Carlo Van de Roer and Taika Waititi’s ‘Toru’ Makes the Shortlist at Webby and AICP Awards

CASEY director and inventor Carlo Van de Roer teamed up with fellow-New Zealander Taika Waititi to celebrate Cartier’s iconic Trinity ring collection in a unique art piece inspired by the Maori trinity of earth, sea, and sky - Tokotoru.

The piece, which exists both as an interactive experience online and, in the physical space, as an itinerant three-screen art installation, was shortlisted at the Webby and AICP Awards earlier this month, as well as for major awards last year.

‘Toru,’ which was produced by CASEY on a very limited budget, used a patented technology called PlateLight, developed at Van de Roer and Stuart Rutherford’s R&D studio Satellite Lab as an in-camera alternative to CG and AI.

It allowed the directors to capture a performance by Rita Ora and Waititi under three different lighting conditions - as recollections, or interpretations that are an accurate record of the past, yet fluid like memory, authorable like myth.

This was possible by recording versions of the same film as separate pieces of footage without a time offset, achieving the relighting flexibility that AI is currently striving to provide while maintaining the integrity of a real performance and real lighting.

The film is part of a series of collaborations between Waititi and Van de Roer. Satellite Lab technology was also used in key scenes for the Marvel features Thor: Ragnarok and Thor: Love and Thunder.

The technologies have also been used in several CASEY productions for clients such as Lexus, Meta, Nike, Samsung, La Mer, The North Face, Dolby, LG, and Microsoft - and most recently in a global, high-visibility campaign for Call of Duty.

You can support ‘Toru’ by voting for the Webby People’s Voice Awards at this link.