SUPERNERDS

A surveillance night by Schauspiel Köln, gebrueder beetz filmproduction and WDR

Stage Play, TV-Live-Event, Second-Screen, Suddenlife Gaming, 90min Documentary, Book

“Supernerds” merges theater, television and interactive media into a transmedia project that explores the phenomenon of Supernerds, web activists and “new dissidents” à la Snowden, Appelbaum or Assange. Parallel to and interwoven with the play and the TV show, the project will make the abstract issue “Digital Surveillance” accessible to a wide audience. We use the second screen applications and the power of Suddenlife Gaming to turn the abstract issue into an emotional experience.

Download the trailer here

Start your Suddenlife Gaming adventure now: www.supernerds.tv !
or call the “Wiretapping Hotline”: 0221 – 64 308 505

SUPERNERDS is now available via Journeyman Pictures.

News

  • - SUPERNERDS at DOK.fest Munich and Sheffield DocFest

    Our transmedia project will be presented on May 7 at Kammerspiele Munich, on May 10 at DOK.fest Munich as an [...]

    Our transmedia project will be presented on May 7 at Kammerspiele Munich, on May 10 at DOK.fest Munich as an interactive event for schools and at Sheffield DocFest on June 12 as part of the Alternate Realities Programme. At Sheffield, the event named "A Night of Surveillance: The Supernerds Experience" will be a thrilling experience for a live audience, designed to make you think twice about your online footprint. Producer Georg Tschurthenthaler will give insights into the original production of the interactive part-theatre, part-TV show ’Supernerds’, before providing us with a playful demonstration of just how easy it is to hack phones and tap into private data.  

    DOK.fest Munich
    Official Website
    Sheffield Doc/fest
    SUPERNERDS on Facebook
    Documentary "Digital Dissidents"


  • - SUPERNERDS at WCSFP in Stockholm

    Our transmedia project will be presented on December 6, 2016 at 2:45 p.m. at World Congress of Science and Factual [...]

    Our transmedia project will be presented on December 6, 2016 at 2:45 p.m. at World Congress of Science and Factual Producers (WCSFP) in the session "To Boldly Go". The session is a guide to the most exciting, innovative and challenging new ways to tell science and history narratives, showcasing creative projects that think outside the box and examining how they came to be. Bringing not only television, but theatre, immersive experiences, games and apps, To Boldly Go will find new ways to tell stories, make sure we stay fresh and relevant, learn how to break the rules successfully and discover how to bring new audiences to our stories. SUPERNERDS was a live event about digital surveillance, combining a theatre play, an interactive TV show and ARG techniques. It was nominated for the "Interactive Innovation Award" at SXSW Festival.

    WCSFP
    Details about SUPERNERDS


  • - SUPERNERDS nominated for the Rockie Award

    Our transmedia project „SUPERNERDS“ is nominated for the Rockie Award of the BANFF World Media Festival 2016. The award ceremony [...]

    Our transmedia project „SUPERNERDS“ is nominated for the Rockie Award of the BANFF World Media Festival 2016. The award ceremony wil be held between 12th and 15th of June in the canadian Banff. The Banff World Media Festival is an international Film and Media Festival of the broadcasting industry.    

    BANFF World Media Festival
    Project Details


Projekte

  • Digitale Dissidenten_Artikelbild

    Digital Dissidents

SUPERNERDS

A surveillance night by Schauspiel Köln, gebrueder beetz filmproduction and WDR

Stage Play, TV-Live-Event, Second-Screen, Suddenlife Gaming, 90min Documentary, Book

SUPERNERDS is a transmedia project about digital surveillance that merges a live TV show, a stage play and interactive media. gebrueder beetz filmproduction created an outstanding “surveillance night” on May 28, 2015 that turned the abstract issue into an emotional experience.

 

SUPERNERDS happened live on three main platforms: 1) At the theatre Schauspiel Köln where the play “Supernerds” by Angela Richter premiered, 2) on the public broadcaster WDR where the primetime TV show was presented by host Bettina Böttinger, directly from the studio inside the theatre 3) on www.supernerds.tv where the audience could influence the course of the night. All three platforms were closely interlinked: The TV audience could vote online, how deeply the theater audience’s data was to be “scanned”. In several “interactive attacks” host Böttinger and data expert Richard Gutjahr invaded the audience’s privacy. Gutjahr made spectator’s cellphones ring according to attributes that he had aggregated of their personal data, e.g. credit rankings. He hacked a spectator’s smartphone camera. And he even activated webcams of people watching the TV show on a computer and took snapshots of them.
Weeks before the show, people were engaged in the transmedia story by a so called “Suddenlife Gaming”: After registering on the website, players had thrilling experiences when they received dubious phone calls, mysterious messages or handwritten postcards that gave them the feeling to be under surveillance, too. By this innovative and exciting storytelling, SUPERNERDS made the audience reconsider the attitude “I’ve nothing to hide”. The project demonstrated in a playful yet alarming way what the revelations by “Supernerds” such as Edward Snowden or Julian Assange mean for each of us personally.

