'Social cinema' film to be shown entirely on Instagram

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Image showing Instagram on a cinema screen

It's apparently called "social cinema" and it's where you watch an entire film on Instagram.

Shield 5 claims to be the first film to embrace the new age of social cinema and will post 28 episodes throughout next month which will begin 1 February.

And yes the clips will be 15 seconds long, like any other Instagram video.

Some quick maths mean that's going to be a seven minute film, so not necessarily at the stage yet for competing with Netflix or the cinema.

But still a new way to engage film lovers online.

Watch the trailer for Shield 5 on Instagram., external

Anthony Wilcox created and directed Shield 5, having previously worked on Hot Fuzz, Layer Cake and Pearl Harbour.

He's hoping audiences will appreciate the new way of accessing a story in a similar way to radio podcast Serial.

And it sort of has a similar story to Serial - it's a whodunit, but this time it's not a true story.

"The way people are watching things is evolving and changing all the time so it seems like the right time to try something different," Anthony tells Newsbeat.

"I think it's really helpful sometimes to have rules and to know what is and isn't possible.

"Weirdly it never felt limiting, it actually felt liberating.

"I was excited by the limitations Instagram has, which is that videos are 15 seconds.

"We're also going to use photographs along with each episode to help tell the story and add more detail."

Image source, Shield 5

The film has Example acting in it but using his real name Elliot Gleave as his credit.

Newsbeat spoke to him last year about the pressure he felt entering into the film industry.

Anthony doesn't believe 28 clips will cause a problem for audience engagement.

"We wanted to make the story as layered and ambitious as possible," he says.

"We're also going to use photographs along with each episode to help tell the story and add more detail.

"This is an experiment but I'm really confident the audience will enjoy it."

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