Did you ever read ‘choose you own adventure’ books, where you got to decide what the characters in the story would do next? How about the storytelling game where one person would start the story and then pass it along at an exciting moment for the next person to continue? Did you ever watch a television show and wonder if you could do it better?
Cliffhanger Falls is the revolutionary new online soap opera that combines all of these elements by having the audience create the next episode. The current episode can be viewed on the main page. YOU have to pick up where it left off and continue the story. The countdown timer will tell you how much time is left until the next episode is broadcast. That’s how much time you have to write, shoot, and upload your entry. The audience will vote on which video gets chosen as the next part of the story and when it airs the process starts all over again!
Cliffhanger Falls is a soap opera spoof. This genre and setting should allow for any and all crazy ideas and storylines that you can come up with. In fact, the crazier the better. We want to see long lost twin siblings, amnesia attacks, brain transplants and people seemingly coming back from the dead. Hopefully all at once.
Since each cast is going to be different, it’s going to be very important to maintain continuity as best we can. Here’s how we envision doing that.
We have five main characters that most storylines should revolve around. Since different people will be playing the characters in each winning episode, all the characters have a distinguishable feature that will allow the audience to recognize them instantly. These features are going to be easily replicated. While an eight foot tall albino werewolf is certainly instantly recognizable, it might be fairly difficult for others to reproduce. Keep this in mind when introducing new characters. Of course, an eight foot tall albino werewolf does sound pretty cool. So if you absolutely must have something like this and you’re video is chosen, be sure to leave an easy guide to making the costume in the forum section. We really hope that part of the fun of Cliffhanger Falls is watching all you different actors play the same roles.
Just as with characters, it’s going to be crucial to maintain some sort of consistency with the settings. Don’t film anywhere too exotic that others can’t reproduce, unless of course the setting is self-contained within your episode. If you want a scene in the ball turret of a B-17 cruising at 20,000 feet, go for it. Just make sure that the next episode doesn’t have to return there. For places that we will be returning to again and again, like the Mansion, we will have stock footage that we will edit in as establishing shots. Hopefully that will let the audience know where the scene is taking place. You can even let us know in your video what establishing shot you want us to edit in.
