Me in Spooks
Well not exactly Spooks but the new spin-off series set in the future and on BBC Three, Spooks Code 9. We’ll actually not that either – a really funky internet app that puts you in your own short movie.
Kudos (yes I know) has to go to Tony (comment on this post) for pointing it out to me – I would normally be hunting down info on a show like this but have been a bit busy lately.
The online app starts off like one of the VERY good Spooks games that Kudos develop for bbc.co.uk/spooks – where you get to interact with a storyline from the show – but ends VERY differently.
There isn’t actually that much interacting to be done – just a couple of simple left or right, run or stay questions to answer – its really just a playing of a short scene from the show.
What’s different is that your face is actually in the scene. It starts with a bit of dialogue to set the scene and then asks you to upload a photo and put it in the right position.
When it has processed the photo the scene starts and a few seconds later YOU appear – or at least a 3D rendering of your face. It’s actually a bit freaky BUT very effective.
You see several close ups of your face and it even has a selection of expressions. I think this is a great form of viral marketing as – when you’ve finished making the video – you get the code to add it to your own site, facebook page etc…
Unfortunately the embed code they give you is a little heavily loaded so unless you want loads of crap around it you’ll need to edit it slightly but that’s just a case of dropping a few DIV tags and killing the second half of the code block.
You can see my movie on the right hand side and yes I know I look shockingly scary – there was one scene at the end were I looked like I really could kill!
Anyway – Spooks Code 9 kicks off its first series on 10 August on BBC THREE and I’m guessing bbc.co.uk/three as well given that it is a Multi-Platform channel.
The first episode is a double helping with the two fifty minute shows going out back to back and will also be on BBC HD and hour later
The series is set in 2013 and follows on from a Nuclear attack on London. MI5 has been restructured and now has field offices around the country.
Most offices are young and patriotic – oh and as this is a BBC Three original (ala Torchwood) – hedonistic as well.
In further keeping with the format laid out by Torchwood the series will focus on one specific field office (19) and will have a crew each with specific abilities – you’d think they had a painting by numbers template lined up!
The team includes an experiences Spook, a mathematician, an ex-police officer, a criminal gone straight, someone who chose a career as a spook over going into the family business and a junior doctor.
Despite its clear and obvious similarities to the format behind Torchwood (ONLY FIVE EPISODES IN ONE WEEK NEXT YEAR!) I am really looking forward to it.
What I’m not looking forward to is the obvious complaints about to much sex, too much of this, not enough of that and everything else that plagues any new drama that seems to get made today.
Oh and I still love Bonekickers – it’s one of my weekly must watch shows along with Lab Rats.
There is a preview of the first episode on the BBC Spooks site (another one in the new wide templates) and if you REALLY like spoilers the first ten minutes of the first episode is up there as well.
I imagine as the site develops and the show starts its run there will be a lot of video clips (as well as the full episodes), information, features and games.
One such feature is Liberty News – I’m guessing the name of a news service in the Code-9 world – it seems to be an online news service full of huge amounts of content.
And actually its the content that interests me – this is a fictional site designed to create an air of reality around a fictional series, for the nutters like me who enjoy total immersion.
There are pages and pages of content on the site – news articles about celebrities, music, life, politics and everything else you’d expect from a real news source.
Here’s a line from one specific article about Glastonbury:
Glastonbury, one of the UK’s hottest music events reopens on 28th June with a party planned to be bigger and better than ever.
Born-again Christian, Amy Winehouse, will open the festival with songs from her new album “Back on Track”.
Not only is there a LOT of it – it’s also well thought out and pretty funny in some cases as well with little comments like the one above linking now to then.
I can’t wait for the show to start and to see what else might be coming online.
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