Post Magazine

March 2010

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Thanks to new technology, broadband apps and social media networks, marketers have found a plethora of new ways to get their message out. But it's not just marketers who benefit; content creators have seen the light as well. Users are watching videos on their hand- helds, playing Internet games that connect to Facebook, and get- ting new bonus features on their existing Blu-ray discs thanks to BD-Live technology. It's an exciting time for post production companies specializing or just dipping their feet in the interactive water for the first time. This market segment is growing, with no signs of slowing down. G I A N T I N T E R AC T I V E David Anthony and Jeff Stabenau opened NYC's Giant Interactive (www.giant-interactive.com) back in 2005. A large part of their business over the years has been delivering packaged media on DVD for standard definition discs and now Blu-ray. The Blu-ray part of this business is really taking off for Giant and it has to do with a licensing deal they made at the end of last year with Imagion AG, a large BD-Live technology company in Europe. Imagion's technology is the backbone for Giant's new BD-Live offering — BD-Connect. What makes this deal so in- teresting for Giant, and consumers, is almost all the new Blu-ray players are now Web enabled, meaning that a Blu-ray DVD can be infinitely updated after its purchase, thanks to technology like BD-Connect. British-based IMS Research says it projects global shipments of Web-enabled Blu-ray players to top 28 million units in 2011. Not bad at all! "Studios have a chance to not only have direct connection to the consumer via their Blu-ray re- leases, they can also do things like update trailers and give additional information and bonus content," ex- plains Anthony. Giant's BD-Connect is currently featured on the Blu-ray package for the original Star Trek TV show that has a component of BD-Live, allowing for the update of special features. A camera crew was recently sent to a Star Trek convention to conduct interviews and repor t back, so someone who bought that DVD months ago can now pop that disc in their Web-con- nected Blu-ray player and see the new content. "We are excited about it because it creates com- munity around a big franchise, while allowing you to update trailers or announce something new. So now you have dynamic ability for the first time on Blu-ray," explains Anthony. "People are used to their Web experience being 100 percent dynamic, but what they are not used to is having that on their flat panel." He points to the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation DVDs Giant worked on as an example. "That is a show that has a huge follow- ing and a lot of community around it. On the special features we are able to provide updated content and a ton of other stuff, such as letting users post their own content. It creates this seamless community, driven by BD-Live, and that is really the point of CSI." Giant is currently working on different modules for the CSI discs that includes quizzes that are updated and synced to cur- rent episodes and current events. And there's more. "If a show has an RSS feed on its Website, we can direct that to the Blu-ray disc as well," says Anthony. In addition to special features, marketing plays a huge role in this. "You put aside real estate for current marketing, and anytime that disc is played now or forever, you have a way to get back to that individual with new marketing," he reports. Some clients aren't immediately ready to add the BD-Live com- ponent, so they put in a placeholder. "It's easy for us because the pointers are there, but they don't have to fill out the content until they have some great new offering or marketing idea and they come back and we update it.This is called a bootstrap," he explains. Looking back on the decision to par tner with Imagion, An- thony says, "The majority of our work is Blu-ray or standard defin- ition DVD, so we saw this as sticking to our focus, which is deliv- ery of this media." And while Imagion built this technology, Giant has the ability to build onto it. "Their technology is the framework, the actual pro- gramming is done in a subset of Java. So, if someone wanted a new kind of trivia quiz, we would custom build that on top of the framework," concludes Anthony. To badly paraphrase the great James T. Kirk, Giant is boldly going where few have gone before! I G N I T I O N I N T E R AC T I V E Santa Monica's Ignition Interactive (www.ignitioncreative.net) is a full-service digital studio offering services from conception to post to execution. Evan DeHaven is president/creative director of the mostly Mac-based studio, which relies on Adobe's Creative Suite as well as Avid editing bays and XSI for 3D. "We help our clients by acting as a diverse agency and giving them strategic solutions across all platforms. Our goal is to create a narrative that carries through A/V, print and interactive to create a cohesive marketing strategy for our clients' brand." www.postmagazine.com March 2010 • Post 17 Giant Interactive is using BD-Connect technology to add bonus content to Blu-ray DVDs, like Season 9 of CBS's CSI, long after the discs have been bought by consumers.

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