The Creators Project: Katy Perry's Super Bowl XLIX halftime show was a large scale spectacle, perhaps the largest halftime show featuring entertainment in history thanks to the 118.5 million viewers who tuned in on Sunday. Projection mapping as an art form excels in these kinds of stadium-sized settings, from ferris wheels to entire islands, but design studio Lightborne still took on a huge challenge when they agreed to animate the University of Phoenix stadium for Perry's massive performance.
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While I was watching the Super Bowl halftime show, I was astounded by the media work in the performance. Especially the chess board style. It's amazing that there are advancements in technology that can allow us to do these styles of forced perspective and effects that can make us believe that the floor is dropping out or there is a vortex surrounding the stage. And although that, on its own, is incredible, you also have to look at all the other amazing pieces in this performance, such as the costumes (the metal ones, not the sharks so much...), the lighting and effects, the giant flying shooting star, that not only had to be operational inside of a stadium (with no roof for flying) but also unbelievably safe because of who's flying on it. But of course, we cannot forget the most amazing technological piece in this show, which is the gigantic lioness that Katy Perry rides in on. So much work must have gone into the creation and building of such an intricate, functional puppet, it just amazes me. CMU talks a lot about collaboration, and this, in my opinion, is the perfect example of collaboration going perfectly.
To be real, when the projection mapping came on tv and then rippled when the beat changing, I freaked out. What a spectacular use of media on such a wide-spread scale! When the "perspective-bending chess board" came onstage (onscreen?), I was thoroughly impressed. This was a huge scale endeavor and the media designers really pulled it off. Doing this with little rehearsal time is a big feat and honestly it was a huge accomplishment that they pulled it off. Looking at the renderings on their D3 server, I am completely in awe. As someone who is not familiar with computers and rendering software, this is incredible. As far as the costumes in the performance, I loved the metallic chess players. While I was watching, I was surprised that the silver surface didn't reflect any of the projections, further prompting me to ask, what were they made out of? All in all, I'm glad 118.5 million people got to see some killer media design.
This half time show was incredible. It was executed well in all technical aspects, Katy Perry sounded good, and it seemed like everything went according to plan. And one of the most remarkable things about this show is that it had a unique aesthetic and style and it fit Katy Perry perfectly. There were some people who thought the beach scene was tacky or not done well, but if you look back at Katy Perry’s music videos, tour costumes, and more, it was perfect! Just because it does not fit someone’s style, doesn’t mean that it wasn’t executed and designed to fit the project and the director’s vision. Additionally, projection mapping was introduced to the general population and they had no idea, amazing. Often times in the field of technical entertainment, if we go unnoticed, we did our job well. The projection design was not obtrusive to the performance, but it was bold enough that it enhanced the vision of the show. Overall, a show well done.
I think the projection mapping was very cool. The projections made the overall performance so much better because it was a huge visual stimulus. When I was watching the Superbowl, I paid the most attention to the media. My favorite part was when the floor looked like it was moving up and down like a wave and when some pieces “fell” away. There are so many things to consider when creating projection mapping especially for the Superbowl. The projections needed to look good to the people in the stadium and the people watching at home on tv. There was probably a lot of coordination with NBC and the director of the live telecast and all of the cameramen to get the perfect shot from the right angle. The stage was also huge and scale was probably a big obstacle to conquer. The projections made the show one of the best overall performances and experiences at the Superbowl, not putting into account the actual performer.
Big puppetry is a part of industry just like big oil and big banking is a part of the American economy. In school we talk about puppetry in terms of abstract and creative artistic purposes, but most times that I see puppetry being practiced professionally, it is being used for its spectacle and awe value, rather than its semiotic meaning as an inanimate object. I don’t think that this is bad thing, for our industry, the money and the really big productions are in it for the spectacle. The Olympics, Broadway, Cirque, and one offs like the Superbowl, make really great use of puppetry. To the most of the audience, it doesn’t really matter that there are people behind the lion, for all they care, it could be an automated robot, but with todays technology, Robots just arnt up to snuff for large, life like movement.
It sure is a good thing we just a built a pre-vis studio in the basement of Purnell. I hope it gets put to good use. The Superbowl is one event that I keep hear about how there is no way that we could have done this without Pre-vis, other than being a really huge event with essentially no rehearsal window, I wonder why pre-vis is so much of a life saver here, and more universally elsewhere. The part of this that I found really interesting, was that when they were planning the perspective altering Chess scene was that they keyed the perspective to work from NBC’s primary camera placement, not from the perspective of the audience. I knew that they keyed projections so that the greatest number of views can see their work and the show. But coming from a live entertainment perspective it seems odd not to gear the performance for the people that are actually there.
Whoops, the puppetry comment was supposed to go in the other Katy Perry half time show article.
To me this seems like an excellent example of how media design is an important aspect of a show in an integrated way with both lighting and scenery. The magnitude of the projection mapping in this production would be too large and to sophisticated for a lighting designer to do in addition to their traditional job properly. Though there wasn’t a lot of scenery (certainly not the spectacle of the show) the projections certainly created scenery in a way that is not very common today in theatrics. This leaves me to draw the conclusion that as the technology evolves, and the capabilities of projections become more versatile, there will need to be the addition of a department in at least certain theatres to accommodate that specialty. Media may not always be right for the production, it may not make sense in an overall design, and so because of that artists should be careful of when and how they use that effect, but when it is deemed needed I think that there should be a body of people who know how design effectively, to make that design a reality. It certainly payed off in the half tie show this year.
It has been very exciting to see more projection stuff for most mainstream events. I wonder if it wasn't for this event being filmed on television if the projection mapped floor would have been there at all. It seemed like so much pre production planning went into this element of design. There is all the camera choreography and the actual dancing choreography and general blocking and then the design made it possible so some moments had a depth effect that only worked when the dancers were in their correct markings. Now that I think about it, the cameras must have been in the best position since some of the projection mapping created depth effects that could only be seen from one angle. The pre visual program being used must have assisted the designing team Lightborne a lot. It is quite incredible what can be done without having all the equipment in place. I wonder what their tech rehearsal was like and how many changes had to be made.
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