McCann Melbourne invites filmgoers to ‘Feel the film’ with launch of The MIFF Emotion Simulator
McCann Melbourne is challenging the way films are experienced, with the creation of The MIFF Emotion Simulator for the Melbourne International Film Festival, which kicks off tomorrow.
The MIFF Emotion Simulator will allow Melburnians to physically experience the emotions of a MIFF film, before they see it.
This artistically-lead scientific experiment is a custom-built movie chair, created by advertising agency McCann and produced by AIRBAG, that sees the face of willing participants electro-stimulated to demonstrate the way a movie will make someone feel, before the choose to see it.
Participants will have 12 electrodes placed on the various major muscles of the face, allowing the simulation of happiness, sadness, disgust, fear, anger, and surprise. Participants can then choose which films from this year’s Festival they’d like to experience. In this way a two-hour film is concentrated into a minute-long experience unlike any other.
A chair-mounted camera films each session creating one-off film clips that can be shared via social media throughout the Festival’s duration, by MIFF itself as well as the participants. These provide a unique facial movie preview for the people of Melbourne to watch to determine what sort of film they wish to watch from the over 370 on offer at this year’s MIFF.
Says Michelle Carey, artistic director of MIFF: “The Melbourne International Film Festival is always looking to push boundaries, and to move our city forward. Because as we all know, movies have the power to move us in ways we never thought possible. And the MIFF Emotion Simulator is an exciting exploration of every human’s emotions. Because no matter what language we speak, we all feel the same things.”
Says Pat Baron, ECD, McCann Melbourne: “Great film should be felt, not just seen. With the MIFF Emotion Simulator we are allowing people to preview the way a movie will make them feel, rather than simply condensing the plot into two minutes of trailer.”
The emotional journey for each film has been determined through the MIFF Emotion Tracker, which saw the emotions of a range of Melburnians tracked as they watched selected MIFF films while wearing a pulse-rate monitoring Fit-Bit.
The chair itself builds on the work of Guillame-Benjamin-Amand Duchenne’s 1862 study “The Mechanism of Human Facial Expression”, and is a fresh way to promote the iconic Festival, now in its 64th year.
Melburnians can express interest in participating in a session in The MIFF Emotion Simulator by going to MIFF.com.au/emotionsimulator and registering their name. Places are strictly limited.
The MIFF Emotion Simulator will be located at the MIFF Lounge at the Forum throughout the Festival, which starts on 30 July and runs to 16 August 2015.
Melbourne International Film Festival
Artistic Director: Michelle Carey
General Manager: Amber Sloan
Sponsorship Manager: Nathan Reynolds
Marketing & Communications Manager: Lauren Zoric
Publicity: Asha Holmes Publicity
McCann Melbourne
Managing Director: Adrian Mills
Executive Creative Director: Pat Baron
Creative Director/Writer: Alex Wadelton
Creative Director/Art Director: Andy Jones
Senior Account Director: Caroline Macmillan
Head of Broadcast: Victoria Conners
Senior Producer: Anne Comber
Assistant Producer: Afrim Memed
Director/Editor: Patrick Jennings
Camera Operators: Anthony Koreny & Jack Murtagh
Camera Assistant: Adrian Ortega
Sound: Jack Mcculloch
Photography: Jay Hynes
PR: Chris Baker
AIRBAG
Executive Producer: Rob Stock
Technologist: Steven Nicholson
Producer: Eliza D’Souza
Art Direction: Illusion Studios
21 Comments
Wow. That’s a really awful thing to do to people.
In fact, didn’t that use to be a form of torture?
What the hell?
Why would you want to force someone to feel something when watching a film? Surely the whole point of art (whether it be film or not) is for the viewer to experience it in their own way, feel their own emotions, based on their own life experiences, history, knowledge, thoughts that lead them to the point of viewing the film.
Strange that the client would allow this.
Weird science!
Just because you can doesn’t mean you should. Pretty bland insight, propped up by a bizarre execution. Seems like a great opportunity for another agency next year.
I thought the point was going to be that you don’t need this – you can just see a film – but that’s not the idea is it?
I don’t understand, especially film 2 makes no sense.
Please explain.
Alert Shirt?
Shocking!
ahahahahahaha. phew.
Deja vu I think you mean Durex Fundawear.
Claps for doing something different and great to see the bounds of creativity and thinking being pushed. Exactly what is needed for a festival like MIFF.
Fascinating approach and feels like a genuinely novel way to generate interest and talkability. Interested to see where it goes from here.
Well, barely watchable – no wonder most of thee youtube posts on this have ‘no views’.
I don’t understand, I don’t think anyone will be interested in doing it and it hasn’t made me think I want to go to MIFF. Maybe it could have worked for a purely scifi film festival.
1/10
Love this chatter. Great to see it generating discussion. Gotta be good for MIFF. Meanwhile I bought a mini pass and the good sessions are booked out.
Looks super freaky. Much more interesting than just bashing out a TV.
What’s there to hate? They are electrifying people in the face!!!
Get on board.
I have a simple rule: I never flame any agency or any creative for trying weird stuff. Weird stuff polarizes and people usually either love it or hate it. And sometimes, the vast majority of people will hate it. But that’s ok. It’s a bit of a cliché, but if you’re not prepared to fall on your arse trying something different, you’ll never do anything great.
What I really hate is agencies and creatives who never try, and never really fail. Happy to churn out predictable, safe wallpaper and take their $$.
It’s ok to hate this effort. But, really, what you should hate far more is the work that passed you by and you never even noticed.
I like the way you think @cheapseats
They’re shocking people IN THE FACE
I’m still waiting for the MILF Simulator personally.
It should have been called The Filmulator. Just saying.
Yay for cheapseats.