Content

Ford VJ

2007

I was the VJ Imagination, a world-leading communication agency, partnered with to develop the ‘Ford VJ experience’. This not only turned motor industry messaging on its head and took me around the globe, but shook the event world, reaping numerous industry awards including a Grand Prix.

Awards

  • British Interactive Media Association (BIMA) award ‘Best B2C Project’ 2007 »
  • Event Awards Gold ‘Best Exhibition Feature’ 2007 »
  • AV Awards ‘Best Interactive Media Project’ 2007 »
  • AV Awards ‘Best AV/IT Project’ 2007 »
  • AV Awards ‘Grand Prix‘ 2007 »
  • ICVA Live Comms Award for Innovation 2007 »

Geneva’07

A phone call from Imagination: combine vjing and ugc with us to realise ‘feel the difference’ at the Ford stand, Geneva motor show. Nobody had done anything like this before: Non-trivial, no sleep, NDAs. It was only the combination of my ableton+vdmx structured improvisation audiovisual work in rbn_esc, with the then private-beta vdmx5 combining arbitrary sized hi-res output with user-programmable plug-ins that allowed me to say yes. Integrate with database of text, images and voxpops, display those in the mix in a designed manner, whilst vjing together a live music video which in itself is a real test for a performer: a tall order, even in an ideal world. Rinse and repeat, for a fortnight. Big thanks to Jesse for helping with the Quartz Composer side, and Mo for coming through with the local footage.

Partner VJs

Amsterdam’07

The geneva project was deemed a success, the AutoRai, a smaller show in Amsterdam was just around the corner: so off we went. Setup was to-plan, we got great Amsterdam footage from Dr Mo, we made some tweaks. We had it down, we worked it through, the mixes we smooth: it was a good experience all round, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with the VJ setup to really dial it in to our needs.

Partner VJs

Frankfurt’07

Frankfurt gave the opportunity to take everything that I had learnt through the baptism-of-fire that was Geneva to refactor the VJ setup. Not dissimilar on the surface, but underneath was a custom patch that was a live equivalent of an after effects project: it contained all the compositing, effects, animations and transitions we needed, and exposed just functionality needed through VDMX. Perhaps just as importantly, it hid the things that could cause any nasties!

Partner VJs

Los Angeles’07

For the American circuit, Imagination had commissioned Jasmin to art direct and produce four ‘vj’ style tracks. As the setup side for Geneva had swallowed so much time, it was a real gift to see somebody be able to start from scratch and devote all the resources to the content and aesthetic.

Partner VJ

Bologna’07

The Italians really know how to do a motor show. Despite being a small show in the grander scheme of these things, it was the only show that actually had really cool car things like… a racetrack! 4x4 assult courses!

Partner VJ

Geneva’08

Back to Geneva, one year on. With memories of still working on the to-do list on the plane out there and then things that should just have plugged in but somehow lost us days of the build instead, it was a pleasure to walk in to a known setup, load the fresh content and just play.

Partner VJ

Files

Diary entries

advantages of working through the night

is that when you finish working on the materials at 7am, and have a few hours to kill until the presentation later that morning, you can go out and take photos in the new found winter wonderland. this is my local, and more a visual joke than photo, but hey.

sleep deprivation, pt1

wasn’t the only one working through the night.

ford vj geneva: a very big thing

i’ve just arrived back from, well, from a very big thing. quit-your-job type thing. i signed a non-disclosure-agreement in december, things were set by january, had quit apple not long thereafter, february was intense pre-production, and then it really happened: two and a bit weeks at the geneva motor show, putting out a four minute vj mix every 16 minutes, a peer to the hd brand videos on the immense led wall.
its a really amazing project as the vj is not there for sparkle, but more akin to tom cruise in minority report, taking in a flow of user generated content and magic’ing it onto the big screen. massive props to imagination for the concept and the multi-disciplinary clout to make it happen, and to ford for really going out on one with this project.
i would write more, but i’ve only 36 hours back in london before being off again: a short break after all this and then straight into the amsterdam motor show. onwards!

this may not look like much...

but thats an exact 1:1 pixel mapping on the LED wall, which we got to in minutes rather than days. shame its not the geneva monster-wall, but you can’t have it all. anyway, progress. and hello jilt, fellow vj along with olga for the amsterdam motor show.

t-2007

a steadycam operator on an all-terrain segway type thing… you can imagine the cool shots made possible, but it looked straight out of some robocop/terminator future. and, of course, i want i want i want.

ford vj amsterdam: home run

its tuesday, its the first day not working for over two weeks, and with the next month or so paid up from this to devote to developing the setup and contributing to the cultural side. there is a little description of amsterdam on the photo page, suffice to say it was a smooth experience, we had it down, we had a nice time. very rewarding to have that experience after the challenges of getting the project to the 1.0 of geneva.

