Oscar winning editors Alan Heim and Jerry Greenberg were amongst the honored guests at Manhattan Edit Workshop’s post-production celebration: Inside the Cutting Room: Sight, Sound & Story. The event, held on June 8 in New York City, brought renowned post-production artists to a crowd of over 300 professional and amateur film editors, enthusiasts, and students. Over an 11-hour day, there were five panels discussing everything from the growing art of transmedia to the old practice of cutting and splicing.

The day began with an exploration of “transmedia,” which is the use of interactive media to reach an audience on a more emotional level. Panelists and transmedia pioneers Oscar Tillman and Adele Major of B-Reel discussed one their major projects: Hotel 626.

In 2008, Frito-Lay was resurrecting two retired flavors of Doritos for Halloween and wanted a clever ad campaign to promote them. Tillman and Major came up with the idea for an online horror game that would engage its players on multiple levels. They didn’t just want to make an advertisement; they wanted to make an experience.

One of the many risks they took in creating Hotel 626 was restricting when people could actually play it. The game was only available between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. because Tillman and Major felt that since it was a horror game, it should only be played in the dark. For most companies, this would be unacceptable as they would want their advertisements available 24/7. A company must be willing to take chances in order to use transmedia properly, and in this case Frito-Lay’s bravery paid off.

The idea of the game was simple: you are trapped in a hotel and must perform a number of creepy tasks to escape. But rather than the game be a simple point-and-click bore, Tillman and Major integrated the player’s webcam and microphone feed into the game. For instance, the game would take the player’s picture at random times and then at some point in the game, the picture would appear hanging in the lair of a murderous madman. Another task involved singing a lullaby into your microphone to lull a demon baby to sleep.

Taking the interactive experience one step further, players were asked to enter their phone numbers, allowing a mysterious voice (pre-recorded and synched with your game screen) to call and give you clues on how to escape. Once you complete the game, three hours later the voice would call you again with an ominous message.

Perhaps most surprising of all is the fact that Hotel 626 featured absolutely zero references to Doritos in the game itself. Aside from an opening frame that read “Brought to you by Doritos,” Hotel 626 was, for all intents and purposes, its own individual entity. Fellow panelist Evan Schechtman, founder of Outpost Digital, commented that this is more of a throwback to old-fashioned marketing. The idea that something is “brought to you by…” has been watered down over the years, when in this case you feel as though Frito-Lay has actually brought you something just for fun.
by Nick DeNitto

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