The Projection Studio opens 16th Cairo Arab Media Festival
Published: MEA
EGYPT: The Projection Studio, commissioned by Cairo production company PromoSign, created a large format projection show for the opening of the 16th Cairo Arab Media Awards staged at Media City in Cairo.
The show was programmed and run by Karen Monid, who edited a special soundtrack for the projected visuals using material sourced from the De Wolfe music library, and provided a bespoke 2-minute intro and outro composed for the show. Projection artist Ross Ashton designed the projection system, which consisted of four 6K PIGI projectors with double rotating scrollers, two of which were used to fill the surface and the other two to achieve the cross fading and contra-masking. The projectionists were Simon Schofield and Phil Supple.
Mr Ashton commented: ‘It was an interesting show and involved some real pressure due to the short lead-time and intense schedule for preparation, so I am really proud of what we managed to achieve.’
Mr Ashton and Paul Chatfield created the PIGI effects, and the creative process included 3D mapping of the building so the projections and artwork could be fitted precisely to the architecture, allowing it to be used as a true 3D surface rather than just having flat projections applied. Effects included moving images within the windows, rotating columns and mask-contra-mask effects.
Aired live across 18 countries, the 13 minute piece was part of a visual display (including fireworks), and was projected onto a full size scenic replica of the old Cairo Stock Exchange building which is part of one of the current film sets being used at the studio.
The artwork for the show was created and compiled in just two weeks, which celebrated the history of Egypt and the development of the Arab media. There was also a section for each of the 18 countries involved in the Awards event. PromoSign supplied about a third of the original material and the rest was created from scratch or taken from archives to their brief.