Great Wolf Lodge

Vey Honored that Light and Sound America chose to cover a project we have been working on for the few years.

The project is the design for the lobby for the Phase IV lodges that Great wolf in just in the middle of building. Our long time client, BRC Imagination Arts, ask us a few years back to join the team. Our scope included architectually lighting the lobby and designing the evening show that takes place in the lobby. The first lodge opened last year in Perryville MD. This year two more lodges are opening in Webster TX and Naples FL.

At the heart of the design is the Legend of Luna evening show. BRC has created just the most wonderful show with a huge heart. This was an exciting design for us as it centered around using generative design tools to expand the show from the center portrait screen to projection mapping on the central fireplace and further surrounding the audience with LED screen all around the lobby. We worked very closely with Nils Porrman of dandelion & burdock to develop the Notch block the drove all of the immersive elements.

We are also very proud of the custom chandeliers that hang in the lobby. Those were built by One Eighty One out of the Netherlands. Our goal was for them to look to the guests like normal hoop chandeliers but contain within them are pixel driven candles inside the glass shades as well as color washes for the ceiling which are total hidden in the hoops. Through this design we were able to have theatrical color and effects for the show but with all if concealed within the architecture of the lobby.

We are super fortunate that Josh Seelander join us to programmed the show. He is a master on the EOS platform and together we just had a blast bring the Legend of Luna to live.

Ravinia Music Box

In the fall of 2016 long time client, BRC Imagination Arts asked Manny to join the team designing the new Music Box Experience Center at Ravinia Festival. Beginnings are always exciting and this project was no different. The Music Box project, led by Creative Directors Brad Shelton and Edward Hodge, contained elements of exterior building lighting, hospitality spaces, general circulation lighting that needed to connect to the pre-show experience and at the center of it all, a theatrical design for an immersive experience celebrating music and legacy of Leonard Bernstein. 

The jewel in the crown of the project is Bernstein’s Answer, a 10 minute immersive experience that asks the question of music’s impact and meaning. It explores the question by using music, projection, lighting and Bernstein’s own words & thoughts. Everything in the theater reacts to music and emotion. Manny explored ways in which the environmental and scenic lighting could lift and transform moments and the audience’s perception of the those moments. 

As the experience explores the topic of music’s power to transform and move people’s emotions, so too does the physical space of the theater itself transform. Projection and light both begin the show being very focused within the theater’s proscenium. As the show opens up with Bernstein’s music, so does the theatrical fabric of the show with projection and light expanding to surrounding the audience. It was a delight to design Bernstein’s Answer, a show that has such powerful music at its core, with all the team members at BRC. Lighting and music are two artistic expressions meant to dance with each other and on this project that dance helped build the emotional core of the show’s message. 

For the exterior of the building there is a bar space that sits on top of the lobby and pre-show spaces. Manny and BRC Creative Director Edward Hodge began by considering how the building would be seen from the lawn of the festival where so many of the guests experience the concerts from. The bar was always conceived as an island of color floating on top of the building. For the bar there were two major criteria. First, that the color all came from concealed sources. Manny wanted the impact to be from the color environment and not the point source of the light itself. The second major gesture was the ceiling of randomly laid out tiny aperture downlights that created the low level circulation lighting. Manny carefully considered both the location of each fixture but also their random circuiting combination to allow a carried intensity level from the point sources without a perceived pattern.

Rounding out the project was the gallery and circulation lighting. The BRC design concept for the whole building was centered around a design language of asymmetrical lines and shapes, and in the gallery and pre-show spaces Manny designed a track system that echoed that language.

The joy of the Music Box Experience Center for NYX was that is a complete project that encompasses the entire theater building, requiring many design skills and disciplines to come together to make for an impactful experience for the guests. It was a joy to be on this team.

