In February of 2009 we got a call from Catherine Owens, the long time super creative director for the uber-famous band U2. Catherine came across our work and knew she found the team who could help with U2’s 2009 world tour (titled 360). After a quick stint of meetings in New York, we came back to the Bangkok studio and begin work for the following two months on numerous ideas.
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We began our development on the videos for the tracks Beautiful Day, Ultra Violet and The Unforgettable Fire. The first series of works involved filming small fish common in the canals of Bangkok for very fluid and dreamlike sequences. For the second series we explored mapping the films into a 3d space and further distorting them for an enhanced depth and perspective. Then for the last series of works we explored more solid colors, 2d and fast paced clips to stimulate lighting effects and screen energy during the performance. In the end we created over 100 different sequences, with over 300 total clips delivered in various formats, colors and speeds.
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The concert opened in Barcelona on June 30, 2009 to a sold out crowd of 90,000 fans. The screen that displayed this work was designed by Willie Williams, Mark Fisher, Chuck Hoberman, and Frederic Opsomer. The screen was composed of 888 individual hexagonal panels that support 500,000 Barco LED pixels. It can transform from seven meters to 22 meters high and move up and down. To sum it up, this is the most massive and badass screen ever and we were mega-amped to have worked on such an intense project.
As mentioned in a previous post, me and the crew of YouWorkForThem Bangkok recently rocked over 300 videos for U2’s new tour. Finally today, we found some evidence of our contribution on the mega-screen! Not the best quality video (earthquake cam), but at least its a start for now. We hope we they decide to use more of the work in the set as the tour continues. Either way, we will be showing a preview of our contributions in due time. (our work kicks in around 1:10 for a short bit)
We are coming back early from the Thai new year here at the Bangkok studio. Last week and today we posted a handful of new stock vector collections. A few classic themes like flourishes and frames in there, along with new topics and elements many of you might find useful.Â
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On the topic of us being in Bangkok, some of you might have seen the news of some mad craziness going on here. Luckily our studio is in intense traffic jams the past 2 weeks, everyone in our studio was unaffected directly by any of the violence. Unfortunately for the people living here, no matter what side you support, the violence that went down this week does not help anyone here, especially the struggling local economy which survives a lot on the tourism industry. But the good news is, for now, the protesters have left and the leaders arrested for various crimes.
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That being said, Thailand is Thailand and this not something really new as far as wanting the government to change, but violence is NOT typical. These violent protests were really restricted to a specific part of the city as well, an area most tourists are never in. So if you had plans to come here for travel, holiday, fun times, it is still the fun loving and good Thailand, no worries, you will be OK. I am still here typing this, so it must be ok! haha…
YouWorkForThem Celebrates Six Years (Bangkok)
Our birthday was actually back in June, but we have been so busy we forgot to party, so lets do it! There will be free food, live bands from Parinam Records and projections of our latest videos. Phra Nakorn Bar is located by the Democracy Monument. Go through the roundabout, heading towards Sanamluang. After the first red light, it will be the first soi on your left. Phra Nakorn bar will be straight ahead on the right.
Soundtrack of the day here in the Bangkok studio, Mr Off tells us he has some new music for us to jam too. Little did we know it would involve the sexy (and moaning) vibes of Masami Kawahara & The Exotic Sounds. Hot stuff, in many ways…
