Are You Ready for a New Scene? We Are Nearly Ready for You.
Step into Scenes, a revolutionary storytelling app where you create as characters, not yourself. Beta testing is near—join the future of social creativity!
Alright, folks, the time is almost upon us. Beta testing is looming, the creative challenge work is coming together, and the excitement is... well, exciting!
We are genuinely looking forward to working with all of you to explore the best ways to use this new format – the limitations (because, let’s be honest, there will be a few), the opportunities (which will be vast and glorious), and the inevitable cries of "Wait, why can’t I do this?" Your input is going to be absolutely invaluable. Like Frodo needs Sam. Like Mulder needs Scully. Like the Ghostbusters need an actual plan. We’re in this together.
The prototype is looking rather good now, though please remember it’s not going to be slick and wonderful design-wise. Because even the user interface is something we want your input on. I have a meeting with the developer on Monday to go over the finer details, and there’s about another week—maybe two—of development work before it’s in your hands. And when it is in your hands, be warned: this is going to require a bit of a mindset shift.
We are all used to social media being a free-for-all. You post what you like, when you like, as yourself, about your life. That is not what’s happening here. Scenes—yes, that’s the name of the new app, clever, right?—is an entirely different beast. Every post is a scene from a long story. And this whole idea? Well, it’s a new scene for all of us to step into together as well. See what I did there?
Scenes!
So, here’s the deal: you won’t be posting as yourself. Every post will be from a character in a story. Your real self stays in the audience, commenting and engaging as a viewer. But when you create, you are stepping into a role. This is new. This is different. This is basically method acting meets social media. Think of it as an improv session, but on a digital stage, where the fourth wall is permanently cracked.
Creators will tell fictional stories as characters. Viewers will interact as themselves, commenting, engaging, and questioning. And if you’re a creator, you’ll also be able to comment as your character, keeping the story alive and weaving in those juicy plot developments. It’s social creativity, but not as we know it, Jim.
When you load the app, a few pre-loaded stories and characters will be there for you to play with. Not full storylines—just enough to get the idea across. Think of it as a demo mode before you start crafting your own epic tales. One of these stories will be called "Instructions," and, as you might have guessed, I’ll be posting in there with, well... instructions. Another one will be called "The NoW," which is the name of our launch performance. That’s where we’ll be rehearsing. You won’t be able to post in either of these, but there will be two spaces where you can get involved: "Creative Challenges" and "Random Play."
"Creative Challenges" is where the structured beta testing will happen, with our Lancaster Uni intern and all of you lovely people helping us learn what works (and what definitely doesn’t). "Random Play" is, as the name suggests, where you can mess around, experiment, and see what sort of weird and wonderful nonsense you can create.
When the app launches properly, though? After the beta testing. Every story will be a real story that viewers can choose to buy tickets to follow, and then they will be able to watch it unfold in real time. And that’s where things really get interesting.
We’ve already done some early rehearsals, as you saw in a recent post:
And we’ve learned a lot from these already:
Organisation is key, and we don’t want to descend into chaos like the Council of Elrond without Gandalf, so the Intern and I will structure the creative challenges well.
Length of a Scene (post). How long is too long? How short is too short? What’s the ideal format? We’re still figuring that out, but much like a Doctor Who season finale, pacing is everything.
Exposition: do we avoid it, or embrace it? The ancient oral tradition of storytelling is all about telling rather than showing. And honestly, I love a good storyteller spinning a yarn. With multi-character narratives, exposition might actually add to the experience, giving us different perspectives on the same event. We’re leaning towards yes, exposition is fine—but we don’t want to forget modern storytelling techniques too. So we need to see how we can integrate the two, to create this new format.
We’ve also been playing with different ways to create Scenes (posts) that bring characters together, and here are some possibilities:
Video calls (classic, effective, slightly prone to chaos, much like Zoom meetings)
Characters recording "something else" that turns into an unexpected interaction - this would be like a normal social post, a make up tutorial, a rant, anything; but then something from the story would also become involved - developing character and story alongside each other)
Characters recording interactions between others, adding their own commentary (think a fantasy version of reaction videos).
A selection of clips, cuts, and pictures from a longer interaction, interspersed with text and selfies (found footage vibes, but make it social media style, perhaps from a long day out with a group of people - so you’d get an impression of what went on - brining the artistic idea of negative space - something for the audience to fill up - into performances.)
Livestream-style moments where guests can jump in (rare, but possible—like a rogue Twitch stream breaking the fourth wall)
And we’ve been thinking about how to use the AR and Digital Props and content best:
Can we do some of this with app-based coding? Or is it all through assets that are loaded into the app.
Do we need to be able to position digital 2d props easily, during posts.
Live content stitching—should we be able to switch 2D props on and off during a recording?
Face/costume/background changes mid-shot—doable? Useful? Ridiculous? All of the above?
And we’ve been thinking about all the ways we can or should add sounds:
When and how should we add sound effects? Should they be toggled on and off during a shoot?
Should they be built into the app, or should we use old-school, real-world methods? (Coconut shells for horse hooves, anyone?)
Sounds in 3D stage worlds—which ones should we build in and which not?
Background noise reduction (because no one wants to hear your neighbour’s leaf blower in the middle of a tense scene)
In-app voiceovers—because sometimes, you just need a dramatic narration option.
What level of real-world background noise is good.
Soundtracks - we are thinking that this wouldn’t feel natural, unless it’s from devices in backgrounds of real life style scenes.
This is going to be a big change to social media and entertainment. It’s new. It’s different. And yes, it’s going to take a little getting used to. But we believe that this—this fusion of storytelling, creativity, and social interaction—is what social media was always meant to be. And once you get the hang of it, we think it’s going to feel like second nature.
Or at least, as natural as it is for a group of strangers to collaboratively build a fictional world together online. Which, let’s face it, has been happening since the dawn of the internet. Only now, we’re making an app for it.
We’re nearly there. It’s almost time. Get ready to step into the new scene with us.
If you want to be involved and haven’t signed up yet, head on over to this page on our site: https://www.feathertreearts.com/pitch-in and sign up.
Super excited!
This is sensational writing! "If the Ghostbusters had an actual plan" he he 😁 Let's do this!