Sunday 11 December 2011

Paul Verhoeven and the user-generated movie

One of the announcements at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, that didn't receive much attention back in Adelaide, was that Dutch film director, Paul Verhoeven (Robocop, Basic Instinct, Total Recall), was launching a new project called the Entertainment Experience.

Supported by Dutch media company FCCE, this cross-media project calls for a user-generated movie. "All aspects of movie making, including the acting and filming, is done by new talent - anybody can sign up on the website," the director explained at a press conference. He called on the public to write the script, compose the theme tune and design a game based on the film.

People interested in taking part were invited to register via the website www.entertainmentexperience.nl. Registered participants were given the chance to develop a film, up to and including the eighth part. This film is based on the same script as the film that will be directed by Paul Verhoeven. Verhoeven will select the scripts for the remaining seven parts from all the submitted works. Scenes from both films will end with the same elements every three minutes and begin from the same starting points. 

The Albrecht family are sitting at the table... that’s the first sentence of the film.
It was written by Kim van Kooten. Her script covers the first three minutes and tells the story of a family. From there, the audience takes over all disciplines from scriptwriting to acting, music score to special effects.

The project is due to be wrapped up by June 2012 and encompasses all media platforms, online, mobile, broadcast, cinema, gaming and live events.  In parallel to the user-generated movie, Paul Verhoeven will create his version of the film, inspired by the audience’s contribution. The Entertainment Experience will also receive an international roll-out.

The first part of the film has been completed and premièred exclusively on Veronica, a Dutch TV channel, on 24 November 2011. The cast was made up of well-known and new talent, distilled from more than 2,000 open castings.

The following video is of Paul Verhoeven at Cannes 2011, during a party, talking about the project - the Entertainment Experience - the World's first user generated movie project.

    Cannes    Entertainment Experience    FCCE   

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