This Company Transformed a Historic Québec City Building Into a Magical Holiday Show
While outdoor films can be seen in a wide variety of places, there’s one factor which almost always remains consistent: a screen of some kind is involved to actually showcase the project.
The reason this is ‘almost always’, and not ‘always’, is because every now and then, someone, or some people, dream up an innovative new spectacle. Case in point, this past holiday season, when Canadian fashion brand La Maison Simons wanted to deliver a magical experience to the people of Québec City, creative production studio Rodeo FX said ‘OK’, and proceeded to showcase it on the historic facade of the company’s headquarters.
If it sounds like a wild undertaking, that’s because it was. Not only did the team at Rodeo create and animate a beautiful story, ‘The Forest of Wonder’, which tells the tale of a group of animals decorating their forest after seeing a beautiful event in the sky, but they then had to find a way to combine video projections and architectural lighting to bring it to life in this unique setting. On top of that, they also wrote and recorded an original soundtrack, and overcame the technical challenge of ensuring it would be audible (and feature obvious dynamic range) within this format.
Really, it’s an endeavour so extraordinary that it’s best left to the creators to explain. So, to find out more, LBB’s Jordan Won Neufeldt sat down with the Rodeo FX team, including director Julien Demers-Arsenault, technological director Zachary Labrosse Rémillard, as well as musical director and sound designer Guillaume Houde for a chat.
LBB> From the top, tell us about your relationship with Simons. What were the conversations like ahead of this project, and how did it translate into the brief?
Julien> Ahead of the holidays, La Maison Simons wanted to create something unique for its facade. This is a historical building in old Québec City, and it’s been the headquarters of Simons for almost 150 years.
Their team met with our CEO, and felt it was a great fit to work with us. We explained that we had this experiential division that was creating activations for brands, and that's where the conversation started. Initially, we wanted to do a projection show on the facade. But for logistical reasons it was not possible to project directly onto it, so instead, we decided to project on the windows. From there, it became this animated window display concept.
LBB> An animated window display on an old building is no small task. How does one begin an endeavour of this scale?
Zachary> That’s a good question! For a start, we knew it wouldn’t just be the easy task of rigging projectors in front of the facade, because there’s nothing there – it’s an open park. During our early visits on site to get the size of the building, we realised that the solution would be to install a projector from inside the building… on every window. There’s 18 windows, so we duplicated everything and used 18 projectors.
From here, we had to come up with a technical way to achieve a synced display, which we ended up achieving through video servers. In turn, that meant all these different projectors would be connected together, so we had to make sure network-wise, the building could handle what we needed to do. We also made sure we measured all the windows, because of course they are integrated in the visual aspect of the show and we needed to respect the aspect ratios and frames.
Ultimately, the entire production was about developing tools that could help us. When you work in experiential, there's always a notion that location is important – we're not just developing something for the screen. In this specific case, we developed an internal application in VR that we could use to visualise the building without actually needing to be in front of it. We figured out these different types of solutions throughout the entire process.
LBB> Creatively speaking, the work was designed to evoke joy and nostalgia. How did this aim factor into your writing process? Tell us about how this aspect came together!
Julien> When you're creating this type of experience, it needs to be tailored to the location. The last thing you want to do is create a film that disregards that medium. So, while working with windows was kind of a constraint, it's also what made the project what it is.
When I was a kid, I was always really excited by animated characters. So, when we started talking about the project being an animated display, we leaned into the idea of villages or forests where every character is at its own window. We talked a lot about these memories from traditional window displays, and this was part of the original concept which always stayed throughout production.
Writing for that type of experience – we wanted to create a story that was universal and timeless. We proposed a few storylines to Simons, and then collectively, we chose this one, which is called 'The Forest of Wonder'. Of course, there's no dialogue; it's not like a film in the sense that it has a complex story. In fact, there’s nothing typically Christmassy about it! It's the tale of a group of animals decorating their forest after seeing a beautiful event in the sky. It's really about winter and nature, and it becomes something very emotional and deep that has nothing to do with Santa Claus or the elves or anything like that. I think that's very special.
From there, it was a matter of doing the animation, and breaking down the scenes based on music (because again, there's no dialogue). It's almost like a ballet – the characters are really moving and being animated to the music.
LBB> Tell us more about this aspect! What was the composition process like?
Guillaume> Because this was dialogue-free, it was really important the music be composed early in the process and not at the end, like we do with movies. We listened to a couple of references and agreed on a specific genre. It needed to feel like Christmas music without being too cheesy. Something referential of Tim Burton's universes and Danny Elfman’s style, but not quite as scary.
What happened next is we created a scale with the approximate timings of the scenes, and I sat down with the composer to look at the structure created. It needed to have a leitmotif, and we knew the music needed to follow the characters so that each of them had their own personalities. For example, we use pizzicato strings when the fox comes in, the theme switches to the violin when the squirrel arrives, and then it switches to the cello when the bear shows up. We also used a choir for the scenes with the snowstorm and aurora borealis to make it feel powerful and magical.
However, what made this especially interesting was that we had the chance to record real instruments, which isn't something that happens on every project these days. That made a huge, huge difference; it made the sound so much more powerful and unique. Really, the whole process was magic. We’re grateful to have had the chance, and that people seem to like it. Even yesterday, we heard people whistling it in the office!
LBB> Considering the nature of the venue, how did you integrate sound into your technical execution?
Zachary> Early on, we realised that there's a Christmas market in front of Simons. This meant that while it was going to be busy, people might not necessarily notice that something was happening on the facade. The obvious solution was to use the sound to drive people’s initial approach. We trusted that they’d turn around when they heard music playing.
