Unearth the Secret of ‘The Institute’

Opinions expressed in Game of Buzz are those of the author alone.

One of the stranger, and more wondrous, things you could have done in San Francisco during the last few years was visit The Jejune Institute at 580 California street and begin a descent into an alternate reality of missing persons, pirate radio broadcasts, and what may or may not have been a mind control cult. The elaborate experience was pretty much the premier Alternate Reality Game until the “institute” closed last year.

This Saturday night in Oakland filmmaker Spencer McCall hosts a test screening of  the documentary film The Institute which tells the story of the game from the player’s perspectives.

Having only had the opportunity to complete the first chapter of Jejune Institute experience I’m looking forward to seeing McCall’s film and getting more of the texture of the ARG. It was the emergence of Jejune and the motivating idea of a “game of nonchalance”  that solidified my own deep interest in the nascent field of transmedia.

Tickets are still availible for the midnight screening at Oakland’s historic Grand Lake theater if you too want a glimpse of the future of storytelling.