My Dream Road Trip and App to Make it Possible

I've always thought how great it would be to mash up the IMDB film location page with Google Maps. About a year ago, I researched locations to my favorite movies and created my dream road-trip via Google Maps, plus tagged where I would visit my friends  Have a look below, I have plotted to visit the backdrops for many a road-movie or seminal film for me (it's a work in progress) ranging from Into the Wild to True Romance.

                                     View Lisa US Road Trip in a larger map

The point is, I only ever used IMDB to research locations and some other random sites, then I would tag the locations on my map. It was a fairly laborious process. Then I found this site today: Filmaps. It's a Film & Tv location Wiki using Google Maps, people are posting up their own tags to filming locations. You can search by film/TV series, check out the Goonies breakdown, or Into the Wild. It is pretty amazing. The only negative thing about the site, is it still doesn't get around the problem of being able to help you map out your own personal trip or plan a schedule (it doesn't let you extract the information, all the maps are locked).

Film & TV Location Tourism on the Rise

After watching surf movie Blue Crush, I went off to Oahu's North Shore (I should really post about my surf-girl culture immersion for a month there, surreal) to explore and live in the film's beautiful setting. As Filmaps' puts it:

'Sometimes the charm of the places where the films have been filmed wakes up you adventure soul and you would like to discover even visit the exactly place where the scene is taking place'.

I think there could be a market for an online service such as this, the Telegraph writes about the surge in visits to British TV locations last year.

Iconic Sights App Idea

I want to develop an online service in which people can entirely self-plan an iconic sights trip. This service is about really personalizing it; creating one seamless visit and saves you researching and flicking between a thousand screens all the info. Here's how the App would work:

• Get given a blank map of the country or area you want to visit
• Tick the iconic/film/tv-sets/books/events/areas you like to visit by country - a plot would be worked out for you by Google Directions/Mapquest. It can go from big road-trips to a day-out in London.
• A complete road-trip is produced for you, including ideas for lodging, costs, suggested activities, movie/book/music fun facts- just basically make it an amazing foolproof schedule and very easy to book stuff.

You are just integrating google-maps+iconic sights+tourist operator service= How brilliant would that be?

Random

The one thing with funny thing with google maps earlier, is I typed in Thelma and Louise, and I found this. Look closely, yes they live on as Louise Drive and Thelma Avenue in Ohio....

                                       View Larger Map...

HBO: Epic Marketing and Game of Thrones

HBO Branches Out Into More Fantasy, But Is Their Marketing Turning Off US fans?

I just posted up my Red Sonja piece yesterday, when I received at tweet from HBO promoting the trailer to their new medieval fantasy series The Game of Thrones. Have a look for yourself, as usual they take it to the next level, and it's pure cinema. Sean Bean and Lena Headey were the only faces I recognized amongst the cast, lending it that Lord of the Rings and 300 feel. The show debuted in the US on Sunday 17th April and on the UK's Sky Atlantic on Monday 18th April. What is interesting is that the show scored 2.2 million viewers in the US, and a record-breaking 743,000 viewers for Sky Atlantic. Dan's Media Digest has written an article about the show's ratings, questioning why it has done so well in the UK compared to the US  Her theory is that the show's US marketing has turned off potential viewers.

Could the usually highly tuned and progressive marketing for HBO, really have backfired? I really loved all the work they did for True Blood, it was just so imaginative, see this fantastic case-study from agency Campfire on how they used ground-breaking marketing techniques and Transmedia storytelling to get True Blood audiences looking and then hooked.

Perhaps it is going back to what I was writing about yesterday and the impact of Comic-Con, and the danger of:

a) giving fans too much of they want
b) giving away too much plot and content in advance of the show/during the show

Dan suggests this is the case, and that there was an over-kill of content, messaging, behind the scenes of the scenes, almost so fans got bored of the show before it aired. I went to look online myself, and there is masses of content, mostly for the US audiences, and across all platforms. Plus there has been a long lead time in this campaign, the show was announced back in 2009. I couldn't even get to the bottom of HBO's Game of Thrones Official Fan page on Facebook, it is absolutely epic. I have not seen much in way of marketing for the show in the UK, so perhaps part of its success here, is that it is still bit of a mystery.

Out of interest, I checked out the HBO site for Game of Thrones, to see what they are creating for the fans and it is a total treasure trove of content, from avatars, facebook apps (it can even remix your FB page), images, forums and opportunities to create stories. This content also sits in the Sky Atlantic web-pages. The thing that stood out, was this Tolkein-esque interactive map, in which you can literally journey across the show's locations. So you no longer have to go off trawling through fan-sites for created material, almost fan-fiction, without the fans.

