Xbox E3 2014

It was all games, games, and more games as Phil Spencer from Xbox too the stage at this years E3 Media Briefing.   Manny was asked again by our client, Zed Ink to be the Lighting Designer for the Media Briefing which was broadcast live on Spike TV.   This was Manny's 9th year lighting the project.

A major feature of this year's show was a design that brought the show more out into the audience.   Three satellite stages with scenic LED backing screens were place out onto the main floor of the Galen Arena.    Using the whole floor of the arena brought the presenters and the game demos closer to the audience and created a more intimate look on camera.

This year's set featured an ultra aspect ratio screen with track masking elements to close it down when needed.  This created many technical challenges.  We chose to solve them by attached integral lighting to the scenic elements so their lighting quality traveled with them as they moved.    It also allowed the programming of the show to be agnostic from the position of the scenic walls.   If the creative team chose to change the placement of a tracking cue it did not requite a refocus on our part

Erin Hearne Williams, Zed's Creative Director for the show also wanted to immerse the audience more into the show and have that be reflected on the broadcast.  She added LED bracelets from Pixmob that could be controlled as part of our lighting system.  This opened up a whole new world of visual effect that turned the audience into surrounding backdrop for so many of the camera shots seen at home.   

Evening Showcase

This year both Manny and Brian also designed the Xbox Showcase.   The location is always an iconic downtown venue.  This year was no exception and the event took place at the recently renovated Ace Theater.   Its rich architecture, painted in the brand colors of Xbox become a photogenic backdrop for debut of game play from so many of the new titles coming out this year.

Electric Holiday

We just helped to launch the Electric Holiday windows for Barney's New York. We were thrilled to be asked to design the windows by our long time client Disney. It was an exciting night celebrating the windows and the kickoff of the partnership between the two companies.

It was a rare opportunity to be asked by both Disney and Barneys to create the environment within the windows.  True to the Barneys style they wanted truly outside the box and surprising in terms of a holiday display.  The approach was to create a video sculptural environment as a canvas.  Disney created a special moving short that blended the two worlds of both brand and then we in turn created additional animation and lighting that surrounded and supported the Disney centerpiece.  

We worked incredible closely with the folks at d3 all throughout the design process.  They supported us and Disney in the most fantastic fashion.   They put together video below that documents wonderfully the design and creation process.  

Xbox E3 2012

This year's E3 show marked 7th year in which we designed multiple projects for Xbox.  We worked for our long time client, ZEDink, as always their great creative direction gave us wonderful opportunities.  Zedink asked us to design the Media Briefing, the Showcase event and evening social event for Halo 4.

Walk out

Dance Central 3

Dance Central 3 - Usher

Call of Duty

Splinter Cell

This year's Media Briefing, which was aired live on Spike TV, had many highlights starting with a live performance from Usher.   Usher performed his new single synchronized to gameplay from Dance Central 3.  His performance added a whole new layer to our design approach this year.  The whole creative team wanted to create surprise associated with his performance.  We did achieve this by crafting his reveal behind one of offstage LED screens.  Because we were working with Winvision 9mm we had the flexibility to remove the backing from just that one screen.  This allowed us to create a transparent effect only on that one screen.   We then added a winch system for the reveal to precisely fly out the screen.  With a little additional lighting upstage we ended up creating an unexpected and layered entrance for the performance.

Another highlight was the show open, which was a new live action trailer for Halo 4 that we were asked to create an total environmental design which needed to encompass the whole arena.  The show also featured new announcements from Nike, the Smart Glass interface from Xbox, a South Park game and then the show closed with a massive Call of Duty demo.

One of the major creative directions from ZEDink Creative Directors Julia Zarro and Erin Hearn was that the entire event needed be more immersive, with the show all around the audience rather than just down at one end of the arena.  To achieve this we used the in-house LED fascia as an image surface, and created circular lighting pods throughout the house which served as visual chandelier elements that could become anything from a red scan for Halo to Dance Central animated dance floor lights on steroids.

All in all, we were thrilled to be a part of the design team and are so proud that the collaborative effort resulted in such a successful show.