Lucy's View: Dolby Atmos- bringing sound in the cinema to life!

I love the cinema. For ages I just didn't go but recently I can't get enough! Maybe it's because production companies are bringing out films that I simply can't wait to see, Despicable Me 2 being the next on my list. Or maybe it's the atmosphere, and sharing the hype that goes with being one of the first to see a new release. When Iron Man 3 came out I was there for the 00:01 showing, because that's how excited I was, call me sad / nerdy, but we all have things we 'geek out' on!


That being said, you can probably imagine how excited I was when, flipping through E&T magazine, I read about the latest advances in cinema sound. What with 3D now common place, sound needed to catch up with the visual feast that goes on when you go and see that latest blockbuster on the big screen, and that's where Dolby Atmos comes in.

What is Dolby Atmos?

So far, in the UK, there is only one cinema that has this new technology installed, and of course you will find it in London: Empire's Leicester Square complex. This 3D sound system will integrate up to 64 speakers, all of which can be individually isolated to pin-point sound to a certain location in the cinema. Not only that, but because of the isolation of the speakers, the sound can move, dragging you further in to the cinema experience and immersing you deep into the movie atmosphere.

Diagrams comparing the three Dolby sound systems available at present. (From the Dolby website)

A few films have already been released supporting this new sound format, including Star Trek Into Darkness, in which people have claimed they found themselves ducking to avoid overhead space craft! This is the first time speakers will be placed in the ceiling, leading to a depth of sound never experienced before in the cinema. However it seems that the home cinema craze have already adopted this trend, Bang and Olufson, Bose, and Harmon Kardon have developed speakers specially designed to be installed into the ceiling.

Not only is the new technology exciting news for the average cinema buff, but film developers will no longer have to mix their sound to suit the number of speakers in the cinema, Dolby Atmos will do this for them, making the most of the speakers available, whether it be in a huge cinema, or a smaller independent establishment.

Rollout of this new sound technology may take some time. Cinemas will have to close in order to have their systems upgraded, and I doubt that it will be cheap. But I for one am looking forward to my cinema experience being all the more exciting!

Source of Information:
http://techland.time.com/2013/06/06/dolby-atmos/
http://www.dolby.com/gb/en/professional/technology/cinema/dolby-atmos.html
http://www.dolby.com/gb/en/consumer/technology/movie/dolby-atmos-details.html
E&T Magazine Vol. 8 Issue. 6 July 2013

Owen's View: Looking to extend brand reach – at the cinema

Robert Downy Jnr. as Tony Stark in Iron Man 3.

Having just watched Iron Man 3, which I really enjoyed, I found myself particularly drawn to those brands and their products both obviously (Audi and Oracle) and subtly (ABB and FIOS products) injected into the movie. I even missed some, which others have since highlighted.

It is almost laughable now how brand product placement is something we come to expect as part of our movie experience. Not since Minority Report have I been blown away how cinema can exploit the captive audience of the cinema. 

Do you know what this little icon means?
 

The 'PP' icon used in the UK for programmes
containing product placement.

Product placement has been common on UK television since February 2011, when the 'PP' symbol was introduced. The EU define product placement as "any form of audiovisual commercial communication consisting of the inclusion of or reference to a product, a service or the trade mark thereof so that it is featured within a programme".

This form of advertising is popular due to its ability to show products in context, for example how people interact with products, and how a product interacts with its environment. This facilitates an emotional connection between the product and the audience. Product placement on commercial television has been common practice in the US for a lot longer than in the UK.

However, long before television entered our homes, product placement was already taking place in the cinema, with the earliest instances taking place around 1895! More recent, and much more well-known, instances of product placement include a Capital One credit card in 127 Hours, Domino's Pizzas in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Nike trainers in The Terminator, and Heineken lager in Skyfall.

Is product placement effective?

One of the sarcastically obvious product placements in
'Wayne's World'.

Quite simply, yes it is. There are several ways to measure the effectiveness of product placement, one being implicit memory. A study used the film 'Home Alone' to test the product placement of Pepsi. One group of children watched a clip of the film featuring Pepsi, and when asked to pick between Pepsi and Coke, 67% of the children chose Pepsi. Out of a group of children who watched clip of 'Home Alone' which did not feature the soft drink, only 42% chose Pepsi.

Studies have also shown that a number of factors can affect the success of a product placement, including the attractiveness of the characters, and the degree of subtlety used when placing the product. The 1992 film 'Wayne's World' did a great job of highlighting how to do product placement badly in their parody. In the scene both Wayne and Garth decry product placement while at the same time blatantly promoting many products by looking directly at the camera, holding up the product, smiling widely, and sometimes giving a thumbs-up. 

And as for Iron Man 3...

The main product that I was drawn towards through the excitement, action, thrill and MARVEL madness was the Audi R8. This is more than likely why I really like the super car and Audi as a brand but one thing I did not notice was the fact that Audi appear to have category exclusivity in the film. It has been pointed out that one of the cars in the film is a Mustang, however does not carry the Mustang logo.

Audi take centre stage in the Iron Man movies.

I was also intrigued by some of the sunglasses Tony Stark was wearing. Several eyewear brands were represented throughout the film but the one that caught my eye was the luxury brand Matsuda, who have a very cool website! You can also check them out on Twitter.

And of course MARVEL did not forget to advertise the Avengers franchise with their trademark bonus clip after the credits!

However, it has been questioned whether product placement was taken too far in Iron Man 3, especially in the chinese version. Chinese audiences we treated to an extra 4 minutes of footage, but from the reviews it seems that most of this footage was used to promote a cheap chinese milk brand!

What about the future?

Product placement occurs everywhere; in our streets, on our screens, in our books, everywhere. Are we as creatives going to be asked to persue further avenues to promote and advertise a brand's products and services? Red Bull have already gone to the heady heights of space to push the boundaries, we're pretty sure that if practicality hadn't have gotten in the way Felix would have been enjoying a can just before he jumped to earth...

Notice how his suit is Red Bull branded.

We'd love to hear what you thought of Iron Man 3, and what you think about product placement in general. Leave us a comment or tweet us @ubd_studio.

Sources of Information:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_placement#Product_Placement_in_Historical_Cinema
http://brandsandfilms.com/2013/05/product-placement-slideshow-iron-man-3/
http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/JoshWildingNewsAndReviews/news/?a=78666
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/20/ofcom-product-placement-uk-tv
http://www.slashfilm.com/5-things-that-bothered-me-about-iron-man-3/