can properly test how viewers can add to the story and experience it through the lens of their social graph.

Interactivity and the Narrative Thread
Another key challenge we face when creating an entertainment experience that combines both linear and interactive scenes is to ensure the story is told consistently throughout the film. This becomes harder when you introduce interactivity into the story. How do you make it meaningful even if someone (or their friends) doesn’t contribute? How do you carry through the story from scene to scene, when viewers experience those scenes in a different manner (linear vs. interactive).

Our solution is two-fold:

1. The interactive scenes contain text and images that communicate the story and references from the previous linear (ie, video) scene.
2. The interactive scenes contain a large amount of pre-populated content that tells the story. So a viewer’s experience will still be compelling even if they (or their friends) don’t contribute to the story.  

We have also presented the interactive scenes to various testing groups so we can get feedback on their understanding of the interface. Will they know how to contribute? Will they understand the functionality? This is another common tool that software developers use.

Encouraging Feedback
We are excited by the great feedback we’ve received to date. Here are a few links to stories about it:

• Transmythology
• App Market
• ZenithOptimedia (Australia)
• Hi-Re (Netherlands)
• WebTelevision Observer (France)
• Blogomadaire (France)

So EXACTLY How Will Him, Her and Them Work?
The trailer that we released a few weeks ago was intended as a teaser, and from that perspective it’s been very successful. Everyone naturally wants to know exactly what the mechanics are like. We’ve been reluctant to release too much information too early (in part because we’re still testing and tweaking), but VERY SOON we will post a few screenshots and describe precisely how the interactivity will work. Here’s a big hint: we are utilizing the natural “gestures” of Facebook.

Remember: It’s NOT Actually a Film
Finally, it’s important to not lose sight of the fact that we are appropriating (or abducting, depending on your point of view) the term “film”. In fact, Him, Her and Them is most definitely not a film — at least, not in the traditional sense of the word. It’s a digital application that blends elements of motion pictures with aspects of interactivity and social participation. Aesthetically, one of our goals was to make it look un-cinematic; to not just make the interactive elements feel story-like, but also to make the linear, motion picture elements look and feel a bit app-like.

Plans for Launch
We are on target to be in Beta in late March 2011 with a premier planned for early April 2011.

We are in the midst of post-production and the results are really exciting. We can’t wait to share it with everyone when it is completed. In the meantime we wanted to take a moment to thank our awesome team that helped make Him, Her and Them a reality. 

Director of Photoraphy:
Peter Gordon - Peter is an accomplished DP with a ton of experience shooting commercials, music videos, documentaries, and television shows. If you are a fan of Comedy Central, MTV, or VH1 you’ve probably seen his work. 
www.lofifilms.com

Actors: 
Matthew Robert Gehring - Madison, Ohio’s finest, Matt is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. He is very active in the NYC sketch comedy world as a member of Political Subversities and Tenured Faculty, although he and Jennifer Aniston could use some work on their charades. 

Kim Blanck - Kim is a multi-talented NYC-based actor, singer and dancer. Like Matt she is a graduate of Tisch School of the Arts and a member of Political Subversities. She has performed as a soloist with the NYU N’Harmonics, an internationally ranked a cappella group. She and her folk-pop band, The Shop, are also working the NYC music scene. www.kimblanck.com

Locations:
Horton Lees Brogden Lighting Design - HLB Lighting is a leading lighting design firm with offices in Boston, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. They were kind enough to let us use their office for a photoshoot.
www.hlblighting.com

Simon Pulman is one of the most insightful writers on Transmedia and story worlds, so we are naturally pretty thrilled about his latest article, which focuses on Him, Her and Them. Here’s a key passage from the full article on Transmythology:

However, to merely use Facebook as a video screen would be to ignore a large proportion of its potential as a storytelling device, and that is something that Him, Her and Them appears to have realized. Its website talks about Facebook’s “social graph,” that provides the number one most important feature in the long tail digital age -a layer of filtering. As the site says “the social graph presents a layer of filtering – you trust your friends, the content produced by your social graph is curated, you have a reputation that is conveyed to it, you are not anonymous.”

Furthermore, Facebook allows for participation, feedback and collaboration built right into the user experience. Him, Her and Them promises a non-linear and, perhaps most interestingly, tailored viewing experience. So my experience viewing will be different to yours because of the friends I have and my relationship to the movie. Interesting, although until the film is released it’s impossible to fully gauge how this will work.

Of course we don’t want to give away too much from the film itself, but suffice it to say that Pulman is right on target as to our plans and goals for HH&T.

