Soderbergh works with coders to create an interactive multi-path story experience

PODOP AND HBO LAUNCH INTERACTIVE STORYTELLING APP MOSAIC, FROM EMMY®-WINNING DIRECTOR STEVEN SODERBERGH

What is the future of storytelling? Oscar®- and Emmy®-winning filmmaker Steven Soderbergh’s answer is unveiled today when the MOSAIC mobile app launches as a free download for iPhone®, iPad® and Apple TV®, with the free Android app coming soon. Presented by PodOp, a media technology company changing the way stories are crafted and experienced, and developed for HBO by Soderbergh and Casey Silver, in conjunction with writer Ed Solomon, the MOSAIC app is an interactive experience that could be the next step in storytelling.

Soderbergh and his partners at PodOp, a media technology company that, unlike other ventures of this type, is driven by narrative rather than technology, explored what happens when filmmakers ask engineers to serve the story, rather than the other way around. Three years in the making, this first full-length production, developed in association with HBO, leverages new technology that enables viewers to choose from which point of view to follow the story and, in effect, to build their own experience from the material created and curated by Soderbergh and Solomon.

Soderbergh explains, “While branching narratives have been around forever, technology now allows, I hope, for a more elegant form of engagement than used to be possible. At no point were we reverse-engineering the story to fit an existing piece of technology; the story was being created in lockstep with the technical team. The fluidity of that relationship made me feel comfortable because I wanted it to be a simple, intuitive experience.”

Challenged to come up with compelling storylines and character connections without being able to anticipate what paths a viewer might choose to take, Solomon’s resulting script read like none other before it, and required Soderbergh to shoot scenes from multiple perspectives throughout filming. The technology developed to support this product resulted in PodOp filing 14 new patents, including script management tools for user selection-driven narratives and new forms of data mining to inform content experiences.

In the MOSAIC app, as in life, the path you pick affects your perception of reality.

Viewers will be able to see how their versions of the story on the app ultimately compare to Soderbergh’s when HBO Films presents MOSAIC as a six-part limited series debuting Monday, Jan. 22 on the main HBO channel.

See the full story here: https://medium.com/hbo-cinemax-pr/podop-and-hbo-launch-interactive-storytelling-app-mosaic-7bb67da0452a

This story also gets into it a bit: https://www.wired.com/story/steven-soderbergh-q-and-a/