SUPER 8 Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, iTunes and Marketing Showcase Reel

J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg’s Sci-Fi Thriller SUPER 8 crashes into stores on Blu-ray, DVD and iTunes November 22nd. The 1K Studios team created new content to mimic the stylistic look of the film and bring that experience to the user navigation.

1K Studios editorial team has also created a marketing sizzle reel for the highly anticipated release. This sizzle reel was created to enlighten the consumer about the additional Blu-ray content and the films home entertainment release date.

Click here to visit Paramount Home Entertainment to learn more about this and other great Blu-ray titles.

Ayn Rand’s – ATLAS Shrugged

1K collaborated with Penguin Books and the Ayn Rand Institute to create the Atlas Shrugged Amplified Edition for iPad. Just as it did 50 years ago, Atlas Shrugged continues to inspire, galvanize, enflame and energize the intellectual battle between right and left that defines western political discourse. If we’ve done our job correctly, a new generation of readers will use the App to discover, explore, discuss, share, cheer – or protest – and ultimately decide where they stand on Ms. Rand’s radically influential ideas. Here’s more about it from the Penguin site:

While immersed in the app, readers also have the option to share favorite passages and quotes from the novel on Facebook, Twitter, and via email with a few quick taps—and without ever leaving the page.

Includes:

* Handwritten, original manuscript pages and notes regarding key scenes from the author’s journals
* Video and audio excerpts from Rand’s talks on hot button topics from the book and her philosophy, courtesy of The Ayn Rand Archives
* Full length audio lectures, including a Q&A on Objectivism, an outline of its basic principles, and commentary on the state of business and government (covered in the ever-timely lecture “Is Atlas Shrugging?”)
* A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Author’s Life and Groundbreaking Philosophy: Illustrated, revealing timeline of the author’s life and major works, including personal documents, letters, and correspondence
* Photo gallery of early images of the author at work
Informative articles on the author’s life, influences, and her philosophy of Objectivism

Additional reader enrichment materials:

* Collection of sharable quotes and passages from the novel (via Facebook, Twitter, and email) embedded within the reading experience
* A fun “Who Said That?” quiz to challenge readers to recall some of the most memorable lines from the novel
* Endorsements and testimonials from celebrities and business leaders on the enduring power and influence of Atlas Shrugged
* A Discussion Guide to aid in book group or classroom conversations, and a catalog of the author’s available titles
* The trailer for the upcoming documentary Ayn Rand and the Prophecy of Atlas Shrugged., from Mad Universe LLC

Additional Technical Features/Functionalities

* Easy in-book navigation features, including text search, bookmarks, custom reader settings, and the ability to flip pages with a tap or swipe
* Sidebar annotations alongside the novel hide away for an uninterrupted reading experience
* Complete app functionality in both portrait and landscape orientation Reproduced archival documents and images that can be enlarged to full screen with a double tap

…and much more!

Click here to go to the App store to learn more and read the reviews.

THOR Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, iTunes and Marketing Showcase Reel

THOR stormed into the home entertainment market place on a multitude of delivery platforms. 1K Studios was tasked with bringing the excitement and fantasy of the film to life, through a dynamic user interface design. Original film elements and newly created animations created by 1K, were seamlessly integrated to bring the user experience to fruition.

1K Studios editorial team also created a marketing sizzle reel for the highly anticipated release. This sizzle reel was created to enlighten the consumer about the additional Blu-ray content and the films home entertainment release date.

Click here to visit Paramount Home Entertainment to learn more about this and other great Blu-ray titles.

Jack Kerouac’s – On The Road

Just as book fans around the world are awakening to the promise of tablet-based reading, here come Sal Paradise, Dean Moriarty and the Beats – racing full-throttle from the pantheon of American literature and onto the iPad. In Penguin Books’ new On the Road Amplified Edition for the iPad, Jack Kerouac’s seminal novel finds the perfect place to roam. The tablet environment elegantly joins the novel and its incredible cast of real-life inspirations to enrich and deepen the reading experience.

As the designer and developer for On the Road, 1K Studios was honored with the task of helping Penguin’s Editorial team bring this unique product to life. The depth of supplemental content compiled and curated by Penguin is truly breathtaking. To deliver this content to the reader, we strove to create an engine that treats the pure reading experience as sacrosanct, while offering unobtrusive and intuitive ways to expand and explore related content. Some of the principles that guided the design:

• Preserving the beauty and original style of the type-set page
• Placing indicators for enhanced content in the margins, where readers are used to seeing notes
• Displaying enhanced content in “overlay” pages, to create a conceptual separation of the novel and its supplemental material
• Making content and navigational functions easy to access with your thumbs – i.e. creating a comfortable read
• Using a page metaphor for interactive navigation wherever possible, to maintain the feel of a book

We hope you’ll download a copy of On the Road and experience this incredible work the way that it was – in our opinion – meant to be read. Please let us know what you think.

