Halo NightFall: A Single Thread

343 INDUSTRIES . Short Films . November 2014

Color + Context

In early 2013, the idea of the second screen viewing experience was buzzing. The Xbox One was being solidified as an all-in-one entertainment device, and my mission was to extend the television viewing experience in a meaningful way. Smart TVs and apps that attempt to extend television do not create compelling and reusable experiences. They are simply disposable gimmicks that force interaction, choice, and understanding of the destination, while neglecting to take an interest in you and your preferences. If we had any guiding principle, it was to learn from the failures of other TV-extending applications and fulfill our fans' desires without distracting from their experience.

In late 2012, I began charting the course for what would eventually become the Halo Channel by crafting a document that served as the blueprint for a more comprehensive experience. Many of the excerpts and images on this page are derived from these guiding blueprints.

Directors: Dan Chosich, Terry Loane
Executive Producer: Ridley Scott
Executive Producer: Kiki Wolfkill
Executive Producer: David Zucker
2nd Unit Producer: Ingrid Goodwin
2nd Unit A.D.: Keith Browett
Director of Photography: Mark Garrett
2nd Director of Photography: Dan Chosich
Editor: Dan Chosich
Sound Editor: Dan Chosich
2D Graphic Design: Christopher Abbas
3D Graphics: Dan Chosich
Writers: Dan Chosich, Frank O'Connor, Jeremy Patenaude, Terry Loane

CHART YOUR COURSE

Our charter, no matter what, is to create something useful - something additive. We have a franchise that people love. We will have content that people clamor to view. The question becomes, 'How do you create a meaningful interactive platform?" The answer: give them more of what they love. Give them content that matters. Give them knowledge. Give them validation. Make it intuitive. Make it familiar. Do all of that and they'll come. Make it beautiful and they'll stay.

We are a franchise that embraces our fans. We tailor our content to their feedback. We don't believe in our own hype, we are never satisfied, and we know the world isn't static and waiting for us. This is a modern environment where we have to be open. We have to be transparent and genuine with our fans. This is a platform to entertain and connect the world with a unifying moment. We'll give you the tools, we'll make it malleable, they'll chart their course, and the channel will do its best to keep in step.

ACTIVE TELEVISION

No longer does TV disconnect the viewer and their voice. This is a conversation instead of a broadcast. This is democratic television that begs for your opinion and adapts appropriately. This is personal TV and you are navigator to chart your own level of involvement.

USER-CENTRIC

Table any preconceived notions you have iTV. This is an application for escapism, connection, and validation. We must be constantly focused on making this a richer experience for the user. The user must be at the center of everything we do.

SOULFUL

The Halo Channel must have a soul that espouses the best of the brand. We are an aspirational brand because our stories and actions elevate the user to the hero of their own experience. These are their own crafted journey’s as much as they are our own. We must speak to the basic universal messages that align with the brand and imbue details that imply a greater intelligence.

FOCUSED

The interface is a touch-point, not a destination. The user should not feel like their attention is being absolutely split between the content and the interface.

Channel BRANDING TONE

ESPOUSE THE BEST WITHIN US + REDISCOVER THE FEELING OF INFINITE POSSIBILITY

“And in the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.
And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.”
- Albert Camus, The Stranger

Assets in Diversity

We are in a unique position as a franchise to have content that speaks to the struggles of a hero on a distant planet, right next to the comedic tales of red and blue Spartans in a canyon outpost, right beside a national championship for the best of the best. These stories are multi-faceted, and these struggles are not merely man versus nature. These stories resonate deeper; they are calls for companionship, comradeship, acclaim, freedom, patience, and understanding. They are stories about man versus themselves, man versus man, man versus society, and man trying to understand their place in the universe.

Halo allows you to dream. It allows you to wonder beyond. With each release, the narrative is guiding the fiction of characters, plots, and events. But Halo is about the stories in-between. Halo is a lot about what you are doing when you are not playing Halo. It’s about dreaming of cresting a hill that seems out of scope. It’s about getting your friends together, sharing a bond, and escaping daily life. It’s a common place to dream, laugh, compete, and be the hero of your own experience.

