Elan Lee — who has worked on several pioneering alternate reality games and similar media experiments, writes, “‘Dirty Work’ is a new online comedy that we just launched at Fourth Wall Studios. This multi-screening/phone-call-making/email-sending/transmedia-ifying/future-of-storytelling/world-peace-involving/bioremediation-engineering/folk-dancing shindig* is now live at rides.tv/dirtywork and completely free. (NSFW for language). The show stars Mary-Lynn Rajskub (Chloe from 24), Hank Harris (X-Files), Jamie Clayton (Hung) and Matt L. Jones (Badger from Breaking Bad)”
I watched this for about 40 minutes this morning and was really struck by how tight the production was, funny, well-written, well-acted, thoughtfully composed, with clever use of the “transmedia” elements. This is damned good stuff. The premise is superficially similar to Sunshine Cleaning, but all that similarity does is remind you that the same premise in two different hands can yield two totally different stories.
DIRTY WORK is a dark comedy that follows the gruesome misadventures of a Los Angeles based crime-scene clean-up crew. Each episode finds our team wading through the muck of a new assignment, a new location, and new set of toxic predicaments. Calling themselves “bioremediation engineers” is a just a fancy way of saying they scrape up brains for a living. But the carnage they’re mopping up is nothing compared to the wreckage of their personal lives.
DIRTY WORK is a gritty and immersive storytelling experience, delivered through Fourth Wall Studios’ RIDES platform. Each installment of the series is told through your computer and smartphone, a combination of video, audio, text and images – putting you, the viewer, in the center of the insanity.
RIDES | Dirty Work | Interactive Video Experience
(Thanks, Elan!)