The third Loud Movie Demo Night took place at Matchbox Giant, a space dedicated to creating and supporting new types of immersive entertainment. This was the largest demo to date, with over 30 guests invited to experience the latest incarnation of our new medium. With a warm up DJ, drinks, a fully projection-mapped environment, and a total of nine films, this was the first demo night to be more of an event than a focus group. There were a few seats available, but most of the crowd was standing, which gave a new energy to the night and provided us with a larger variety of feedback.
As this was the first time we scaled up from giving intimate demos to small groups, it was the first time we encountered issues with our setup. The screen we used was too large for our office tests, but far too small for this venue. The screen was also mounted too low for a standing crowd, which led to some people sitting on the ground which was neither planned nor ideal. We created short animated title cards to go between each film, but found that they did not do much better than just black and silence between films, and presented the same issue of creating a drop in energy and a disjointedness to the experience. We also encountered issues with audio volume and distortion, which led to a decision that moving forward the music needs to have as much equipment support and testing focus as the visuals have received so far.
The next 4-6 week development sprint will focus primarily on integrating the new equipment that arrived the night before this demo, which should add many more lights and a massive LED floor to the mix. We anticipate that the lessons learned during this demo will allow us to continue to scale the Loud Movies experience and focus ever more on creating coherent events that flow seamlessly from one film to another.
