Digital Puppetry
Melbourne International Film Festival
Issue 46 | April 2018
Agency
McCann Melbourne
Creative Team
Executive Creative Director: Nicole Mandile Executive Creative Director & Copywriter: Matthew Lawson Copywriter: Charles Baylis Art Director: Corey Thorn Retoucher/Finishing Artist: Ross Goddard Designer/Art Director: Dave Budd
Production Team
McCann Melbourne: Agency Producer: Melina Flood Airbag Productions: Director: Travis Hogg Production Designer: Steven Nicholson Film Producer: Nick Venn Executive Producer: Martin Box
Other Credits
National Chief Creative Officer: Patrick Baron Account Director: Emma Van Den Berg Account Manager: Meg Andrews Group Account Director: Charlie McDevitt Managing Director: Anita Deutsch-Burley
Date
May 2017
Background
VR is a deeply engaging and highly immersive - for one. You don't just watch the action, you are the action. Melbourne's International Film Festival has always been about sharing immersive and cutting edge filmic experiences for the audience to be a part of.
So to launch this year's festival, the task was to turn that immersive and engaging experience for one, into an experience for many.
Idea
To do this, a virtual reality world paired with live 3d Projection mapping was developed to perform a performance that embodies the festival's spirit.
Firstly, a film script was written. Only the performances of the characters' faces were filmed. These facial performances were projected onto a mask using 3D projection mapping. The face mask was attached to a VIVE virtual reality headset worn by the human puppet. The puppets then essentially became the characters in the short film.
To match the movement of the puppets' bodies to the film script, they were digitally directed in real time via a virtual construct of the stage, powered by a gaming engine.
As part of an integrated campaign, Digital Puppetry created a shared and immersive cutting-edge filmic experience for the virtual participants and the real audience.
Results
- Record Year Ticket Sales $2,218,000
- 117,000 Social Followers
- 61,500 Web Sessions, 50% increase on 2016.