Click here to visit 1K Studios Apps Micro Site to learn more about this and other great 1K Apps.

Click here to go directly to the iTunes App Store to purchase your own copy of On The Road.

Sucker Punch Maximum Movie Mode

Zack Snyder fans have always enjoyed his imaginative and visually captivating approach to film making, who can forget those maelstroms of violence in 300 where King Leonidas and his band of blood brothers battle hordes of swarthy Persians in a digital re-creation of Thermopylae, circa 480 B.C., or his unique rendering of the increasingly estranged, giant, translucent demigod, Dr. Manhattan, in Watchmen’s dystopian alternate reality.

In his latest film, Sucker Punch, Snyder takes his technical expertise and his storytelling sapience to new heights. And with Warner Bros. Maximum Movie Mode, Zack Snyder Fans will, once again, have unparalleled access to his creative process.

With MMM activated – you hear the director’s voice as you watch the film, but periodically, the screen that you are watching moves back "seamlessly" (as if a camera is pulling back from it) to reveal a visual environment inhabited by the director.

Although the technology, logistics and production techniques required to produce and program Maximum Movie Mode are very involved, the goal is to make these aspects invisible to the user so that they can focus on people and ideas.

The MMM also offers PiP video, Focus Points, timeline sequences, storyboard & and still galleries to make this experience an incredible wealth of information.

This was 1K Studios second time working with Zack on a MMM (the first time was with Watchmen). As always he was pleasure to work with. The reviews for this MMM installment have been remarkable:

“I would recommend this picture-in-picture commentary to anyone, whether you liked the movie or not. It’s an in-depth discussion about ‘Sucker Punch’ with Snyder as guides you through the ins and outs of the movie with numerous PiP displays. He talks extensively about the movie’s special effects, its look, and it’s non-stop use of slo-mo photography. This is an interesting and engaging Maximum Movie Mode.”-High-Def Digest

“Disc Two offers an excellent Maximum Movie Mode experience in which Snyder meticulously and methodically details the film’s production and dissects his extended cut.” -Blu-ray DVDs

To pick up your copy of Sucker Punch on Blu-ray, shop at the Official Online Store of Warner Bros. Studios:

1K Demo Reels

We’ve kept a few of our old compilation reels on the site for a look back at some of the work we’ve done over the years.

#1 is our interactive content reel from 2010.
#2 is our motion graphics design reel from 2008.
#3 is our motion graphics design reel from 2006.

Viva Kids’ ABC

1K Studios has partnered with Viva Design Inc. to bring their unique style of learning the alphabet to the iPad. Viva Design’s amazing stop motion animation brings each letter to life and is now going to have an added element of interactivity…

Not only will children get the chance to swipe through the alphabet and choose letters and animations with the touch of the iPad, but each letter will have a painting component as well. After the child has watched a particular letter animation, they can then click on an icon that takes them to a paint shop where they can then use their fingers to paint and fill in a particular letter with crazy shapes and textures.

The use of phonics is another learning component to the app that will reinforce the visual recognition of the letter and the sound each letter makes as it is pronounced.

The app is being build with expandability in mind and future versions will further engage younger audiences to interact with the alphabet.

Click here to visit 1K Studios Apps Micro Site to learn more about this and other great 1K Apps.

Click here to go directly to the iTunes App Store to purchase your own copy of Viva Kids’ ABC.

True Blood Season 3

1K Studios has worked with HBO and show creator Alan Ball for three consecutive seasons to give fans of the show an extended interactive experience for Blu-ray. For Season 3, the interactive content goes even deeper.

ENHANCED VIEWING:
Dive deeper into the world of Bon Temps with the Enhanced Viewing
experience. This in-episode viewing mode includes four different features:

CHARACTER PERSPECTIVES:
Learn more about what¹s going on straight from the
mouths of Jessica, Andy, Tommy, and Alcide.

FLASHBACK/FLASH FORWARD:
Move through time in the world of Bon Temps.
Flashback to relive pivotal moments and watch exclusive minisodes that
you’ve never seen before. Flash Forward to reveal the significance of a
certain scene.

POST MORTEMS:
Go beyond the episodes to see more within the world of True
Blood.

HISTORIES/BIOS/HINTS/FYIs:
Don’t miss a beat with these informative facts,
show hints, and clues.

TRUE BLOOD LINES:
This stand-alone interactive guide is a reference to all
of the characters of True Blood, including a character bio, what
species they are and who they have relationships with.

Click here to visit HBO to learn more about this and other True Blood related merchandise.

Green Hornet 3D Storyboards

Everything looks better in 3D! Pushing this trending industry maxim, 1K Studios set out to bring The Green Hornet’s original production storyboards to a new dimension in an amplified viewing experience. The 3D Animated Storyboard Comparisons are a series of featurettes that show how key action scenes from the movie make their way from artistic sketches to the exhilarating, live action film sequences.