For me, as these huge shows put together their campaigns (including trying to emulate/feed the fan-fiction world) is they need to think about restraint. I remember reading marketing communications expert Martin Hayward article earlier this year, about how marketing must align with three ‘r’s – relevance, response and restraint.

On a different note, I did snigger a bit when reading someplace it was pitched as 'Soprano's meets Middle Earth'. Is that the way to pitch HBO nowadays?

Power of the Convention: Comic-Con

The Red Sonja re-make - the buzz of Comic-Con 2008

Getting my Comic-Con On

I was day-dreaming earlier about being my alter-ego Red Sonja, it was treacherous, there was a Barbarian man to contend with, a killer lesbian queen to ward off and all with just a chain-mail bikini and sword to my name. Then I came back to earth and wondered; what did happen to that Red Sonja remake? Back at Comic-Con 2008, some Hollywood Studio announced they were making the film, starring Rose McGowan and directed by my guru Robert Rodriguez, and I was very excited. They released some stunning images, created a lot of talk and then there was.... nothing. I have since learned that the film has been shelved for various reasons, including copy-right infringements, finance issues and quite significantly a huge bust up between former lovers McGowan and Rodriguez.

I have always been fascinated with Comic-Con (I have now a real reason to attend, I am intent on this film being made) and how it got to be such a huge deal. New Media Strategies posts here about its rise, and the power of a fan at a present-day gathering. Back in 1970, the convention started out as a small gathering in San Diego for comic-enthusiasts, who would occasionally get to meet the creators behind their favorite stories and get a tantalizing sneak-peak at new characters and titles. Over 30 years later, it has transformed into one of the biggest events in the entertainment calendar. It's now huge multi-media showcase, promoting everything from niche anime to big Blockbusters films and Comic-Con fans wield extraordinary influence: they can pretty much commission their own content.

However reporter, Wes Taylor, is quick to point out how Comic-Con shouldn't be seen just as a celebration of fan-power, but as an adept marketing tool for content creators to 'plant their next big thing indelibly into the collective consciousness of the critical-but-rewarding geek masses'. So who's ideas are invading who? Is it Fans vs Marketers? Does it matter? No, not in my non-fiction world, I see it as a mutually beneficial love-in, in which fans get to at least have a say in what they consume, or as co-creation agency Facegroup advise about fans “let them create it and they will embrace it”. So it seems a win-win situation, well it was until I read about the Guardian in visiting in 2010, they couldn't help noticing that this idea could be back-firing, citing the recent failure of Tron.

It seems the key to making Comic-Con work for you as a producer/promoter, is controlling how much you share of your content and working hard at protecting the most vital thing: the plot. What Comic-Con really owns, is its ability to tease.There is a lot of little show and tells to get you going, which is why for me, a good poster campaign like the one for Red Sonja seems to really work in creating the right amount of fan anticipation. So much so, that it is now time to go back to my own fan- story to rescue my heroine from Barbaric Development Hell, it would make one amazing movie.

MIPTV Content 360 Contest Open for Innovators in Transmedia, Social TV, TV and Mobile Apps and Connected TV

MIPTV Content 360 Contest Open for Innovators in Transmedia, Social TV, TV and Mobile Apps and Connected TV

My Shazam style TV App idea for the 'Kardashians'

I don't know why but ever since I read about this idea from MTV producing a listening App to tag content, it has just got me thinking about developing it to the next level to facilitate a game with a show or unlock some sort interactive experience from character to viewer. Hear me out; so there you have Kim hollering away at Khloe for ripping her dress in Keeping Up with the Kardashians which sound cues the Kardashian App (of course they have one already, but not with this feature) and activates a piece of scripted content or reveals anther angle to the story. It could be as such:

1) A picture at an event of Kim wearing the dress (sent from Kim) and memory

2) A text directly from Kim, saying 'Khloe is being so unfair, what do you think? Then drive it to Twitter for response. 

3) Khloe sends soundbite of song 'I love the way you lie' to App

4) Kim sends competition to win something of hers whilst using in show (from Starbucks Holder to Louboutins). 

5) Character making a decision, take it to a poll or twitter.

These are just rough ideas; I just love the idea of some interactive storytelling, like it doesn't have to affect the outcome of the show, just directly connects you to Kim or Khloe.The App could play with the dramatic tension of the show, allow for product placement, my emphasis though would be on the extra dimension of scripting and interaction with their characters. I think so much of the Kardashians appeal  is in the girl-world, gossip and sharing secrets, we are inviting viewers in even closer through this App. The App would obviously have to be designed to cue in with the shows soundtrack.

What do you think? I know it might be applying gaming to reality characters, but isn't this stuff scripted anyways? I think it would be just so much fun.

Loves this today:

From http://photoisafeeling.tumblr.com/page/2

Look again at that Facebook Map « crackunit.com

Look again at that Facebook Map « crackunit.com

Spring 2011