By Sreekant Khandekar
Advertising

<font color="#CC0033">Cannes 2008:</font> 3D films and advertising hit the big screen

In another tech breakthrough, remote sensors allow the entire audience to play a brand video game on the big screen as a single team

When we talk of big changes that have taken place in media, cinema doesn’t generally figure in the conversation. If it does, it is only in the context of digitisation in theatres, a trend in which India is at the forefront. But that’s pretty much it.

And yet, at a session organised by SAWA, the Screen Advertising World Association, several hundred delegates to the Cannes Lions 2008 emerged amazed by what interactivity on the big screen can do. They were induced to participate just like the target audience for the Volvo XC70 had in UK theatres last year. (The Volvo experiment, in which the company induced the audience to try a test drive, was part of the Media Lions shortlist.)

<font color="#CC0033">Cannes 2008:</font> 3D films and advertising hit the big screen
A video game featuring the Volvo appeared on the big screen during the presentation. The host urged the audience to raise both their hands. The crowd was expected to sway to one side if they wanted to manoeuvre the vehicle on the big screen towards the left. Similarly, they had to swing their hands the other way if that’s where they wanted the auto to move. It had the crowd laughing with excitement by the end of it and there was no question that it was a powerful shared experience, where every one of us was reduced to being a human joystick.
<font color="#CC0033">Cannes 2008:</font> 3D films and advertising hit the big screen
What basically happened was this: Hidden motion sensors in the theatre figured which way the show of hands was going and drove the vehicle on the screen accordingly. Several hundred strangers from dozens of countries in that darkened hall had a tremendous sense of bonding as we drove the Volvo together.

The technology not only allows people in a theatre to play a video game as one, it allows two sets of people in two different theatres to play against each other as two teams would.

The other big revolution, waiting to happen for years, is the mainstreaming of 3D movies. SAWA representatives showed a variety of ads which have been run in theatres in Europe.

3D ads will become financially feasible only if feature films first go 3D. And that’s about to happen with the release next month of Warner Brothers’ Journey to the Centre of the Earth in 3D. It’s a big budget venture and is already making waves.

This film is not just a one-off desperate attempt at attention seeking through 3D, but part of a larger movement in a new direction. Proof of that is the announcement by Disney and Pixar two months ago that they will make eight new animated films in 3D over the next four years.

In other words, ad film makers should begin to accept that 3D brand communication in theatres is no longer merely part of the horror show at entertainment parks. It will soon be round the corner.

For India's complete metal tally at Cannes, click here.

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