CASE STUDY

The King's

Coronation Concert

Windsor Castle • UK

Collaborators + Partners

About

Client

The King's

Year

2023

Reach

11m+ Viewers

Context and Brief

After the success of the Platinum Party at The Palace, we were approached again by BBC Studios to form a big part of their design team and conceptualise, design and create projection and screen visuals for the Coronation Concert at Windsor Castle.

We were honoured to be a part of the design team for yet another Royal event that would be seen in over 100 countries around the world, with the event attended by 20,000 members of the public from across the UK.

We were so focused on creating an equally spectacular show to the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations the previous year but wanted to find a range of creative approaches that would take the visual identity somewhere new from the Queen’s Jubilee, so we took a lot of inspiration from HRH’s watercolour paintings and formulated a more artistic and illustrative approach where possible.

Services

Projection Mapping

Visual Design

Creative Direction

Project Type

Broadcast

Live Show

Cultural Exhibition

Approach

The concert was a celebration for the King and a chance to highlight the patronages and causes close to the King’s heart.

The concert featured performances from Take That, Lionel Richie, Katy Perry, Tiwa Savage, Andrea Bocelli, Paloma Faith, Lang Lang, Nicole Scherzinger, Olly Murs, Pete Tong, Steve Winwood, Vula, Jerub, Sir Bryn Terfel, Zak Abel, Alexis Ffrench and winner of The Piano, Lucy. In addition to spoken word performances from James Nesbitt, Stella McCartney and Sonam Kapoor.

The evening also saw a collaboration between five Royal patronages – The Royal Ballet, The Royal Opera, the Royal Shakespeare Company, The Royal College of Music and The Royal College of Art, who came together for the first time ever to create a spectacular one-off performance of Somewhere from West Side Story, featuring Ncuti Gatwa and Mei Mac as Romeo and Juliet.

Creative

Creative Vision & Art Direction

We loved building an artistic foundation for the show driven by a watercolour aesthetic.

This foundation formed the artistic identity and enabled us to shift to a range of artistic 2D and 3D styles whilst never straying too far from the warm, human and painterly aesthetic that brings a personal touch to the show.

This visual identity shifted between a more classical and contemporary approach but always evoked a sense of elegance, artistry and distinguished British quality. We wanted to find a balance between fun and elegance to suit the stature of the occasion. This could be dialled up (to 11) or down depending on the artist and moment.

And for the branding of the concert, it needed to be in sync with the branding for the Coronation weekend, keeping the key colours - gold and green - but adding our own sparkle with watercolour glitter reveals and rippling layers of light leaks.

Technial

We utilised our own pre-visualisation software built with Unreal Engine to preview our projection visuals on Windsor Castle, as well as the visuals on the massive LED screen above the stage, from multiple perspectives, light and weather conditions.

Once we arrived at the castle, it was almost a case of pressing go. Using the real-time capabilities and native UI widgets helped us build a customisable show visualiser - a few parameters were exposed to the UI such as lighting, grading, camera presets and video playback.

Thanks to

Everyone at BBC Studios for your trust in us and a special thanks to:

Mark Sidaway (Executive Producer)
Chloe Mason (Co Executive Producer)
Cheryl Ko Pearson (Series Producer)
Julia Knowles (Camera Director)
Matt Flint (Creative Director)
Jerry Reeve (Choreographer)
Nigel Catmur (Lighting Director)
Steve Sidwell (Musical Director)
Sky Magic (Drone Show)
Stufish Studio (Stage Design)
Creative Technology (Technical Partner)
And everyone else involved

Team

Tom Bairstow (Executive Producer / Director)
Chris Gaughran (Creative Director)
Alice Ryland (Producer)
Laura Clark (Producer)
Lydia Caplan (Lead Designer)
Florian Lecoq (Lead Technical Artist)
Roxanne Silverwood (Designer)
Alice Best (Studio Manager) 

Motion Design Team:

Emile Frederick, Dan Richards, Aaron Honda, Alessio Monaco, Ash Kayser, Liam Gilheany, Dana Couling, Dale Croft, Ross Marshall, Lee Gregory, Catherine Woodhouse