CASE STUDY

Coldplay

Infinite Nights

Al Wasl Dome • Dubai

Collaborators + Partners

About

Client

Coldplay

Year

2022

Reach

10k+ Viewers

Context and Brief

We were truly immersed in the world of Coldplay in late 2022 and when the opportunity came up to translate our creatives onto the world’s largest projection dome we knew it was going to be an epic experience.

The beautiful Al Wasl Dome - standing 65m high and 130m wide - proved the perfect 360° canvas for an incredibly immersive show, experienced by thousands of fans in the venue and millions around the globe.

Services

Projection Mapping

Visual Design

Experience & Show Design

Project Type

Live Show

Broadcast

Approach

Creative Vision + Art Direction

We wanted fans to feel fully immersed in the Coldplay cosmos, journeying through the 'Music of the Spheres' planets and travelling through time-portals to discover the home of older moments in the band's timeline before steering back to the present day to finish.

This concept enabled a seamless flow between a range of tracks in Coldplay’s timeline, taking the audience through Coldplay’s spacetime to discover older tracks such as ‘Clocks’ and ‘Fix You’ amongst the latest tracks from ‘Music of the Spheres’.

Technical

Implementation

The dome which is 130m x 70m, features a 27,000 x 6000 pixel canvas, meaning we had to really consider an efficient production workflow.

We wanted to make the most of the architecture of the dome by using bold and beautiful projection mappings. Using Notch as our creative suite and previsualisation tool, we could animate visuals and visualise designs in one place. We created a workflow that allowed us to foresee potential technical issues in advance, make instant adjustments and suggest optimal camera movements.

Mixed Reality Intro Film

Our team were asked to create a promotional film as part of Coldplay’s performance at the Al Wasl dome. We directed and created a Mixed Reality Intro Film for the show which celebrates the beauty of the planet and the unity of the people within.

We developed a concept of orbs of energy flying through space towards Earth before combining together to form the Coldplay universe within the Al Wasl dome.

The narrative ambition was to highlight the power of events like the Expo to unite people, literally and around environmental causes. The promo video portrays a mixed-reality simulation of the bands future performance in the stunning Al Wasl dome.

It was interesting to work in two different worlds at the same time. Navigating between the real world and the extended reality world was a challenge, but one fed into the other and we borrowed a lot of techniques and design assets from both sides. Both disciplines helped each other.

We shot with the band on the ARRI mixed reality stage. A lot of preparation was required to ensure the real-life lighting would blend perfectly with the lighting in the virtual world and that the speed of the rotating platform translated correctly once they had been placed inside the giant virtual dome.

Thanks to

Phil Harvey (Coldplay Creative Director)
Misty Buckley (Set Designer)
Sam Seager
The Coldplay Video Team

Team

Tom Bairstow (Executive Producer / Director)
Alice Ryland (Producer)
Lydia Caplan (Lead Designer)
Florian Lecoq (Lead Technical Artist)

Motion Design Team:

Emile Frederick, Sean Bone, Dan Richards, Liam Gilheany, Luca Brenna, Dana Couling, George Thomson.