1) This was the year that complexity waged war on the creative process. We are constantly riding the biting point between creative ambition and technical feasibility. In order to deliver on the promise that “if we can dream it, we can build it,” we work with one eye firmly fixed on the technology horizon and a close hold on the tools and process of image making. However, by the beginning of 2016, we were starting to feel that a natural creative process was being threatened by a sudden rise in the technical complexity of the production process. This was driven in part by the rapidly shifting standard from 4-6-8K with its exponential impact on the millions of pixels in play. A hard beast to tame with an insatiable hunger for processing power. Tough enough to control and manage within the relatively safe captivity of the standard rectangular formats (like 60 seconds inside a 60” frame) but take it to 60-minute interactive content experience playing on a 60-foot canvas and for the first time in years our creativity was at the mercy of this unwieldy beast. Add to that the rise of the immersive formats like VR where the spherical image is coming out of an 8-10 camera rig and it’s easy to see that no level of our traditional ‘MacGyvery’ was going to get us out of this foxhole.
2) If we were to take our creative process back, we quickly realized we were going to need a bigger gun! We found an LA-based production studio led by one of the most technically proficient individuals I have ever come across. The sort of person for which words like petabyte casually roll of the tongue in regular conversation. We formed a studio called Synchrony that would expand our capabilities and production muscle in a profound and immediate way. We started to build out a state-of-the art-studio around a machine room which quickly attracted the nickname Colossus for its resemblance to the sort of footprint usually reserved for early supercomputers. Our vision is to position ourselves far enough ahead of the curve to take full advantage of the new formats and creative possibilities that they unlock. By leaning in to the challenge that was threatening our creative scope we have opened whole new worlds of possibilities to explore. We also opened a new studio in Hong Kong to capture talent emerging from China’s new “Creative Class” that invariably uses Hong Kong film schools to enter the global marketplace. This was an extension of the 24/7 workflow we already take advantage of through our Sydney studio.
3) At the beginning of the year we launched a content experience for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) that was deployed across 10,000 square feet of high-definition LED screens within a 60,000-square-foot experience. We choreographed this experience with a dimensional sound and light show that involved more separate outputs, servers, and automated fixtures than any of our previous Olympic opening ceremonies. It took a format that we have been working on for almost 10 years (automotive exhibits) and totally reimagined it as an entertainment format with the sort of experiential flare and technical firepower to rival any rock-and-roll show. The greatest achievement was not the incredible complexity or power of the experience but taking a format that remained the same for 100 years and winning the trust to shake it up. Our last show was also a pretty big achievement. It required us to work with Disney/Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) to create a visual spectacular around their partnership with Nissan. In the process we became approved vendors of Lucas and ILM which is a nice way to validate our decision to expand our production capabilities. The proudest moment of the project was watching one of our junior creatives interview his hero Bob Gurr, the original Disney imagineer. It was incredible to see someone who was so influential in establishing the benchmark for creating magical experiences to captivate audiences appreciate a team using the tools of the digital age to harness the same power for brands.
4) Experiences beyond the rectangle. Especially with the arrival of the immersive super-format. Interactive first-person-view storytelling. VR feature-film experiences that operate more like game engines. We are particularly encouraged to go through this wormhole by the sensational advancements in real-time render engines like Unity 5. This has a capability to totally transform expectations as it relates to narrative, format, and the user’s participation in feature-quality experiences. Our whole team has been ignited by what feels like a golden period of invention for image creation and playback.
