CAIRO – Production company PromoSign commissioned a large format projection from The Projection Studio for the opening of the 16th Cairo Arab Media Awards staged at Cairo's Media City. The Projection Studio provided a 13-minute projection onto a full-sized scenic replica of the old Cairo Stock Exchange building, also known as the Bourse, which is part of one of the current film sets in use at the studio.
The awards program was broadcast to 18 countries. The Projection Studio's Ross Ashton became involved in the project via Egyptian producer Ashraf Haridy, who recommended him to the show producers.
The Projection Studio had just two weeks to create and compile the artwork for the show, which focused on the history of Egypt and the development of the Arab media, including print, radio, TV, digital media and the Internet. 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, with the remainder created from scratch or taken from archives to their brief. Ashton and Paul Chatfield created the PIGI effects from this material.
The creative process included 3D mapping of the set's "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.
Karen Monid edited a special soundtrack for the projected visuals using material sourced from the De Wolfe music library, and provided a custom two-minute intro and outro composed for the show.
Ashton also 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 throw distance was 60 meters, and the images covered the entirety of the 32 meter-wide "building" mock-up.
Karen Monid programmed and ran the show via an OnlyCue system. The projectionists were Simon Schofield and Phil Supple.
"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," said Ashton.
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