The digital agency involved in designing the virtual reality graphics and video interludes for the tour has given a behind the scenes look at the creation process as well as sharing some short videos used during the show.
When onedotzero calls and asks you if you want to make some video to play back during a concert performance, and that performance will be done by one of the biggest pop stars of all time, and you get to pretty much do what you want…how the hell do you turn that down?
You don’t. This was one of those projects that just showed up out of the blue and we had to take it.
The timeline was short (nearly 2 weeks). The technical constraints were different than we were used to (a grid of 56 different LED screens making a 30 foot wide and 16 foot tall wall of video), and we would be working blind for a portion coming up with whatever we wanted…which is weird coming from a client regardless of who they are.
After a last minute (meaning we found out the day before) trip to LA to shoot Janet Jackson on greenscreen, we huddled up for a couple days coming up with our plan and began rounding up assets. Once we received the footage from the shoot, we went into a production hole that we would only be able to emerge from once we were done. Many, many late nights later we had a solid round of content to present to Janet for approval.
Here’s where some project explanation needs to happen. The whole show, which you should try to see if it comes near you, is based on a futuristic blade runner-like scenario, and there are forces battling for Janet’s very soul. Our job was to turn Janet into good and evil versions of herself showing the struggle, but also be very techno-apocalyptic in style for both the good and evil characters…which according to Janet we nailed.
Some hefty sound design support was provided by the superstar Guy Baker over at Digital One.
Below are some screen grabs and a couple clips showing off the final look for the good and evil characters:
