UGC TV September 29th, 2008 by Jessica Tsai

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Yumiko Aoyagi, creator of one of the people who worked on lonelygirl15, is debuting a new site tomorrow called The Scary City. (The site is currently counting down the time until its launch) In the brief coverage I caught this morning on the CW11 Morning News, the premise of the show revolves around the search for a 10 year old who was kidnapped. This project, Aoyagi said, is, “The Blair Witch Project meets Lost.” According to a member of the production team, “every prop [in the show] has a meaning, so watch carefully.”

Users will be allowed to comment as the show progresses, but the CW11 anchors posed the question that was immediately on my mind — Will comments from the users affect the storyline of the show? The anchors made a public announcement requesting viewers to let the station know if they find their comments integrated into the show.

Now that would be an interesting use of user-generated content. Forget Must-See TV — Bring on the Must-Act TV! (OK, that was kind of lame. I encourage you, reader, to make it better!)

I plan on committing myself to this show in an effort to see how the multi-million dollar project will earn its keep — I’m guessing the usual banner ads, commercial breaks. Supposedly, there will be interactive games — will that diffuse the “scary” in “Scary City”?

Tags: CW11, Interactive marketing, Internet television, lonelygirl15, online marketing, The Scary City, UGC, user generated content, Yumiko Aoyagi

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According to an Aug. 5, 2008, Variety article, http://snurl.com/ScaryCityVariety (Aug. 5), “The Scary City” is a “$5.2 million project…[that] will involve a storyline that spans several countries. 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…. 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. [This was how lonelygirl15 struck viral gold - but lg15 had the benefit of the mystery over whether it was a hoax or not. Not sure Scary City will be able to mine the same vein. -jw] Aoyagi intends to distribute content to mobile phones and adapt the plot as manga graphic novels. She also hopes eventually to develop the property into a full-length feature. “It’s like a full-fledged pre-release campaign, with each story in every country serving as a trailer for the movie,” Aoyagi said…. Japanese interactive agency IMJ and design firm THA is producing a $1.4 million website to launch the series. The site will include games, blogs by visitors and characters, sponsorships and merchandise sales. [I'm guessing this is where the "prop" thing might come into play -- not just as a narrative device, but as a merchandising opportunity. Product placement? It'll be interesting to see how the producers weave that into the narrative while still balancing vistor/player/user input. -jw] [Also interesting? The Variety article says the site - and the game? - was supposed to go live on 9/15; if they're already two weeks behind schedule, that doesn't exactly instill confidence.... -jw] Comment by Joshua Weinberger — Twitter: @kitson — September 30, 2008 @ 1:27 pm

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