Ideas & Inspiration an Exploration of Creativity Webinar

Join Abbey on Oct 13th as she leads a @Martin_Global webinar... Ideas & Inspiration an Exploration of Creativity. The webinar starts at 1pm central and you can register now.

https://harman.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_1ylc-rVNQo-IKVmIMOSXrQ

Acura RDX

This year's auto show season for Acura was dedicated to the launch of the RDX and Manny was again asked to design the lighting for the press conferences.   First with the reveal of a concept in Detroit and then with the reveal of the production car in New York,   This year also marked the debut of a new design for the Acura booth.   It features a transparent LED Display creating a space between the screen and wall of the booth that is an ideal location for a car reveal.

Our client, Spinifex, made wonderful use of the layers this screen provided by using projection on the back wall and placing the reveal car in between the two layers of content.  Then as the reveal played out content pushed forward and backward through dimensional space with light playing out on the car in the space in between.

We lit the up stage car in layers as well.  Both from above as well as thin strip of animated light at the base of the car right up against the screen.    This allow us to tease out details of the car during the revel video.

In New York, we created a series of 8' tall pixel sticks that created the base of reveal.   Having this scenic element with pixel driven light allowed us to create an reveal that captured rhythm and mood of the reveal music and also focus on a visual representation of speed.  

Both reveals showed off the complexity that Spinifex likes to build into new car launches.  Both were a study of media and light playing out through multi planes of space.

Power Of Rock Experience

After over a year of design development The Power of Rock Experience opened to the public at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this past July.   Manny Treeson was invited to design the lighting for the whole experience, created, designed, and produced by BRC Imagination Arts.   We were thrilled to be on the team for such an exciting project.

From the beginning of the process, BRC's Creative Director Christian Lachel desired to take the guests on a journey immersing them in the music.  Christian knew everyone has memories and emotions triggered by one song or another.  From a lighting point of view, we wanted to have the whole experience be active and fluid; that all the lighting would be an extension of the music bathing the guest in an immersive environment driven by both beat and mood.   

The theater was created to embody all of these ideas.   We started with the film, directed by Jonathan Demme, that celebrated the legendary performances at the induction ceremony and concert.  

The film utilizes tracking screens with dynamic media locked to them.    Scenic lines made up of video strips outline the space.  We approached these video strips from a generative point of view.   The content is generated in Touch Designer  in real time and manipulated by the lighting console.  This afforded us the ability to treat this scenery dynamically and manipulate it along with the entire lighting rig.

Once the the film concludes, the guests walk out through a curved ramp that rises from the 3rd floor to the 4th around the outside of the theater.   To make this exit more dynamic we created a tunnel of volumetric video that was cued to While My Guitar Gently Weeps.   A rotating vortex of light and pattern pulls the guests  down the hallway.  We wanted the guests to feel that the entire space was directly connected to the music and that they were completely immersed within it.

Upon exiting the hallway, the guests are treated to an exhibit of artifacts from the performances that were featured in the film.  

Xbox E3 Media Briefing

When design started for the 2017 Xbox E3 Briefing, Creative Director Erin Hearne Williams(Zed Ink) told Production Design Kris Bast and NYX Partner Manny Treeson she was interested in floating luminous outlines that existed in high contrast environment.   The result was an exciting process of creation.    The pictures tell the tale.   Glowing lines that carve through the space.  Tight beams of light when we wanted them and prefect inky blackness when we didn't.

We chose to create those outlines with a pixel tape that allowed us even more possibilities of animation for those wide shots during transitions.  I then added other linear LED fixtures to further add to pallet. 

Kris' highly reflective floor added more dimension to our image and we discovered many unexpected delights as camera navigated the set.  Shooting and streaming in 4K this year meant a new camera and truck package.   It afforded us more nuance and detail in the image.   When I compare these images to ones we captured back in the days SD I shocked how constrained our pallet was.

Every year we take a different journey with the project and it easily one of the most visual rewarding show we collaborate on.  Thrilled to be on the team for my 12th E3 for Xbox.