To accomplish this feat of turning 2D storyboard’s into visually stunning 3D content, 1K relied on it’s rapidly growing 3D experience and its extensive history of delivering award-winning content design. The end result is an excellent set of dynamic content pieces for The Green Hornet Blu-ray 3D edition.

Click here to visit Sony Pictures Home Entertainment to learn more about this and other great Blu-ray titles.

TRON: Legacy

Set in the sleek digital world of a computer operating system, TRON: Legacy has a deep sci-fi and otherworldly 3D visual aesthetic that is unlike anything captured on the big screen before. Identity Disc combat sequences, digital doppelgangers, and intense Light Cycle matches all make for a truly spectacular movie-going experience.

The creative team at 1K Studios brought that digital sci-fi design to the forefront when it created the user experiences for the Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD, and iTunes user interfaces. 1K Studios was also tasked with creating the user experience and interface design for the original TRON Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D and iTunes release.

Tron: Legacy was released by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on Blu-ray Disc, DVD, and digital download. A five-disc box set entitled The Ultimate Tron Experience contains the Blu-ray 3D, Blu-ray, DVD, and digital copy of Tron: Legacy, as well as Tron: The Original Classic in collectible packaging. Tron: Legacy was also released as a digital download in high definition or standard definition, including versions with or without the digital extras.

Click here to visit Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment to learn more about this and other great Blu-ray titles.

Down in the Treme: A Look at the Music and Culture of New Orleans

Amidst the damage and devastation wrought by hurricane Katrina, the residents of New Orleans struggle to piece their lives back together in David Simon and Eric Overmyer’s latest HBO television series, Treme. The series focuses on the lifeblood of New Orleans, those bohemians, jazz musicians, chefs, and Mardi Gras Indians that give the Crescent City its thrumming vitality and its rich cultural heritage.

To further tap into the New Orleans experience for the Blu-ray release of the series, HBO asked 1K to create an in-episode viewing mode – “Down at the Treme: A Look at the Music and Culture of New Orleans” – to highlight and clarify many of the wonderfully unique aspects of the city. “Down at the Treme” is comprised of five different features with unique supplemental content for each episode:

Music: Learn more about the artists who bring the Treme soundtrack to life.

Players: Read detailed bios on your favorite characters.

Lexicon: Brush up on your New Orleans vocabulary and the origins of some of
the most popular phrases.

Locale: Explore the different neighborhoods of New Orleans.

Cuisine: Satisfy your cravings with in-depth descriptions of the local
delicacies.

And because New Orleans is a musical wellspring 1K also created “The Music of Treme,” an interactive music feature that gives the viewer access to the brilliant artists and vibrant music featured in the series while it plays during each episode.

To read more about the Blu-ray release of Treme, check out this review at Blu-ray.com.

TRON

For those who are perhaps too young to remember the original, TRON is a cult classic sci-fi adventure film that takes place in a digital underworld and is, of course, the inspiration behind Disney’s blockbuster 3D sequel, Tron: Legacy. Groundbreaking for its time, TRON combined high concept narrative with the latest advances in film making to produce an unforgettable look into what life would be like living in a computer world.

Staying true to these artistic tropes, 1K Studios used present day technology and current animation tools and techniques to create a user experience that showcases the original concept and design of the film. Revisiting TRON was a pleasure for the 1K design team, as many of its members were inspired by TRON’s originality and enduring status as one of the vanguards for computer centric sci-fi cinema.

Click here to visit Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment to learn more about this and other great Blu-ray titles.

iTunes Originals

From the raw energy of the Red Hot Chili Peppers in Rick Rubin’s mansion to the home-studio singing of Brooks & Dunn, these performances showcase the artists in an honest and deeply personal way. These intimate performances capture quintessential moments that will be cherished by each artist’s fans. 1K shot and edited each piece working in conjunction with Apple’s iTunes production team along with Brooks Mora and Frank the Plumber. We also created a modular branding system to tag each production. Productions include:

Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Wolfmother
John Legend
Evanescence
Lenny Kravitz
Brooks and Dunn

Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Galactic Battle Game

Cartoon Network’s hit television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars is blasting through its third season. In a joint promotional effort with Hasbro, manufacturer of the popular new line of Star Wars action figures, and Lucas Film, Cartoon Network aimed to augment brand awareness by reimagining the standard action figure in-pack dice and card game for an online experience at CartoonNetwork.com/secretcode. The standard action figure in-pack dice and card game allows fans to square off against each other with their favorite characters. With a passion for the franchise and a love for gaming, 1K Studios was a perfect fit for the task. 1K Studios designed and created the online version of Star Wars: The Clone Wars Galactic Battle Game.

