A student from Imperial College Business School has helped to develop a new mobile app that could change the way films are viewed on smartphones.

Chris Corbishley, who has just completed his MSc in Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Management at the Business School, worked with fellow filmmakers, Leo Bridle and Leo Powell to produce the app, which introduces a combined cinematic and gaming experience to iPhone users.

In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the technology behind the app, the trio devised a movie called ‘In Limbo’ that was set in the lobby of the Business School.  The film  follows the lives of eight characters as they pass their time in an airport departures lounge. However, instead of sitting back and passively watching their stories unfold, the application enables viewers to select from a variety of narratives as the scene plays out around them.

By moving their phones left or right, viewers dive into one of five unfolding narratives. They include an irate wife quarrelling with her unfaithful husband and a travel-writer who recounts stories of previous voyages. Through watching the film many times and from multiple angles, the audience can slowly unravel how these characters lives are intertwined and why they are waiting “in limbo.”

“There’s nothing on the app market that effectively merges 360 degree technology with narrative filmmaking,” Chris commented. “The app represents a more active way of consuming media content. It challenges the passive nature of cinema by injecting a gaming quality to the world of film.”

Chris, Leo Bridle and Leo Powell are partners in the film company Full Circle Interactive. They shot the film using camera software that is based on Google Street View technology.

The camera consists of five lenses and has been adapted to capture its surroundings at 25 frames per second, a speed required to make a film. The images are then stitched together and the audio is embedded to create a film environment the user can explore through iPhone’s built-in motion detector.

The team will be displaying their app to the public during the Digital Shoreditch Festival on Tuesday 28 May from 9.00am to 8.00pm from 10.00am to 7.00pm.

Download the app for free from the iTunes App store:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/in-limbo/id640064835?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

New panoramic film brings interactive technology to mobile audiences