Gavin Michael Booth, Jason Blum to broadcast horror film live on Twitter
Fifteen will be a one-take, live horror movie broadcast on Twitter using the app Periscope
A Canadian filmmaker plans to debut the "world's first live horror movie" on smartphones around the world tonight.
Gavin Michael Booth, of Windsor, Ont., has partnered with horror movie producer Jason Blum and Blumhouse Productions to create a short film titled Fifteen, which will be streamed live on Twitter through the app Periscope.
Periscope is a live video streaming app for iOS and Android operating systems and allows a user to broadcast video in real time.
Fifteen will debut Thursday at 10 p.m. ET. People can view it by following @Blumhouse on Twitter or logging on to periscope.tv/blumhouse.
Booth said he only installed Periscope on his phone about two months ago.
"Instantly, my wife, Sarah, who is acting in the project, said, 'Someone should do live theatre over this,'" Booth said. "It was a lightning bolt. I said, 'We need to do a live horror movie.'
"The best people in the industry here in Los Angeles for that are Jason Blum and Blumhouse."
Blumhouse is behind horror flicks Insidious, The Purge and Paranormal Activity.
"If it's horror, they're sort of on the forefront," Booth said. "I went in and pitched it, they loved it and we fast-tracked it.
"This all happened in the last four or five weeks."
Booth, 37, has always loved horror films. He said he and a friend once spent a summer renting the horror catalogue "A through Z" at the local video store.
His most recent film, The Scarehouse, was shot entirely in Windsor and was part of the 2014 Marché du Film industry event at the Cannes Film Festival.
A friend's haunted house attraction in Windsor, also named Scarehouse, was the inspiration for the film.
Running time is clue to title
Booth declined to reveal the film's plot but said "the title of the film may be the running time of the movie."
"Fifteen is very representative of what we're doing," he said.
It's like live theatre with enhanced effects. We have to be a well-oiled machine.- Gavin Michael Booth, filmmaker
The movie also has a choose-your-own-adventure feel to it as the audience can send comments directly to the film's main character through the Periscope app.
"People can comment and interact during the movie, which can help change the decisions and the dialogue of the main character, who is using the phone," Booth said. "He will interact with the audience throughout the film."
Booth said the film will be shot in a fashion similar to the Oscar-winning Birdman.
"It will be one long, unbroken take," Booth said. "It's like live theatre with enhanced effects. We have to be a well-oiled machine. We have become militant about rehearsals and getting it right."
Twitter is solidly behind the idea, according to a post on Variety online.
"Periscope gives anyone the ability to share a moment as it's happening, and Blumhouse is innovating by giving their audience a new way to experience a film as an interactive, live performance, accessible to anyone in the world," Rachel Dodes, head of movie partnerships at Twitter, is quoted as saying in Variety.