Hybrid of mobile phone messaging chat and black comedy series for television and broadband media

The nm2 project has been concluded, but if you are interested in the Accidental Lovers production and/or its international dissemination, please use the current main contacts:

Executive Producer Ari Kivimäki ari.kivimaki aT lume.fi

In expert matters relating to the production and its practice-based research, please contact:
Mika "Lumi" Tuomola (director, scriptwriter & concept designer)
Leena Saarinen (scriptwriter & concept designer)

Both are listed on the Crucible Studio web site's People section.



"I believe in lunatic love."


Accidental Lovers is an interactive, dark musical TV-comedy. It explores variations of a love relationship between 61-year-old cabaret singer Juulia (Kristiina Elstelä) and 30 years younger pop star Roope (Lorenz Backman).

Viewers are able to affect the unfolding drama, encouraging, or spoiling, a possible love affair between the two unlikely lovers by sending mobile text messages to the broadcast. On television screen, viewers see their text messages and hear the characters respond to their texts. A glowing heart shows whether the audience messages are warming or cooling the hearts of the romantic couple, and viewers see the relationship develop according to their comments and discussion.
The concept is inspired by ancient Greek tragedy performances that discussed the base values of the Athenians, who participated in as the commenting chorus of the tragedy (Nietzsche, Birth of Tragedy).

Please see the Introduction video to Accidental Lovers at
http://www.ist-nm2.org/media_productions.html

Many ‘cycles of love’ are broadcasted in a row, creating a cyclical dramaturgical structure comparable to films Lola rentt (1998, dir. Tom Tykwer) and Groundhog Day (1993, dir. Harold Ramis). The experimental production democratizes television as the mass medium by taking the audience in and reflecting their thoughts by the means of comedy and absurd.

Accidental Lovers premiered on the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE Channel 1 as a mini series of 4 episodes on each Wednesday and Friday evening between Dec. 27, 2006 – Jan. 5, 2007. Altogether 12 different love stories were created, based on the mobile text message discussion that the participating audience had during the shows.

Cumulatively, Accidental Lovers reached over 1 million television viewers (Finland has a population of 5,3 million), who sent about 3 000 text messages to the show: advices to the characters, opinions about them, comments about love and even their own alternate fantasy scenes. Some broadcasts had over 100 000 viewers simultaneously watching and participating in the dark musical carnival of love and death.
The peak audience groups were 20+ men and 60+ women, which fulfilled the goal of the artistic research core team to break the generation and genre gap and bring them together for interaction by new media.

As a piloting production of new type of interactive drama genre for television Accidental Lovers has discovered a fluent organisation of media elements in order to create a satisfying narrative experience. It has formulated an effective rhetoric for keyword triggered dialogue while ensuring a rewarding user-experience for text-message-based interaction where both individuals and viewers as community will have an effect on the story. Original cinematic style that unites linear, episodic, cyclical and associative dramaturgies was developed for this new genre.

The Accidental Lovers concept won the CyberPitch award in the Banff International Television Festival 2003 and is now the first university production to be nominated for the Banff 2007 World Television Awards within its twenty-eight years of famed history.

The technical components were developed in European research project nm2 (new millennium, new media). "Realisation Engine" holds a detailed representation of the Accidental Lovers story world as defined by the production team. It continuously analyses viewers’ text messages and automatically directs the mood and pace of the narrative, choosing how the video, audio and graphics layers should be assembled, delivering these as a continuous stream of instructions to the playout system built on PubliTronic Indigo hardware. Text messages are moderated and processed using a Text Message Moderation tool, which is linked to a dynamic model of the drama’s narrative structure.

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The production is part of the EU 6th framework IST project new media, new millennium (nm2) practice-based research and development project running from 2004 to 2007. See the website http://www.ist-nm2.org/ for research related information and publications.
Accidental Lovers has received script-writing support from AVEK, The Promotion Centre for Audiovisual Culture, Finland, and development funding from the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund, Canada, as well as research and production funding from the EU 6th framework IST programme nm2 and the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle.

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Image credits and captions for the Accidental Lovers press images:

accidental_lovers_authors.jpg

Photo by Heikki Niiranen
Accidental Lovers' concept developers: director Mika Lumi Tuomola, editor Minna Nurminen and script-writer Leena Saarinen.

accidental_lovers_screen1.jpg

Photo by Heli Sorjonen, graphics by Pontus Vepsäläinen
Juulia’s (Kristiina Elstelä) and Roope’s (Lorenz Backman) wedding ceremony with Laura (from left: Mia Renwall), Maarit (Minna Rimpilä) and Jatta (Riitta Elstelä) in Accidental Lovers (dir. Mika Lumi Tuomola, Crucible Studio / University of Art and Design Helsinki, Finland 2006).

Interface texts are:
(On top bar:)
Your message gives a thought for Juulia or Roope and affects the big heart.

(On the lower bar:)
Text to Juulia & Roope to number 17239. Start message with S [space]. Price 0,95 €

(On the bottom, a text message from a television viewer:)
Love is eternal, Juulia. But the objects of it change…


accidental_lovers_screen2.jpg

Photo by Heli Sorjonen, graphics by Pontus Vepsäläinen
Juulia (Kristiina Elstelä) and Roope (Lorenz Backman) in Accidental Lovers (dir. Mika Lumi Tuomola, Crucible Studio / University of Art and Design Helsinki, Finland 2006).