In the online version of the game, players get the chance to choose their allegiance, Galactic Republic or Separatists, and then select a character from the show to take into battle against a formidable adversary. The game play allows players to see who their opponent will be and make strategic selections for their character before the battle begins. Once the player is happy with his or her character, the blast doors open to reveal one of several randomized locations within the Star Wars universe. When the player is ready, they don’t roll dice, but activate a virtual hologram randomizer that selects a category icon which determines how each character will be judged. The character with the highest point value for that category is victorious.

The game play was designed and built for extensive replay ability. Sound design and visual aesthetic were extremely important to the project and its stakeholders, but when it comes to passion for the work, that part was easy…

Click here to experience the Galactic Battle Game. And may the Force be with you! Always.

New Episodes of Season 3 Star Wars: The Clone Wars can be seen on Cartoon Network, Friday’s 8:30pm. (check your local listings)

Star Wars action figures are available at your local retailers or at the online Hasbro Shop

Inception Home Entertainment Release

For the home entertainment release of Christopher Nolan’s science fiction thriller Inception, 1K Studios carefully selected dynamic scenes and stills from the film to create menu design, for DVD, Blu-ray and iTunes, that embodies the mind-blowing, multi-layered, dream-based reality rendered in the film.

As expected, the home entertainment release of the film was greeted with great fanfare and acclaim, see just some of the outstanding Blu-ray and DVD reviews below:

“The reviews of this movie were absolutely amazing and this [DVD/Blu-ray] review is, quite the same. The DVD and Blu-ray are packed to the brim with extra features. …If you are vying to see behind the scenes, to look and dive deeper into dreams, then pick this up asap!” – Minneapolis Examiner

“Warner Home Video’s Blu-ray presentation of Inception is mighty impressive…” – The HD Room

“Warner Home Video brings ‘Inception’ to Blu-ray as an impressive three-disc set, where nearly the entire package is exclusive to the high-def format.” – High Def Digest

To pick up your copy of Inception, shop at the Official Online Store of Warner Bros. Studios:

Easy-A

For the Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Blu-ray and DVD release of Easy-A, 1K Studios produced several fun-filled featurettes that both compliment the film and engage the viewer. The Making of Easy-A is a behind the scenes look at the production of the film that features interviews with, the star of the film, Emma Stone and Director Will Gluck.

Also included is the Vocabulary of Hilarity, a piece that unpacks the humorous slang invented for film. This piece shares with the viewer how fun words and phrases, such as “backwards melon bag” and “lemon squeeze” give the characters a unique and fresh comedic appeal.

Click here to visit Sony Pictures Home Entertainment to learn more about this and other great Blu-ray titles.

30 Days of Night: Dark Days

Transforming a celebrated graphic novel into a compelling full-length feature film is a daunting challenge, yet 30 Days of Night: Dark Days Director Ben Ketai embraced this challenge and sought out creative ways to adapt the graphic novel’s intricate plot and storylines for the big screen. A large part of this challenge included bringing to life the graphic novel’s many memorable heroes and villains.

With a particular knowledge of and strong affinity for the previous graphic novels written by Steve Niles and illustrated by Ben Templesmith, and a general love for the Sci-Fi and Comic Book genres, the 1K Studios production team was asked by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment to produce dynamic content for the Blu-ray and DVD release of the film.

The 1K Studios production team created content that spoke directly to the franchise’s loyal fan base. The Gritty Realism of Dark Days is an in-depth look at the challenges of bringing the film production together. For the true 30 Days of Night fan, an exclusive Blu-ray feature was created to explicate the work that went into capturing the essence of Ben Templesmith’s illustrated masterpieces. In Graphic Inspirations: Comic to Film, fans can choose from several video pods hosted by Ben Ketai himself. Each video pod gives an intimate walk-through of his visual treatments of the original illustrations and how the scenes came to life through story and character.


To see all the content mentioned in this story, pick up 30 Days of Night: Dark Days on Blu-ray and DVD.

Click here to visit Sony Pictures Home Entertainment to learn more about this and other great Blu-ray titles.

The Lovely Bones Blu-ray

1K Studios worked in a coordinated effort with Peter Jackson’s WingNut Films, based in New Zealand, to create the Blu-ray and DVD menus for this emotionally engaging film.

Dinner for Schmucks Blu-ray

The mouse themed tableaux were an essential comedic element in Dinner for Schmucks. So, to stay true to that theme for the Blu-ray and DVD menus, 1K designers integrated still photo elements and video clips into the film’s very own title sequence, a montage of gussied-up rodents merrymaking in miniature dioramas.

The Black Crowes Croweology iTunes LP

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of their debut album, Shake Your Money Maker, the Black Crowes recorded this acoustic compilation of past hits and band favorites. 1K Studios created the iTunes LP using the iconic artwork that has been synonymous with the band for all those years.

The LP includes a gallery of tour laminates, featuring the Crowes’ signature, irreverent artwork.

