U23D movie and U2 360° Tour

My previous blog post was a Studio Exploration of Flashloaded. My more recent blog post below is really a combination of two of the four areas/topics of exploration: Design Exploration and New Media Exploration (Technology).

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U23D

DESIGN EXPLORATION

The transition from the progress bar ring to the image of the moon, followed by the panning down to audience level, is a catchy intro. The scaling and alpha effects applied to the text HEAR ... SEE ...EXPERIENCE ... NOW PLAYING ... U23D, and the background music, add to the experience. After this intro, the swf still has an energy. The red play button throbs. The U23D logo has a spotlight-like effect applied to it about every 10 seconds. A spotlight passes over the crowd. Cameras flash. When the red play button is rolled over, its rings pulsate outward.

Clicking the play button takes you to a video with some audio buildup and more impressive scaling and alpha effects applied to text, symbols, and a silhouette of the band members, although these effects were probably done in a video editing application and not Flash.

NEW MEDIA EXPLORATION

U23D is the first ever live-action 3D film. Details can be viewed by clicking:
- TRAILER & MUILTIMEDIA > U2 3D in Wide Release! (excerpt: "Cameras were being designed purely for this.")
- ABOUT THE FILM (excerpt: "The first digital 3D, multi-camera, real-time production ...")
- WHAT IS 3D? (excerpt: "... artificial intelligence that aligns 'eye position' of a stereoscopic camera in real time ...")

Some critics said that viewing the film's 3D effects was better than attending a live concert, so one possible effect of this technology is allowing fans to enjoy the band "live" at a much more affordable price.

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U2 360° Tour

DESIGN EXPLORATION

The 3D graphic would be impressive enough just as an image with no interactivity. Red arrows indicate which parts of the stage structure can be viewed in more detail. Rolling over an arrow reduces the alpha of the entire graphic aside from the portion corresponding to the arrow. Rolling over the leftmost arrow and top arrow also results in zoomed-in detail views with annotations. Clicking the arrow next to the 360° video screen loads an interactive graphic from the bottom.

There are horizontal intro and outro transitions associated with the navigation arrows at the top of the swf.

Fade-ins and fade-outs can be seen by rolling over the years under DESIGNING THE CLAW.

NEW MEDIA EXPLORATION

There are a number of firsts associated with the U2 360° tour:

The U2 360° Video Screen, Part 1: The Concept and Design
"Nobody has ever seen anything quite like it: one of the most exciting, innovative elements of the U2 360° tour design is the expanding video screen based on a Hoberman sphere and his patented 'Iris Structure' as seen in the Iris Dome at The Museum of Modern Art in New York."

The tech behind U2's record-smashing tour - CNET News
"It starts as a solid elliptical ring approximately 20 feet deep, and transforms into form a cone-shaped mesh 60 feet tall."

U2 360° Tour - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The concert at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA on October 25, 2009 "was the first time a concert has streamed live on YouTube" and "set a new US attendance record for a single headlining act, as well as being the most watched live video stream in the website's history."

From what I remember, this video stream was more than 2.5 hours long and remained on the band's official YouTube page for weeks, but was eventually removed. This showing of unedited footage in its entirety for a limited time only and then removing it upon official release is one way (a new way?) of advertising and promoting.