1 PRESS KIT A SCROLLING GRAPHIC NOVEL BY MARIETTA REN FREE APPLICATION JANUARY 28TH 2016 ARCHITECTES PAYSAGISTES URBANISTES PROGRAMMISTES a co-edition in partnership with and with the support of the OïKOS nouveaux médias
2 PHALLAINA : THE FIRST SCROLLING GRAPHIC NOVEL AN NEW KIND OF GRAPHIC NOVEL DESIGNED FOR TACTILE SCREENS The concept : Phallaina is the first scrolling graphic novel. A hybrid narrative device by Marietta Ren, composed of a digital graphic novel for tablets and phablets, as well as a physical fresco with an interactive audio system. Le synopsis : Phallaina tells the story of Audrey, a young girl who suffers from hallucinatory fits during which she sees whales. When she undergoes certain tests, a research scientist and neurologist discovers she has a physeter, an anomalous structure which enables its carriers to remain underwater for prolonged amounts of time.
PHALLAINA PRESS KIT Free application available since Januray 2016 3 THE PHALLAINA PACKAGE A HYBRID NARRATION AND TWO COMPLEMENTARY EXPERIENCES THE APPLICATION TABLETS AND PHABLETS A SCROLLING COMIC BOOK WITH NO PANELS A LENGTH CORRESPONDING TO 1600 IPADS INCLUDING AN ENTIRELY PARALLAX EFFECTS AND SOUND DESIGN FREE APPLICATION AVAILABLE IN BOTH FRENCH AND ENGLISH ACCOMPANIED BY THE USER AN INTERACTIVE SOUND DESIGN PROGRESSES ALONG THE STORY AS HE WALKS THE MONUMENTAL INSTALLATION A MODERN INTERACTIVE INSTALLATION 115 METERS LONG IN FRENCH AND ENGLISH R FO M A 16 GR 20 O L PR IVA L T A I ES FIC E F F O ÊM HE UL T O OF NG T A R PA THE
4 PHALLAINA TEASER CLICK THE IMAGE TO SEE THE TEASER FOR THE SCROLLING GRAPHIC NOVEL CLICK ON ONE OF THE BUTTONS TO DOWNLOAD THE SCROLLING GRAPHIC NOVEL
5 THE SCROLLING GRAPHIC NOVEL A NEW FORMAT The format is inspired by the first forms of graphic narration such as Mathilde Bayeux s tapestry, ancient Chinese scrolls or mural frescoes from classical antiquity. This long drawing, akin to a continuous lateral tracking shot, is comprised of a succession of drawings of different scales, which blend into one another through the use of graphic transformations and compositional tricks. The scrolling graphic novel does not require the repetition of a drawing to give the user the feeling of movement as with animation films. It is the movement of the viewer s eyes and the sliding of his hand on the tablet which create motion. This format enables a narrative hybrid somewhere between cinema, comic book and illustration, which can adapt to different reading habits and mediums. Marietta Ren
6 THE STORY In a world similar to ours, the cities have adapted to the rising waters. Built on stilts, they apprehensively await the next tidal wave. Audrey lives in one of these cities. Since she was a child, she has been subject to hallucinatory fits during which her field of sight is invaded by giant white whales. In the last months, her condition has worsened, preventing her from focusing on her work. She consults a neurologist, the Dr. Chaillet. He diagnoses her with a particular form of epilepsy and discovers she has a «physeter». This anomalous cerebral structure increases Audrey s ability to hold her breath underwater and seems to be connected to her fits. After some hesitation, the young woman decides to follow a series of clinical trials in the hopes of curing what ails her. This is the beginning of an intimate adventure along the path of a personal transformation, combining cognitive sciences and mythology, over the course of which Audrey will understand she is called to a different destiny.
7 THE INSTALLATION A PHYSICAL FRESCO The fresco will enable two types of experiences: a landscape reading and an immersive reading experience. The landscape perspective lets the user embrace the fresco s length and appreciate the graphical rhythm of its black and white. Getting closer, the users will enter the immersive reading scale: the rhythms of their reading is in sync with their strolling speed, and they will be plunged into the immersive fictional landscape through the interactive audio coming through their headphones. This very modulable system was conceived to adapt to different contexts. Maria Concetta Sangrigoli architect/urban-planner, Oikos agency The fresco-installation invites you to discover the totality of the Phallaina mythology. It completes and enriches Phallaina, the scrolling graphic novel. The installation is accompanied by a free application which enables users to hear the Phallaina s story as they walk along the fresco, using a geo-temporal marker developed by our partner Intuitive Travel.
