With the political caper The Honorable Woman, SundanceTV knew it had a hit on its hand. Aside from a stunning central performance from Maggie Gylllenhaal (who eventually picked up a Golden Globe for the role), this limited series was asking big questions – about technology, the Middle East, family legacies – in a smart, sophisticated way. The challenge for online was to create something that felt equally daring and adventurous while also heightening the intrigue at the core of the on-air story. Just like the series, this digital experience needed to be about revealing secrets. Just like the series, there were no easy answers. The solution? The Honorable Woman: Two Screen App: Augmented reality.
Using forward-thinking technology developed by the Dutch company Layar, The Honorable Woman Two Screen App provided viewers with a groundbreaking interactive experience that played with the themes in the show (espionage, communication, surveillance, technophobia) while encouraging viewers to delve deeper into the world of the series.
After scanning images (e.g., a concert poster or a driver's license) fed through their Facebook and/or Twitter feeds, viewers were given a second image/video that teased information about momentous plot points in the upcoming episode. For instance, if you scanned the POV shot of a sniper's scope then the Layar app would surface a close-up of the intended target. Suddenly, you knew SOMEONE was getting shot in the living room. But the question still remained Who?! And for that matter, when?
In order to generate one-of-a-kind fan engagement for political thriller The Honorable Woman, SundanceTV Digital took an approach as ambitious as the series itself. By using the innovative technology of Layar, The Honorable Woman Two Screen App: Augmented Reality. This augmented reality experience allowed fans to interact with the limited series in a uniquely immersive way—It essentially armed viewers with a tool that facilitated a form of online espionage.
Looking for clues as to what's going to happen or even about the characters' histories? The Honorable Woman Two Screen App unleashed the inner sleuth by allowing viewers to uncode clues fed in their Facebook and Twitter feeds. Sometimes the interplay was coy (a ransom note's letters rearranged to form a cryptic message about an upcoming episode), sometimes the interactions raised the stakes (a fake driver's license transforms to reveal a character's true identity). By changing the presentation and manner of transformation for each Layar interaction, SundanceTV kept its online spy game in the realm of the unexpected.
With The Honorable Woman Two Screen App, SundanceTV has created a completely novel experience that is in the spirit of the show tonally, technologically and even intellectually. Indeed, this Two Screen App is an ambitious step forward for online content for a TV series, a move beyond fun facts and opinion aggregators.