Inception Digital Comic – The Big Under

For the Blu-ray release of Inception, Christopher Nolan’s dream themed science fiction thriller, 1K Studios helped the producers put together a digital comic that ties characters from the original film into a new fictional narrative – The Big Under – set in the digital comic format.

Star Trek Promo

For the DVD and blu-ray release of Star Trek, 1K’s marketing team created this promo spot. The spot highlights several features unique to the blu-ray experience, including the Vessel Simulator a feature that was also designed and created by 1K Studios.

Exclusive Promo for Amazon, up-fronting bonus, blu-ray exclusive, and interactive features

Working in concert with HBO, 1K Studios brought the Pacific Theater of war to life by providing exclusive supplemental content to this award winning ten-part miniseries.

The Enhanced Viewing Experience immerses the viewer inside The Pacific by presenting Picture-in-Picture interviews with surviving veterans, WWII historians, and family members of deceased Marines, along with pertinent facts, brief bios, and photographs.

Complementing the Enhanced Viewing Experience is the interactive Field Guide, a standalone feature that allows the viewer to browse through animated maps of key areas in the Pacific. These maps tie the series to actual military strategies and battle tactics, and the environmental conditions in the Pacific during the war. In addition, the Field Guide provides more interviews with historians and veterans, historical footage, photographs, and Marine biographies.

“The Pacific’s supplemental content is also comparable to those included with Band of Brothers, and that’s a very, very good thing. Ten picture-in-picture experiences, ten interactive Field Guide tracks and an entire disc of special features will keep history buffs and casual viewers captivated (and quite busy) for a few weeks…” – Blu-ray.com

The Ironman 2 Blu-ray disc, released this month from Paramount, offers something truly unprecedented for fans of enhanced movie content. Cool tech objects, like the Ironman Suit, expand out of the film to reveal hidden details, underlying mechanics, and cool tech facts. These deconstructions and multi-media factoids happen on-the-fly, seamlessly while the movie continues to play! Select option 2 above to see a sample.

The object deconstruction segments are part of a larger S.H.I.E.L.D viewer feature that provides a rich compendium of the Ironman Universe. Fans can even access information on film characters from super hero offerings out in the future, like Thor or Captain America.

1K continues to invent new ways for fans to experience video content in multiple dimensions. In this case, when the fan sets the S.H.I.E.L.D Data Vault feature to play in “movie mode”, Blu-ray’s video branching technology sets up the viewer to kick back while Blu-ray transitions from the movie into secondary video content, then returns to the same point in the movie, all completely seamlessly. This frees up both of a fan’s hands for popcorn consumption or any other purpose, while allowing the film to be enjoyed in ways unavailable anywhere else but on Blu-ray.

The Happy Apps

Have you ever thought you might need a little mood-enhancement on the go? Well, check out “The Happy Apps.” This new approach to mobile mood-enhancement treatment is the brainchild of Monica Singh Haley, the animation department manager of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Monica coupled her experience in animation with her personal interests, which include yoga and her Indian heritage, to create “The Happy Apps.”

To help Monica realize her vision for this new app, 1K Studios was brought on board to provide design support. The task at hand was to create a positive and engaging user experience that seamlessly delivers Monica’s proprietary therapeutic treatments. To accomplish this task, 1K Studios used a brilliant and original color design as the backdrop for a highly intuitive user interface. The result of this synergistic collaboration is a vibrant user-friendly app with mood-enhancing capabilities.

“The Happy Apps” consists of The Light Therapy Box, The Color Therapist, and the Help Yourself Happiness Guide. To read more about Monica and her groundbreaking therapy app, check out this article in CNN Tech.

George Harrison & Ravi Shankar – Collaborations Box Set on iTunes LP

This LP is a cornucopia of content for any fan of Ravi Shankar, George Harrison or Indian Music.

Designed to be the digital equivalent to the beautifully manufactured, limited release 7×7 box set, the iTunes LP contains 3 Albums with illustrated liner notes for each, a reproduction of the 56 page booklet and the concert video, Ravi Shankar’s Music Festival From India – Live From Royal Albert Hall.

Working with the representatives of George Harrison’s estate in Los Angeles and London, we carefully translated the artwork and liner notes from the original releases of the three albums into the LP format.

Penguin Publishing and Starz recently partnered to create a ground-breaking new iPad App that demonstrates the media-sharing opportunities made possible by the new platform. The app called The Pillars of the Earth Amplified Edition, bundles Ken Follet’s novel, Pillars of the Earth, with a collection of videos and interactive material taken from Starz’ miniseries of the same name.

Starz Digital asked 1K to help create an intuitive and compelling overall user experience for the rich array of available content. To do so, we worked in close collaboration with Starz’ internal content group, Penguin and developer KiwiTech. The resulting product creates a new revenue channel and additional media awareness for the overall Franchise.

