The audience pixels were Danny Boyle’s brainchild but Crystal was responsible for creating the custom content that was played through them at each ceremony.
My involvement in the project was mainly in previsualisation and content testing to establish what would work on such a massive and complicated device. I was also responsible for a small amount of the live footage filming and post-production in the content for the Olympic closing ceremony pixels.
To give you some sense of scale, the display only had around a 3rd of the pixels as an HD TV; stretched 360 degrees around a 80,000 person stadium. Add to that, the fact that it was split across two different sized tiers pitched at different angles and you can start to appreciate how difficult creating content was going to be.
Fortunately the team were some of the most exceptionally talented (not to mention lovely) people I’ve ever worked with.
The Olympic and Paralympic ceremonies weren’t without fault (I’m looking at you Macca), but I can honesty say that I’m proud to have been a part of such iconic events.
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