THE ONLINE FILM COLLAPSUS PRESENTS a dystopian look into the future after the transition from fossil fuels to alternative sources of energy. The film is a hybrid of live action, fiction, and animation that aims to take documentary to a new form, while also tackling the heavy issue of climate change.
The story is also a kind of choose-your-own-adventure. It follows ten fictional characters across settings including London, the Ukraine, Teheran and Colorado as the world slips into a post peak-oil society. Blackouts increase, violent uprisings erupt, and political dissension becomes the norm.
Sound too much like a disaster-of-the-week film? Hollywood is involved by way of the project’s director, Tommy Pallotta, who was the producer behind the roto-scoping style of such films as Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly.
But unlike those feature films, Collapsus is built around an ambitious format called transmedia.
Transmedia uses multiple platforms of media to tell a story. It’s highly influenced by ideas of immersive, participatory game storytelling. Where Collapsus diverges from traditional transmedia storytelling is the motive behind the story—the element of activism and a desire to motivate the audience to social action.
Collapsus is a collaboration with Dutch broadcaster VPRO, who produced a traditional documentary called “Energy Risk.” Collapsus goes several steps further, allowing viewers to manipulate energy allocations for countries in Europe on the left side of the screen; or watch “news reports” on the right side.
Which begs the question: does Collapsus tell a good story? And how effectively does it use transmedia storytelling as a tool for social change?
With an energy crisis, a conspiracy, and plenty of action the film brings to mind a hybrid of The X-Files and 24. That’s an entertaining notion. The interactive features force the viewer to think about the real-world resources at play. And if you must have your serious talking heads, a few clicks brings you to the YouTube channel of the Dutch documentary, where you can watch experts like Thomas Friedman talking about oil addicts.
It’s dense, immersive, and thought-provoking.
Enter Collapsus here.
