Now playing ...: an LA entertainment/retail complex uses wide-format motion graphics to advertise in an unusually big way. (digital video).(Adobe Systems' Adobe After Effects)

Many an actor dreams about seeing his or her name in lights. But at Hollywood & Highland, Los Angeles's new shopping and entertainment destination, seeing an illuminated name would be just the beginning.

Instead of relying entirely on static posters and billboards to promote its retail, entertainment, and dining tenants and coming entertainment events, TrizecHahn, developer of the new complex, creates moving graphics and displays them on two giant LED screens. One screen, dubbed the "Zipper," is 6 feet high by 85 feet long, and wraps around one corner of the complex at the busy intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue. The second screen is the 9-foot wide by 16-foot high "Marquee," situated at the entrance to Kodak Theatre, the complex's crown jewel and the new home of the Academy Awards.

"There are outdoor LED screens all over L.A., but none with these aspect ratios, which really command attention," says Rey Howard, Hollywood & Highland's director of content.

One of the biggest challenges for Howard is reformatting content for the screens. Most video clips are created in a 4:3 aspect ratio, but the aspect ratio of the Zipper screen is about 14:1. To overcome this difference, Howard often treats the Zipper as several different screens by running four to eight tiled video clips across its length. He sometimes incorporates a "wave" effect for added punch, wherein each successive repetition of the image is played a half-second behind the previous one. For the Marquee screen, which has an aspect ratio that is taller and thinner than that of standard video, Howard moves the source video so that the most important images are centered on the screen.

To produce the various spots, Howard uses Adobe Systems' Premiere running on a Macintosh G4 to capture source video as a QuickTime clip. He retouches any still images in Adobe Photoshop, and typically performs the fundamental design ...