The objective of The Unaliver was to experiment with the action genre in this brand new emerging space of vertical filmmaking. Along with genre, we also experimented heavily with new methods for filming compelling action scenes. Using META's Rayban glasses, we filmed lots of our action choreography in a first person perspective, offering a fresh and exciting take on traditional action sequences. The heart of this project was also to reflect on influencer culture and how it affects the minds of young people. Bennett, our main character, is at his core a lonely young man with a hunger for purpose and attention. In an age where young people put so much of their time and energy into a smartphone, we wanted to explore the idea of just how far this parasocial relationship could go.
The Unaliver came to life over a period of 8 months. From the idea's inception, we always knew that our main goal was to push the boundary of what has been seen so far in the vertical drama space. Our team took a very different approach to traditional writing for screen- we wrote every episode around the gear we wanted to use to film. This influenced the stories we told (the jobs Bennett goes on) but also how each action sequence plays out. A great example of this is our episode 'fangirls' where we decided to use a selfie stick as not only our primary filming device, but also our primary weapon in the fight. Every decision we made was through the lens of 'how far can we push this vertical frame and social media conceit?’ Even the show’s name came from a mid-production discovery that the TikTok algorithm punished posts using words like “kill” and “dead” - so TikTokers started using the phrase “unalive” instead. I'm so proud of all the different ways our team integrated these concepts.
In the short 3 weeks we have begun posting episodes, The Unaliver has racked up over 10,000 views across it's first 6 episodes on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. I consider our efforts to be a success because we have begun to prove that there is indeed a market for action-centric media in the vertical space. Additionally, I consider the Unaliver a success because we have managed to innovate on not only the content itself, but the way the content is distributed. We post this series across the social media space on accounts that initially come off as belonging to an actual person, in this case, our protagonist Bennett. We do not advertise the show as a fictional piece (although it is clear through the actual content) This has allowed us to further explore the themes that are central to our show in a way that few have done at this level. This has proven to be a successful way to further audience engagement and build a more vibrant world that the followers and fans can also contribute to.
