Project Description
After several years of collaboration, 88rising connected IMMANENT with Joji’s management, who asked them to create a set of tour visuals with a new look for the artist—something more textural, industrial, and associated with acts like Nine Inch Nails or Radiohead. The gritty designs, an excellent fit for Joji’s increasingly melancholy music, would need to match the cubic video surfaces of the stage design.
IMMANENT, with the help of EFFIXX, leaned into analogue textures to keep things more human and less digital-feeling, in keeping with the very tradition in which Joji began: lo-fi hip-hop, not simply regarding music but also complete with all associated visual elements, from the handmade look of Super 8mm film to the warm glow achieved by running everything through old CRT monitors. “It should have felt like an art student’s personal project from the early ‘90s,” said IMMANENT Executive Director Drew Best.
The creative team rendered almost all digital material in Notch, including 3D scenes imported from Cinema 4D, audio-reactive particle effects, and processed footage. For the song “Daylight,” they transformed the LED-cube canvases into path-traced glass containers, using UV cameras to reproject the crowd’s perspective onto the screens.
The team used Adobe After Effects and Premiere to further manipulate their results, layering on film stock, grain, and mixed media. Joji’s longtime video operator, Patrick Wala, also used Notch in standalone mode to add video effects to the live camera feed. They used Resolume as their media server. The culminating show was well-received by Joji’s loyal fans, who filled twenty-two stadiums across North America, Asia, and Oceania.
“Overall, with its deep post-effects toolset, Notch empowered the team to improvise, explore, and build the show without having to spend precious time waiting on the relatively slow export times in traditional finishing tools.”
Brenton March, 3D Artist, IMMANENT
Additional press coverage:
USC Annenberg Media, Beyond the Stage Magazine, The Daily Texan, The Johns-Hopkins Newsletter.
Credits
Client: Joji
Production Design: Blank Wall Creative
Show Designer: Travis Shirley
Video Director: Pat Wala
Content Team: IMMANENT
Content Co-Directors: Drew Best & Anthony Ciannamea (EFFIXX)
Content Producer: Tara LaPlante
Notch Artists: Brenton March (CtrldChaos) & Anthony Ciannamea (EFFIXX)
3D Artists: Sean Bowes, EFFIXX, & Jordan Glenn
3D Modeler: Jon Narmour
2D Artist: Danny Perez
Content Editor: Alex Pelly
