THE key to the success of a cruise line is not
just the variation and excitement available in
the ports they visit, but also in the
kind of entertainment made available
to its passengers while at sea.
P&O Cruises Australia last week fired
a massive offensive in the ongoing
battle for the lucrative families market,
unveiling an amazing new onboard
kids film-making activity – “Broad
Shorts”.
The concept has been brought to life
through a partnership between the
cruise line, Sony and claymation filmmaking
company Stop Motion Pro,
who played key roles in the making of
the family favourites Wallace & Gromit and
Pirates claymation movies.
Carnival Australia Vice President of Hotel
Operations Sture Myrmell said the Broad
Shorts program was a first of its kind in the
Australian cruise market.
“Our new activities like Broad Shorts are
designed to stimulate kids and leave them
feeling like they not only had a great holiday
with P&O Cruises, but that they also had some
great new experiences,” he said.
Broad Shorts aims to bring the concept of
stop-motion short film making to the range of
children’s activities available onboard a P&O
cruise, allowing kids to build, design, produce
and record whatever their imaginations can
create using clay figurines.
Initially being rolled out to 11-17 year olds,
the Broad Shorts program sees kids having the
option of using pre-made clay figures, or designing
their own from a wide variety of pieces and
putting them on camera, using the Stop Motion
software to bring their characters to life.
The program is included in the cost of cruise
and if it proves to be a hit, will be made
available to cruisers of even younger ages.
Three stations consisting of a Sony laptop,
camera and ‘film’ sets will be available during
scheduled activity sessions, with groups of
three or four children and teens working, fully
supervised, on their project in different stages.
Completed projects will then be screened to
parents in a special session towards the end of
the voyage, with kids then able to take their
movie home on DVD.
A second phase of the program, to be
launched later this year, will see teenagers
provided with access to individually-filmed
content from around the ship which they can
incorporate into their films.
