How Movies and TV Series can benefit from Augmented Reality – Part 1

For the premiere of The Meg movie, OMD teamed up with Snapchat to create an underwater World Lens. Using the segmentation method, user was teleported in the depths of the ocean where 75-foot-long shark Megalodon was waiting for the next victims. Worth noticing here is a fact that the technology used in this effect detects all obstacles on a horizon, making sure the shark can swim around them.

TV Shows

Stranger Things by Netflix

Created for the premiere of the 2nd season of Stranger Things, this Snapchat lens is probably one of the most sophisticated portals created so far. It allowed users to wander around Joyce’s living room in order to explore various surprises hidden inside. That said, users were able to see and use alphabet painted on the wall or even go to the Upside Down if they were lucky enough. This lens has also featured a front camera effect that was mimicking Eleven’s nosebleed.

Bieszczady by Lens That & Starcom

Przystanek Bieszczady is a very popular Discovery Channel series about one of the wildest areas of Poland: Bieszczady Mountains. With the third season kicking off, the producer, in a cooperation with Starcom and Lens That, decided to use Facebook Camera Effects to promote the document, becoming the first Polish show to take such a step.

Not only this, but the tree-face effect inspired by show’s key visual – a Treant – is probably the first one ever, which is not a simple face filter, but an animated 3D model. It reacts to the facial expressions and a movement of the head and eyes, while opening a mouth triggers a movement of the other objects.

The Camera Effect was part of the bigger project – it was accessed via a Messenger Chatbot filled with challenges, additional info on show’s characters and notifications when the new episode was about to air. Such activation is a great example of how TV channels can utilize AR effects on Facebook.

Westworld by HBO & Snapchat

Snapchat lens that transformed users into androids, known so well from the HBO show. Your Snapchat username was displayed as the “Host ID” and opening mouth triggered the effect that made your face split in quarters showing your true robotic nature. What is more, switching your camera allowed you to watch one of the drone hosts walking in front of you along with a quote from the show. The lens was also a reminder for all the fans that new episodes air every Sunday.

The X – Files by The Mill

The Mill collaboration with Facebook AR studio aimed to create out of this world effects for the new season of X-Files. The X-Files reboot was a great surprise for all the fans of the show and if it wasn’t enough to start watching the show, they shocked us again with two new AR lenses. The first one turns you into an alien and lets you experience how it would be if they really walked among us. With the second effect, you can finally witness an UFO abduction just like agents Mudler and Scully do on a daily basis.

Lucifer by Lens That

This Facebook Camera Effect brings on the signature devil’s horns, destroys naturally innocent face of a human and sets the surrounding on fire with special effects applied on the screen. It also gives the user a special power to blow things up, just by opening your mouth!

A part of this campaign was a Messenger Chatbot, providing users with a broadcast schedule, trailer, cast details, and a quiz to tell if one is more of an angel or a devil.

We hope you enjoyed the article and presented examples. If you are looking for more activations connected with Movie and TV industry make sure to go straight to Lenslist and type “Movie” or “TV” into the search engine. Stay tuned for our next post, where we will cover Fast Food and Restaurants industries!