TBA studios, an independent film production house known for producing evocative high-concept films, produced a new film based on a popular local crime novel, Smaller and Smaller Circles. Smaller and Smaller Circles the Movie (SASC) is a film about a series of child murders in a garbage dump investigated by two Jesuit priests. It depicts the ugly realities that lie beneath our institutions and shows how such a society can create horrors like the film’s serial killer. A serial killer that represents all of the violence, mistrust, and corruption.

Set to be released at a time when such violence and corruption were everyday headlines, the film was a reminder of how justice can only be sought through the meticulous pursuit of the truth. Here, however, lies the challenge. High-concept films such as SASC do not sell well to mainstream Filipino audience.

To reach and appeal to a bigger mainstream audience, SASC’s pre-screening ad had to engage in a way that would naturally draw massive interest. True to its subject, the producers got people to want to see the film by letting them participate in the film’s crime solving, giving them a peek into the ultimate mystery of the genre: Who did it?

To talk to the audience about fear, corruption, and violence that the film’s serial killer represented, we let the serial killer speak for himself. We created the Killer Chatbot. A chatbot that talks, acts, and behaves like the film’s serial killer. We launched the bot on Messenger on the SASC's page, a digital platform already inhabited by and easily accessible to the film’s larger potential audience. Queries sent to SASC's page are routed to the chatbot who responds in the voice of the serial killer. Users created their own unique experiences depending on their responses to his questions. The bot responds negatively to lies and refuses to disclose his own information. He threatens and is prone to bursts of anger. And in some instances would send messages to users in the middle of the night. Giving the users the feeling of unease from the violence that hides in plain sight. Users who respond with honesty, care, and concern are those are rewarded by the bot with a richer experience and one of the “good endings.” Users who are abrasive or rude to the bot are led to one of the “bad endings.”

All users are rewarded for the experience by being allowed to look closer into the film through exclusive deleted scenes that reveal small details about the film that enrich the experience of the film.

Smaller and Smaller Circles - The Killer Chatbot

CREDITS

Local partners

Gold partners