Xfiniti - "Dead Zone" - WORLD’S FIRST Live Stream INTERACTIVE Horror Feature
Goodby, Silverstein & Partners
Director: Jason Zada
Executive Producer: Joshua Greenberg
Screenwriter: Tim Immordino, Jason Zada
Production Company: Media Monks
the ask
Xfinity had a breakthrough product in “xFi Pods” — small devices that help even the most wifi-challenged home achieve complete coverage. But Xfinity’s millennial target had no idea they exist.
the answer
With Halloween approaching, GS&P came up with a social experience that was sure to get attention: a live-streamed paranormal investigation in one of the most haunted houses in America.
my role
I was brought in to help create the story, taking into account the challenges of a notoriously disorienting 24,000 square foot, 160-room mansion, and the detours our Twitter audience might send us on along the way.
As we wrote the script, Director Jason Zada and I also invented how to capture it, using technical (and literal) slight-of-hand at every turn.
For example, the investigators were supposedly recording their progress through the house using two video cameras. In reality, a blacked-out crew of camera operators shadowed them, hiding behind talent and ‘playing’ the POV of whichever camera was live. Set changes and other behind-the-scenes machinations were hidden in beats where characters split up, wandered off, got lost and chased down evidence of various paranormal events.
Supporting all this was a broadcast trailer full of producers, switchers, sound FX people and other techs, plus gag operators hidden throughout the house.
As crazy as it all was, our focus had to be on the primary mission: keep our audience riveted by an incredibly scary story.
(Scroll down for a blow by blow…)
Result
Horror fans ate it up. The media (and social media) went crazy. With more than 5.1 million views and almost 125 million impressions, we beat the network premieres of American Horror Story and The Purge.
Awards:
D&AD Awards Shortlist (Social Video)
2019 Webby Awards Nominee “Best Live Streaming Experience”
2x The One Show (Merit)
2x American Advertising Awards GOLD
2x SF Addys GOLD
OMMA Awards Best in Show
2x OMMA Awards Winner
The Winchester House, considered one of the most haunted places in America. A byzantine maze of 160 rooms, 40 staircases, 47 fireplaces, and two basements. The perfect test case for our xFi pods.
Wifi was especially challenging, not least because Sarah Winchester lined some rooms with lead to protect against malevolent spirits.
In the weeks leading up to the event, reported spikes in paranormal activity seeded our story. Then with 48 hours to go, it was announced a team of paranormal investigators would enter the mansion to investigate. Twitter users were invited to direct the team via the xFi-enabled livestream.
It started playfully enough, with a few misdirections and suggestive (but expected) jump-scares. But as the team went deeper, the house suddenly turned against them, bending the audience’s perception of reality. The xFi pods became the team’s only link with the outside world — and the Twitter audience their only hope of getting out alive.
Behind the scenes, a ballet of practical effects and slight-of-hand choreography pulled all the strings. Our script was the through-line, with the ability to evolve.
