Walking away with Gold in the Best Special Event Promo and Most Outstanding Promo of the Year, Spitfire Films proved it can deliver exceptional visual content both on- and off-screen.

Executive producer Liesl Karpinski is pleased that her team had the opportunity to take part in this campaign created by Ireland Davenport. “The idea was to captivate, engage and surprise the audience,” she explains. “We shot a 90 second crime scene resembling a blockbuster movie trailer and then created an invisible crime scene inside the cinema. At the end of the trailer, one of the characters shone a UV light at the scene, effectively making the actual cinema the crime scene. Hidden cameras were set up inside the cinema capturing the unsuspecting audience’s reactions.”

The project presented some challenges because the work had to be planned in reverse order and involved a live audience. Says AK: “The project was a multi-phased operation. First we had to produce a Hollywood-like movie trailer that would surprise the audience with an interactive experience or ‘activation’. Secondly we had to capture their reactions as it played out in the cinema with a live audience. The shoot involved a long single take, which combined careful choreography of performance, camera movement and lighting effects. All these elements had to be perfectly timed.”

“The result – the viewers were dumbfounded by the fact that what they were seeing on screen appeared to be in the room with them, they were now part of the movie. It was very enjoyable to see their reactions.”

The on-screen activation was shot using the latest Sony F5, mounted on a steadicam, in RAW mode shooting in straight and UV spectrum light.

“We love testing technical boundaries and discovering new approaches. It’s really what drives us,” AK adds.

Ireland Davenport creative director, Anthea Weber says working with AK on the Fox Crime cinema activation was “a rewarding experience”. “His interpretation was spot-on and he went above and beyond what was expected in bringing this script to life.”

Composer Fabian Sing and his Tigerfight Music team brought the movie soundtrack to life. “When you are composing to picture, it is much easier as there is a definite emotion you are trying to convey,” says Sing. “The mood and tone of the activation needed to be very specific and the great job already done by the production team on the story made it a pleasure composing the music.”

Thandi Davids, regional director at Fox International Channels, says the activation has been viewed within the Fox global marketing network as “best practice”. “We try and work closely with the agency to deliver marketing tactics that are world firsts and have the ability to deliver massive word-of-mouth exposure,” she explains. “As a client, we are extremely happy with the execution and general response from those who have engaged and viewed activation.”

Throughout the world the PromaxBDA Awards competitions stand for marketing excellence in the media marketing space. It is regarded as the most prestigious award for creative endeavour in this field.

To view the Fox ‘Crime’ cinema activation on YouTube, click here.