Why Intel funded short films with W Hotels and Roman Coppola

Intel's Ultrabook Experience is an ongoing campaign that collaborates with other innovative brands, emerging and established artists, designers and entertainers in ways that showcase Intel's Ultrabook devices being "used to do extraordinary things", explained Jayant Murty, director of brand strategy, integrated and partner marketing at Intel. 

In this collaboration with W Hotels, Starwood Hotel's design-led lifestyle hotel brand, Four Stories invited script submissions from aspiring filmmakers around the world. Four were selected and developed in 10-minute short films by Roman Coppola and his production company, The Director's Bureau. 

The guidelines for script submissions stated that the movies must be filmed on location at W Hotels across the globe and feature the Intel-inspired Ultrabook. 

The contest drew nearly 1,000 script submissions and the four winning films have been premiered around the world. On YouTube most of the movies have drawn more than 2 million views, with Eugene reaching 3 million. Least popular is The Mirror Between Us with fewer than 500,000 views. 

"The Intel and the W Hotels Four Stories collaboration is about developing the next generation of innovative filmmaking and engaging audiences by creating visually stunning stories," Murty said.  "For Intel, Four Stories is an opportunity to showcase how the Ultrabook can inspire innovative filmmaking and storytelling and further mesh creative art with technology."

So far the results have been "exciting" for both brands, and Intel and W Hotels are interested in "fuelling the next generation of independent filmmakers."