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Gamer – Augmented Reality Marketing

One of the films coming out later this year (September 4th to be precise) which has really caught our eye is Gamer, it stars Gerard Butler as a tough as nails, hard done by convict who becomes a part of a giant death-match in which he is controlled, puppet style, by another person. A bit like a living Unreal Tournament, with the prize being eventual freedom. Essentially we’re in the same thematic territory as last year’s Death Race, but its a shooty-shooty death match as opposed to a car race.

We’ve spoken about it briefly in feedback shows and it does look pretty freaking cool, but as yet we haven’t really covered it in any great detail, until now. Gerard Butler is rapidly becoming the next generations hard bastard we love to watch. With Van Damme getting older and Arnie governating… there was a void to be filled and Mr B seems just the right shape to fill it. He’s also playing off some interesting actors in Gamer which also makes it worthy of notice.

Fresh from Dexter, Michael C. Hall steps in and appears to play the villain of the piece, with John DeLancie, Zoe Bell, Kyra Sedgewick and John Leguizamo providing some other recognizable names. In the end, who cares? This film looks so damn cool and has such an instantly catchy premise that i have no doubt we’ll all be lining up to watch it anyway! But that doesn’t mean the marketing boffins haven’t been busy. Oh hell no!

Lets start with the growing trend of “Motion Posters,” probably most memorably seen in the marketing of Terminator Salvation. The cityscape being bombed until it became the grinning skull of a T-800 was pretty memorable. Yet Gamer has gone for something slightly different. Interactivity.

Not exactly subtle, but hey, its kinda cool.

And then there is the current fad which is sweeping the marketing world: Augmented Reality. Embracing technology like its nobodies business and demonstrating clearly that said technology is becoming more and more affordable is the Gamer Augmented reality poster. Though again, this is not the first film to utilise the tech, Transformers 2’s augmented reality software replaced your head with that of Optimus Prime! (www.weareautobots.com)

The Gamer Augmented reality poster requires a printout or digital image of an icon which is then scanned and creates a virtual 3d poster on top of the icon in the web browser. There is a simple tutorial and demonstration on the website though at this stage i have been unable to access any of these Augmented Reality thingamies due to two simple reasons.

1. I’m rocking a Mac.

2. I don’t have a Mac webcam.

It does apparently work on the Mac OS (unlike the Transformers 2 thing) If you do have an appropriate webcam and if necessary the appropriate Operating System then CHECK IT OUT! The Augmented Reality site is called: Who’s playing you? and can be found right HERE.

Thats http://www.whosplayingyou.com/ for those of you who don’t like clicking on random words…

But in the end, the most effective piece of marketing for a film will always be the oldest and most effective. The short, tightly edited selections of highlights which give us a basic understanding of the overall story. Or as they have become popularly known, The Trailer.

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

Looks pretty damn tough don’t it? Though i can’t help but think it all looks a bit grey and drab… What do you think? Will this be the movie Doom should have been? Or is it a little more Death Race with 100% less Statham? Feedback and let us know!

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About The Author

Q-Dog

David Quinn is a writer, artist, film-maker, performer and general all-round-nice-guy who lives and works out of Launceston, Tasmania. He's lived in Tasmania all of his life but is lucky enough to have been to the UK, France, and South Africa in his younger days. He has written short films, co-authored video games, advised on feature scripts and television shows as well as advertising campaigns. He is also a regular performer on both stage and screen. One day he will make his fortune out of all this malarkey. ONE DAY......

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Comments

2 Responses to “Gamer – Augmented Reality Marketing”
  1. Bruce Moyle Bruce Moyle says:

    I love the look of the film and the concept while not new is just cool anyway.

    The augmented reality gimmick (lets call it what it really is) is ok and does work on the mac fine but it is nothing we haven’t seen before in other areas. That being said, it most likely the first time I have seen it done on a home machine with flash. The Transformers one doesn’t count as it was a Microsoft only experience (ie. FAIL)

    Hopefully it comes to our cinemas on release, but I get the feeling it won’t :-(

    July 10, 2009 at 12:23 pm
  2. Bruce Moyle Bruce Moyle says:

    Additionally this makes me want to rewatch The Running Man. Great Arnie action film!

    July 10, 2009 at 12:26 pm

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