A social film is a type of

interactive film An interactive film is a video game or other interactive media that has characteristics of a cinematic film. In the video game industry, the term refers to a movie game, a video game that presents its gameplay in a cinematic, scripted manner, ...

that is presented through the lens of

social media Social media are interactive media technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks. While challenges to the definition of ''social medi ...

. A social film is distributed digitally and integrates with a social networking service, such as

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

Google+ Google+ (pronounced and sometimes written as Google Plus; sometimes called G+) was a social network owned and operated by Google. The network was launched on June 28, 2011, in an attempt to challenge other social networks, linking other Google p ...

. It combines features of

web video Video clips refer to mostly short videos, most of the time called memes, which are short videos of silly jokes and funny clips, most of the time coming from movies or any entertainment videos such as YouTube. The term is also used more loosely t ...

, social network games and social media.

Key elements

Social films are a recent phenomenon and, in turn, there are few precedents for their format. Regardless, the medium has certain identifiable elements: *Casual entertainment *Social media *User-generated content *

Game mechanics In tabletop games and video games, game mechanics are the rules or ludemes that govern and guide the player's actions, as well as the game's response to them. A rule is an instruction on how to play, a ludeme is an element of play like the L-sha ...

Using a combination of these factors, a social film engages viewers to interact directly with the work, be it through social media functionality like comments and ranking or adding directly to the narrative itself. Just as with

memes A meme ( ) is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural i ...

, social film distribution relies on the viral spread enabled by social media. This is based on the viral expansion loops model,Guest Post: Hal Siegel “My Film Has a Virus? WTF?” > Hope for Film
/ref> in which a viewer benefits from sharing the application with friends, exponentially creating new viewers compelled to share the application.The Four Viral App Objectives (a.k.a., “Social network application virality 101″) « FrameThink
/ref>

History

The first social film, '' Him, Her and Them'' was produced and released by Murmur in April 2011. It was distributed exclusively through Facebook and promoted as the first “Facebook film.”Him, Her and Them — The First Ever Facebook Film , The Creators Project
/ref> The film is composed of short video clips and interactive slideshows, integrating Facebook's

Social Graph The social graph is a graph that represents social relations between entities. In short, it is a model or representation of a social network, where the word graph has been taken from graph theory. The social graph has been referred to as "the ...

API. Users participate via text-based additions to the story which are viewable only by friends within their social network. Other examples of social film include ''

lonelygirl15 ''Lonelygirl15'' is an American science fiction thriller web series created by Miles Beckett, Mesh Flinders, Greg Goodfried, and Amanda Goodfried. It was independently released on YouTube from June 16, 2006 to August 1, 2008, and was also briefl ...

'', which used YouTube posts to create an interactive video series about a fictional character, and Ron Howard's '' Project Imagin8ion'', where a photo contest was used as the basis for a short film. In July 2011,

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 seri ...

and

Toshiba , commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, ...

partnered together to create Hollywood's first Social Film experience, a thriller called ''

Inside Inside may refer to: * Insider, a member of any group of people of limited number and generally restricted access Film * ''Inside'' (1996 film), an American television film directed by Arthur Penn and starring Eric Stoltz * ''Inside'' (2002 f ...

'', directed by D.J. Caruso and starring

Emmy Rossum Emmanuelle Grey Rossum (born September 12, 1986) is an American actress, director, and singer. She is known for her portrayal of Fiona Gallagher in the television series '' Shameless'' (2011–2019). Since the mid-2010s, she has also directed ...

. The project is broken up into several segments across multiple social media platforms including

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

, and

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

. In this instance, the audience is challenged to help Emmy Rossum's character, Christina, safely make it out of the room she's been trapped in. This particular form of social film is a major undertaking in that it combines social media activity with A-list acting talent to create a user experience that all happens in real time. Although not quite the same idea, Hollywood has been experimenting with the idea of interactive and

crowd-sourced Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digita ...

films. For example, Ridley Scott's '' Life in a Day'', is a documentary style feature, which strives to be the largest crowd-sourced feature film ever created. In August 2012, Intel and Toshiba partnered again to create '' The Beauty Inside'', directed by Drake Doremus, starring

Mary Elizabeth Winstead Mary Elizabeth Winstead (born November 28, 1984) is an American actress and singer. Her first significant role was that of Jessica Bennett on the NBC soap opera ''Passions'' (1999–2000). She went on to appear in series such as ''Tru Calling' ...

and

Topher Grace Christopher John Grace ( ; born July 12, 1978) is an American actor. He is known for portraying Eric Forman in the Fox sitcom ''That '70s Show'', Eddie Brock / Venom in Sam Raimi's film ''Spider-Man 3'', Pete Monash in '' Win a Date with Tad H ...

. It's Hollywood's first social film that gives everyone in the audience a chance to play Alex, the lead role. The experience will be broken up into six filmed episodes interspersed with real-time interactive storytelling that all takes place on Alex's Facebook timeline. In August 2013, Intel and Toshiba released their third entry into the category, ''

The Power Inside ''The Power Inside'' is a 2013 comedy social film developed by Intel and Toshiba. It is Intel and Toshiba's third social film after '' The Beauty Inside'' (2012) and ''Inside'' (2011). Directed by Will Speck and Josh Gordon and starring Harvey Kei ...

'', directed by Will Speck and Josh Gordon and starring Harvey Keitel, Analeigh Tipton, and Craig Roberts. It's Hollywood's first social film that asks the audience to audition to help save or destroy the world. The experience is broken up into six filmed episodes interspersed with user-generated content and interactive storytelling on the main character's Facebook timeline. In 2015, Intel partnered with Dell for their fourth entry, '' What Lives Inside'' directed by Robert Stromberg and starring

Colin Hanks Colin Lewes Hanks (born November 24, 1977) is an American actor. He has starred in films including '' Orange County'', ''King Kong'', '' The House Bunny'', '' The Great Buck Howard'', and the ''Jumanji'' film series. His television credits includ ...

, Catherine O'Hara, and

J. K. Simmons Jonathan Kimble Simmons (born January 9, 1955) is an American actor, considered one of the most prolific and well-established character actors of his generation. He has appeared in over 200 films and television roles since his debut in 1986. He i ...

. The first of four episodes was released on Hulu on March 25, 2015.

References

{{Reflist Film genres Social media