Saks Fifth Avenue Holiday Show
Creative Director, Creative Lead, Content Technical Director, Animator, Compositor, Storyboard Artist, Lighting Design
Saks Fifth Avenue “An Enchanted Experience” 2014
About the Project
For the 2014 Saks Fifth Avenue holiday display, American Christmas and Integrated Visions Productions teamed up to create a spellbinding and dramatic light and projection show. The show features the innovative integration of LED and strobe lighting fixtures combined into an architectural projection mapping show on the iconic facade of Saks Fifth Avenue in New York City. The lighting design and projections, designed by Integrated Visions Productions, are inspired by the Art-Deco Style and by iconic visual elements in New York City. An array of 1800 LED nodes as well as strobes, up-lights, and lit garlands installed by American Christmas are used not just as an accent to the projection show, but interact with projected elements across the same structural details, blending with and augmenting the projected image to produce stunning results.
Live projection experts DWP Live provided the projection equipment and support for the installation, using Barco 26,000 lumen HD projectors to illuminate the facade and the Coolux Pandora’s Box Media Server to drive the display. To synchronize the lighting and sound with the video, Integrated Visions used the Pharos Controls LPC4 with phenomenal results.
The live stream of the opening performance, which featured the Rockettes and Grucci Fireworks, is estimated to have been seen by over 5 million people. The presentation played every ten minutes daily from November 24th thru January 4th to an estimated audience of 25 million people.
My Role
For this project, I served as Creative Director and Creative Lead and worked directly with the client to ensure clear communication throughout the creative process. This included developing and presenting storyboards and previews. I also art directed the projection-mapped content that was produced. I was very hands-on with this project, creating several scenes myself. I also did much of the compositing for others scenes. This included the windows scene, which involved commissioning a green screen shoot to capture performers in the windows, as well as the Rockettes featured in several parts. I also helped design the LED lighting looks to coordinate with the projected video content.
Project Credits:
Architectural Projection and Lighting Show designed and produced by American Christmas, Inc. and Integrated Visions Productions.
Lighting and Garland Installation by American Christmas Inc.
Projection Mapping by Integrated Visions Productions
Technical Direction by Bryan Dodson, Robert Payne and American Christmas Inc.
Integrated Show Control by Integrated Visions Productions and DWP Live
Producer: Kent Fritzel (American Christmas, Inc.)
Executive Producer: Fred Schwam (American Christmas, Inc.)
Animation by Integrated Visions Productions
Animation Directed by Michelle Dodson and Bryan Dodson
Art Direction by Michelle Dodson
Assistant Art Directors: Bryan Dodson and John Ensor Parker
Creative Advisors: Kent Fritzel (ACI), Fred Schwam (ACI), Kristen Henrickson (ACI) and Robert Payne
3D Workflow by Dandelion and Burdock
Animation Support by Reel Mind Studios and Pixel Rain Digital
Green screen shoot produced by Tim Daust (Reelmind Studios)
Lighting Design by Bryan Dodson, Robert Payne, Michelle Dodson, and American Christmas Inc.
Lighting and show control integration powered by Pharos Controls
Projection Installation and Support by DWP Live
DWP Live team is Danny Whetstone (President), Ben Ryle (Lead Programmer), Justin Carlson (Lead Projectionist)
On-site Audio support by Richard Chychota
Audio Score by Irving Berlin