To make sure this worked really well, we installed three speakers on the facade (they're reusable for if Simons wants to do an installation like that again). Additionally, we took advantage of the fact that Québec City is pretty hilly – which means sound bounces everywhere – in order to propagate the neighborhood.
And then, we just had to work around the schedule of the neighbourhood. To give an example of why this was important: originally, we wanted to have our shows every 30 minutes – on the hour and half-hour marks. However, there's a giant church right across the street, so at six, the bells ring for like 15 minutes. Because of this, we couldn't schedule our show because the audio wouldn't work. These are the types of things we had to think about.
LBB> Of course, another major component of the show is the animation. Can you tell us about what went into bringing the final product to life?
Julien> We had to be very thorough with our process. Especially because this was the first time Simons had done something like this, it was really important for us to accompany their team through, making sure they knew where to comment and weigh in.
On the technical side of things, after the story was written we started with references, research and mood boards, and then we did the design. For this, we worked with an illustrator to get some drawings for the background characters, as well as our in-house art directors to develop the aesthetic.
Once we were happy, we moved into production. In this case, it's 3D animation, so we had to build the assets – a bit like you would model out of clay – but on the computer. And from there, we just had one last step before we could start animating: nailing the timings of the animation. To do this, we create what's called an 'animatic', which is an animated storyboard.
Once everybody was able to see and approve the show in its entirety, then we officially started animating. Obviously, we are a company that has multiple divisions – we do animation, visual effects, etc. – so we had a huge pool of artists to draw from. As a result, we were able to assign a different animator for each character – sort of making them the puppeteer. I gave each a brief and explained how I saw that character, and then just let them at it. It was really fun seeing where they’d take each one, because they’d always show me something that I hadn’t thought of.
LBB> With all that said and done, do you have any anecdotes from when it officially came time to set everything up?
Zachary> Normally when we do the last touches on a project, it's not something we want to show the public... but here we were dealing with a public facade, and it wasn’t something we could hide.
Basically, we initiated installation the week before the premiere and started pushing content three to four days prior. During that time, people were stopping by and asking questions about what they were looking at, because it's a building they've known for years but were now seeing in a new light. As such, it became clear that even though we weren't showcasing the complete experience, people were really interested and excited.
Aside from that, there was a funny moment with City Hall (because Québec City’s is right in front of where we were working), where they thought what we were doing was a bit too loud, and we had to adjust. But this is all just part of the process.
Julien> I just want to say that we had a really great collaboration with the Christmas market. Early on, we sat down to explain what we were doing and how in no way was it a commercial thing. Rather, it was a present that Simons wanted to give to the community. In that spirit, the market team felt the show we were proposing was a good addition to what they were doing, so we coordinated in order to integrate seamlessly with their offerings. Because of this, the show really feels like part of the whole experience, especially with all the illumination that already takes place in Old Québec City.
LBB> As a whole, what challenges came with this project, and how did you overcome them?
Julien> Really, the biggest challenge was that we had to project on the windows. It was a bit scary at first because I didn't know how we would go about it, but after a little while, it began to move pretty quickly. Those windows are really bright and crisp, and they even allowed us to do a cool optical illusion at the start of the show. Specifically, we pretend the windows have shutters on them – which is all just video projection – but it's only when the show starts and they open that you realise it's not real. But for a time, we really weren't sure any of this would be possible.
Zachary> On my end, it was working around the giant Christmas wreath that Simons has been displaying on the facade for years, which the team wanted to integrate in the show.
While we already had a video projection system, smart lighting, and the architectural lighting that is part of the building, we really had to think about how we were using it to complement the wreath, and what we could do creatively with it. Because it’s a regular Christmas light that only turns on or off, we ultimately settled on turning it off at the beginning of the show to signal that we're starting, and turning it back on at the end for the big climax.
Guillaume> For the music, the mixing part has to be it. Usually when we do classical or movie music, there's a lot of dynamic range. When the music is loud, it's really loud and it feels powerful, and when it's quiet, it's really quiet... which would have been impossible here. Because we were on a street, we were consistently up against ambient noise. As such, we needed to be super deliberate with the dynamic range so that the quiet part would be a little less loud than the bigger parts, ensuring the audience wouldn’t miss any subtleties
LBB> Since launch, how have people responded to this campaign?
Julien> We had a lot of groups come to check out the experience. I guess word of mouth works, because people knew this was taking place. At the same time, the passers by – people who didn't know this was actually happening – would point at the facade and notice the little moving fairy dust particles. When each show started, immediately the crowds formed. There were families, you'd see the children stopping and they'd laugh at the bear yawning and the little squirrel dropping his nuts. People looked at it, smiled, talked to each other, and we had applause every time. It's really wonderful to see!
LBB> Finally, do you have an element of this that you’re most proud of?
Zachary> For me, it was seeing everything come together. Not only do you get the satisfaction of knowing it's working after spending so much time developing tools and ways to minimise surprises on location, but when you're creating this type of project on the street, there's always people around. You get them talking, and then during the night of the premiere, you take in all these eyes being amazed by what they're seeing, and that's the ultimate reward.
And then of course, the cherry on top is talking with our clients from Simons who are really happy with how everything has come together.
Guillaume> The reaction of the clients to the music has been my favourite part. The first time they heard it, they were just so happy! I don't think they had the expectation of that kind of soundtrack, and getting to see that was absolutely awesome. Overall, I just feel so grateful to have worked on this project!
Julien> It sounds very cliché but I agree with Zachary and Guillaume – it's really about seeing the audience reaction, and part of that audience was the Simons employees. Because we'd been there installing it, of course they’d been observing us, and watching them get to take in the whole thing on the premiere night was very emotional.
But, even better was seeing the reactions on the faces of the kids. That's always the biggest reward for me. Seeing it at scale, on the building, with all the elements coming together is exceptional. That's really the only way to experience it.
