Control a live musical performance of Spider-Jam and interact with people on-site
Idea
Why Spider-Man?
After Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2, Pavel went to work on the set of Spider-Man: Homecoming in Berlin, so choosing Spider-Man: Homecoming as the next project for smashbuster was an obvious choice. The main problem was that Sony produced this particular film so all the previous connections from the Groot project were not useful anymore. We had to start from scratch …
Concepts
Connecting the digital and the real worlds
With the main focus on connecting the digital and the real world, one of our very first ideas was to replicate a scene from the actual movie. In the very first teaser, Tony Stark presents a new Spider-Man suite to Peter Park, officially starting his Stark internship program. We wanted to set up a similar scenario and place a suitcase in different spots throughout New York City, waiting for kids to stop by and open it up. Not only would they find a real Spider-Man suit inside, they would even be surprised by a real Spider-Man, who would swing by the location as soon as they would try on the suit. All of this would be of course captured with 360 cameras and streamed live via Facebook video, so people from all over the world could watch the scene unfold. But we quickly realized the engagement with the digital world was missing so a new concept had to be created.
Based on our experience and success with the previous Baby Groot project, we realized this was the best way to go. The first sketches of Spider-Man becoming a drummer emerged and we quickly built on that. All we needed was an idea for how to let people control the drums. With 4 different parts of the drum kit available, Facebook’s 4 most common emoji’s became the perfect tool to connect. As soon as somebody would comment with one of the 4 emojis, Spider-Man would then hit the respective area while also displaying the person’s name on the screen in the background.
Production
Animatronic mechanism, platform and software development
Compared to Baby Groot, Spider-Jam turned out to be even more challenging. We had to develop our own software which takes the comments from Facebook’s live video feed and translates into the animatronic. So we hired a developer named Jana Georgieva who worked on the code while Matej started playing with 3D printed parts and basically came up with the first prototype. Finding a decently sized and functional drum kit was hard but eventually we found one in the US and had it shipped to Prague.
It's all about customization
Once we had all the required bits and pieces, we started customizing the drum kit and make it our own Spider-Man themed set. For Spider-Man itself we first wanted to use another silicon based material or something harder. Pavel actually then stumbled upon Funko’s cotton stuffed puppets called plushies and thought they looked funny. We ordered 6 pairs and started playing around with them as well. In fact, we accidentally ordered one Ironman plushie, who we then simply implemented in the setup and gave his own cameo.
How it works
Control the drums and spot your name on the screen
During Baby Groot we noticed how important it was for people to interact with something in the physical space. Once people realize what they see is not just a digital game or layer but real, they would stop and interact on a completely different level. The experience is something totally new.
ComicBook (United States) & Hero (France)
The Spider-Man: Homecoming red carpet premiere celebration
Once again we thought we found the perfect way to connect fans with their favorite movie characters during the red carpet premiere. Once again we wanted to have our animatronic live on the red carpet on Hollywood Boulevard. With Spider-Jam’s 360 camera set up streaming to a global audience, people online could interact and engage with the celebrities walking by. Unfortunately we faced similar issues like during Baby Groot and were not able to get the green light from Sony. Because of our previous Baby Groot success, comicbook.com actually agreed to teaming up again. Once we realized it was too complicated to fly out to Nashville and do a live stream from their headquarters, we decided to host the event in Prague but stream it via their Facebook page with 1.2 million followers. In addition, Hero – a french comic fan page – allowed us to stream on their page as well.
Worldwide coverage
Social Media coverage and hidden easter eggs
We reached over 900,000 people in the first 45 minutes. It was another successful project and everybody was super happy. We even implemented easter egg features such as “##” where you could steal the entire monitor for yourself and post a comment. Another one resulted in Spider-Man playing a famous melody such as “We Will Rock You” by Queen once people commented at a certain frequency
Additional credits
Sound design: Jaroslav Beck
Software development: Jana Georgieva
Live video screen: Jakub Křenek
Live video stream: Radovan Beneš
Behind the scene: Petr Miloš
