An Australian television network has produced a TV movie set in 2012 that examines what happens to Sydney when it is faced with a combination of bush fires and water shortages.
The movie – called Scorched – depicts a Sydney that has not received rain for 240 days.Β To make the movie scenario really compelling, in the true vein of all good disaster movies the problem is compounded when the city then gets surrounded by bushfires.
It’s enough to make you want to call everyones outback hero, Skippy the Kangaroo, but I digress.
The smart move the producers made was to go beyond a simple TV series, to develop an entire backstory online with fake company websites and video blogs from the characters.
This is a fascinating take on creating a future vision, and will get far more attention than any public consulting exercise or newspaper article. Why?Β Because it brings the future to life.
Never mind that some of the ‘facts’ in the series are a little far from the truth, as pointed out in this article:
…the producers of the program didn’t bother to speak to Sydney Water or the Sydney Catchment Authority before going to air. They would have discovered that even in the worst-case scenario, Sydney already has enough water in its huge network of catchments to meet demand until 2014. The city’s new desalination plant will come on line by 2010 and will be able to supply 15 per cent of Sydney’s demand, but has been designed to quickly double its capacity to a half-billion litres of water a day.
The interesting thing is that by tapping into the visual medium, but not in a “lecture me like Al Gore” fashion, the story will gain traction.Β So much so that public authorities were concerned about the impact of the movie:
Water Services Association chief executive Ross Young says he is concerned the show might spark a wave of panicked callers to water authorities on Monday morning.
Compelling and a good pointer to how to engage people in future focused conversations.
(Thanks to Bob Frame for the pointer)