Interface texts are:
(On top bar:)
Your message gives a thought for Juulia or Roope and affects the big heart.

(On the lower bar:)
Text to Juulia & Roope to number 17239. Start message with S [space]. Price 0,95 €

(On the bottom, a text message from a television viewer:)
Go for it! You will die too, you crazy Roope!

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Accidental Lovers story structure.
The countless variations of each 28-minute episode are made possible by a media database that is responsive to keywords in text messages. About 80 video scenes and 850 voice-overs are further regulated by a computer program that understands, for example, plot continuity, rhythm and mood.

Cast
Kristiina Elstelä ...Juulia Kuvaja
Lorenz Backman ...Roope Vuori
Riitta Elstelä ...Jatta & J.T.
Minna Rimpilä ...Maarit
Mia Renwall ...Laura
Remu Aaltonen ...Rokki-Rane
Jyrki Kovaleff ...Roskis-Rane
Pörhö ...Pörhö

Directed by Mika Tuomola

Script & created by Leena Saarinen & Mika Tuomola

Camera team
Juha Leskelä ...Cinematography
Mari Sinkkanen ...Camera assistant
Niina Mattus ...Camera assistant
Juha Saikkonen ...lights
Petri Setälä ...lights
Esko Viitala ...lights
Esa Pohjolainen ...lights

Film editing by Minna Nurminen

Produced by
Paavo Häikiö ...Producer/Crucible Studio
Juhani Tenhunen ...Executive Producer/Crucible Studio
Leena Tomminen ...Producer/YLE
Inari Uusimäki ...Producer/YLE
Kari Kyrönseppä ...Excecutive producer/YLE
Jarmo Eskelinen ...Executive producer/Lume
Samppa Murtomäki ...Executive producer/Lume
Ari Kivimäki ...Executive Producer/Lume

Production management
Helena Hyvärinen ...Production manager
Tiia Eskelinen ...Production assistant
Satu Jääskeläinen ...Script supervisor

Sound team
Paul Jyrälä, M.P.S.E., C.A.S. ...Sound designer
Miia Nevalainen ...Sound editor
Joonas Jyrälä ...Interactive sound designer
Simo Jantunen ...Trainee
Tiina Juntunen ...Trainee
Timo Rantalainen ...Sound recordist
Sakari Virkki ...Sound recordist

Music by
Anna-Mari Kähärä ...Composer/arrangements
Jussi Tuurna ...Composer/arrangements
Marzi Nyman ...Musician
Marko Timonen ...Musician
Pekka Lehti ...Musician
Tuure Koski ...Musician
Markku Veijonsuo ...Musician
Teemu Mattson ...Musician
Maija Vilkkumaa ...Lyricist

Costumes by
Niina Pasanen ...Costume designer
Marita Vehkaoja ...Costumer
Anna Kankaanpää ...Costumer

Makeup by
Päivi Kela ... principal makeup artist
Guy Hellström ...makeup artist
Eeva Saarinen ...makeup artist
Tarja Nylander ...makeup artist

Set by
Heikki Leikola ...Set designer
Susanna Lavonen Set decorator
Kimmo Turunen ...Set design supervisor
Kari Yläajos ...Set construction manager
Heikki Salmela ...Set construction
Timo Ojanperä ...Set construction
Esko Kares ...Set construction
Heimo Lepistö ...Set construction
Timo Löppönen ...Set construction
Rauno Arjoranta ...Set construction
Minna Kunnasluoto ...Set assistance
Tiina Vanhola ...Set assistance
Marita Pirttimaa ...Props

Other team members
Riia Mustonen ...Director's assistant & storyboard
Pontus Vepsäläinen ...Graphic designer
Heli Sorjonen ...Still photography
Robert Ahonius ...Usability researcher
Petri Kola ...Interaction consultant
Kebede Mergia ...Documentary
Toni Tolin ...Studio manager /Lume
Risto Salo ...Production Manager /YLE

Heli Loukomies ...Catering

NM2 technical team

Topias Marttila ... Technical coordinator
Juhani Kantola / Taik
Veli-Matti Koskenkorva / Taik
Peter Stollenmayer / Eurescom
Doug Williams / BT Group
Ian Kegel / BT Group
Tim Stevens / BT Group
Jon Cook / University of London Goldsmiths College
Vilmos Zsombori / University of London Goldsmiths College
Alberto Muñoz Gallego / Telefónica Investigación y Desarrollo S.A
Isabel Alonso / Telefónica Investigación y Desarrollo S.A
Michael Hausenblas / Joanneum Research
Martin Umgeher / Joanneum Research
Harry Fluks / TNO

Script Comments
Tove Idström
Riikka Pelo


Thank you
Maarit Kiprianoff / ravintola Milenka
Mediakeskus Lume Hannu Forsback, Birgitta Rosti, Tarja Peltoniemi, Samppa Murtomäki ja Raine Heikkinen.
Daniel Lindholm
Ilmalan vesitormi / Erkki Ranta
Merihaka Oy
Jussi Topinoja
Helsingin kaupungin rakennusvirasto
Leena Viitanen


CRUCIBLE STUDIO / YLE / MEDIA CENTRE LUME

2006

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