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| Birthright, Transmedia romantic comedy |
Last year, during the festival Power to the
Pixel I was intrigued by Birthright, the project of BoomGen
Studios, pitched by Mahyad Tousi.
They dare use the complicated and painful
context of Palestinian - Israeli conflict and made a comedy out of
it. And they are right, as laughter is
the most powerful weapon. In Poland, during the communist period, comic cabarets were the most wanted and watched shows. This year,
the project was presented at the Festival International de Programmes
Audiovisuels (Fipa) in France.
Birthright is a
romantic comedy and political satire told through two different points of view:
the film is about a shy Jewish-American kid Sam Raskin who follows the girl of
his dreams on a free trip to Israel, only to get lost in Palestine, and a graphic
novel showing a young Jewish - American girl who
returns to Israel as pro-Palestinian peace activist.
Birthrights uses the following platforms: theater
movie, interactive graphic novel for mobile/tablet (Tear Gas in the Morning),
web, print experience.
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| Graphic novel Tear Gas in the Morning |
The comical story untitled Tear Gas in the
Morning was written by a writer and artist Katie
Miranda and is based entirely on her own
personal experience.
The ambition behind this project is "to explore
other political conflicts through the lens of classical and contemporary love
stories".
Interview with Mahyad Tousi, CEO and co-founder of
BoomGen Studios
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| Mahyad Tousi |
Birthright is a transmedia comedy that
shows Jewish-Palestinian conflict - which is quite amazing as a mix. Why did
you chose this form, quite politicaly incorrect?
The power of storytelling is in its ability to break
through stereotypes and preconceptions and to reveal humanity even in the most
absurd and tragic of circumstances. Taking a light-hearted approach to a heated
political issue in this case helps to relieve manufactured tension and help the
audience to connect with the characters. At the same time, the beautiful thing
about this type of cross platform narrative design is that the story no longer
needs to be defined by genre or format. Birthright is neither just comedy, nor
just fiction. The motion picture layer of the transmedia property, however, is
a fiction comedy.
What kind of audience do you want to touch with
Birthright?
We believe that the project will have a young
international audience. What's interesting about having a motion picture,
graphic novel application, and a game element is that you touch very distinct
niches in each area. Having said that, we expect our core audience will be
progressive 18-36 year olds, and leaning female.
The story is declined on multiple platforms such as
an interactive graphic novel, a mobile game, and a feature comedy. From which
platform did you start the project?
Creatively it started with a film script penned by Ari
Issler and Ben Snyder that came to us. We started working with Ben and Ari in
further developing the script. Then we took a step back and asked ourselves
what is at the core of this story? What truth are we hoping to tap into? We
looked for and created other story layers that would further enhance that core
message, the core truth.
It's a long-term project. What are the phases of
its development?
Graphic Novel, Game, Motion Picture.
What is your business model? As you debuted the Tear Gas Teaser application in front of
a live audience equipped with Samsung Galaxy tablets, I suppose it's your
official partner, isn't it?
Samsung is not an official partner. The teaser is
available for download through the google play store for any android device
that has a screen resolution of 1280x800.
The business model is simple. By no longer confining
ourselves to the limitations of form, (i.e. book, tv, film, etc.), we create opportunities
for a story to exist in multiple forms. In this way we tell bigger and better
stories, and touch multiple niche markets and revenue opportunities for our
investors. I call it sustainable storytelling.
What are the next steps?
We're working on the Graphic Novel and casting the
film.
