The New York State Writers Institute isn't afraid to take on big things: overseeing the wildly successful Albany Book Festival three years ago; leading a thought-provoking week long series of conversations on America's toxic political landscape; routinely convening the world's most interesting authors, artists and filmmakers. For them, big is no big deal.
So when Paul Grondahl, the Institute's director, announced they would launch their first Albany Film Festival, it was no surprise. But it was how they launched it that caught everyone's attention.
On April 28, 2021, the entire 195-foot-high western façade of UAlbany's Science Library—a behemoth of a building — was spectacularly illuminated in a large-scale video projection mapping event, the first of its kind in the city of Albany. Even by the Writers Institute standards, it was a very big deal.
Watch the film "Passages," in its entirety, at the bottom of the page.
Just how big of a production was it? See for yourself.
"We wanted a 'wow' factor to draw attention and interest to our first Albany Film Festival."
–Paul Grondahl, New York State Writers Institute
To remind them of their travels, most people return home from vacation with an assortment of knickknacks. Chet and Karen Opalka brought home a cathedral.
In 2015, while in the Normandy region of France, the Opalkas — one of the area's leading arts advocates and philanthropists — were spellbound by the Rouen Cathedral light show that enveloped France's tallest church. "We said, 'Wouldn't it be awesome if we could do something like that in Albany,'" Mr. Opalka recalled.
They put their money where their hearts were and committed a $75,000 challenge grant to kick start the ambitious project in partnership with the New York State Writers Institute.
Simply put, projection mapping is the process of overlaying a video image onto many different kinds of display surfaces — even irregularly shaped, three-dimensional objects, such as a chair, a car or a cathedral. Through specialized software, the video is graphed onto the curves, folds, nooks and crannies of the object, which allows for eye-popping optical illusions.
Projection mapping turns the world into your canvas, and it requires much more than your grandfather's old slideshow projector. The Writers Institute's event called for six massive laser projectors, each larger than a coffee table and weighing close to 200 pounds, capable of pumping out more than 30,000 lumens (a measure of visible light emitted by a source). By comparison, an average consumer-grade projector outputs just 2,000-3,000 lumens.
Having an insane amount of light, though, is just the beginning. To pull off a successful projection mapping project, it takes months of meticulous planning, precise engineering and a creative concept worthy of the effort.
“Helping to launch the Albany Film Festival was the perfect opportunity for us to bring our love of film, visual storytelling and technology to the local community.”
–Justin Maine, MagicWig
In kicking off the inaugural film festival, Mr. Grondahl wanted to tout Albany's creative origin story and needed someone with the expertise to bring the vision to life. He found the perfect partner in Justin Maine, president and co-founder of MagicWig Productions, an Emmy award-winning creative agency in Guilderland, New York.
As with all video and film projects, the process started with a concept and a script. But the challenge here was that the idea had to not only tell a compelling story, but to spectacularly showcase the power of projection mapping. “We love creative challenges," Mr. Maine said while noting the inherent hurdles of the creative process. "Projection mapping can sometimes be reduced to pretty pictures on a building, but we wanted to not only bring the building to life, but really wanted to weave these exciting visuals into a narrative piece celebrating the region and the arts."
For more than a year, the MagicWig team finessed multiple versions of the script and honed a mountain of rough visuals down into its final polished form. It was a stunning feast for the eyes: The walls of the library appear to transform into massive 3D blocks that tumble and shift to reveal indigenous storytellers huddled under a night sky; a pre-colonial fort magically assembles from the ether; an ocean fills the building as a massive whale swims directly towards you; and the building's exterior shell vanishes to reveal an inner skeleton of gigantic gears and pistons churning in a storm of steam.
As with all video and film projects, the process started with a concept and a script. But the challenge here was that the idea had to not only tell a compelling story, but to spectacularly showcase the power of projection mapping. “We love creative challenges," Mr. Maine said while noting the inherent hurdles of the creative process. "Projection mapping can sometimes be reduced to pretty pictures on a building, but we wanted to not only bring the building to life, but really wanted to weave these exciting visuals into a narrative piece celebrating the region and the arts."
On April 28th, three massive scaffolding towers, 20 feet-high and engineered to withstand winds of up to 60 mph, were erected by a cadre of highly skilled members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 14 union under the direction of MagicWig Staging Director Don Fisher.
The structures were anchored and stabilized by multiple large water ballasts filled with hundreds of gallons of water. Once the towers were built, the industrial-strength projectors were individually hoisted to the top and set in place, ready to be aligned, calibrated and blended. This is a precise process requiring hours of painstaking work in order to achieve the seamless illusions at the heart of projection mapping. Just two days later, on the premiere night of the projection mapping event, Albany International Airport recorded wind gusts topping 45 mph throughout most of the day and into the evening. Thanks to the expertise of the crew, the scaffolding held without a problem.
In the daylight, the Science Library — home to the University's special collections and archives, the international student programs and the Writers Institute offices — cuts an impressive figure. At night, with nearly all of its lights out, it feels even larger, a behemoth of stone and glass.
Then, it shimmered to life.
A shower of glittering pixels danced across the entire width of the immense building transforming it into what looked like a cloud of fairy dust or a boundless galaxy of stars.
The vibrant logo of Albany Film Festival appeared, and the assembled crowd cheered.
The time had come, after years of planning, a pandemic delay, and hundreds of hours of preparation, production and problem-solving. The audience could finally behold the same magic that, years ago, inspired an awestruck couple in the north of France to bring home an experience of a lifetime.
