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Challenge: The Digital Entertainment Network (DEN) was a destination site for the Gen-Y demographic. It provided episodic, streaming-video shows and the related interactive content to a community of viewers. Each show had separate television and online production teams. While the video team produced the content for the video portion of the site, the interactive team was responsible for the identity of the show, the look and feel of the site, and the interactive content that accompanied each video episode. The show that my team worked on was called LimoZeno, an interview-format talk show that took place in the back of DENıs signature 1967 Lincoln Continental Limousine. Solution: When my team took over, there were already a number of episodes that had been shot and edited, all featuring the host, Larry Zeno, and the original hostess in wacky, slapstick hijinx. We felt that the show had a better chance of working if it kept its sense of humor, but picked up a more sophisticated and confident air, giving us access to an edgier and trendier suite of guests. In order to evolve the look of the show, we cast a new hostess, toned down the goofiness in the subsequent episodes, and retooled the actorsı wardrobes. We also enlisted an illustrator to make caricatures of the two leads and every subsequent guest and built out an entirely animated interface, the only one of its kind on the entire network. We created interactive Flash games, comic strips, and contests to supplement the video content, most of which directly referenced the episode. For example, when the show interviewed the Drum and Bass group, Hardknox, we created an interactive sampler and sequencer in Flash, allowing the viewers to choose their own samples and sequence them together to make their own Drum and Bass tracks. We also created a virtual singer/songwriter who would sing random, socio-political lyrics when the viewer moused over his mouth and chord progressions on his guitar when the viewer moused over his hands. The result was a visually unique user-experience, filled with delightful, interactive surprises for the viewer. The irreverent, interactive content helped the show make a name for itself within the network, and the Limozeno site established itself as one of the showpieces of the network.
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