Town where you live too boring? Want to trade in your neighbours for new ones? Dream of being an actor when you grow up? Perhaps you’ll find comfort in the haunted (and virtual) town of Beckinfield.
Residents of the fictional town of Beckinfield have a lot going on, what with all the ghosts and other supernatural intercessions that keep popping up. But the townspeople are nowhere near as busy as some visitors to Beckinfield, a website that presents an ongoing sci-fi series about the town in a format unlike any TV you’ve ever seen.
That’s because the story is told entirely by means of first-person video diaries — in-character performances created by users and uploaded to the site.
Series/website creators Theatrics, call it “Mass Participation Television,” a combination of user-generated content, social networking and guided storytelling.
Could this nascent entertainment form mark the beginning of the end for the classic couch potato? I say find a way to combine a physical storyline with a Wii and a pedometer and you’ll kill two birds with one stone.