From Online Media
by Les Luchter, Wednesday, May 9, 2007 6:00 AM ET
WHILE SPIDER-MAN 3 ENJOYED THE largest opening weekend box office ever this past weekend, those who saw the film at National Amusement's The Bridge: Cinema de Lux theater in Los Angeles received an additional treat courtesy of MSNBC.com: a pre-movie video game dubbed NewsBreaker Live that they could play from their seats.
Attendees were shown a live msnbc.com RSS newsfeed on the big screen, and as each person moved either to the right or left, their collective actions controlled paddles that "smashed up" the real-time headlines with a bouncing ball, causing them to fall. Simultaneously, the audience moved to "capture" the headlines before they dropped off the screen entirely.
"There's a single camera at the front of the theater that's recording the audience's movements," explained David Polinchock, chief experience officer for Brand Experience Lab, which developed the game with strategic communications firm SS+K and Etcetera Edutainment, part of Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center. "As they lean left and right, the camera records that, puts it in the computer system, and that's how they interact with the game. So they, in effect, become the joystick...."
Msnbc.com says NewsBreaker Live is part of the site's new branding campaign--"A Fuller Spectrum of News"--that also includes a NewsBreaker online game and a NewsStream screensaver, and is backed by TV, print and online ads.
NewsBreaker Live will run through July preceding such other major blockbusters as the sequels to Harry Potter, Shrek, Pirates of the Caribbean and Fantastic 4, as well as the new Transformers. Theatergoers in Philadelphia and White Plains, NY will also be able to enjoy the fun, which one 20-something male in Los Angeles called "the sweetest movie waiting experience I've ever had."
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