Smart Screen
Vast Media Smart Screen Round-Up: Prime Podcast-Based Series, Snapchat AR Shows
Story Highlights
Here’s a run-down of recent second screen-related entertainment items, via Berlin-based research and consulting company Vast Media.
• Turner has partnered with VR ad company Omnivert to launch a new virtual reality campaign for the second season premiere of the Adult Swim TV show “Dream Corp, LLC.” The campaign features various characters from the show entering a new three-dimensional world, where they break the fourth wall and speak with viewers as if they were patients in a new dream facility. Turner and Omnivert are distributing the 360-degree ads on Reddit, BET, Vice, Complex, NBC, IMDB and more outlets.
• Amazon Prime Video will debut a new series Nov. 2, one based on a successful podcast. “Homecoming,” coming from writer-director Sam Esmail (“Mr. Robot”), stars Julia Roberts in her television debut.
Much like the podcast of the same name, the series centers around a caseworker at an experimental facility, her supervisor, and a soldier-patient at the facility, with the story presented in a collage of phone calls, therapy sessions and overheard conversations.
• The Weather Channel is airing new augmented reality experiences, including one that highlights the impact of climate change on natural disasters. The new AR experience shows how wildfires begin and spread, and the impact they can have on communities.
The video features meteorologist Stephanie Abrams in Southern California, who points out the key ingredients for a devastating fire: dry brush, hot air, and strong winds. The video has Abrams standing in the middle of a blaze as it gets underway, giving an inside look at where and how fires begin.
• Snapchat has debuted a half dozen new series in October, and has six more in the pipeline, all featuring an augmented reality aspect, the company shared.
The 12-episode series “Endless Summer” and “Class of Lies” and the 8-episode “Co-Ed” all debuted in early October and feature AR experiences built in, offering show-themed lenses, portals into the shows’ locations, and reaction lenses for selfies.