“This edition includes an array of extras as elaborate as any on a director’s cut DVD.” USA Today

1K also created a short promotional video designed to introduce buyers, who might be new to the format, to the features of the app and the merits of the platform in general. All part of our work to help users understand, embrace and enjoy what iPad brings to the table (or tablet).

1K|Studios is currently developing a number of digital products for media companies and brand advertisers including promotional iPad Apps, enhanced movie applications, novels, motion comics and more.

The Blu-ray release of Sherlock Holmes is a showcase, in every way, for the movie and the format. 1K handled all aspects of creative and technical production for the disc on behalf of Warner Home Video. The disc features a visually rich and technically sophisticated presentation mode that features Guy Ritchie “stepping in” to the movie experience to enlighten viewers on his approach to making the film.

The feature, called Maximum Movie Mode is only available on Warner Blu-ray titles. In the Sherlock MMM, Mr. Ritchie tells us, among other things, that he’s given us the Holmes of Conan Doyle’s books, not the tamer Basil Rathbone version. The original Holmes is a temperamental former prizefighter, tending toward manic depression, with a cocaine problem. (Thanks for bringing it back to Conan Doyle, Mr. Ritchie!) Insights like these are more engaging when communicated from the director himself and in context with the film. It’s like you’re watching the film with Guy Ritchie in your living room.

Integrated Development & Production

1K developed this idea with Warner Home Entertainment, and once we proved the technology would support the creative concept, we wrote and directed the required shoots, handled post-production and then authored and programmed the final disc. By handling the technical proof of concept, the whole production process, and synergizing the efforts of various teams we were able to deliver Sherlock 30% faster than previous projects. This helped to maximize the quality of the product and it’s value to the consumer, while still nailing a critical accelerated release date.

This increased quality is reflected in the positive things being said about the product by influential consumer voices in the fan community:

“Maximum Movie Mode – An in-depth look at the film/production and an interactive viewer that includes walk-ons with director Guy Ritchie, Focus points, PiP, Storyboards, still galleries and more. It is far from your everyday run of the mill BonusView track and is broken down into 8 segments that can also be viewed independently…The inclusion of a solid set of interactive Blu-ray Disc bonus features enhances the quality of an already strong offering that comes highly recommended. Enjoy!” – Ralph Potts, AVS Forum

“The most celebrated special feature here, prominently featured in the television ads, is the Maximum Movie Mode. This is a sort of interactive film commentary with director Ritchie (running slightly longer than the film itself) that includes picture-in-picture still images, behind the scenes videos, cast and crew interviews, technical details of the film, and of course Ritchie’s commentary. It’s this sort of feature that truly makes a Blu-Ray special, aside from the enhanced high-definition image, of course. A typical film commentary simply has the director talking over the film, which can be informative but distracting. The “Maximum Movie Mode” is a much more entertaining commentary that even includes the option for user interactivity.” – Leif Sheppard, “Vine Voice” Reviewer on Amazon

1K has created two previous Maximum Movie Mode presentations featuring McG, Terminator Salvation and Zack Snyder, Watchmen.

Paul McCartney & Wings Band on the Run iTunes LP

To produce the first iTunes LP of the Paul McCartney Archive Collection, 1K Studios worked closely with designers and label representatives in London and Los Angeles to create an interactive version of this classic 1973 album. The LP includes two previously unreleased live tracks plus music videos, an album promo and two photo galleries, one containing behind the scenes photos from the iconic cover shoot at Osterley Park.

And for the first time ever, we’ve included social networking capabilities from inside an iTunes LP. Share the LP experience with your Facebook friends and Twitter followers by linking them directly to the album in the iTunes store.

Bon Jovi Greatest Hits – The Ultimate Collection on iTunes LP

Island Def Jam asked 1K to create this LP with just a few weeks to design and program. They wanted an LP that would do justice to Bon Jovi’s long career and showcase the large quantity of great photos, album covers, and tour laminates they had dug up from the archive. We helped them shape an LP that features 28 unique lyrics pages for each track, where listeners can see the original single, album cover and some photos from the time the song was released. It’s a rich experience that will be enjoyed by lifelong fans and nostalgic casual listeners. LP also includes a new Bon Jovi video, What Do You Got and a video featuring Jon and Richie reminiscing about some of their favorite songs.

Negramaro’s Casa 69 iTunes LP

Apple’s European indie label rep recommended us to Sugar Music for their first iTunes LP because the label was looking for a low-cost, all-in-one partner to design, program and deliver an LP for Negramaro’s latest release, Casa 69. Negramaro is an established Italian rock group with a strong national and European following, and the LP contains an image gallery, 2 bonus videos and the Italian lyrics for each of the 16 album tracks and 2 bonus tracks.

Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach

From the moment the Plastic Beach iTunes LP opens with it’s animated intro movie, you know you’re in for one of the most immersive LP experiences made to date. 1K Studios teamed with EMI, Virgin Records and Apple to create the standard-setting LP that includes an interactive fish tank, extensive video galleries and an engaging main interface within the Gorillaz HQ.

