ARTSblog

A poster for "Radius: A Short Film."

A fascinating new project out of Cincinnati just recently caught my attention.

Filmmakers were inspired by The Arts Ripple Effect: A Research-Based Strategy to Build Shared Responsibility for the Arts, a study conducted by local arts agency ArtsWave in 2008.

The study and report were “designed to develop an inclusive
 community dialogue leading to broadly shared public responsibility 
for arts and culture in the region” and “concluded that [their] work with the community through arts and
 culture must be based on a foundation that incorporates a deeper 
understanding of the best way to communicate with the public in
 order to achieve that shared sense of responsibility.”

Calling it “the world’s first game-sourced movie,” Radius: A Short Film, created by Possible Worldwide, a WPP Digital company, with multiple Cincinnati-based partners, “the film was shot in and around Cincinnati during MidPoint Music Festival and other arts events.”

What makes it especially unique is that the film was created by editing “from more than 2,000 unique pieces of crowd-sourced content” gathered using a smartphone app called SCVNGR.

“They placed life-sized superheroes on top of iconic Cincinnati buildings such as the Contemporary Arts Center and Know Theater to attract attention, and movie posters encouraged people to play the SCVNGR game by scanning the displayed QR codes.

More than 300 people played the game and submitted their own photos via the SCVNGR app. They received free music downloads from the bands performing at MidPoint, as well as the opportunity to be featured in the film. Additional content was gathered during Cincinnati’s Final Friday event and at the Emery Theatre’s 11.11.11 opening event.”

This unique endeavor was a win-win for both the production company…

“‘The most exciting aspect of the Radius experience is how we actually used all this game-sourced content in the movie,’ said Hank McLendon, chief creative officer at Possible Worldwide. ‘Photos of local businesses and venues became a three-dimensional “Gotham” for our superhero story, and portraits of the audience became characters in our film. We even gave people the opportunity to remix songs from music festival bands to help create our film score. Then we combined it all into a unique, visually engaging take on the standard comic book format.’”

…and the local arts agency, ArtsWave…

“‘We wanted to know how to change the conversation about the arts in an innovative way,’ said Margy Waller, project manager for the ArtsWave research initiative. ‘The creative team at Possible took the idea of the arts ripple effect and brought it to life in a vivid and compelling story that invites people to discover their own power to change their community by supporting and participating in the arts.’”

And now you can view the entire film and a behind-the-scenes video here:

For more information, visit the film’s website.