Dread’s Virtual Panel Series Continues August 26th @ 6 PM (PST) with the Creators & Cast of ARTIFICIAL
The next installment of Dread’s “Dissecting Horror” digital panel series will take place Wednesday, August 26th at 6 pm (PST) and featuring the creators and cast from the Peabody and Emmy Award-winning interactive, original scripted sci-fi series Artificial, which airs LIVE every Thursday at 5:00 pm PST / 8:00 pm EST only on Twitch at twitch.tv/artificialnext.
“Dissecting Horror” will be streamed on Dread Central’s Facebook page through Facebook Live (as well as other streaming platforms). The panel will also be made available on our official Youtube channel.
Synopsis:
Season 3 of Artificial picks up in the wake of the Twitch audience choosing to deactivate the artificially intelligent being known as SV2 aka Sophie (Tiffany Chu) after she became homicidal. The ever calculating Sebastian (Stephen Chang) and his undisclosed organization seek to start anew by utilizing the technology that Dr. Matt Lin (Tohoru Masamune) first used to build Sophie.
After installing a blank slate consciousness into Sophie’s old shell, SV3 aka Lilith (Tiffany Chu) is activated and quarantined to a single home, ruling that zero human physical interaction would be allowed in order to avoid any past mistakes. Sebastian then hires Elle (Christy St. John), a wildly idealistic and brilliant cognitive science graduate student, to lead the development of the isolated SV3 to become human in front of a live Twitch audience.
Through this journey, the AI will form relationships with the guilt-ridden ex-podcast host Justin (Justin Lee), the chaotic psychiatrist Dr. Ruby Thatcher (Jennifer Field), the romantic boyfriend Asher (Devon Werkheiser), and many new characters created by the audience themselves in special Worldbuilding episodes that occur every 3rd week of the season. These new audience-created characters include the sly and spiritual Zander Cruz (Dante Basco) and the private investigator Kira (Alejandra Reynoso).
Overview
Artificial is the first of its kind utilizing the Twitch audience to interact directly with the show’s characters and not only transform the story, but actively participate in it through live Q&As, polls, scene creation, character development, and more. Season 3 is also produced entirely remote, with cast and crew calling in to bring the show to life.
This new season also introduces the ability to transform the tone of the show in profound ways through LifeScore, an AI-augmented adaptive platform, co-founded by composer Philip Sheppard (Detroit: Become Human) and Tom Gruber (CTO and head of design for Siri), which allows the audience to change the mood and intensity of the live music in real-time simply by talking and using emotes in the Twitch chat.
This is NOT a choose-your-own-adventure nor is it consumed individually – it is a consequential experience shared by the audience as a collective who actively participate together. Everyone watching takes part in the story and has the opportunity to profoundly influence it by asking questions and voting on polls. Since the audience can chat live to each other on Twitch, this also means they share the experience with each other. The audience is a community.
Season 3 of Artificial will take the most decorated interactive series of 2019 one more huge step forward, presenting a new level of interactive innovation that could ONLY be done on Twitch.
ABOUT THE PANELISTS
Bernie Su – Executive Producer, Co-Creator, Showrunner, Director, and Head Writer
Bernie Su is a three-time Primetime Emmy award-winning interactive storyteller, creator, and showrunner. His previous works include The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, a groundbreaking and modern interactive adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, which spawned over 70 million views and won the first Primetime Emmy Award for a YouTube distributed series. He then followed that up with his second Primetime Emmy for Emma Approved, an interactive re-imagination of another Austen novel, Emma. Bernie was recently awarded his third Primetime Emmy for the second season of Artificial, which is also the first Emmy Award for a Twitch series.
Evan Mandery – Executive Producer, Co-Creator, and Co-Writer
Evan Mandery is the author of six books and is a regular contributor to Politico. His new novel, The Professional, will be published in November. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Evan is a leading expert on the death penalty.
Tiffany Chu – “Sophie Lin / Lilith”
Tiffany has quickly emerged as a star on the rise in the entertainment industry, smashing barriers between the actor and audiences with groundbreaking projects in 2019. Chu can be seen starring as the lead in the film Ms. Purple, directed by Justin Chon (Gook), which premiered as an official selection at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Chu has also worked behind the camera, both co-producing and starring in Toenail, a short film directed by Jingyi Shao, which won a 2017 HBO APA Visionaries award as one of the best short films.
Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Chu grew up in San Jose and later went on to study Drama and Film & Media Studies at the University of California, Irvine. Fluent in both English and Mandarin, she was also crowned the 2015 Miss Taiwanese American Pageant 1st Princess, also winning the Best Talent award for playing the erhu.
Christy St. John – “Elle”
Christy studied Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon before realizing that her passion for acting could not be ignored. She’s now a professional actress and comedian in Los Angeles. Past credits include Wendy/ADA in Ingress’s Dunraven Foundation web series, Karen in Bounce TV’s In The Cut, Zoe in Blackpill’s Duels, and (coming to Netflix this Christmas) Susie in The Christmas Chronicles 2.
Alejandra Reynoso – “Kira Castillo”
Alejandra is a bilingual, Hispanic-American actress and podcast host born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. She started her career in voice over as Elena Schnurr on The Hub’s G.I. Joe Renegades and went on to play the sweet, much-loved Fairy of Nature, Flora, on Nickelodeon’s Winx Club. Currently, you can hear Alejandra on Netflix’s hit video game adaptation Castlevania (the first-ever video game adaptation to be certified “FRESH” on Rotten Tomatoes). She voices the sassy sorceress, Sypha Belnades. You can also hear Alejandra in big video game titles like Avalanche Studios’ Just Cause 4 and Rock Star Games’ Red Dead Redemption II. Check out her podcast Rolling Wild with Alejandra Reynoso on Apple Podcasts and Spotify!
Are you excited to tune in to our “Dissecting Horror” Artificial panel next Wednesday, August 26th at 6 pm (PST)? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram! You can also carry on the convo with me personally on Twitter @josh_millican.
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