Distorted-Loop.com gives a more complete account: “The iTunes LP version of Plastic Beach includes the record-breaking “Stylo” video and a Making of “Stylo”  documentary;  a video collection of Gorillaz animations, Plastic Beach trailers and six exclusive films set to album tracks; a still gallery featuring original Gorillaz art and images exclusive to iTunes; a Gorillaz interactive game; and an Online Extras section providing  access to Gorillaz live concert performances and additional exclusives.”

“Gorillaz are back. After a five year absence the virtual music group — a real life side project of Blur frontman Damon Albarn — have released their third studio album Plastic Beach. It’s a creative triumph to be sure…” Brian Linder, IGN Music

The Jensen Project is a family friendly movie about a secret community of world-class geniuses doing cutting edge research they share anonymously to help the world. It is the second entry in a series of family friendly television movies that are the product of a partnership between Walmart and P&G.

1K|Studios’ involvement in the series is described here on Secrets of the Mountain. Check here for an overview of the P&G/Walmart business model.

Secrets of the Mountain is the first in a series of family-friendly movies produced as part of Walmart and P&G’s Family Moments initiative. The companies created this programming to fill the advertising gap in meaningful entertainment for the entire family.

Working closely with the producers of the film, 1K Studios had the opportunity to deploy our integrated services model as a coordinated means to provide all of the essential functions in the home video production process. This complete workflow overhaul gives producers/clients a cost-effective and streamlined solution to the complicated multi-silo service model of DVD and Blu-ray production.

For Secrets of the Mountain, 1K was responsible for asset management, creating SD and BD-J menu design, menu animation, compression and authoring services, BD-J programming, all of which was subjected to the rigors of an iterative quality control matrix constructed to ensure optimal, mistake-free results thereby guaranteeing timely delivery of materials, assets, and masters.

Multi-platform Content Extension and Marketing

This year audiences were thrilled at the triumphant voyage of the Starship Enterprise and her young and vibrant crew in movie theaters across the planet. Then, on November 17, the world went where no one has gone before when Star Trek debuted as a three-disc Blu-ray with digital copy, two-disc DVD collector’s edition, iTunes Extra and a single-disc DVD.

1K worked with Paramount Home Entertainment to create interactive content, user experience design and a three-minute promotional video that canvased the Web on Amazon, Twitter and Facebook. In addition, we created an iTunes Extras version of the film with exclusive content accessible only via secret code.

Thanks to the generous support of Paramount, Bad Robot and the effects gurus at ILM we were able to create one of the marquee features of the disc – the Enterprise Vessel Simulator. It lets fans zoom all around the U.S.S. Enterprise and the Narada. Viewers can also access detailed technical specs and even fire the weapons.

Bill Hunt of “The Digital Bits” (www.thedigitalbits.com) called the Vessel Simulator “. . . the best BD-Java feature I’ve seen yet on a Blu-ray.”

Terminator Salvation Maximum Movie Mode energizes Blu-ray Sales

Maximum Movie Mode (MMM) is a new, visually immersive film (or TV) companion presentation in which the director or key creative contributors discuss, illuminate, guide and demonstrate their ideas alongside the movie. For Terminator Salvation, Director McG, shows why he is one of the most sought after creative forces in Hollywood – with an incredibly insightful tour of his blockbuster film.

With MMM activated, you hear McG’s voice as you watch the film (like a director commentary), but periodically, the screen that you are watching moves back seamlessly (as if a camera is pulling back from it) to reveal a visual environment, like a virtual studio, where he explains the film in person. The MMM also offers PiP video, Focus Points, timeline sequences and still galleries to make this experience an incredible wealth of information.

1K developed the Maximum Movie Mode concept on behalf of and in conjunction with Warner Home Entertainment. We designed, wrote, shot, edited and programmed the piece using BD-J. The critical reviews of MMM have been extremely gratifying:

" . . . the interactive and visually-based commentary proves vastly superior to standard audio-only tracks; the director interacts with the film, pausing it to point out various interesting tidbits, further reinforce points, and expand on the film’s dramatic and thematic elements. It’s a fantastic feature and is implemented to perfection." — review on Blu-ray.com

1K worked with HBO and show creator Alan Ball to give fans of the show an extended interactive experience for Blu-ray. The “enhanced viewing experience” features optional video, text, and graphics that appear over the show to deliver content covering four distinct subject matters: True Blood Characters – presented by Lafayette in special video PIP segments,
Vampires History – including the origins and other facts about the show’s unique version of the Vampire myth, FYI – focusing on the show’s story and its various mysteries, and Bon Temps – featuring an explorable animated map of the town where the show takes place.

1K also created an opening sequence and UI Design for the Blu-ray disc. Among other things, we used the existing logo treatment from the show with our own blend of filmed elements and 3D objects – integrated over a montage of shots form the show.

