CASE STUDY

Disney's

Encanto

Hollywood Bowl • LA

Collaborators + Partners

About

Client

Disney's

Year

2022

Reach

35k+ Viewers

Context and Brief

We feel so lucky to have worked closely with Misty Buckley over the years. Her first quick sketch for the project showed the iconic Hollywood Bowl arch transformed into the Casita in an incredible way, by adding to and augmenting the existing architecture.

This provided a canvas which could then be brought to life through projection. We were brought in to explore how we could make that happen in the biggest and most eye catching way!

The show was an immersive cinema experience, introduced by Lin-Manuel Miranda, featuring the original voice cast performing the musical numbers from the film live on stage. The show featured special guests, a 50 person ensemble, a full orchestra and Colombian band that broke out into full performance pieces during the musical numbers.

Services

Projection Mapping

Experience & Show Design

Creative Direction

Project Type

Live Show

Broadcast

Themed Entertainment

Approach

Creative Vision + Art Direction

We wanted to take this show to a whole new level and bring several layers of visuals to the show using projection mapping upon Misty Buckley’s incredible set design, screen visuals and augmented reality visuals, created by the awesome All Of It Now.

We'd put so much energy into really understanding the identity of the film, staying true to it's brand, Colombian culture and aesthetic whilst breaking out into more explorative aesthetics in many other moments.

We kicked off with several weeks of deep research and development to explore the aesthetic of the film and re-build many of the assets from scratch to fit perfectly within the Hollywood Bowl's unique canvas.

We went into such detail on all aspects, from the positioning, size and animation of each window, door and tile on the Casita to the density, oscillation and pulse rate of each group of particles and bokeh.

Visualisation

To bring the Casita to life we had to rebuild assets in 3D so we could get the animation and look just right - in keeping with the tone of the film. This really assisted in keeping the spirit of the film alive in our projections.

For the start of the show we needed something impactful and magical to transform the Hollywood Bowl into La Casita - we knew the perfect way. It began with Lin Manuel Miranda jumping onto the centre of the floor catalyzing an explosion of magical particles and bokeh to ripple out across the floor and across the doors, rising up the architecture of the Bowl to reveal La Casita.

Technical

This project gave us another opportunity to use our bespoke pre-vis, built in Unreal engine. This was particularly important to see the viewing angles of the live audience as well as the camera positions.

We worked closely with All Of It Now to create the Augmented Reality moments featured in the Disney plus special. We developed the creative and shared assets we had already created with the team to ensure it was a seamless flow between the projected / LED visuals and the AR moments.

Thanks to

Sally Wood, Gabe Turner and the whole Fulwell 73 team.

Thanks to all the fantastic people at Disney Concerts, Disney Plus and Disney Animation - including the films directors Jared Bush and Byron Howard, who helped to guide us along the way.

Produced by Fulwell 73 Productions, Live Nation-Hewitt Silva and Disney Concerts, along with AMP Worldwide.

Chris Howe (Director)
Misty Buckley (Production Designer)
Joe Celli (Art Director)
Al Gurdon (Lighting Designer)
Jamal Sims (Choreographer)
Kai Martinez (Associate Choreographer)
All Of It Now (Augmented Reality)
Sennova (Projection tech) and so many more!

Team

Tom Bairstow (Executive Producer / Director)
Alice Ryland (Producer)
Lydia Caplan (Lead Designer)
Florian Lecoq (Lead Technical Artist)
Sean Bone (Motion Designer)
Dan Richards (Motion Designer)
Liam Gilheany (Motion Designer)
Aaron Honda (Motion Designer)
Emile Frederick (Motion Designer)
Chris Gaughran (Motion Designer)
Dan Wise (Motion Designer)
Duncan Tune (Motion Designer)
Dana Couling (Creative Assistant)
Alice Best (Studio Manager)