• Village Gamer

  • Shaftesbury And Smokebomb To Launch New Original Science Fiction Digital Project

28th March 2012

Shaftesbury And Smokebomb To Launch New Original Science Fiction Digital Project

shaftesbury films incShaftesbury and its award-winning digital media division, Smokebomb Entertainment, today announced casting and production details for State of Syn, a groundbreaking science fiction digital project.

Starring Jewel Staite (Firefly, LA Complex), David Hewlett (Stargate SG-1, Stargate: Atlantis), and Rainbow Sun Francks (The Listener, Stargate: Atlantis), State of Syn (10 x five minutes) is a 3D-enabled digital motion novel for online, smartphone and tablet devices that combines live-action photography with animated hyper-real backgrounds.

The project will commence production in Toronto in early April, with the State of Syn launching to consumers in summer 2012. The project will also be offered to buyers as a standalone property for multiple platforms at MIPTV 2012 in Cannes.Shaftesbury and Smokebomb Entertainment's new original science fiction digital project, STATE OF SYN, stars Jewel Staite and David Hewlett.

“State of Syn combines the best of traditional sci-fi storytelling with the type of immersive user experience that only digital platforms can offer,” said Daniel Dales, CEO and Executive Producer, Smokebomb Entertainment. “Fans of the genre will experience a thrilling mystery presented in an eye-popping layered animation style with interactive elements that will deepen the story world.”

Featuring 10 five-minute narrative episodes, State of Syn takes place in a futuristic society where instability reigns but one commodity remains accessible to all: technology. The storyline follows Annika Drake (Staite) and her friends who, following the unexplained death of her father, are pulled into a twisted mystery surrounding his former company, emerging tech giant Psylosense. Now run by her father’s former business partner Aslin Kane (Hewlett), Psylosense is manufacturing a highly addictive new sensory experience called Vibe – a digital technology simulating a neurological condition called synesthesia – which is poised to become the new opiate of the masses.

Audiences will be able to enhance their experience of the narrative through an interactive content layer that will allow additional story information to be revealed upon demand via text, audio or images throughout each episode. They can also choose to view State of Syn in 3D through the use of a 3Dee Slide (available for purchase from 3DeeCentral), or on any 3D-enabled device.

State of Syn is created and produced by Daniel Dales and Jarrett Sherman for Smokebomb Entertainment and executive produced by Christina Jennings, Scott Garvie and Shane Kinnear for Shaftesbury. Sam Egan (Sanctuary) and comic book legend Jimmy Palmiotti serve as creative consultants.

State of Syn is a joint initiative of Shaftesbury and Smokebomb Entertainment, and has been funded with the participation of Spatial View, the Canada Media Fund’s Experimental Stream and the OMDC’s Ontario Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit.

Shaftesbury and Smokebomb Entertainment have been nominated for a 2012 International Digital Emmy award in the Digital Program: Fiction category for Murdoch Mysteries: Curse of the Lost Pharaohs, a 13-part original online series created as an extension of the fourth season of Murdoch Mysteries.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 28th, 2012 at 9:47 am and is filed under Digital Products, National News, Upcoming Releases. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

You must be logged in to post a comment.

  • Archives

  • Subscribe to our Newsletter


  • Select a list:

  • GWEN Radio
  • Gamers Giving Back