Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Scary City: New Mystery Web Series, With A Budget!

SCARY CITY is poised to be the next big viral webisode phenomenon. It's created by LONELYGIRL15 producer Yumiko Aoyagi and launches September 15th. And it's packing a $5.2 million budget. So here's my question: If we know it's fiction, do we care? Lonelygirl gathered steam because no one was really sure if it was real or not. The not-knowing seems to drive intrigue and viral distribution. At least that seems to be the case when it comes to these experimental long(er) form mystery webisodes and even alternate reality games. (Obviously this is less the case with short comedy clips.) Here's a brief description of the show from Variety:
The U.S. version of the story revolves around a haunted Los Angeles apartment complex and the missing 10-year-old daughter of an architect who battles the building's unseen evil forces. Tenants from all over the world get caught up in the global intrigue.

The Japanese version begins with a murder mystery that a Tokyo high school girl tries to solve.

Future versions of the mystery are planned for Korea, Israel, the U.K., France and Thailand, with the international casts involved in the globetrotting narrative.

Series will start with five episodes of 1½ to three minutes. Viewers will be able to email episodes of the show; installments will also be syndicated to sites such as Facebook, MySpace and YouTube.

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