The Experiential: Three Ts

TREND: I am seeing my clients focusing a lot on refining engagements that use the idea of gamification. This generally involves incentivizing deeper participation in engagements to earn takeaways or shareable elements for the participant. For the producer, it creates opportunities for information gathering touchpoints. Example: Cooking up an AR piece for an experiential entry area, you might add a simple game like adding fashion accessories to your companion in a “digital mirror.” To engage, you have to enter contact info and answer three market derived questions. Then you get to use the engagement, resulting in a pic for your Instagram feed that is automatically produced. Engagement success in experiential requires deep context to compel, rewards to inspire re-engagement, and great takeaways for the Producers as well. This is becoming pervasive in brand-based and entertainment-based gigs. Time to understand where you get your strategy info, and how you can convert it for your clients.

TECH: Ah, the elusive Hologram. Everyone wants it. Yet, we know it doesn’t really exist in commercially viable form (real, dimensional, scaled holograms). We are left with 2D facsimiles, most commonly the age-old “pepper’s ghost.” Pepper’s ghost relies on angled one-way mirrors (a rigging challenge), requires accommodation of difficult projector angles, and can be expensive (rented Musion lately?). I’ve had varying success at typical front projection with scrim material, but it’s hard to get good reflectivity, and translucence isn’t the best. Enter PRG and their new Holo-Gauze. Hung vertically, Holo-Gauze is a unique textile that has incredible translucency, reflectivity, and ease of use. Front projection works amazingly well on it. Dan Hammond and John Wiseman recently invited me by PRG to see some of their latest and greatest tech, and the Holo-Gauze was amazing. I immediately began hatching plans. A particularly compelling combo was the Holo-Gauze paired with PRG’s ample supply of new 30,000 lumen laser projectors with amazing new short throw lens optics. Suddenly, we have a toolset to produce fantastic illusions onstage with minimum rigging hassle, and in a compact space.

TRIUMPH:  I had the incredible good fortune to attend Third Rail Projects’ new work Ghost Light at the Lincoln Center during its limited run. It was an amazing deconstructed use of the entire theatre, creating an immersive story with no border or boundary between audience, cast, or environment. Relying on a premise that warmed my theatrical heart, Ghost Light unwound a story of the persistent echoes of performance, emotion, connection, and drama that seem to inhabit theatrical spaces long after the curtain comes down. While being led from backstage, to hallway, to dressing room, and even into the FOH lighting position, the audience encountered scenes and soliloquys from ‘ghosts’ of performances past. The effect was immersive and amazing. This kind of full immersion in storytelling really checks the boxes for what I call sensory multipliers: When you can appeal to a participant on multiple sensory levels (sight, sound ,surroundings, and more) then you create truly durable, lasting impressions. I am still thinking a lot about what I saw and felt that night. In the meantime, Third Rail’s production of Then She Fell continues its run through December 31 at the Kingsland Ward at St. John’s in Williamsburg. Run, don’t walk. Third Rail is really showing the power of immersive production.

Bob Bonniol is a director and production designer known for his implementation of extensive media and interactive features in his productions. Currently he is the creative director for the massive renovation of The Core at General Motors' World Headquarters in Detroit. The installation features the largest permanent interactively driven LED screen array on earth. In 2016, he was production designer for the Star Wars Celebration segment of ABC’s Disneyland 60th Anniversary Special, working closely with Lucasfilm, Disney Music Group, and director Amy Tinkham.   

Other clients have included Marvel Studios, The Walt Disney Company, Live Nation, AEG, Feld Entertainment, Chrysler Corporation, Activision/Blizzard, America's Got Talent, X-FactorAmerican Idol, Blue Man Group, Microsoft, Nokia as well as countless recording artists, Broadway producers, opera companies, theme parks, cruise lines, dance companies, and architects.