Film published via Snapchat gets full-length release

SPH Brightcove Video
Feature-length film Sickhouse is released, made from hundreds of 10 second clips that were shot for and published on the social media sit, Snapchat.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Followers of social media star Andrea Russett got an interesting surprise last month when they watched her on her Snapchat feed, going on a camping trip that turned into a horror-filled nightmare.

But the hundreds of 10-second postings were a blend of real-life and fiction, as Russett was taking part in what producers claim is the first feature-length film to be produced for and published on the social media site.

Entitled Sickhouse, the movie was shot in real-time on iPhones over a period of five days and released on Snapchat.

"I didn't tell a lot of my friends what I was doing because I wanted to see their genuine reactions and see if they believed that this was real and happening, and I got so many of my friends texting me and being like, 'Oh my God, thanks for the invite for camping, I would have loved to gone.' Or like another girl texted me and she was like, 'Are you ok? I haven't heard from you in a few days and your Snapchat is getting me worried,'" said Russett.

The film follows a group of friends obsessed with social media who go on an excursion into the woods to explore an abandoned, and haunted, cabin.

But, because Snapchat posts are deleted after 24 hours, the clips have now been compiled into an actual full-length feature.

Those who didn't see it first on their phones can see the whole movie via online service Vimeo.

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