Football victory projections bring message of hope
Greek football club Olympiacos has celebrated its 45th championship title win, with a hope and optimism themed cup presentation event, featuring 3D mapping by The Projection Studio.
On 19 July, Olympiacos Football Club celebrated its 45th championship title by winning the Greek Super League Trophy. Taking place amidst an unprecedented crisis and pandemic in Greece, Olympiacos FC wanted the event to be a message of hope and optimism from Olympiacos to the Piraeus area of Greece, from Piraeus to Greece itself, and from Greece to the world.
The club brought in Greek-German artist and director Asteris Kutulas to create a double event, both inside and outside the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium in Piraeus. His brief was to create the cup presentation event, and to send a message of strength, optimism, perseverance and hope.
The event was made up of two parts. The Super League Cup presentation ceremony took place inside the stadium. The cup presentation ceremony inside the G. Karaiskakis Stadium featured 3D projection mapping, lights, lasers and pyro. This was synchronised to a symphonic soundtrack composed by Marios Joannou Elia. Outside in Piraeus Harbour there was a public event for the fans.
The events inside the stadium were sent out to LED screens, whilst there was a separate show of lasers, lights and pyro around the water’s edge. The music was remixes of Greek film composers Mikis Theodorakis (Zorba the Greek) and Manos Hatzidakis (Never on Sunday), created by Alexandros Karozas and DJ Antonis Dimitriadis.
Kutulas had less than 14 days to put the entire event together – from go to show. He quickly reached out to an international group of experts to facilitate the event alongside the team from Greece.
Ross Ashton from The Projection Studio in London led on the content creative for the 3D projection mapping. “Creating a show under the present circumstances was something of a challenge,” he said. “The short timescale and the travel problems due to Covid-19, meant that we were never going to be able to visit the site. Having such a short time for the creative process meant that there had to be a certain level of trust both on the technical side and the creative process, but we are used to working this way from working on events such as the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. We quickly worked up a storyboard based on the concepts that Asteris gave us and we stuck to that. It took some organising to be able to work like this at a distance, but in the end the results looked great. Even though we only had around eight days for the video creative, we still managed to have the full show with them for the dress rehearsal. I think it went really well and shows what can be done in this new world of events in which we find ourselves.”
Kutulas added: “This event was a symbolic act which used art to help overcome the forced distance between people. We wanted to reach hearts, and connect people together using bridges made of light. ‘Lights of Hope’ was Greece’s optimistic message to the world for a new and brighter future.”
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Posted: 5th August 2020