Putting Users Inside "Pan's Labyrinth"

"Pan's Labyrinth" is a masterpiece of the imagination, filled with fantastical creatures and a series of harrowing challenges. During the development of the film, Guillermo recorded his thoughts, sketches and notes in a leather bound book. Deep Focus wanted to leverage both Guillermo's built-in fanbase and the true artistic quality of this beautiful film. To do so, we created an online contest and community entitled "Journals of Imagination."

Journals of Imagination serves as a forum for fans to turn their original artwork into an interactive experience. Once a user uploads their artwork, they are able to create their own digital sketchbook, using a variety of customization tools, including tracks from the original score. Once saved, personal sketchbooks are placed in a gallery for all site visitors to view, rate and comment on. In addition to user ratings, a special feature in the microsite enables Guillermo Del Toro himself to mark his favorite fan-created sketchbooks. At the contest completion, Guillermo's picks will be included on the DVD.
 
The strategy for this film's release relied heavily upon increased word of mouth throughout the platform release. We launched Journals of Imagination in a similar fashion-- reaching out to the art community and Guillermo's fanbase first and allowing word to spread organically as the film's popularity grew. As of now, the contest has hundreds of entries and over 2,000 comments.
 
On it's opening weekend, "Pan's Labyrinth" brought in $750,000 on just 17 screens, a per screen average of almost $40,000-- impressive numbers for a four-city release. Since then, the film has generated an incredible amount of buzz, including a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, inclusion on over 130 Top 10 lists and six Academy Award nominations including Best Original Screenplay, Cinematography & Score.
-- Sabrina Caluori, account director, Deep Focus

When I first arrived at the "Pan's Labyrinth: Journals of the Imagination" website, however, I was a little let down by the simple, plain design. I guess it just felt kind of flat when you consider the rich content in the movie. However, after I started viewing the viewer submitted artwork, I quickly forgot the designed template around me and became lost in the sketchbooks. The search/sort sketchbook functionality worked well, and viewing the artwork within the books was intuitive and simple. Creating a sketchbook was equally easy, and the technology behind the front end all seemed to work flawlessly.
 
The other feature I enjoyed was flipping through the director's personal sketchbook pages, and hearing his accompanying explanations behind the drawings. It's a neat kind of atypical view into the creative mind behind this fantastical movie.

I guess now all I can do is wait and see if my sketchbook wins!
-- Chris Gatewood, creative director, Freestyle Interactive

These filmmakers truly understand what can be done online with a relatively minimal budget. Truly, the level of engagement that transcends from rich-media ads to the destination makes the jump natural and effortless.

I loved this site, from the score to the packaging. It immediately brought me into their land of make believe, giving me a major impetus to see the movie in all its magic in theaters.

The site offered visitors a look behind the film in a way that was both informative and compelling. The sketchbook, as both an integral part of the site and as a visual metaphor, worked on all levels. Giving users a natural way to interact by creating a sketchbook was a great play. So many times advertisers are looking for that connection, and ones that are as natural as this fall few and far between.
-- J. Barbush, associate creative director, interactive, RPA

I carry a hardcover black sketchbook with me wherever I go at work. I use it to capture everything over the course of the day. It is filled with ideas, sketches, doodles, notes and to-do lists. In a techy world, it is wonderful to have real pen and paper on hand always. (I have also found if you carry a notebook around with you everywhere you go it makes you always look busy-- even when you aren't.)

Because of this I was pretty thrilled to see the amazing director Guillermo del Toro on the "Pan's Labyrinth" site looking back at me with his own sketchbook tucked under his arm. The site offers a look into his sketchbook, with early thoughts on characters and scenes from the movie. It also offers commentary from del Toro on what each page means. He claims his sketches suck, but I was really taken by them and felt I could feel the rush of ideas he must have felt as he was scribbling.

The site featured a contest designed around the sketchbook idea and allowed people to submit their own series of sketches, which to me on the whole looked more like finished artwork rather than rough notions. Most of the submitted sketchbooks were amazingly well done and seemed to echo the mystical nature of the film. The site gives viewers the opportunity to rate and comment on the sketches, which in this setting seemed wrong somehow, to award stars and all. All the comments I saw were very supportive, unlike most of what people have to say about everything on YouTube.

Mr. del Toro will judge all the sketches and pick five who will win an autographed poster and a spot on the DVD. But with all of the submissions, I think the film's promoters have done a good job in creating an artist community, all of who must feel like winners.

I thought this was a very creative, elegant and communal approach to film marketing. I don't know that my sketches are quite good enough to enter, but I enjoyed browsing at the amazing work of talented others.
-- David T. Jones, SVP, executive creative director, emerging platforms, DraftFCB