Ridley Scott Launches Ad-Funded, UGC Viral Video Project

imageBlade Runner and Alien director Ridley Scott‘s RSA Films is launching a series of short films set in the near future, sponsored by big brands and inspired by online conversations. The project, labelled Purefold, is a joint venture with RSA’s new Free Scott division and ad agency digital design agency Ag8. WPP, Aegis and Publicis are already on board to help the scheme find brands to be involved. Release.

Purefold is described as an “open media franchise” and has the rather grand aim of answering “what does it mean to be human?” But the short, inter-linked, sci-fi styled films are real and will be created by RSA’s global pool of directors — and the film-makers will use the web as their inspiration, taking chatter from FriendFeed and turning it into plotlines and dialogue. The clips will be distributed via YouTube on a Creative Commons basis. The Leftbrainrightbrain blog reports that there will be seven interlinked storylines and the project wants 10 brands to come on board.

As Ag8 puts it, Purefold allows brands “an alternative route to brand integration than traditional product placement and embrace invention within a narrative framework”. Integrated brand sponsorship of original online video series is nothing new — Bebo Orginal’s Sofia’s Diary and MSN’s sci-fi Kirill project are just two recent examples. But unlike those, Purefold doesn’t have the dual purpose of monetisation and promoting a site or social networking platform — it’s an original, independent project designed simply to make money from online video alone. As for the commercial relationship with brands and which ones might be interested, we look forward to hearing more…

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