HBO Rocks the Imagination

You can imagine our curiosity upon arriving at the Gansevoort Square in the Meat-Packing District, to find a man poised atop a ladder, tinkering with a huge quad-screen cube. Last night HBO and BBDO held a launch party at One restaurant to unveil their creation and provide onlookers with a multi-dimensional story-telling event. The HBO Imagine video cube installation will remain for three days before moving on to Philadelphia and Washington, DC.

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The evening began typically enough with cocktails and hors d’oeuvres served inside while guests compared predictions about the magical structure outside. The latter half of the evening proved to be one that will not be soon forgotten. The outdoor video cube began playing two short films, Biscuit Films’ The Heist and The Affair, directed by Noam Murro, shot from four separate angles, on four different screens, with each screen offering up unique information. The two-minute stories, which BBDO’s Tara DeVeaux described as, “nonlinear,” inspired a pseudo dance among the crowd, who had to walk around the cube several times to understand the story.

Opinions were varied about locating the optimal viewing point; some preferred standing in the corner where it was possible to see the tale unfold from two perspectives, simultaneously.  Adele Jacques, a French actress and cocktail waitress character in The Heist expressed her enthusiasm about the project stating, “I think it questions movies in general and their two-dimensions. I just love the idea that the background can be the foreground and the foreground can be the background.” (For a sense of the experience, visit the Imagine website, designed by The Barbarian Group. The site uses mimes, a mom stuffing teddy bears with cash, and Japanese bankers to help the user play and solve the modern game of Clue.)

Attendees received party favors including a flash drive concealed in tiny silver briefcase and a miniature version of a teddy bear seen in the clip online. (BBDO also used the bears as invitations). Every aspect of the occasion was perfectly orchestrated and left the audience feeling inspired and appreciative. Milton Marsh, another guest shared his reaction saying, “It was definitely something I had never seen before and I think HBO is pretty great for doing it.“