Nikola Tesla in Sound and Light from Marco Tempest on Vimeo.
Digitally-enhanced magician Marco Tempest is back, here with a poignant message about the magic of science – the leaps of faith, and leaps of showmanship, required to turn scientific imagination into reality. Any opportunity to celebrate genius scientist Nikola Tesla, unjustly unsung relative to his extraordinary accomplishments in electricity and thinking, is a good one. Here, too, we find a behind-the-scenes look at how carefully-calibrated projection mapping brings a pop-up book to life. Some of those close-ups in the video at top are unforgiving (it’d work perfectly in a theatrical setting). But the integration of the book, Marco Tempest’s sleight of hand, and digital animation can be spellbinding.
And because Mr. Tempest is of the mind that being more open makes the magic more effective, not less – a bit like science itself – he shares all the how-to details.
Making of “Nikola Tesla in Sound and Light” from Marco Tempest on Vimeo.
Full details, plus the TED version:
Created and Produced by Marco Tempest
Script: David Britland
Art Direction: Kevin Blanc
Motion Design: Alain Renold
Pop-up Design: Peter Dahmen
Music and sound design: Michael Ricar
Custom software development: Enrico Viola
Arduino Tech Wizard: Manuel Rueda Iragorri
Pre-visualization and production mascot: Signe Fleischmann
additional still photography:
Carmen Kam
(Bonus points to anyone who knows to what my headline refers. Or, at least, you’ve established you’re my age.)