Montreal-based multimedia entertainment studio "Moment Factory". The company which has worked numerous big events from live directing such as Cirque du Soleil, nine · inch · nails, Madonna to the half bowl's halftime show, has attracted attention as the world's best digital art group . In spring this year, we will set up our fifth Tokyo office in Shibuya and will promote business development in the Asian market in full swing. In this interview, I listened closely to the director Marc-André Baril of the Tokyo office from the attitude towards work of Moment Factory, whose vision is "WE DO IT IN PUBLIC", to the reason for opening the Tokyo office in Shibuya. What does digital art bring to us?

Our job is entertainment to entertain people

First of all, what kind of company is Moment Factory?

I am calling them "multimedia entertainment studio", but we believe that the work of Moment Factory is entertainment entertaining people. We conduct various phases concerning the entertainment from concept formulation to design, production, installation and operation on a one-stop basis. Our foundation is in 2001, 16 years ago. At that time, the company was a small company, friends of good friends gathered and was working on making works using visual effects, mainly flowing at parties and events. In the meantime, the scale gradually became bigger, the project mapping work, experience-based marketing etc. and the project gradually expanded. After many international projects around the world, we have opened the Tokyo office.

_ Did you have a chance for a small company that your friends were doing to do a big job, and that triggered and turned point?

Rather than turning point, it is the accumulation of each project. I have done more than 400 projects so far, but I think that each one of them has just grown up and made us bigger. It is also a big job, such as experiments at Montreal's own lab, collaboration with artists, half-time show of super ball with Madonna, projection mapping of Sagrada Familia of Barcelona, ​​and so on. Now I've cited a lot of famous projects, but each of these work has a big impact on our growth.

_ What kind of members are currently staffed with 250 people?

As a feature, there are a wide variety of specialist staff gathering. Members with expertise in such a wide field such as content creation, concerts, technical design, software engineers gathered and collaborated to make a number of projects successful. All productions are done at the head office of Montreal.

_ Will it be the style of completing all by internal production?

There are many things to do inside the company certainly, but we also actively collaborate with the outside. The question you asked now is just one of the reasons for having offices in various cities, such as London, Los Angeles. Currently, there are only two people in the office in Tokyo. Either 3 people, 4 people ... ... I would like to increase it. Setting up an office in each city has a big reason to bring it closer to the culture of that country, and to bring it closer to the partner or company that further collaborates. If you create a Tokyo office, you will be more likely to take the form of proceeding with projects while cooperating with Japanese companies.

Past Project Case 01 / Related Videos: Los Angeles International Airport, Signature Media Equipment (2013 California)
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Take out from the living room with technology and connect people with people

_ I'd like to tell you a few typical projects that Moment Factory has worked on.

While explaining the vision of Moment Factory's activities, I will also introduce representative projects. First, "We do it in public" is a common theme for all projects we work on. Whether it is an airport, an art museum, a concert with an artist, whatever the place it is, take a lot of people out of the living room and have them enjoyed in the public space. It is our best feature to enable it with technology. It is not to isolate by using technology, but to connect people. We chose only the projects that it is possible for and we are working.

If we describe our work divided into categories, the first one is "show production". Specifically, in the field of "concert", live directing of overseas leading artists, including tours such as Madonna, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bon Jovi, Ed Sea Ran, Jay-z, Justin Timberlake. "Experience marketing" collaboration with companies such as Oakley and Microsoft. In the "Ceremony" we are doing a half ball of the Super Bowl, the directing of the NBA All Star Game, and the production of the show with luxurious passenger ships at the "Signature Show".

The second category of the big category is "Destination Production". Destination production is the creation of a custom-made permanent multipurpose deployable multimedia infrastructure tailored to the client's needs. For example, the areas of retail shops, resorts and casinos, and now also the large arenas built in Paris are included here. Los Angeles international airport (LAX) in public space, and illumination night walk "LUMINA PROJECT" in the forest of Canada in the theme park.

In both categories, I produce a lot of entertainment that combines video, architecture, animation, sound, special effects, etc. in various spaces.

_ If you look at the past achievements, we also have a show at the church including Sagrada Familia and the Notre Dame Basilica. There is an image that the church is a sacred place, but how was your understanding about technology?

We were deeply impressed, but the client of Notre Dame Basilica was from a priest of the church. I was well informed that technology attracted people's attention and has a high attraction power. Even in Sagrada Familia, I think that compatibility between technology and architecture is very good because technology can make us more emphasize the beauty of the space and the details of the building. It was a great honor to be involved with these projects.

Past Project Case 02 / Related Videos: "AURA" Cathedral Projection Mapping Spektura (2017 Quebec)
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