This thoroughly modern project started when Co-Director Adrienne Mackey tapped into her game design and immersive theater backgrounds to offer an interactive experience to people who hike nature trails. It was a wild idea by her own reckoning, but it was also a timely and marketable concept. Soon she landed a collaboration deal with the Pennsylvania Environmental Council (PEC) and incorporated—prepare for some 21st century terminology—locative immersive media experiences into the mix. If this all sounds a mite confusing, consider further that the project's architects have synthesized cutting-edge technologies with timeless Mother Nature and old-fashioned storytelling to create The Inside Outside. This short is one of 10 film spin-offs from the trail app series, and the section of trail presented in this episode runs straight through New Hope.
Co-Director Nazlah Black (they/them) is an Administrative Associate at SwimPony, Mackey's interactive performing arts company, and they earn director's credits for the contribution. Self-described adventurers who jet between the east and west coasts when not indulging in passions for baking, watching esports and reading poetry, Black no doubt enhanced the film's whimsical spirit. Local author Erin McMillon and actor Brian Anthony Wilson brought additional celebrity cred to the project.
So much is going on around this not-quite-7-minute-long short film, an audience could not possibly discern the backstory from the narrative, which by the way is ghostly and subtly comic. But now you know the larger tale behind the making of this distinctive and quirky little film, and if your interest is piqued, you can watch the trailer here: The Inside Outside Trailer
