Elton John Farewell Yellow Brick Road
Press:
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I had the great privilege to take on the Lead Developer role in the execution of Elton John’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road announcement event at which he announced his retirement from live performances.
This included a 5 minute, 360 stereo VR retrospective of Elton Johns illustrious career that culminated with a live performance with Elton himself as the audience removed their headsets.
I was tasked with making sure that the 350+ VR headsets all triggered to play the hero content within milliseconds of one another at a live simultaneous event in New York, Los Angeles and London, while also looking for cutting edge workflows and techniques to maximize the visual and audio fidelity of the VR experience.
The result was a stereo VR movie displaying unprecedented visual clarity on mobile based VR devices, in an immersive 360 video, with full ambisonic audio to immerse the user in some of Elton’s defining live performances of the past.
The accurate triggering system meant that the house audio system didn’t impact users in headset experience, as well as ensuring the production timed flawlessly with Elton’s first notes on the main stage as he was revealed at the end of the VR experience.
The live performance in New York was streamed to audiences in both Los Angeles and London, requiring precise co-ordination between the cities.
Credits:
CREATIVE LEAD: Ben Casey
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Sandy McEvoy
CLIENT MANAGEMENT: Jo Hedley
LIVE EVENT PRODUCERS: Glenn Herniter, Sarah Mason, Adam Serle, Anthony Hickson
HEAD OF INTERACTIVE: Shea Clayton
INTERACTIVE PRODUCER: Cassandra Ichniowski
VISUAL EFFECTS PRODUCERS: Alenka Obal, Dave Wein, Anthony Esebag, Cyril de Baecque
LIVE ACTION DIRECTOR: Damian Fulton
ART DIRECTOR: Ben Alpass
LEAD VR ARTIST: Aaron Kaminar
LEAD FACE ANIMATORS: Kirk Cadrette, Shoghi Castel De Oro
3D FACE MODELER: Kris Kelly
VISUAL EFFECTS DIRECTOR: Stephen Van Elst
VISUAL EFFECTS ARTISTS: Tristan Maduro, Fred Ross, Thomas Pullar, Stephen Morton, Steve Verne, Chris Sayres , Kasey Allen, John Federico, Roy Christian, Shanu Shukla
LEAD COMPOSITORS: Will Skinner, Duncan Dix
PROJECTION MAPPING CREATIVE: Jason French
PROJECTION MAPPING 2D ARTIST: Bartek Reszelski
LEAD DEVELOPER: Clint Hannaford
DEVELOPMENT TEAM: Justin Crown, Adam Schneider, Malcom Tyson, Bryan Lemus, Jeremy Bunting, Brendan Biagas
MEDIA TECHNICAL DIRECTOR: Lang Walker
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Evan Pesses
SOUND MIX: Brian Yaskulka
PRODUCTION MANAGER: Dana Skaggs
MOTION CAPTURE PARTNER: House of Moves
LIVE STREAM PARTNERS: YouTube, Vantage TV
HEADSET PARTNER: Welens
