Project Brief 3 write up

My Role

My role in the project was to write the majority of the content for the project, the main story as well as supplementary reports that would establish the universe. I would also write a glossary explaining the different terms and labels that would give the audience a better understanding of the story. I also helped in creating the project’s layout and website in which users would then navigate through creating their own narrative structure. creating the characters and their relationships in the story was another role that I had.

ACP Story

‘Jack’ [codename] is a member of ACP – an international organisation tasked with acquiring, containing, and preserving items of anomalous cause or origin. He is a field agent who crosses the globe to secure various objects that are brought to the attention of the organisation. Unbeknownst to him, Jack is collecting the body parts of an ancient Egyptian God, Osiris, which have been scattered and hidden throughout our world. However ACP are not the only covert organisation searching for the remains of Osiris. Via an online platform containing text, image, sound and video, we join Jack as he begins to discover the significance of the items he’s collecting and realises the magnitude of the events that are about to unfold.
So what is ACP?
The ACP agency is a worldwide, covert organisation that operates beyond state jurisdiction. They are supported and empowered by a coalition of nations with one simple goal – to acquire, contain, and preserve items/artefacts/phenomena of anomalous cause or origin. These anomalies can either present a threat to international security or an opportunity to advance human kind.
The goal of the agency is to maintain peace worldwide and to protect human independence from extraterrestrial, extradimensional, and anomalous influence.

In order to do this, ACP have a number of divisions within the organisation, each tasked with various jobs, from the Alpha Division’s field agents, to the administrators of the Delta Division, to the highest ranking officials of the O Division.

As a field agent, our protagonist, who goes by the codename ‘Jack’, is routinely sent out to collect artefacts of concern to ACP. However on one particular mission, Jack and his team are attacked by another group.
The ACP team capture one of the attackers and bring him back to ACP headquarters along with the item they were sent to retrieve (ACP 131 – which looks to be a metallic arm of sorts).
We discover that the attacking group belong to an organisation called The Church of the Broken God. They believe The Arm Jack collected is a part of the ancient Egyptian God Osiris. The dangerous nature of The Arm and the events that took place on the mission get the attention of ACP’s O Division, these are the highest ranking officials of the organisation.
Ultimately, a number of artefacts are found and examined. We discover that The Church of the Broken God intend to resurrect Osiris in order to fend off an impending attack by aliens.
Why? A bit of back-story: Thousands of years ago, a battle ensued between the Gods of the Earth, who at the time co-existed with humans. Osiris defeated the other Gods who planned to take over Earth and enslave the human race. They subsequently retreated to outer space where they’ve been residing for the past 8000 years. Now they intend to return to Earth to take it over. The Church of the Broken God think Osiris is the only hope human’s have of defeating the alien invaders. Thus they’re attempting to resurrect him. ACP, on the other hand, believe resurrecting Osiris would put the human race at risk and believe humans should battle the aliens themselves.

This is where our story ends, leaving the audience to decide for themselves what happens to Jack, Osiris, ACP, The Church and ultimately the human race.

So how’re we going to present our story?

The story will be presented on an online platform via a wiki website containing various reports as written up and published by ACP. The website is supposed to be the official and secure database of ACP which contains the official reports of all operations carried out by the organisation.
The story will be told via a host of various reports outlining the acquisition of the items, reports of the attack and break-in, and all other events that take place in the story. Various other reports that are unrelated to our story will also feature on the site in order to give it authenticity as the database of the organisation. For example, reports on items unrelated to the God will feature, as ACP has numerous divisions and operatives, all tracking down a host of different items and cases. Jack and the team following the ‘Osiris case’ are simply one arm of the organisation.
Despite the plethora of seemingly random reports, links from report to report will guide the audience through the story and through the maze of ACP reports.
The publishing of the reports will be scattered, occurring across a number of weeks, allowing the audience to follow the narrative as it plays out in real-time. So, for example, a new report will be published each day or couple of days.
This method of presentation will create a story that feels more ‘realistic’ to the audience. Instead of sitting in front of a screen and watching actors spoon-feed you a blatantly fabricated story, the audience will be exploring these ‘authentic’ documents themselves as though they’re employees of ACP exploring the agency’s database. Thus, the audience guides themselves through the story.
We’re also exploring the possibility of setting up a log-in system in order to access the website. If this is possible, the audience will be individually assigned a division of ACP that they “work for” and they must use their “employee log-in” to access the webpage. At this stage, however, we’re still exploring this avenue to see if it’s possible to set up such a system.

