Web
“This is your home. You like it here...”
The web components required two websites, one for ANXIETYVILLE.tv (Desktop only) serving as the portal site for the film / web series, and another for PRETEND MEDIA (Desktop only), the fictional company of whom the main characters – Ivan, Clair, Alison, and Jordan – are employed to run the "Simulated City" as well as the "Consumer Hell" mobile game app (which can be downloaded from the Apple App Store).
Four requirements had to be met:
1. Surreal or weird aesthetics: Take advantage of Anxietyville's visual treatments and aesthetics.
2. Multimedia: trailer of the film / web series as well as the individual episodes be shown on the site.
3. Character summaries and story narrative that are visually engaging and capture the aesthetic of Anxietyville, with links to social media as part of the transmedia narrative.
4. Fake brand advertisements based on established visual identity + "Consumer Hell" mobile game app overview and advertisement (link to App Store).
First iteration of the website wireframe, with rough layouts but coherent separation of content.
This iteration has a different design direction that incorporated a lot of geometry for typography and image composition. The criticism with this iteration was the imagery used, as the client preferred less clutter as seen on the first iteration.
Second iteration, establishing colour scheme and graphical elements and applying suggestions from the client.
Third iteration, at this stage the look and feel of the site including interactive and animated elements are finalised. Due to some technical difficulties, one major feature was omitted – Charlie narrating the story from a pop-up "gopher from a hole" bar that resides on the bottom of the website.
We settled on a parallax-style format that permitted us to develop the website for less time at the expense of some usability benefits of having separate pages. The first iteration established a rough layout to fulfill all the requirements needed, while the second iteration had the colour schemes finalised and approved to proceed to refinement of image assets and site development.
The parallax effect is used to take advantage of creating animations and interactions that add to the surreal, weird nature of the story. Each of the character biography sections are visualised based on key scenes from the film. For example, the falling LOGO COLA can scene from the film is recreated onto a parallax animation for Ivan and Clair's character biography; the LOGO COLA girl is presented as an ad, and as the user scrolls there are cans literally falling onto the characters. Instead of using GIFs or videos on the site, we decided the parallax animations are suitable to express some of these scenes. As a result, a compelling narrative is presented that is consistent on both web and film platforms.
PRETEND MEDIA
The PRETEND MEDIA (Desktop only) website is an Alternate Reality component of transmedia storytelling, used to establish the back story of the Anxietyville "Simulated City" and the Consumer Hell mobile game app that is available for download for your mobile device.
The Simulated City is a product of visionary Ivan Isherwood, for its subjects to settle in a world where they can live the life of their dreams, and products advertised to them to enhance their lifestyle. Along with Jordan Novacovics, they are the owners of Pretend Media. Pretend Media caters to businesses wishing to advertise their brands and wares through a new cognitive neuro-scanning and mapping software.
Consumer Hell is a real-world Pretend Media product targetted at consumers (and real life audiences) as a medium for them to connect to the Simulated City. Consumer Hell is a battle-based game where users get style points, buy products from the Simulated City, and gain fame and fortune.
First iteration. At this stage, the client / producer wanted the site to look a lot more "science-fiction, corporate" than bare and simple. Nevertheless, this iteration established content and rough layout for the next version.
Second iteration, establishing new colour scheme and visual elements as per client suggestions and content. The final website design is based on this iteration, with minor tweaks.
Third iteration. On the splash page, the products advertised on the Simulated City would hover over Mr. Nobody's head using HTML 5. Due to technical difficulties, we decided to use a looping web video to create this effect. The throbbing phallic Live Chat Tech Support link on the nav bar was intentional (link to Sanjeet's tech support).
The Pretend Media website also offers a simulated technical support service, where a throbbing link on the toolbar indicates a live chat is available for anyone visiting the website for technical support advise on Consumer Hell or the Simulated City. The technical support chat features Sanjeet, a quirky agent seen on the film / web series who is having a bit of difficulty being able to hear the recipient of the live chat.