This is how our genres were formed because it is more than a game. It’s a sandbox for expression, and in that sandbox, there are no limits to how you play. And it is in that wonder where creativity thrives.

OUR FRONTIER HAS NOT VANISHED.
OUR FRONTIER IS FOREVER WITHIN US.

“Americans... are forever searching for love in forms it never takes, in places it can never be. It must have something to do with the vanished frontier.”

— Kurt Vonnegut. Cat's Cradle.

Early Version

EARLY Thoughts

Simplicity Above: Only want to watch Halo content? We'll get out of the way.
A World Below: Users who want to delve into Halo content. We give you a toolbox.
One Choice Yields Reward: The moment a user makes a choice, the journey begins.

Early Mission

Our Purpose

This document was constructed to speak to many disciplines. It's a process document for how we foundationally look at our future experiences, who our customers are, what we offer them, how we can support their dreams, and how we can become a better type of entertainment.

The Channel alone is a branding exercise in experience, UX, and visual design, but it is also a branding exercise in storytelling. The moments between shows shape perception. The craftsmanship in the details shapes quality. The way we capture imagination will be our legacy. We have to create those positive emotions that immediately elevate us to something worthwhile, something marquee.

By remembering what makes us great, by demanding an experience that we ourselves would consistently want to participate in, and by unhindering the user to experience this world, we will make something great.

Early Learnings

Gradual Change

What we quickly learned through testing is that you cannot force too much experience too quickly. If you are trying to change the way people fundamentally watch TV you have to do it in a way that is digestible and calls upon actions and tropes that they are already familiar with.

MEANINGFUL REWARDS

This was my hypothesis: If you spend X minutes watching the channel we will give you Y reward to use in Z. The problem is that the variable X (time) is not seen as a task or something limited. You need to rework the equation and make X an action: If you play Halo Mission X the channel will give you reward Y to use in Z. People want to work for their reward and feel as though their reward is meaningful because they accomplished a task with some varying level of challenge.

TOUCHPOINT DESIGN

The Halo Channel had to be lightweight. It needed to load quickly and possess an elegant design. As a designer, this meant that we had to create something visually appealing while remaining content-agnostic. The content itself played a crucial role in determining the design, so we incorporated various design philosophies from print magazines and layouts. This encompassed the use of large typography, rich colors, and full-bleed images.

"...DESIGN PHILOSOPHY FROM PRINT MAGAZINES AND PRINT LAYOUT."

Design Principals

Color: Use color to make the channel an inviting place to go.
Motion: Use shapes that suggest motion and add personality.
Scale: Elements go off screen and suggest that the world is larger.
Talent: Use marquee talent to give the channel a human resonance.
Less: Make the experience cinematic. Try to get down to the simplest form.

Design Tenants

Considerate: Always consider how the user feels using it or watching it. The cause and effect for user interactions should not be subtle, it should be reactive to the user's will. Considerate is not about the user it is also about the content. How can the features make the content feel richer.
Unrestricted Flow: Minimal friction between the user and their goal. Remove frustration. Always try to reduce the amount of steps between the user and their goal. If something takes three steps figure out how to make it two. Get to where the user wants to go, when they want to go there.
Clarity: There should be visual and interactive design consistency across features. Users should not be confused about how to navigate through features or remove elements from their experience.
Timeless: Future Proofing. Maximize Longevity. Will the design stand up in 5 years? Be content focused. Leverage Talent, the actual fiction, the design, and the models as a large part of the interface.
Directional / Intentional: Create a path that the audience wants to follow. If we are going to dig a hole it has to lead somewhere.

Halo Channel: Green Light Experience Reel

343 INDUSTRIES . September 2013

The Halo Channel Green light Video

The Halo Channel was green-lit in September of 2013. We put together a montage along with a large plan as to how the channel would come together. If you compare this to the video at the top you will see that the channel essentially changed in every single way. All for the better.

The commercial at the end is one of our Network ID or branding moments that would harken to the best of the brand or a call to action. In this case, it's a reminder as to why the war rages. A downed shipped needing rescue from an advancing enemy.