1K Riffs on Fairey’s Tom Petty Designs

We enjoyed getting the chance to work with original album artwork created by Shepard Fairey to create an Apple iTunes LP & Extras release for the legendary Tom Petty. The LP format allowed us to add various animated adornments to Fairey’s distinctive graphic style. The LP is loaded with great music and additional content including exclusive live videos.

A Dose of Geek Love

Get your geek on as we Test the Infinite Hilarity Hypothesis of The Big Bang Theory. Warner Bros.’ hot, smart comedy continues to gain fans and grow ratings. For Season 2, we followed up Season 1′s Quantum Mechanics Documentary with another dose of geek love as TV veterans Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady talk about the show’s unique characters and the cast discusses their evolving characters.

Big Whiskey & the Groogrux King rules on iTunes LP

Dave Matthews’ original illustrations create an interactive environment for this downloadable version of the band’s new album. The release includes videos, lyrics, bonus tracks, a song selection carousel, photo gallery and much more. Among our favorite features is the “visualizer,” which displays a randomized pattern of icons, doodles and illustrated imagery from the universe of Matthews’ own drawings to accompany the music. His handwriting was even made into a font and used for the user interface – giving the experience a sense of Mr. Matthews unique personality and aesthetic throughout. If you love the Dave Matthews Band’s music – do yourself a favor and check out the art, too.

A New Spin on a Timeless Classic

Apple tasked 1K Studios to create a new, more robust user experience for their iTunes Extra and iTunes LP products, as part of the initial 2009 product launch. 1K exclusively designed and programmed graphic UI packages for over 30 films and music artists, defining the look, feel, and usability of the new, added value, iTunes product line. A top catalog consideration in the 2009 launch of iTunes Extra was the classic “Wizard of Oz”, shown above.

Fans of Apple’s downloadable media offerings now regularly enjoy extra content presented in a single creative package which until now was limited to physical media.

Pearl Jam iTunes LP

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Iron Man animated for Blu-ray and the Web

To enhance and extend the Iron Man experience, Paramount asked 1K|Studios to help create two exclusive interactive features and a cutting-edge user interface to access the film. As has been the case on several of our projects, we received generous support from ILM as we put their incredibly cool CG models to work.

Among other things, Iron Man viewers can watch the film in “Intelligence Mode” to get trivia questions displayed over the film in progress, and can inspect an arsenal of Ironman suits in the Hall of Armor. All of the action is accessed via an interface that features Iron Man himself rotating in a lab full of holographic images.

Our work on this project garnered the first Key Art award granted in the movie UI category as well as a lot of buzz and fan response that helped the film become the biggest home entertainment seller of 2009. We also designed and programmed a version available for digital download as an iTunes Extra.

Making the Online LP for an Iconic Rapper

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Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace & Music Director’s Cut
(40th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition)

It was the summer of 1969 and over a half-million people descended upon Max Yasgur’s farm for three days of peace, love and music for a little event called Woodstock. Meanwhile, a group of filmmakers captured the essence of the music, the electricity of the performances, and the experience of those who lived it in creating what would become a landmark Oscar®-winning documentary.

For the Warner Bros. 40th anniversary release of Woodstock the film, 1K revisited that magical event and the people who experienced it first hand. Comprising 29 featurettes, Woodstock: From Festival to Feature, included interviews with and stories from Martin Scorsese, Michael Lang, Michael Wadleigh, Hugh Hefner, Grace Slick, Michael Shrieve, and more as they reminisce on the music, the movie and what it means today.

1K worked with Universal Home Entertainment and the show’s creators to create an enhanced experience for Heroes fans. We created an open and UI for various release formats as well as a digital marketing campaign to promote these releases. In addition, we created an elaborate interactive feature called “character connections” that allows viewers to get additional information about Heroes characters while they watch. A character map shows the types of connections between characters that evolve over the course of the show.

Tyrese Gibson breaks new ground in Digital Comics

Tyrese Gibson has made his mark in almost every media: TV, film, music — and he has an impressive following on Twitter. With Mayhem he makes his first foray into the world of comics. And as with all things Tyrese, he’s done it in style – creating the first comic to be released in the new iTunes LP format. The 3-part series comes to life through extra features which are added to the core comic reading experience – a motion comic version of Mayhem 2 & 3 as well as behind-the-scenes features, galleries, digital trading cards, and original music tracks.

1K had a blast working with Tyrese and his team. We look forward to future collaborations, bringing the work of more great titles and artists to this unique platform.

Special Interviews for George Wallace

A story of conflict and redemption told by one of cinema’s most influential directors, George Wallace revitalized the career of John Frankenheimer and put several of its actors in the spotlight. Follow the journey of this film and its director in this heartfelt look back with interviews from Evens Frankenheimer, Gary Sinise, Angelina Jolie and John Frankenheimer himself.