 

WDR:
Host: Bettina Böttinger
Technical Supervisor: Harald Glaser
Editor: Irene Dieper
DoP: Gregor Gäb
Production Supervisor: Susanne Trenkel
Production Managers: Uwe J. Phenn, Christian Wulf
Directors: Thomas Menke, Harald Spiess
Cross Promo/ Social Media: Christian Wesener
Editorial: Regina Rohde

Schauspiel Köln:
Starring: Nikolaus Benda, Yuri Englert, Judith Rosmair, Malte Sundermann, Birgit Walter
Stage Set: Katrin Brack
Costumes: Wiebke Schlüter
Music: Malakoff Kowalski
Technical Supervisor: Jens Lorenzen
Dramaturgy: Thomas Laue, Julian Pörksen, Georg Tschurtschenthaler (gebrueder beetz filmproduction)
Director: Angela Richter

gebrueder beetz filmproduction:
Line Producer: Kathrin Isberner
Production Manager: Susanne Heinz
Production Assistant: Tarik Tesfu
Inserts: Matthias Reitze
Editor Inserts: Undine Siepker, Dominik Stahl
DoP Inserts: Cornelia Beißler
Sound Inserts: Michael Geck
Host: Anja Backhaus
Narration: Simon Roden
Interactive Elements: Thadeus Roth, Sebastian Kannegießer, Open Data City
Social Media: Vanessa Bittroff, Ines Khannoussi
Technical Advisor: Sebastian Mondial
Producer & Interactive Concept: Georg Tschurtschenthaler & Hannah Kappes
Editorial Assistant: Zora Nessl
Executive Producer: Christian Beetz

Koproduktion

Kooperation

logo_schauspiel Suddenlife Gaming odc-logo alexander verlag_logo MSG_logo

Förderer

FilmstiftungNRW_logo

  • SUPERNERDS

    Schauspiel Köln, Depot 1
    28 May 2015 at 7:30 pm

  • SUPERNERDS

    WDR
    28 May 2015 at 8:15 pm

  • SUPERNERDS

    Einsfestival
    29 May 2015 at 8:15 pm

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    3sat
    05 September 2015 at 9:50 pm

  • Digital Dissidents

    WDR
    11 September 2015 at 7:45 am

  • Digitale Dissidents

    WDR
    18 September 2015 at 7:45 am

  • Digital Dissidents

    Raindance Film Festival - London
    26 September 2015 at 2:15 pm

  • Digital Dissidents

    Raindance Film Festival - London
    27 September 2015 at 12:10 pm

  • SUPERNERDS at Cologne Conference

    The Great Culture Day - Cologne
    29 September 2015 at 11:00 am

  • Digital Dissidents

    Sala Cinemário - 39. São Paulo International Film Festival
    22 October 2015 at 10:00 pm

  • Digital Dissidents

    ESPAÇO ITAÚ DE CINEMA - FREI CANECA 4 - 39. São Paulo International Film Festival
    23 October 2015 at 3:45 pm

  • Digital Dissidents

    Phoenix
    24 October 2015 at 10:30 pm

  • Digital Dissidents

    CINE OLIDO - 39. São Paulo International Film Festival
    27 October 2015 at 3:00 pm

  • Digital Dissidents

    Phoenix
    30 October 2015 at 2:15 am

  • Digital Dissidents

    CINE OLIDO - 39. São Paulo International Film Festival
    30 October 2015 at 5:00 pm

  • Digital Dissidents

    CINESALA - 39. São Paulo International Film Festival
    01 November 2015 at 2:00 pm

  • Digital Dissidents

    EinsFestival
    14 November 2015 at 1:20 pm

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    WCSFP - Vienna
    03 December 2015 at 4:30 pm

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    Lipperlandhalle - Lemgo
    27 January 2016 at 2:00 pm

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    Australian International Documentary Conference - Melbourne
    29 February 2016 at 10:45 am

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    transmedia day - Munich
    08 March 2016 at 9:00 am

  • SUPERNERDS

    SXSW Interactive - Austin, Texas
    15 March 2016 at 7:00 pm

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    Kammerspiele - Munich
    07 May 2016 at 8:00 pm

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    DOK. education - Munich
    10 May 2016 at 8:45 am

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    Sheffield - DocFest
    12 June 2016 at 8:00 pm

  • SUPERNERDS

    WCSFP Stockholm - ToBoldyGo
    06 December 2016 at 2:45 pm

  • SPIEGEL ONLINE, 29.05.15

    "(...) A huge success for the public service television."

  • Süddeutsche Zeitung, 29.05.15

    "'SUPERNERDS' hold a mirror up to the rage of intelligence Big-Data-collecting. A successful experiment - and a plea for a more concious dealing with our privacy."

  • Frankfurter Allgemeine, 29.05.15

    "(...) An interesting and informative experiment on the public broadcaster WDR."

  • stern, 29.05.15

    "Assange appeared in the show as a 3D hologram. It seemed, Bettina Böttinger, the host, was actually standing in front of him."

  • ZEIT ONLINE, 28.05.15

    "Apparently, some people were very frightened!"

  • W&V, 26.05.15

    "With this innovative project, the public broadcaster WDR set up a multi-channel surveillance scenario."

  • dwdl.de, 13.05.15

    "Not just to bug the interested audience, but to engage people in a cross medial way."

  • Bild Köln, 30.04.15

    "That is going to be the most outstanding theater-tv-experiment of the year."

  • TV-News national, 29.04.15

    "(...) The concept sounds really daring."