HBO Gets in Sync

NEW YORK To get the eight synchronized stories that play out in real time on HBOvoyeur.com just right required 30 actors, six music composers and hundreds of prop people working on a sound stage in West Hollywood. The ambitious online film, directed by RSA'S Jake Scott for Omnicom Group's BBDO in New York, launched last week with a party in New York's Lower East Side, where the work was projected onto the side of a building. The two-three-minute HBO branding films are available for download on a variety of formats including mobile, HBO's video on demand and the PlayStation Portable. HBOvoyeur.com lets viewers watch what happens in several apartment buildings that don't have an exterior wall. In "Apartment 2A," people fixing a ceiling interrupt a woman who is about to chop up a bound man. She then chases them while brandishing a large knife. All the vignettes, which are about a PG-13 on the rating scale, occur simultaneously, so following one can be difficult because several of the stories overlap. "Clients need content and rich media for reasonable amounts of money," said David Lubars, chairman and CCO, BBDO North America. "People at work don't have two and half hours, but they do have three minutes." The series cost roughly $3 million to produce, according to sources. From HBO's perspective, the site and the spots, which had some bloggers buzzing about a possible new series from the pay cable company, get people talking about HBO. "We wanted BBDO to come up with a consumer-branded experience that captures the essence of HBO," said Courteney Monroe, svp, consumer marketing at HBO. It took about a year to go from initial idea to final execution. Following two weeks of rehearsals, the 35mm film shoot was completed in two weeks, then transferred to high-definition video. Each story one was done in one take, with the actors being told to watch for one of five "beats," where everyone would do the same thing, throughout each one. "At a certain point we'd yell 'point' and everyone would do it," said Greg Hahn, ecd, BBDO, New York. "Once that happened, we knew the building was in synch." The scenes were shot in one take to maintain the illusion that the viewer was watching real life play out. "With the voyeuristic experience, everything is in real time and there are no cuts," said Hahn. In addition to the main apartment building, there are four other structures on the Web site, where additional stories unfold and supplementary information appears on the blog, thestorygoesdeeper.com. Keeping so many stories straight and everything in sync was a formidable task. "It was like reading a novel on a Rubik's Cube," said Mike Smith, senior cd, BBDO, New York.

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HBO Gets in Sync

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