Cover for The Fourth Act: How Theaters Could Host the Next Era of Storytelling

The Fourth Act: How Theaters Could Host the Next Era of Storytelling

A New Format for AI-Powered, Audience-Directed Cinema

Movie theaters are underused. AI video is expensive. Media companies sit on frozen IP. The Fourth Act reframes all three as a shared opportunity using modular, stylized AI films shaped by live audience input to reinvent cinema as a co-authored experience.

Media InnovationAI & StorytellingInteractive DesignFuture Formats
Published: June 13, 2025
Updated: December 12, 2025
DOIRead Whitepaper

The Approach

Scott Jellen is an independent researcher working at the intersection of protocol design, rights modeling, and interoperability across digital and public systems. His work includes standards-oriented drafts, reference models, and whitepapers that explore how incentives, governance, and infrastructure can be represented clearly. He is currently establishing the Jellen Protocol Lab as a future home for this work. Flagship research includes the Universal Sports Graph (USG), spanning RFC-style specifications and an early reference registry.

© 2026 Scott Jellen. Licensing varies by publication.