8 THE STORY OF THE PROJECT A PERSONAL GRAPHIC WORK AND A COLLECTIVE ADVENTURE Phallaina is a new type of graphic novel designed for tablets. We are at the crossroads of a personal piece of graphic work and a collective artistic adventure. Marietta Ren took about a year to single-handedly complete the illustrations. A team hailing from the worlds of animation films and application development subsequently brought animation and sound to her story. The various elements were integrated into the engine, which was custom-developed to combine animation, sound and horizontal scrolling. The user experience aims to be as fluid and straightforward as possible. A simple swipe of the finger allows you to move the story forward. The installation of a physical fresco completes the story with an innovative, interactive ambulatory experience. The urban-planning agency Oïkos brought its creativity and its knowledge of insertion within the public urban landscape to the Phallaina project. The development company which created the ambulatory audio application for the installation is Intuitive Travel. The application and the fresco will be launched during the Angoulême International Comics Festival, starting on January 28th, 2016. The fresco will then be programmed in cultural events in France and abroad. The application, available in French and English, is available worldwide, for free.
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13 The changes in scale and value add rhythm to the story.
Free application available since Januray 2016 PHALLAINA PRESS KIT 14 MARIETTA REN AUTHOR S BIOGRAPHY Photos Jean Fabien Marietta discovered her artistic calling in high school and went on to integrate several schools of applied arts. She entered the Gobelins school of animation and earned her degree as creator-director for animation films. Her professional career began with character design work on several series, but also with animation and storyboarding. The opportunity to work on feature films soon arose and she was able to work on projects such as Ernest and Celestine and April and the Extraordinary World. In the meantime, Marietta has also collaborated with other artists for collective illustration exhibits at Artludik. She published her first book entitled I am Two, co-written with Eugény Couture. Today, Phallaina represents her biggest artistic adventure yet, as well as a technological challenge.
15 CÔME JALIBERT Sound designer + musical director Côme Jalibert graduated from Boulogne Billancourt with an audiovisual HND diploma with a specific focus on sound, and has been working as a professional sound engineer since 2002. He mainly focuses on post-production, for both animated films and series but also documentaries, applications and interactive web projects. Specialised in sound editing, sound design, mixing and music editing, Côme has notably worked on Minuscule: Valley of the Lost Ants (Futurikon), the animated film Garage Club (Pïnka), and the documentary Future by Starck (Elephant Doc). He joined Small Bang in 2012 as sound engineer and has worked on all of their creations, from Cinemacity to Seasons:Morphosis, and including Birdlab and Phallaina. Additionally, he sets up sound-recording control systems, notably for the Médiapart live broadcasts, and sound editing suites for production companies and studios. THE PHALLAINA TEAM A HYBRID TEAM CHRISTOPHE DA SILVA Technical director and engine developer I have been working for startups, software editors and digital agencies for the past 12 years, where I had multiple roles: developer, technical project lead, information architect and interaction designer. This has enabled me to build a solid experience with digital projects, from the conceptual phase up to production. Today I offer my services as an independent UX Designer. Man-machine interactions I ve always been curious and interested in the process of creation: starting with a vision and finding the best way to achieve it. In 1988, I discovered computers and saw in them a tool with formidable potential. I started programming on a commodore 64 when I was 11 years old; these were but small creations, mini-games or graphic demos, but they were conceived specifically with the user in mind. I maintained this interest in interactivity and am constantly searching for new tools and methods, reading everything I can which touches on the field of digital experiences, the human mind and man-machine interactions. JULIEN BARET Animation and compositing Julien Baret has worked as motion designer and head of compositing in the animation and video game industries for the past fifteen years. On Phallaina, he rigged the parallax effects in After Effects as well as the multi-lingual version of the Scrolling Graphic Novel. League of Legend - Get Jinxed - Trailer Compositing supervising Prod: Fortiche Production Lou Marco - Don t Care Music Video Direction / Motion Design Prod: Le groupuscule Yves Saint Laurent - Lip Polish Web Commercial Compositing supervision - Stop Motion Prod: Manuel Cam Film Tournée de Mathieu Amalric - Credit sequence Compositing Wax Tailor - Until Heaven Stops The Rain Concert 2014 Direction / Artistic direction
