Professional Lighting & Production - Spring 2020 | Page 23

A HOLOGRAPHIC BUFFALO EMERGES FROM THE TREES
FOR THE WORDS OF WISDOM SEGMENT
“big mix-and-match.”
It started with various site visits – “a lot
of documenting, a lot of photography, and
then we had a specialist draft the regions
and areas that were really specific, where we
needed detailed measurements or the exact
position of the trees or the precise relation-
ship of the path with its surroundings,” she
explains.
From there, the majority of the work
took place at Moment Factory’s Montreal
HQ, though there were many other site visits
during the project’s nine-month realization.
“We went in short visits to get specific info
and get validation of our ideas, as well as
three larger work sessions where we had all of
our designers – set, light, sound, the technical
team, multimedia, direction – where it was
about continuing and elevating the initial
concept and designs to push it all further.”
For her role in the project, Delage
worked closely with her producer coun-
terpart to ensure they had a rock-solid
understanding of the client’s objective.
“Then, together, we support the full tech-
nical, creative, and production teams from
that initial spark of inspiration all the way
to what Terra Lumina is today,” she says, all
the while ensuring their work adheres to
that original objective.
While that meant playing the role
of quarterback for the majority of the
project, sometimes it meant being a
cheerleader, and others, it meant joining
the opposing team.
“It’s important to create a bit of dis-
tance and kind of be the devil’s advocate
to challenge our team about what we’re
putting forward so that, in the end, we
know we thought of everything from ev-
ery angle and that everyone is really con-
fident in what we’re delivering,” she says.
“We go through frontwards, backwards,
and everything in between to get a full
feel of every component of the experi-
ence, and then shape those rhythms and
emotions into the design.”
The Terra Lumina experience begins in the
Welcome Area, where visitors congregate
before setting off into the future via the
Arch Passage – two staggered semi-circles
of vivid light emanating swirls of thick fog.
That leads into the Luminous Forest,
where colourful lasers and beams of light
blast from the trees and dance around
the path in syncopation with an original
soundtrack.
Next is the Wolves’ Welcome, one of
several projection-based features in which a
pack of wolves is mapped onto nearby rock
faces, howling in unison before cascading
down the rocks and then vanishing as they
seemingly leap into the forest.
Polar Power makes use of an empty
polar bear enclosure, once again employing
projection mapping to striking effect, first
with footage of the Toronto Zoo’s own arctic
beasts swimming and playing on icy cliffs.
At one point thereafter, it appears as though
melted glaciers regenerate out of the sea in
one of the experience’s standout visuals.
Vanished Species draws visitors into the
forest towards a mysterious glowing cocoon
to hear a narration explaining that, between
2020 and 2099, humans ultimately learned
how to restore the Earth’s natural balance
and live harmoniously with nature.
The Circle of Life is an interactive feature
with a vast garden of glowing, brightly-
coloured flowers surrounded by four large
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