One other thing of note: this project was planned and created as closed, singular experience largely because we wanted to keep the scale modest (it being our first project). But that said, Pulman makes this observation as well:

It’d be much better to feed the user bits of story in drips and drabs over a longer period, bringing them back for a few minutes at a time.

As usual, we agree completely, and in fact, that’s our intention for our next project. 

The trailer is out! Watch it now and then head over to Facebook and tell us what you think.

After a few months of concepting and scriptwriting, we were excited to finally announce Him, Her and Them. Not surprisingly, we setup a Facebook page and asked our friends to “like” the page. Our first modest goal was to get at least one hundred people to become fans so that we could get the custom URL: http://www.facebook.com/HimHerandThem. So, like proud new parents we announced the project to our friends and cheered as we quickly broke the one hundred mark  (thanks again everyone).
 
Immediately we noticed one common theme of feedback—what is a Facebook film and how will it work? Actually it was phrased in a number of ways:

• “Wow, cool! Uh, so what’s a Facebook Film?”
• “WTF!?!?“
• “Not completely sure I understand…”
• “Interesting.”
• “Wasn’t that a film released this summer?”

Given these comments, we thought that we should explain things just a bit more.

The Distribution and Consumption of Entertainment Is Changing 
It is no secret that technology has disrupted the entertainment industry. New means of distribution and revenue generation are being developed at a breakneck page. We have all read the headlines and experienced it first hand with mobile computing, touchscreen tablets, iTunes, Torrent, Netflix, YouTube, DVRs, Grooveshark, Pandora, etc. 

While some people see this disruption in negative terms: “the Internet killed the music industry” or “YouTube is going to kill television”, we believe this is an environment of innovation. It is nothing less than an opportunity to shape the ways in which entertainment is experienced and to create new forms of storytelling.  
 
In addition, social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn have become the leading activity on the web. Facebook alone has over 500 million users. This got us thinking about how social media could impact how people watch and experience films. Could we use Facebook to distribute a film? How would this change the way a viewer experienced a film?
 
Films can use social media in a number of ways:

• Financing - use a tool like Kickstarter to fund a film
• Production - crowdsource various elements in the production of the film (such as Ridley Scott’s Life in a Day)
• Marketing - use social networks to market a film (it seems every film these days has a Facebook page or a promotional Twitter feed )
• Distribution - hmm.

The first three methods are fairly well documented, but the fourth is mostly uncharted.

Social Films
In thinking about how to use social media to distribute a film we first had to take a step back and look at the platform itself. Your “social graph” is the network of relationships you have within a social networking service. It is your list of friends on Facebook, or your followers on Twitter. The social graph presents a layer of filtering - you trust your friends, the content produced by your social graph is curated, you have a reputation that is conveyed to it, you are not anonymous. 

What if we were able to incorporate your social graph, into the entertainment experience? To some extent this has actually happened for years - what is the first thing you do after you see a movie? You tell your friends about it.
 
But let us take the idea and extend it further. Social media is a user-generated, ongoing conversation. How could we combine a traditional linear film experience with the richer, more personalized, experience that one’s social graph can provide?

How Will It Be Different? 
A traditional film is viewed in a linear format. You go to a theater or watch it in the comfort of your home. You are strictly a passive observer. As a Facebook film, Him, Her and Them will present a new type of experience. It will blend interactivity (where the viewer interacts with the film and contributes to the story and film experience) and passive viewing (where the viewer sits back and watches the flim). This will be filtered by the viewer’s social graph, so your “version” of the film experience is unique to your social graph. 

There will be linear and non-linear scenes. The content of the non-linear scenes will be contributed by the members of your social graph. Therefore, each viewer’s experience of the Him, Her and Them will be unique because of their social graph. This may all start to sound complicated, but what we’ve tried hard to do is to tie it into the ways in which you already use Facebook.

How Will It Make Money? 
Great question. Initially we will follow the freemium model of modern technology apps (when you are starting out, give it away for free). This is our first project and we are more interested in sharing the results of our efforts with as many viewers as we can. Eventually we believe there are revenue generation opportunities in giving fans the ability to contribute to the story they are viewing. However, the mechanics for this process still require additional experiments. For now, we are content to explore this new type of film experience and see where it leads us and our fans. 

Links 
We follow a number of thinkers who write about how the entertainment industry is evolving. Check them out if you are interested in learning more:

• http://www.filmfuturist.com/
• http://www.hopeforfilm.com/
• http://www.transmythology.com/
• http://www.lanceweiler.com/