Movie Screening in Virtual World..and more!!

Recently I've became interested in the idea of having a movie screening event in Second Life as a part of my IML thesis project after I talked to my marketing professor. The idea was that we could experiment whether we can use vitual world like Second Life as a test market for pre-relieased movies. For example, when studios run a test screening of an upcoming film, it costs a lot of marketing budget to set up and run the event. (e.g. Renting out a physical screening place, finding and paying the audiences who would be willing to sit down, watch the film, rate it and make comments etc.) But if studios or independent film makers or producers throw a test screening in virtual world, it would cost them virtually nothing! And..of course, they can get the same type of results.

Well.. I searched online to find if there has been any virtual screening in the past, and I found one!!

http://foureyedmonsters.com/secondlife
This website shows how they teamed up with Sundance Channel Island in the virtual world and screened a movie.

"Sundance Channel has branched out to explore the screening possibilities in virtual worlds and its efforts have been noticed by Second Life's virtual citizens and established periodicals like The New York Times. The screening of FOUR EYED MONSTERS in Sundance Channel Island was the first big event of its kind in Second Life and you can expect to see similar events in the future." (http://www.sundancechannel.com/secondlife/)

In addition, I also found a New York Times article fully devoted to Second Life and its potential to be a great screening place where viewers can not only watch the content but also socialize and intereact with others at the same time in the virtual world.
(http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/24/arts/television/24itzk.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2)


A very interesting example I found from this article...is about MLB All Star Game screening in virtual World where people mingled and stayed for few hours watching the game in a virtual screening place.

"As an example Mr. Verbeck pointed to a Second Life island his company created for Major League Baseball last summer where users could mingle during the All-Star Game and watch the home run derby. “People who came to mlb.com and watched online stayed for about, on average, 19 minutes,” Mr. Verbeck said. “Whereas the people who came into Second Life, mainly to talk to each other and be in a crowd, they stayed for an average of two hours.”"

From what I've read today, I think there's a potential that SL or Virtual world can play a very effective tool to test screen a film or any type of content. Let's keep exploring the virtual world!!