19-2 is police drama that’s as dark and gritty as Montreal’s streets at midnight. It features an edgy cast of characters and their struggles to fight crime – along with their tumultuous personal struggles as well.
The producers of the show came to LVL asking us to create a transmedia experience that would not only enrich but augment the impact of the show outside the broadcast. Great – but what next?
Release the inner investigator in people watching 19-2. First, create a website. Then develop interactive scenes where visitors could take the place of police officers and search for clues, determine whether a crime has been committed and undertake appropriate action. Successful completion would unlock a webisode that starts with a scene from the series, then morphs into a stunning black-and-white animation that reveals something about major characters and offers key clues about the next TV episode.
Get fans off their couches and out into the real world thanks to an augmented reality (AR) app that would direct them to different locations in Montreal where scenes from the TV show had been shot. Using their iPhones, they would see clues on the site from a fictitious episode that could be collected for bonus points and access to exclusive content such as behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with the actors.
Finally, creating an archive of photos of the Montreal police force dating from 1910 to the present day, available on the website and on interactive TV.
Our overall approach uses the multitude of devices we have at our disposal to explore different facets of the 19-2 media property, expanding the experience well beyond the weekly hour of TV the show alone provides. Viewers could capture the drama of the show as it airs on TV, then explore the characters further at their own pace, and even become detectives searching for clues at a crime scene. A holistic fan experience for the next generation of media properties.
This police story has five parts: the drama of the weekly TV show, clue-based interactive scenes, animated webisodes, and an augmented reality app, and interactive TV capsules. The goal was to create a larger-than-TV experience where each element reinforced the other, giving birth to a transmedia feedback loop where the whole was definitely greater than the sum of its parts. The clue-based elements are perfectly aligned with the TV show itself and have an intrinsic appeal to the investigative inquisitiveness of the show’s viewers.
“19-2 is truly TV noir. Which led us to explore developing our animated webisodes in black and white, which is not only quite unusual on the Web but we thought also gave a grittier feel to the final product. However, we did allow ourselves a little colour in the buttons.”
LVL created the original concept for the transmedia experience, working closely with the show’s writers. The webisodes’ script, screenplay, illustration, and animation were all developed in-house.
The website was designed to follow Radio-Canada’s format for its broadcast programming, but in addition to the usual information about the TV episodes, LVL created the original Web back stories and the interactive scenes to provide a unique and enriching Web experience. Fans could get more entertainment about secondary characters and themes in a format ideally suited to the Web.
The mobile app was designed to explore how an augmented reality app could be used in the context of a TV program, taking the experience outside of the home. Geolocalization, video camera, and screen overlays were all put to use. The app’s design and development were completed in-house.
The interactive TV capsules that allow easy navigation of visual content from the comfort of the couch were designed and developed in-house for on-boarding onto Videotron’s TV network.
SUMMARY: transmedia strategy and concept, script, interaction design, graphic design, illustration and animation, programming (Web, mobile, iTV), project management, and QA.
Ten original graphic-novel style animated webisodes reveal backstories about the TV characters and give clues about future episodes.
An innovative mobile augmented reality app gets would-be cops out of the house and into the streets, allowing them to employ their investigative skills at three sites around the city.
Interactive capsules reveal the past history of the Montreal police force as far back as 1910 with a few clicks of the TV remote.
Successful completion of interactive game scenes unlock access to animated videos revealing backstories to secondary characters. Put your virtual badge on and close the case.
Visit 19-2 website for interactive scenes
Clients: Radio-Canada (broadcaster), Echo Media (producer)
Release date: December 2010
