HBO Home Box Office: "Imagination" Campaign 2009

Multdimensional Storytelling

HBO’s Cube installation and interactive site, launched in 2009, has won Gold at the Art Directors Club awards, following on from the Pencil award for entertainment at the One Show. The integrated campaign is centred on a four sided screen, presenting a multi-dimensional storytelling experience.
– Client: HBO (Home Box Office)
– Credits: BBDO, New York and The Barbarian Group (Campaign), Biscuit Filmworks (Filming), Animal Logic (Visual Effects), POP Sound and Sound Lounge (Audio), Search Party Music (Music).
– Location: online at HBOimagine.com and in New York City, Philadelphia
– Launch: 2009
– YouTube (HD): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJDO64Mdajk
HBO Cube offers four different perspectives on the same scene, simultaneously. Two short films, Heist and Affair, were told from four distinct points of view.
Each side of the cube stands alone as an engaging film, and as one piece of a larger puzzle. As viewers move around the cube, they watch the story unfold from different perspectives, forming different perceptions, and often misperceptions, of the characters and plot. Only by watching the story unfold from multiple sides of the cube can we begin to see the bigger picture. The campaign feeds into an user-generated film site, hboyourimagination.com, with three further films, Trapped, The Big One and Happy Kid encouraging the submission of new work.
“The Affair” presents a drama featuring a husband, wife, maid, and a mysterious half-naked ma. “Heist” shows the execution of a meticulously organized crime in an art gallery. The cubes are connected by an additional 41 pieces of content that include both short- and long- form video, news stories, images, and audio files. As you navigate the content, a status bar tracks your progress and once every piece of content is unlocked, you are taken to a new page that contains a final video that connects the pieces together in a more traditional, linear fashion.
The Your Imagination site invites visitors to submit their own content. “Each film will be one take. No cuts, no editing. A simple turn or move of the camera will reveal there is much more to the story than the viewer first envisioned. The story should twist, turn, take us on a mental journey to a place far different than where we started. A place that’s more than first imagined.”
Via: http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2010/hbo-cube-imagination/ (30.4.2010)