Pendulum at Alexandra Palace

blinkinLAB and More Eyes translated the music of Pendulum to massive, multi-screen visuals for the band’s recent show at Alexandra Palace.

blinkinLAB have been working with Pendulum and their EDM offshoot, Knife Party, for over a decade. For their recent show at London’s Alexandra Palace (as well as a few festival gigs), they collaborated with More Eyes, creating camera effects, content, and all aspects of video production. Working with a complex 3D stage design complete with columns and risers, they began with a vision to bring the artists’ music to life in as engaging a way as possible.

The creative team used various techniques and software to create wholly unique material for each track. They filmed spiders in live action, captured the motion of dancers, and completed 3D animation sequences. While Designer Dan Williams used Notch for real-time video effects, blinkinLAB’s Tom Wall used it to previsualise the complicated screen setup and output their content to the pixel map using UV camera projection.

They also used Notch’s Background Removal feature, which, as Wall notes, worked very well in a live setting. For playback, the team used a Resolume server and TouchDesigner as a media server for their Notch content. The show ran smoothly, and the band and management were both extremely pleased with the end result. Kerrang! described the production at this year’s Download Festival as “no expenses spared.”

“Because of the nature of the stage’s 3D design, we needed to test the content as we were making it, and Notch provided a quick way of doing so. We could see anything from any angle and manipulate visuals in real time, which would have been a painfully slow experience with other software.”

Tom Wall, Creative Director, blinkinLAB

Additional press coverage:
TPI Magazine, Kerrang!.

Credits
Client: Pendulum / Unholy Management
Production Company: blinkinLAB / More Eyes
Production Design: ARTDPT
Creative Direction: blinkinLAB / More Eyes
Media Server Tech: Pete Thornton
Notch Designers: Tom Wall & Dan Williams
Video Director: Gary Oldknow
Photographers: Ben Inksip, JJ Jennings, & Sophie Harbinson

Camera Operator: Frank Williams
Video Producers: blinkinLAB / More Eyes
Lighting Designer: Ben Inskip
Animation: Tom Wall, Satoko Wall, Matt Sharp, Daniel Shutt, Justin Dowling, Toni Domingues, & Harvey McGarry
Live Action Content DOP: Nick Carter
Spider Wrangler: Charlie Grennan