2007>2001

so here i am editing on the latest apple laptop using the latest final cut pro, and yet as the flow of the work goes, it feels just like 2001. editing in fcp2 on my beloved tibook. however, thats not to say the edit is equivalent: this is a motion graphic’d promo piece in sexy hd. amusingly enough, not even my cinema display has enough pixels.

ford vj frankfurt preview

…and this is what it was looking like when i hit the screengrab key-combo before putting the mac pro in its flight case to start its journey to frankfurt.

ford vj frankfurt » never this empty again

jasmin finding her way round the vj setup, in a hall never again to be so quiet. opening soon…

ford vj frankfurt » and so it starts

another show, another get-up.

ford vj frankfurt » press shot

jasmin and mo hamming it up for the press. check mo smirking tee hee.

shot details ----
Frankfurt, 13.9.2007: Ford-Messestand IAA 2007 Frankfurt, Jasmin Judry und Mauritius Seeger arbeiten auf dem Ford-Messestand als DJ und VJ. — © Ford/Stark - Verwendung honorarfrei

ford vj gets gold!

our shiny gold award, via the cameraphone of dan sloane, imagination’s tech master for the vj project. the ford vj area won the best exhibition feature area at friday’s event awards 2007 at the natural history museum. huzzah!

ford vj frankfurt » beard world champions

well, go the cliché: we certainly are in germany, having had not one but three beard grooming world champions pass through the stand. just check those creations on the left.

ford vj frankfurt » segway police

first time i’ve seen a segway in the flesh, the german police having taken them on… and quite ironic in the context of a car show.

ford vj frankfurt » messe sunset

…the finance buildings in the other direction, clad in glass, were shining orange.

ford vj frankfurt » late night filming

stayed late to get a clean recording of a few sets. got ghetto with the tripod, to get it in just the right place kinda involved jasmin holding onto a tripod above a leaking bin… eeek.

ford vj frankfurt » at home / in bed

last day, soon to be at home, in bed: so many people’s “favourite place to think”.

ford vj frankfurt » stützstrümpfe

…so stützstrümpfe are “support stockings”. tee hee. do love this photo.

goodbye frankfurt...

that was the view from the 28th floor of the mariott, halle 3.1 and its ford group stands centre stage.

ford vj los angeles » cardboard tubes

the wall here is made of recycled cardboard tubes. looks good, makes the environmental message… and makes me laugh knowing the technology they’ve squeezed in for the section with the screen.

ford vj los angeles » build

hello jasmin and her superproduced content commissioned for the american shows. the (and i use the word loosely) car driving in is something to behold: a “green” monster truck, complete with rocket-launcher-esque hydrogen tanks racked up on the back.

ford vj los angeles » ready to go

obligatory quick 1am shot, wrapping up the build. looking “freakin’ awesome”, with beautiful new content, new ways to mix it, and rejigged text display. smooth, controllable, motion graphic’d smartness.

ford vj los angeles » autoshows.ford.com

http://autoshows.ford.com/190/2007/11/17/digital-stage-makes-its-north-american-debut-at-the-los-angeles-auto-show/

tsk, the editor has made it jasmin only. c’est la vie.

inés aka pintaycolorea

speaking of inés, here she is, my vj partner for this italian show. check www.pintaycolorea.com, much goodness there.

they do things differently in italy

suffice to say i haven’t seen this happen at any other motor show.

protest!

the second day of the motor show was picketed by anti-car protesters. i barely got in to the show, check further back in the photo and you’ll see the red banners of them marching in to close down the entrance. photo was just holding the camera up and pointing back. crazy times. should i mention i ride a push-bike around london?

motorshow life i

saturday was super-rammed. and then this guy came round, as if in a bubble. totally immersed, clicking things in space in front of him. no way of finding out more or hitting up the autowebpagediarylogthing the rig may or may not produce.

motorshow life ii

crash test dummy. genius costume.

motorshow life iii

hello gianluca, organiser of avit-like live performers meeting. while i couldn’t be part of the event as i was doing this in frankfurt, it came in useful when a selection of italian vjs was needed to chose my vj partner here…

motorshow life iv

…well, what can i say.

motorshow life v

aka “thats what i call a real motor show”. rock on italy. thanks to will for the photo - my s80’s zoom wasn’t able to get anything like this.

ford vj geneva, one year on

back again at the salon d’auto, and what a difference a year makes. smooth setup, new content, all good. even when walking straight in off the plane, having had a gig in newcastle the night before… eek!