Hidden Road Studios, together with Mitchell Schellenger, an artist at Station Six, were asked to create the live camera effects for Imagine Dragon’s Mercury Tour. For the tour, they worked alongside Lightborne, the overall content company, to craft a wide variety of IMAG effects to match the show’s aesthetic.
Notch was a key ingredient in the stage production, as it allowed for changes to be made easily on the fly, using multiple picture-in-picture layouts.
Using optical illusions and camera effects as a basis for the designs, Hidden Road used Station Six’s original brief and traditional content for the live show as a guide for their creative direction. Elements such as matching colour schemes and playing with light were compared to achieve a symbiotic relationship across all content production, which was a stated goal for the production team.
Notch allowed the team to design picture-in-picture configurations, something Rowan Glenn from Hidden Road felt was essential for the desired outcome and look of the performance. Hidden Road created 30 different layouts that were easy to program during rehearsals. Exposed parameters allowed for the simple adjustment of all IMAG inputs and windows. This was incredibly useful as the stage design was a single, massive, LED screen. Notch's ease of use allowed the team to arrange content on screen, match visuals to each song of the show, and even transition the effects as the show went from day to night, taking care to adjust to compensate for the change in ambient light levels around the arena.
Recently we’ve found that more and more clients want to play with optical illusions and camera effects. This approach focuses on the natural and organic tools versus the traditionally extreme effects. We love playing with those parameters and allowing the designs to feel 'in-camera'. This was a big part of grounding the concepts and making them carry more weight, and could all be achieved within Notch.Rowan Glenn, Creative Director, Hidden Road Studios
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