Kids right across the country will be wiggling in time this Sunday with a unique performance by The Wiggles, thanks to the long-time children’s entertainers' embrace of cross-platform cinema.
Presented by CinemaLive, provider of alternative content for cinema, the Wiggles will perform their biggest live show yet, The Greatest Hits Show at Sydney’s Acer Arena.
“A filmed concert is similar to making videos – you change the performance slightly, we look for the cameras a bit more, we make eye contact [with the camera] and talk down to it, treating it as another audience member,” the red wiggle, Murray Cook, said of this form of live concert, currently in its third year.
While the dynamics of the performance have to be altered to respond to the cameras, Cook noted that this CinemaLive performance “really is the next best thing.
“We usually go out into the audience to meet the kids so this is a way of reaching more audiences that we can’t physically reach in the flesh and it’s proving very successful.”
CinemaLive have broadcast The Wiggles concert to the big screens across Australia and New Zealand live from Acer Arena for the past two years to positive response.
As part of the Greatest Hits Show, The Wiggles for the first time are utilising the internet as a means of letting the audience vote for their favourite songs that they want to hear.
“We’re currently receiving hits, our audience is voting via Facebook and that’s what we’ll play at the show.
“It’s very interesting to see the songs that are popular – ‘Rock-a Bye Your Bear’ has surprisingly been the winner by almost double!”
The Wiggles have been distributing content via traditional outlets such as television and DVD for years, but Murray noted that they are increasingly “beginning to recognise the internet as an effective tool for planting DVD and TV content.
“We have a fairly active website and Facebook and YouTube content have been great tools for feedback – feedback is very important to us.”
The footage from this Sunday’s Greatest Hits Show will be screened in international cinemas via Hard Drive in early 2011, including in the UK in March and in the US and Canada throughout April and May.
“We have a large audience in the States and in the UK, but in reality, the States in particular are so huge, there’s a lot of places we simply can’t get to,” mentioned the red wiggle, who has been bringing delight to children across the globe for almost twenty years.
“We love making children laugh but we can’t do this professionally forever," commented Cook.
“We don’t really know what the future will hold for us but we hope we can continue entertaining children in some form.”
Wiggles fans can expect to see Jeff, Anthony, Murray and Sam as well as all of their friends, including Dorothy The Dinosaur, Captain Feathersword, Wags The Dog and Henry The Octopus.
The show will be beamed live via satellite this Sunday, 19th December at 10am, 1pm and 4pm (AEDT).