16 THE PHALLAINA TEAM A HYBRID TEAM MARTIN BESSIN Assistant director Martin Bessin is equipped with an extremely wide array of technical skills in the following fields: audiovisual (both in production and post-production), multimedia (interactive web, smartphone and tablet applications), print and interactive installations (notably video mapping, technical setups, sound design). With a Technology Supervision diploma in 3D and Interactive Engineering (Fasteri), Martin also obtained a DUT technology degree in Services and Communication Networks with a focus in audiovisual media, and a Professional Licence in Sound and Image Techniques and Activities, with a Sound Design option, which enabled him to discover the world of radio with Radio Accords 16, where he acted as sound technician, video director and reporter. Martin has also worked on the post-production of the short film Noi Buon (editing and post-production: creation of DCP in 4K, with 5.1 audio). He joined Small Bang in 2013 and worked on Cinemacity, the Médiapart live broadcasts, but also Phallaina or Seasons: Morphosis, which enabled him to acquire the technical competences pertaining to graphic and audio integration within a game engine (Unity) and a custom-designed engine (PhallainaStudio). ALEXANDRINE STEHELIN Executive producer and production manager Co-founder of the online cultural ressources review Theoria.fr, posessor of a double degree in Law and Philosophy and a Masters in Contemporary Philosophy (Paris 1 - Panthéon Sorbonne), and having spent one year in Hypokhâgne at the Condorcet High School, Alexandrine Stehelin was assistant to the editor in chief of Grande Galerie, the Louvre Journal, as part of the Louvre Museum Production Direction team. In 2013, she entered the ESCP Europe s Specialized Masters in Media Management and decided to embrace the production career, at the crossroads of the technical, design and artistic realms. She honed her skills at BUF Companie as production coordinator for international projects (visual effects and animation). She joined Small Bang in 2015 as production manager and took the lead on the Phallaina project: an intimate story told in the form of a «scrolling graphic novel» for tablets, as well as a monumental fresco which will notably be exposed at the Angoulême festival in January 2016. PIERRE CATTAN Producteur délégué + Directeur de création Co-founder of the journal Usbek&Rica and the magazine TOC, Pierre Cattan started the production company Otoko Films in 2006 with Zazon. In 2009, with Cinquième Etage Production, he produced the animation documentary Les Terres Imaginées (60, Canal +) and the interactive hypervideo Happy world : Burma, the dictatorship of the absurd (co produced with Upian). In 2012, Pierre founded the transmedia studio Small Bang. He produces and directs the Médiapart live broadcasts, as well as cultural applications: Cinemacity (Arte, 2013), Birdlab (Vigie-Nature, National Natural History Museum), Seasons: Morphosis, a storyapp accompanying Jacques Perrin s new film (Nouvelles écritures FTV, 2015). He is also the producer of Phallaina (Nouvelles écritures FTV, 2016), a «scrolling graphic novel» for mobile devices
17 THE PHALLAINA TEAM Phallaina is co-edited by the Small Bang studio and France télévisions nouvelles écritures. The Oïkos agency is in charge of the conception and the insertion of the fresco installation. The Direction des Nouvelles Ecritures et du Transmédia de France Télévisions - or francetv nouvelles écritures - adapts to the public s new practices by proposing original digital narrative experiences and pushing the boundaries of narrative exploration ever further. Since it launched over four years ago, francetv nouvelles écritures has uploaded over 170 projects online and earned 60 prizes. http://nouvelles-ecritures.francetv.fr Founded by Pierre Cattan in 2012, Small Bang creates multiplatform experiences which connect the physical and digital worlds. From the participative science of BirdLab (National Natural History Museum, 2014) to the cinewalks of Cinemacity (Arte, 2013), and from the physical fresco and the scrolling graphic novel of Phallaina (Nouvelles écritures France Télévisions, 2016), the Open Bidouille Camps, and the documentary game Seasons: Morphosis (Nouvelles écritures France Télévisions, 2015), the Small Bang team members explore new forms of spatialized narratives. http://smallbang.fr Oikos is an architecture, urban-planning and landscaping agency, whose work is rooted in a co-creative approach involving the users and inhabitants of the converted spaces. We create public spaces, squares, parks, urban development strategic studies and guerilla gardening experiments. The Oikos architects frequently collaborate with Small Bang on installations which superimpose physical spaces and multi-modal content. http://www.oikos.pro/
18 A SCROLLING GRAPHIC NOVEL BY MARIETTA REN France Télévisions Antoine Allard antoine.allard@francetv.fr 01 56 22 29 47 CONTACTS Small Bang Alexandrine Stehelin / Pierre Cattan contact@smallbang.fr 01 83 56 87 25