 

None-the-less, the website will contain a mix of text, images, sound and video. The text will form the reports as well as emails, notes and other messages that ACP send and receive. The images will largely consist of photos of the artefacts collected and of other key materials and people. The video and sound recordings will also capture action from the field, as well as vlogs and messages recorded by the operative’s pre and post mission.

Example content

 

ACP 01

Classification: Grade 1

Containment Procedure:

ACP 01 currently poses the greatest threat to humanity out of all item currently known to the agency. However the item itself poses no discernible threat, physically or mentally to human being.

Containment procedures are utilised mainly for the protection and preservation of ACP 01. ACP 01 is considered the most valuable item that the agency has in it’s collection and must be preserved with all possible resources. Under no circumstances can ACP 01 bel allowed to fall into the hands of any other organisation or person. As such a 15 megaton hydrogen bomb is located within the facility that houses ACP 01 which will detonate in any event that containment procedures are broken.

At present ACP 01 is located at the agency’s main base of operations at [REDACTED] and cannot be moved unless authorisation is given by all members of O division. ACP 01 must be supervised by a full contingent of A division personnel at all times and must be sealed within at least 5 levels of security.

Currently ACP 01 is kept within a locked container that can only be opened with the genetic code of at least four O division members, but any opening must first be scheduled by all O division members. The container is stored within a single fully lit glass walled room that sits inside a larger walled room surrounded by an armament of A division staff. Within this outer room only staff with a A division or higher security clearance can enter.

Description:

ACP 01 are sheets of papers, including a cover sheet, that are stapled together on the top left corner. The top sheet is labeled simple as ‘Confidential Report on Item’. The number of pages vary and have ranged from 3 to thirty.

ACP 01 first appeared on the desk of [REDACTED] the founder of the ACP agency. When first opened ACP 01 was a report on The Holy Grail, later classified as ACP 02. The report was written in the past tense, detailing the containment of the item as well as the item’s location when it was acquired. This information eventually led [REDACTED] and his men to acquire ACP 02 before Heinrich Himmler and his Ahnenerbe institute was able to take it.

After acquiring ACP 02, [REDACTED] returned to reach the report in ACP 01. However when opened the report on ACP 02 was gone and replaced by a report on The Tibetan Map, later classified as ACP 03. This report and it’s information again lead to the item’s acquisition by [REDACTED].

Since then it has been established that ACP 01 will reveal a new report on an anomalous item before it’s acquisition of it by ACP. ACP 01 has revealed reports on the majority of ACP items and has been the main method that the agency receives new information about the existence of anomalous items and objects.

ACP 01 changes are seemingly random and do not appear to stick to any known timeframe. However ACP 01 will only change when the item in it’s current report is acquired meaning that it is in the agency’s best interest to acquire those items as soon as possible.

The current administration believe that the value of ACP 01  to be too great for further experimentation or study of the item. As such there is no explanation for the change in ACP 01.

Notes:

Many have theorised how ACP 01 came into existence and it’s purpose, with many regarding it as a sort of early warning system, especially after it’s report on ACP 23 which predicted the start of World War 2. However whether that was the report’s intention or simply a footnote is a distinction that O division does not consider important.

ACP 01 also seems to prioritise reports on items that will have a significant influence at the current time of the report. For example the timing of the report on ACP 02 was crucial to stop the Nazi’s acqusision of the item.

The first and last time that a report from ACP 01 was ignored was during the final battle of Berlin and led to the ACP 31 incident.

There are many within the agency that question the motivation for the existence of ACP 01 and whether the entity or entities responsible for it are to be trusted. However it is the judgement of the O division that ACP 01’s value to the agency is too overwhelming to ignore.

The current administration of O division has also decided that no member outside of O division can know the full nature of ACP 01. A division members are simply briefed that ACP 01 is an item that has qualities that are extremely to anyone around it.

If ACP 01 was ever to leave the control of the agency the consequences on world stability would be enormous.