"WALKING CINEMA: MURDER ON BEACON HILL" PRESS AND COMMUNITY
The Boston Globe Magazine
"Walking Cinema" named to an elite list of national and local
apps. The only narrative, content-driven app in the list, the
article calls it a "self-guided walking murder mystery tour winding
through spooky (if you want it to be) cobblestone-lined Boston."
The Boston International Film Festival
In April, 2010 "Murder on Beacon Hill" was selected from hundreds
of entries to screen at the Boston International Film Festival where it
was one of the few films to win an award. The "Indie Spec New
Media" award recognizes documentaries that don't fit into a specific
category, but blow the judges away. Thanks judges.
The Guardian
"That this is a landmark moment is indisputable. If it's not
quite the Lumiere brothers at the Grand Cafe in 1895, it will at least
be a night to recall once the inaugural Oscar for Best Original App is
handed out."
IFC: The Independent Eye
"The '50s saw the introduction of Cinerama, which synced up three
simultaneous projectors aimed at a giant curved screen. 'You are
there!,' the advertising
promised, because of course it would take the biggest, most immersive
screens to ever hope to fool you into think you were something
else. So there's something fitting about "Murder on Beacon Hill,"
a movie (sort of) that really can mean you are there,
involving the tiny screen of your iPhone."
Xconomy
"As far as anyone knows, it's a first in movie history: a
location-based iPhone application has been accepted as an entry at a
major film festival."
The Boston Globe
"Over 160 years later, this nasty little murder still has plenty
of grisly appeal, especially when presented in such a clever and
original way."
Ados.fr
(Translated from French into believable English by Google
Translator) "The walk turns into an investigation in which the
steps become clues."
Flavorpill
"While 3D is simply the illusion of an interactive world, many
filmmakers are trying to deliver the real thing."
History News Network
An interview
with collaborating producer Eric Stange: "Of course, pictures,
images, maps, etc. are all great, but there also needs to be real
information, real evidence about the past as well. And it always
helps if that information is framed in some sort of narrative because
many of us crave stories as well – it’s our fellow human beings who
intrigue us most of all."
Portfolio.com
"Companies are discovering the playful side of mobile
advertising—and seeing results....Untravel Media CEO Michael Epstein
recruited six Beacon Hill businesses as stopping points for 'Murder on
Beacon Hill.' The movie experience leads viewers to the concierge
desk in the lobby of the Liberty Hotel, where they play a board game
related to the movie. “'From my aspect I said this is a marvelous
opportunity to solidify our anchor in the neighborhood here,' said Sean
Reardon, director of sales and marketing. 'I thought it was a natural
fit for us.'”
The Times of India
"A mobile phone application has been accepted as an entry in the
prestigious Boston International Film Festival. The application, titled
'Walking Cinema: Murder on Beacon Hill,' charts out the course of an
infamous murder that took place around the Harvard Medical College in
the 19th century. Does this mean that movie watching, from now, will
never mean the big screen alone?
The Boston Globe
"I hit the streets with my iPhone and a video tour about the
Parkman homicide that I had downloaded. While the production value of
'Walking Cinema: Murder on Beacon Hill’ is so cinematic you could watch
it at home, I follow the instructions of my tour guide and her slightly
creepy Wednesday Addams monotone from the murder location, now in the
shadows of the Massachusetts General Hospital high-rises, through the
streets of Beacon Hill to Parkman’s Walnut Street residence."
The Wrap
"Hollywood has had a fitful, often antagonistic relationship with
new media. But far from the Hollywood Hills, at several prominent
film festivals, it's a different story entirely. The Boston Film
Festival accepted an iPhone application -- an interactive murder
mystery entitled 'Walking Cinema: Murder on Beacon Hill' -- into its
competition this month."
Respekt.cz
(Translated from Normal Czech into Funky English by Google
Translator) "The ideal case is - let the guide lead guidance in
the form of local girls Alexandra McDougalové and visit with your hands
in various Boston locations, which are somehow related to the
mysterious murder of dr. George Parkman in 1849. The authors use modern
filmmaking techniques. Rotate animation, newspaper clippings,
photographs and subjective view of the cameras described places,
increasing the attractiveness of the mysterious music and quick
editing...Is
also an exciting idea where this technology will overlap. Already you
can imagine a group of Japanese, both run around a Jewish city with a
perfectly filmed legend of the Golem in their phones. "
Discover Magazine
"The app, with its tightly produced videos tells the story of the
Parkman murder and, according to the creators, is a 'page-turner
mystery powered by your feet.'
Loaded Gun - Boston
"The iPhone application called 'Walking Cinema: Murder
on Beacon Hill,' a location-based adventure augmented with
film-festival worthy video helping folks sleuth around the city to
solve a Beacon Hill crime, will appear on the silver screen at the AMC
Boston Common theatre."
CREATIVITY_unbound
"Even iPhone apps have moved beyond the grip of one’s hands,
instead calling for greater and greater physical interaction. Case in
point is Untravel Media’s 'Murder on Beacon Hill.' Using geocoded
videos to take you back to Boston in 1849, the app turns you into an
active sleuth attempting to solve the murder of the prominent Brahmin
Dr. George Parkman."
Trip Quips
"If you’re heading to Boston, an iPhone application called
“Walking Cinema: Murder on Beacon Hill” covers a one-mile stretch of
the neighborhood and tells the story of the famous 1849 murder of
George Parkman, one of Beantown’s wealthiest gentlemen at the time"
The Beacon Hill Times
"Attaching up-to-the-minute technology to a 160-year-old murder
mystery seems to draw in the imagination of today's young participants
as well."
Boston.com
"Michael Epstein may be the first mogul in a new film industry,
one that will eventually embrace both iPhone and Google Android apps,
as well as augmented reality eyewear."
MGH Hotline
"When H.G. Wells wrote his novel "The Time Machine" in 1895, he
could not have foreseen the technology that exists today. Through the
genius of modern mobile technology, MGH employees and visitors to
Boston are able to take a step back in time and witness one of Boston's
most notorious murders."
BOSTON.COM
"Untravel. . .will release its most ambitious project yet. Called
"Murder@Harvard Mobile" (www.parkmanmurder.com), it is an audio and
video tour detailing the notorious 19th-century slaying of a wealthy
Bostonian, George Parkman. Real-life relics, a skull here, a weapon
there, will be placed in stores and other buildings on Beacon Hill,
serving as waypoints for the tour."