Bad/Loud Robot: Milkblood
Milkblood is a pioneering art project from director JJ Abrams’ Loud Robot record label combining music, film, narrative and ‘alternative reality gaming’ (ARG). Milkblood features video by Mike Diva and monster design by Trevor Henderson, plus music by top songwriter-producers Dave Dahlquist and Pat Morrisey.
I was commissioned to create an alternate reality gaming universe for audience interaction: fleshing out characters, organisations, and plotlines.
The creative manifested in the form of interactive real-world digital channels for underdog heroes The Deliverance Committee, and shadowy antagonists ZAR.
The Deliverance Committee:
Amateur paranormal investigators
Brief: ARG story telling
The Deliverance Committee (DC) are the ‘good guys’ in Milkblood’s unfolding story.
The DC’s presence includes an abandoned website which we accurately designed to 1993 styles and standards, radio shows scripted and voiced by actors, and a telephone hotline.
Requirements
Story telling for JJ Abrams’ studio
Sign-off from high level creative team
Manifest story as interactive content with emotional and playful appeal
Engineer continuity between 1993 and present day to include ARG
Real-world research of local areas for crucial later audience interaction
Early 1990s design and technology accuracy
Visit the Site →
The DC’s real-world website needed to roughly match very early 1993 websites. The group’s Virginia USA location also required accurate detail for real-life audience interactions.
The public-facing channel presented early lore hinted at in the video assets by Mike Diva and Trevor Henderson.
Video and image assets laid the universe’s foundations. Creative set the atmosphere, made references to audience talking points and introduced characters that may appear in the present day timeline as their older selves. A telephone hotline was available for community building and bread-crumbing with more clues.
The deliberately over-written copy introduced DC founder Artie Shannahan, missing in the search for his wife Susan. Artie’s ham radio show was recreated by actors and can be listened to for extra clues and story.
thedeliveranceocmmittee.com hosted the announcement of Milkblood’s first real world interaction where audience members could recover an important artefact… and decide to hand it over to the DC or Zeus Advanced Research.
Assets
Character backgrounds, continuity and supporting assets including:
Website direction and copy
Podcast-style audio scripts with actors and set
Phone hotline, ARG dynamics
Images and video
Zeus Advanced Research:
Shadowy antagonists
Brief: ARG story telling
Zeus Advanced Research are the ‘friendly enemy’ in Milkblood’s unfolding story. Its frontline workers and captive extraterrestrial appear in the band’s videos by Mike Diva. The eccentric big pharma-style firm are fronted by a utopian wellbeing program.
Requirements
Story telling for JJ Abrams’ studio
Required full sign-off from high level creative team
Manifest story as interactive content with emotional and playful appeal
Include ARG threads for audience inspiration and future plot lines
Real-world research of health, wellbeing and weird trends for audience interaction and creative integrity
Visit the Site →
Dr Zeus and his fellow mad scientists are the go-to people for alien and arcane solutions in the Milkblood universe.
ZAR’s digital presence is a front: a half smokescreen, half public experiment wellbeing program with mystic elements. What ZAR’s brand lacks in slickness, it makes up for in sinister undertones, as demonstrated in its brand video.
Dr Zeus’ inventions include ZAR CRP, his patented mystic wellbeing program that audience members can sign up for. Emails are distributed via real-world channels adding a touch of the wyrd to audience members’ office day.
Like any self-respecting dubious wellbeing programme, ZAR CRP can be found on Instagram (and linkedIn). Open-minded laboratory workers – get in touch today. You don’t have to be radio rental to work at ZAR, but it helps.
Assets
Characters, backgrounds, lore, threads, continuity and supporting assets including:
Visual identity
Satirical brand video
Website creative and copy
Subscriber newsletter for interactive wellbeing program
Instagram account
ARG dynamics
Milkblood press campaign
Brief: VHS Cassette + band biography
The cassette featured Milkblood’s promotional videos directed by band member and film director Mike Diva (SNL, Old Spice, Run the Jewels).
The band’s ‘VHSCore’ identity forged by monster designer Trevor Henderson (Siren Head) provided inspiration for the promotional media item.
Requirements
Copy and UX for promotional VHS cassette
Classic music industry biography
Story telling for JJ Abrams’ studio
Required full sign-off from high level creative team
It was essential that the VHS copy replicated the tone and content of late 1980s video store horror movies (with American English spelling).
For appeal to busy editors and influencers, Milkblood’s complex and gradually unfolding story needed to be communicated in an immediately compelling way, without revealing imminent story developments.
Milkblood’s universe diverged from our own when Betamax won the home video war. This stipulation was invented to bypass continuity dissonance between the brief and the project’s goals.
Betamax’s victory led to the technology in Milkblood’s world being tactile in comparison to ours – a ‘synthpunk’ look – and engineered towards quality over outward visual appearance.
VHS still has its cranky adherents in the Milkblood universe, fortunately, as we couldn’t obtain blank Betamax cassettes to make a promo video on.
Assets
Compelling sleeve notes with unique tone
Succinct brief with low word count
Classic band biography covering various key stakeholders