This is a little bit of a departure from our usual coverage here at GrepBeat. But when an innovative tech entertainment experience swung through the Triangle and we got the invite, we decided to check it out—and, as it turns out, have quite a bit of fun with it.
Pickford is an LA-based company pioneering a new form of interactive, cinematic entertainment (or, as they cheekily put it, “making AI smell like popcorn”). The company’s pitch is “a living narrative where characters think and remember; where the audience writes its own ending without knowing it and creators can build their dreams to share with others.” Practically speaking, this amounts to dynamic, AI-fueled, animated films that audiences can influence in real time via text input.
Pickford boasts a blend of experience in entertainment, narrative building, and tech development, noting that their core team is anchored “at the intersection of Hollywood, frontier AI research, and interactive entertainment.” They specifically state that members of the team have previously worked at Pixar, Fox, and Epic Games.
The company just wrapped up a countrywide summer tour in partnership with the Alamo Drafthouse theater chain, with Wednesday night’s screening of Whispers in Raleigh serving as a finale (following recent shows in San Francisco, Manhattan, and Austin).
Here’s a bit about what we experienced.
What exactly is Whispers — and how does this work?
Whispers is one of a handful of narrative experiences that Pickford has created to date. To provide much of a synopsis for it would be, in a sense, fundamentally misleading—because the very idea of the company’s films is that they’re dynamic and able to adapt to audience input. The gist, though, is that Whispers is a murder mystery with a protagonist named Detective Marcus Kent (I don’t think the protagonist changes from one screening to another, even if other aspects of the story might).
At the very beginning of the story, Kent shares that he often hears “whispers” in his head, and that they can help him solve cases. This is generally accepted (though not without the occasional raised eyebrow) by his associates. And the whispers, as it turns out, are comments from the live audience.
The setup for the murder mystery is more or less pre-loaded. The audience watches as Kent and his partner gather the basics of what has happened (meaning who has been killed, who some suspects might be, etc.), and then watch as they begin to interrogate people on the scene. And it’s right around then that the audience starts to play a role.
At the outset of the film, each member of the audience scans a QR code to sign into what is essentially a chat column on the right side of the screen. Following that point, all are free to chip in with observations, suggestions, or, naturally, general tomfoolery (though we were, probably wisely, asked to keep things appropriate). Audience members are also free to “like” one another’s comments, which appears to make them more likely to be noticed by the program.
In short time, the characters on screen begin to react to audience input, resulting in a sort of high-tech choose-your-own-adventure experience. Some of the reactions are directly built into the experience—such as a nudge for the detective to follow one chain of evidence or another. Other reactions are sparked purely by audience suggestions and inventions. In our screening, for instance, Detective Kent was successfully sidetracked into musing about the possibility of a non-existent “secret corridor” that the audience basically invented.
Ultimately, the experience plays out the way the audience guides it to. A crowd focused purely on solving a mystery could approach the experience almost like an Escape Room, attempting earnestly to notice clues and suggest next steps. On the other hand, a crowd more interested in joking around (or just testing the AI) will bring about more distractions and, consequentially, a less logical path toward an eventual solution. Our screening on Wednesday was a bit of a mix; Detective Kent received a few legitimate leads from his “whispers,” but was also distracted by fake leads, a non-existent corridor, a confusing love interest, and whether or not he should “Tom Cruise” his way into a situation to obtain a clue.
In the end, he identified the killer. The narrative wrapped up in a little under 90 minutes, after which two members of the Pickford team—Principal Unreal Engine Engineer Joe Wilcox and voice actor Christy St. John—stuck around to share insights and interact with the audience. Attendees were also able to browse through recaps recalling some of the “whispers” that Detective Kent spoke directly, as well as whose comments swayed the narrative the most.
What’s next for Pickford?
While I’d personally guess that this crew will be back in theaters before too long, the Raleigh screening, as mentioned, marked the end of a summer tour. Based on our conversations with Wilcox and St. John, the focus moving forward appears to be on three main things: technical development, narrative expansion, and the push for an Emmy.
On the technical development front, Wilcox shared that he’s largely focused on transitioning the experience from Unity to Unreal Engine. Through this process and thereafter, the team will look to build more elements into their stories, and thereby more opportunities for the audience to shape and customize how things play out.
With regard to narrative, the Pickford team is interested in expanding its library of story concepts. While this is pitched as an AI experience, there is a clear desire for human creative involvement. While this may be simplifying things somewhat, the AI in these stories is designed more to listen, respond, and choose direction than it is to invent full narratives on its own. The story elements come from human writers, and Pickford is open to inquiries from those who want to build stories.
As for the Emmy push, we’ll have to wait and see how things go. But it’s worth noting that the story’s executive producer and showrunner, Bernie Su, is a multi-time Emmy winner already!
Our thanks to the Pickford crew for the invite. This was a fun tech event for Raleigh, and those who didn’t make it but are curious can check it all out at the company’s website.
