Fans of 'Heroes' Get to Remix TV Program

Universal Studios Home Entertainment staged a video remix site to promote the upcoming release of season two of “Heroes” on DVD and Blu-ray release. The collaborative remix site is hosted on Metacafe, and supported by Kaltura, a white label interactive video editing technology provider.

In the NBC series “Heroes,” a group of ordinary people discover they have extraordinary powers. In the campaign to promote the DVD release, Universal is giving consumers some powers to create their own version of “Heroes” video.

It changes “a monologue environment to a dialog environment to a trialogue environment,” said Ron Yekutiel, chairman and CEO of Kaltura, the collaborative video editing technology company providing the service for Metacafe and Universal.

It creates a “many-to-many” conversation, said Yekutiel, “in which many people can participate together, that environment in which people are offering.”

Consumers can remix Heroes: Season 2 through August 28. The site launched last week. It runs until two days after the DVD release. On the site visitors can take select video clips, still images, and pieces of the soundtrack from a library, along with editing transitions such as a 3-2-1 countdown, TV static, and shutter to fade to the next clip. Users can create a new video, or remix a video that’s already been created or remixed by another user. That’s where the many-to-many conversation happens.

Metacafe recognizes the value of partnering with a technology provider like Kaltura to provide such programs for Universal and other brands. “Fans of ‘Heroes’ are avid entertainment enthusiasts who welcome the opportunity to stretch their own creative muscles by making a remix showcasing their favorite characters and moments from the second season,” said Erick Hachenburg, CEO of Metacafe in a statement.

While this is the first brand campaign to come out of the relationship between Metacafe and Kaltura, Yekutiel said he expects more to be revealed soon.