The Curiosities of Rebecca Blithely: An Interactive Companion to CBC's Strange Empire wins Gracies Awards

Vancouver, Canada, May 20, 2015 (Newswire.com) - “My name is Rebecca Blithely. I’m a collector. In this place called Janestown are many curiosities.”  So begins the second screen accompaniment to CBC’s dark and edgy new drama Strange Empire set against the conflicted backdrop of the 1860s wild and gritty west. http://www.cbc.ca/strangeempire/curiosities/

Digital agency Switch United decided to explore a single character in this first season --  the complex young surgeon, Rebecca Blithely -- and through her eyes alone build an immersive and cinematic online world that would bring the audience further into the twists and turns of this gritty western drama deftly created by Laurie Finstad-Knizhnik of Durham County fame.

A collector of things, and an observer of human nature, Rebecca’s strange artifacts are introduced on-air each episode, finding a backstory online to give more understanding of the character. A locket… a scalpel… a shillelagh.. a head measuring device.. a piece of skull. One artifact for each episode for a total of 13 interactive pieces, creating a sub-plot that becomes a powerful narrative companion to Strange Empire.

“To be given such uninhibited access to scripts, sets, props, and writer’s room is almost unprecedented,” says Switch United founder and Executive Creative Director, Catherine Winckler. “It was a first for our team to embed so deeply into a show and to have been assigned a writer of the caliber of award-winning Canadian playwright, Amy Lee Lavoie. She worked closely with our designers to protect the vision of the TV scripts extend them.”

As Amy Lee Lavoie writes of this rewarding challenge:  “Thanks to this tight collaboration between TV and digital creative teams, the stories interplay, one to the other. We were able to build a bridge between two worlds: digital and television.”

Demo video:  https://vimeo.com/123026332

Note: The Curiosities of Rebecca Blithely is also a finalist at the Banff World Media Festival (June 7-10) for ‘Best in Interactive Fiction’

Strange Empire airing on Lifetime Movie Network:

http://www.mylifetime.com/movies/strange-empire/about

• Premieres on Friday 5/29 at 9pm with the first two episodes
• Continuing each Friday at 9pm, with the previous week’s episode leading in at 8pm
• Encoring 2 episodes  each on Thursday at 10pm & 11pm
• With a marathon beginning July 3rd of the first 6 episodes from 6pm - 12am
• The series will also be available soon on Netflix and iTunes

CBC:

CBC/Radio-Canada is Canada's national public broadcaster and one of its largest cultural institutions. The Corporation is a leader in reaching Canadians on new platforms and delivers a comprehensive range of radio, television, internet, and satellite-based services. Deeply rooted in the regions, CBC/Radio-Canada is the only domestic broadcaster to offer diverse regional and cultural perspectives in English, French and eight Aboriginal languages.

Switch United:

Since 2000, Switch United has built an international reputation for its immersive cross-platform campaigns in support of leading TV, film and other entertainment based properties. Early success with projects such as incubating the groundbreaking online manga novel Broken Saints (Sundance Online Festival ‘Audience’ winner) and working with CBC and Chris Haddock on the celebrated drama series, Intelligence, put Switch United on the map internationally, and the studio became known for its multi-disciplinary team passionate about great storytelling across mediums.

Whether creating a 110 ft. long sensor-based ‘story wall’ for the 2010 Winter Olympics, or working with Omnifilm for seven seasons of online extensions for the factual series, Ice Pilots NWT; whether collaborating long distance with an Oscar nominated Kabul filmmaker for the National Film Board Interactive production Portraits of Kabul, or taking 100 years of Canadian football and making it all come alive online for the TSN network (http://vimeo.com/59770606), wherever there is an opportunity to extend a narrative to multiple platforms, engaging audiences more deeply, Switch United finds its sweet spot.

Recently the studio has been working on creating an augmented reality mobile walking tour for a major museum exhibition, an HTML5 multi-player strategy game for the factual series’ Coldwater Cowboys (Paperny/Discovery), an extensive interactive brand integration for an automotive company into the online world of Highway Thru Hell (Great Pacific/Discovery), and creation of rich online world that complements the CBC western drama, Strange Empire. With a back story that introduces the audience to the complex world of one of the most compelling characters on the series, the online companion known as The Curiosities of Rebecca Blithely was awarded The Gracies Award for ‘Outstanding Website/Information & Entertainment’ from the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation and is a finalist in the ‘Best in Interactive Fiction’ category at the upcoming Banff World Media Festival (June 7-10).

Credits

Broadcaster: CBC (Canada)

Producer: Johnson Production Group

Digital Agency:  Switch United

For CBC:

Nick McAnulty - Producer

Fergus Heywood - Executive Producer

Katrina Onstad - Executive in Charge of Production

Laurie Finstad-Knizhnik, Series Creator

Amy Lee Lavoie – Head Writer, Digital

For Switch United:

Executive Creative Director:  Catherine Winckler

Design/Illustration/Motion:  Chris Waind

Technical Lead/Programming:  Mike Dennison

Producer: Michelle Binkley