Love Digital: Thriller Series on Instagram

What makes us love digital so much this week?

Social media is being used for short-form drama to create 'Social Cinema'  

Thriller series on Instagram

Instagram is being used as a new way of telling scripted stories. Every day in February at 5pm a new episode of the thriller, Shield 5, will be released on the photo and film sharing platform. Episodes are only 15 seconds long, and are posted alongside an image which is intrinsic to the narrative.

The series is the work of Adam Dewar, an editor at The Guardian, and Anthony Wilcox, who also worked on 'Hot Fuzz,' 'Layer Cake' and 'Pearl Harbor.' The first episode garnered 2,604 likes, and on day 15 they are still getting 419 likes for their posts and have close to 40,000 followers.

The 'social cinema' format is opening a new avenue of distribution and form for filmmakers. Instagram has made some of its social bloggers and photographers famous in their own right - so why not those in the film industry, or advertisers looking for new ways to speak to their customers?

Instagram poses an interesting challenge for financial advertisers as content is image based and favours fashion and travel brands. Currently the biggest financial players in the Instagram social space are American Express, Itau and MasterCard - Shield 5 already has more followers than Paypal!

Catch up on the Shield 5 story.

 

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