Take one interesting concept, add an intereactive twist, sprinkle liberally with semi-naked models and more than a bit of hard work and what you have is the new Lynx Twist campaign from Freud Communications, Mindshare and Mind's Eye Media.

Using Facebook to create a 'choose your own adventure' narrative where the user can navigate through a series of stories, the campaign not only pulls the viewer into the world of Twist but makes you want to stick around for some time - see for yourself by playing the interactive film. Here, rep Hughie Phillips of Mind's Eye and director Ben Taylor take us through the process from script to screen.


What was the brief you received for the project?

Hughie Phillips: We were approached by Lynx's PR agency, Freud Communications and their media agency, Mindshare to create an interactive digital film for Lynx consumers based around Lynx's new product, Twist. The insight from the Lynx HQ from was that girls get bored easily and guys have to go to increasingly elaborate lengths to keep them interested. We were asked to devise a fully immersive "choose your own adventure" narrative that allows the viewer to guide our hero through the pitfalls and challenges of the mating game. Comedy & sexiness were of course key.

We created "Keeping Keeley", an everyman odyssey told over the course of one unforgettable night where we try to defy the odds and pull the delectable Keeley Hazell. Fantastical "Twist" moments punctuate the journey as the viewer has to adapt, evolve and twist himself to stay in the game by keeping Keeley interested. Opportunities present themselves to reveal new skills, hidden talents, fresh looks and personas. The correct combo of Twisting may lead to new routes, successes and the occasional - but memorable - dead end.


What was Minds Eye's exact role in the project and who else was involved?

Hughie: We did a lot of the creative at the pitch stage, writing the narrative, deciding on the cardboard cut-out post-technique for the 'Twist' moments and mapping out the interactive structure. There were a few hurdles to overcome of creating an immersive user-controlled adventure while also seeing how the hero Twists himself so we pitched the use of multi-POV as the perfect way around this. Once we were commissioned we worked alongside the teams at Freud and Mindshare to develop the project before bringing on board the BAFTA award-winning scriptwriting duo behind the Channel 4 comedy, Green Wing.


Have you worked on anything like this before?

Hughie: Last year was a great year for us. Routes, a web-based interactive drama we produced for Channel 4 through Oil Studios won best online content at the BIMA (British Interactive Media Assoc.) awards and were also nominated for a BAFTA. This gave us a great grounding as a company on how to produce effective interactive content and with Ben Taylor on board to work his comedy directing skills, we knew we had the right team in place.


What were the main challenges invloved?

Ben Taylor: The three biggest challenges were all of our own making.

Firstly, the volume of content. The "choose your own adventure" structure meant writing and shooting A LOT of content in order to make a varied and rich journey for the viewer. Even though it's a simple narrative it continually fractures and twists, requiring coverage of multiple scenes and options at every stage. We had a 4 day shoot within which to shoot a 50 page script. And because of the entirely (multi) linear structure we had no choice but to shoot it all. With a cast of 100 on our two main days it was a slog.

Secondly, the Canon 5d and 7d. I've been a big fan of these cameras over the last 12 months, lightweight, portable, great in low light and on screen the results look fantastic. We wanted our entirely POV world to feel as immersive as possible so the Canon cameras felt like a good fit. We used a head rig, an adapted figrig and even underwater housing for the pool scene and settled on a limited number of lenses (14mm/20mm/25mm/35mm). The footage from the cameras looked great but the format did present challenges as well. The speed and portability you gain is offset by the difficulties in monitoring and the near impossible challenge of pulling focus. However it did work well for filming Keeley getting undressed in the backseat of an unlit black cab!

Finally, who knew multi-POV for dialogue scenes is such an absolute bitch. It means everything on set is live, no angles are left un-shot, no corners left hidden. Lighting stands were only one problem, moving and hiding crew every 10 minutes was an equally big challenge.


How long did the project take to put together and how hard was it to decide when/how many 'twists' there should be?

Ben: After winning the job we had just over four weeks to commission and write the script, cast and prep. A very hurried post period took place across Christmas and New Year to cut and finish the 35 minutes of footage.

At the writing stage we split the story into four acts (Meeting Keeley / The Lingerie Show / The After Party / Back to Hers) we wanted to have an average of three Twist moments per act so we settled on 12 in total. We wanted the experience to be varied and rich enough that you could play the game a few times and still not have seen all the routes and scenes. Our initial ambitions at script stage were somewhat constrained by the reality of time and locations, no individual scene could deserve a unit move so we had to write around cast and location appearing in parallel scenes where ever possible.


The shoot looked like it was fun, especially for the men; any interesing/unusual/funny stories?

Ben: The shoot was great fun but tough going, especially for our scantily clad cast - all absolute troopers! We ended up staging our fictional lingerie show on the coldest day of 2009. Six space heaters in a derelict cinema building in Shepherds Bush was a bit of a piss in the ocean. The poor girls suffered for our art! Goose bumps will be all too obvious in the HD YouTube version of the film!

My lasting image from the shoot was of Blake Harrison (Neil from the Inbetweeners) our fantastic lead guy. The moment he did his maths and realized he wouldn't be sharing a candle lit bath with Keeley Hazell but with our 6"4, very hairy, Israeli DP Dennis Madden who would be holding the camera. The perils of POV.