SyFy House of Imagination

Say what you will about SyFy’s new name, but the House of Imagination trailer does a fantastic job getting the rebrand off to an epic start. With vfx by the Moving Picture Company and direction by 4Creative‘s Brett Foraker, the entire two-minute video is an inviting trip to a place I genuinely wish I could visit.

The companion website for the House of Imagination (also created by MPC) teases me with just such a wish, but ends up being a collection of mini-games and behind-the-scenes featurettes—and that’s a pretty sweet consolation prize.

It also points to SyFy’s understanding of its core audience. The inclusion of these making-of gems starring the cast members of SyFy’s shows is essentially like putting DVD extras on the web—something that the decidedly cultish fans of SyFy’s programming will respond to. When the name change was announced, I was concerned that SyFy would abandon the geekier clicks of its viewership, but if House of Imagination is any indication of the future, it appears the opposite is true. That’s good for the fans, and that’s good for the brand.

Incidentally, a high-dollar project like House of Imagination underscores something I heard more than once at Promax|BDA this year: commercial projects aren’t coming through the doors of studios and prodcos as often as they used to, and there’s something of a broadcast design renaissance starting to take form. The new broadcast work, however, is deeply tied to the web and is focused more on branded narrative experiences than IDs and show packages.

With viewers watching an increasing amount of programming on the web (and through web-enabled technologies), that makes perfect sense to me. As platforms edge closer together, like tectonic plates of media, it seems only natural that they will collide, forming new landscapes and, hopefully, new reasons to take creative risks.

For more on the SyFy rebrand, check out Proud Creative’s portfolio, which encompasses the entire new branding scheme.

Credits
Director: Brett Foraker
Creative director: Tom Tagholm
Executive Producer: Shananne Lane
Business Director: Olivia Browne
Producer: Roberts Jones
Production Designer : Tino Schaedler
Director of Photography: Larry Fong
Editor: Adam Rudd
Sound design and composer: Rich Martin

From MPC:

Jay Lichtman – Executive Producer
Paula Da Costa – Producer
Marcus Wood – VFX Supervisor (2D Lead)
Steve Moncur – VFX Supervisor (3D Lead)