A light touch: testing projectors for Puma "Lift".

MJZ’s Rupert Sanders is nothing if not a glutton for punishment. After the prodigious work put into Halo 3’s epic Cannes Grand Prix-winning “Diorama” in late 2007, he turned his attention to a mind-bendingly complex projection extravaganza, “Lift” for droga5’s new client, Puma.

A 60-second, one-shot take, “Lift” charts a theatrical love story that unfolds on a stage created entirely by projections, a luminous, literal manifestation of the “L” in LIFT, “Light Injected Footwear Technology”. Backed by the sonorous tones of The Magnetic Fields, the arc of the pair’s relationship culminates in a motel bed backed by a steamy, metaphorical burst of fireworks.

“[The brief was to] make a virtue of the uniqueness of the Puma LIFT – its weight. The shoe weighs next to nothing so you could say it’s almost as light as light,” explains droga5, New York ECD Duncan Marshall. The TV spot is an extension of an accompanying print campaign where clothes are projected on sports stars. “We wanted to dramatize lightness in an interesting and real way. Puma’s a very approachable brand and so we wanted to do something that looked homemade and without effects. Like something a bunch of friends could just about stage… if they had a dozen or so theater projectors and two of them were highly trained dancers.”

Production designer James Chinlund worked closely with Sanders and feature computer video playback supervisor Todd A. Marks to build a basic set. Marks then spent a month setting up 12 Wi-Fi-linked 10K and 5.5K lumen projectors that would cover every possible surface while still leaving a tight space where the two performers wouldn’t be hit by projected beams.

To keep the installation feel, the team worked to create front projection rather than the simpler rear projection. Unfortunately, front projection inherently cluttered the space with beams, which, if they clash, cause leeching and color contamination: thus, the team had to plan the path of the projectors’ beams, known as beam traffic. 

Beam traffic proved just one of the many considerations in creating the final set. “Other factors, such as the layout, scale, and aspect ratios of the walls, the type, color, and reflectivity levels of the paint for the walls, the projectors’ specs, the design and building of the scalable synchronous playback system, and keeping to a very tight budget and schedule all compounded to make this a challenging job,” says Marks.

And that was before a single camera had been turned on. “I didn’t have a story to be honest. It only really came together on the shoot,” admits Sanders. “I went down supermarket aisles and strange apartments and Beverly Hills houses and an alleyway in downtown LA. We did 20 locations in a day and then worked out which worked best.”

That created the panoramic backgrounds that would cover three walls and the ground of the set, building a basic spine for the story. The pair then shot a cornucopia of objects against black as narrative prop pieces – eyes, crabs, flowers – while editor Neil Smith cut together transitional segues for the forming narrative. 

VFX company MassMarket was tasked with sharpening the films for optimal quality and color, and overlaying the prop pieces onto the films. That then had to be loaded to the projectors and scaled, aligned, and positioned, often last minute and on set.

Once the content was loaded, each of the 12 projectors were rigged to play their feeds synchronously, triggered by a master computer that cued each of them to the music track.

Choreographically, Sanders was keen to create a non-rhythmic, interpretative dance piece that relayed the love-story narrative gesturally, for which renowned hip-hop and pop choreographer Fatima Robinson (Prince, Michael Jackson, Aaliyah) was drafted. Initially, Sanders wanted opera to back the piece, but that was considered too alienating. After an exhaustive music search, copywriter Scott Ginsberg’s suggestion of The Magnetic Fields’ tune “My Underwear” proved the ideal fit. 

While immensely difficult, Sanders relished the challenge that the entirely in-camera installation theater piece posed. “A lot of time I do these jobs for real and it looks too good, people say it was done in post. Projections have such a beautiful quality of light to play with that it was important that you saw the rough around the edges, the mistakes and the boxes moving.”

Watch the making-of for Puma “Lift” and read an in-depth interview with production designer James Chinlund here.

Droga5> www.droga5.com
MJZ> www.mjz.com
MassMarket> www.massmarket.tv