You read that right. For the first time ever, an iPhone application has been accepted in a film festival. The app, titled Walking Cinema: Murder on Beacon Hill, is an interactive murder mystery story that includes videos. The videos, to be shown together in order, are to debut at the Boston International Film Festival. Find out more after the jump.
Murder on Beacon Hill , developed by Untravel Media, is a combination of movie, game, and adventure, and its local focus may have helped it get into the film festival. Based on a fascinating true story, the free app has you walk around Boston following clues to the 1849 murder of the wealthy George Parkman. At eight different stops you watch a series of videos. At the film festival, the 33 video segments will be shown together continuously to make a 43 minute film.
Even short films cost money, so Untravel Media was lucky to get pretty good financial partners in PBS and a few other organization.
Developed in partnership with the producers of the PBS film “Murder at Harvard” and Simon Schama’s book, “Dead Certainties,” this original production is a first-of-its-kind location-based adaptation of a major documentary film. The work is supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Center for Independent Documentary.
This is a big deal for transmedia, which has been gaining a lot of popularity in recent years, yet is still looking for more mainstream and critical acceptance. BIFF seems to be branching out to find alternative forms of visual storytelling, and hopefully other festivals follow suit.
You can download Murder on Beacon Hill for free on iTunes. The film will debut on April 18th at 8:15pm at the AMC/LOEWS Boston Common.
Source: Xconomy