From USA Today
With upcoming deluxe Blu-ray Disc releases of Bambi(March 1, $40) and TRON: Legacy (April 5, $40), Disney includes a new feature, called Second Screen, that lets viewers simultaneously watch bonus interactive features on an iPad or computer as the movie plays in synchronization.
Features for Bambi include a Thumper flipbook, consisting of a progression of production drawings that come to life as you move a slider back and forth. Other extras include games, art galleries, videos and trivia.
“We really thought about a family sitting together or a mom sitting with her kids watching Bambi and playing some of the games together at the same time, going through some of the activities,” says Lori MacPherson ofWalt Disney Studios.
Disney’s home video department initiated the Second Screen project after Nielsen data revealed that 59% of consumers use the Web while they watch TV. That was a “game changer,” MacPherson says. “We thought, why not curate something really exciting so that while they are watching, in this case Bambi, they can have an experience we have designed specifically for them, so that they can watch in new and exciting ways.”
Consumers download the Second Screen app to their iPad or Mac or Windows PC from the iTunes App Store or DisneySecondScreen.com, and use a code contained in the Blu-ray package. When they start the film, the app syncs with the film. As the film plays, various Second Screen content pops up.
During a forest scene in Bambi, a video on the device shows the multi-plane camera used to shoot the animation scenes. Another scene prompts a puzzle to be unscrambled. A TRON: Legacy feature has a 3-D environment that can be explored using the touchscreen or the mouse.
For Bambi‘s Blu-ray debut, “we thought it was a fantastic opportunity for collectors and families,” MacPherson says. “TRON: Legacy (is) such a technologically cutting-edge movie that we thought that Second Screen (brought) a new, visually exciting way to watch.”
Disney’s new app offers a preview of the potential for entertainment content to be accessible across all devices. Last week, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment added support for Android devices to the digital copy feature on the Unstoppable Blu-ray Disc. And Warner Bros. made app editions of The Dark Knight and Inception available in Apple’s App Store. The free downloads include photos, videos, concept art, production stills, movie posters and other content, as well as the first five minutes of the film, allowing one-click purchase of the full feature film.
Last November, Verizon launched its Flex View feature that lets video-on-demand customers watch movies on TV, computers and mobile devices. “Whether it’s a standard or studios do it individually, where we initially purchased packaged media like Blu-ray, eventually that will migrate to digital,” says Kurt Scherf, principal analyst with Parks Associates. “Will it take 10 years? I think so. But platform portability is going to define this space.”
The more creative that studios get with portability features, the more likely they are to attract consumers and increase their home video business, says Matthew Lieberman, director of global entertainment at PricewaterhouseCoopers. “Consumers want to have more power over their viewing experience. It gets back to the whole idea of having a ubiquitous experience, which is being able to view their content anywhere, anytime, on any device.”
Check out some screen shots from the Bambi Second Screen release
