To flex its muscle, Warner Bros., Hollywood’s largest studio, more than doubled its number of screens at its presentation at Comic-Con in San Diego on Saturday, creating a state-of-the-art presentation for its upcoming films.
Warners brought 465 feet (as opposed to its 199 feet in 2013) of screens — each of which are 20 feet high — which cost the studio hundreds of thousands of dollars.
No other studio is allowed to use them, and Warner’s partner, AV Concepts, invaded Hall H a week early to run diagnostics and set up the screens (which took four men to open) to run their special illustrations and first-look footage.
Warner and AV also schlepped down custom servers and 22 projectors with 200,000 lumia of projection that allowed for 25,000 pixel-wide images. They used Comic-Con’s sound system, but created specific panel art for each film.
“We go big every year but we had to go bigger,” said Sue Kroll, president worldwide marketing and international distribution. When asked about 2015, Kroll called it both “tough” and “full.”
“The Hobbit” artwork began as a Photoshop file from Peter Jackson. AV took that and created 600 layers of animation. The minute-plus-long sequence began as parchment paper and turned into movement, water and fire. It ended as a series of images from the films.
A panel of #hobbitmovie in #hallh #sdcc pic.twitter.com/meHutPj67E
— Alexandra Cheney (@alexandracheney) July 26, 2014
. @TheHobbitMovie panel at #sdcc and the ladies room too. pic.twitter.com/LZNuz2GRk6
— Alexandra Cheney (@alexandracheney) July 26, 2014
“People line up for days waiting to see our presentation and we wanted to give them an experience,” Kroll added. “To have them see something special, you have to create something they can connect with, that they can see and feel and experience and take with them.”
For “Jupiter Ascending,” the Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis-led sci-fi pic, which the studio pushed from the summer until February, it created a series of layered files, using the concept of the Big Bang to position the film in familiar territory.
“Mad Max” began as a sandstorm and dove deeper into some of the character profiles, including those of Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy.
And although it kicked off the presentation, “Superman v Batman: Dawn of Justice” images were simply hand-drawn stills from the film’s artists that were merged with some live illustration, including rain and wind. The sneak peek of Batman and Superman facing off, eyes lit up with fury, was solely for Hall H.
“That’s just going to live in that hall. We’ll post extended trailers and stills, but that presentation, that was just for those fans,” said Kroll, meaning those who saw it were the first and the last — except of those for those who took pictures and posted them.
[This post has been updated.]
