
	Hover over the icons below to see different renderings of the project:
		Stage Area
		Trivision/Seating
		Video Screens

	View the final video: · Windows Media (42 MB) · QuickTime (68 MB)
	View a pre-viz animation: · Windows Media (8 MB) · QuickTime (9 MB)
	Additional footage of the shops and restaurants: · DivX AVI (5 MB) · Windows Media (5 MB) · QuickTime (9 MB)

Opry Mills · MULTI-SCREEN VIDEO AND ANIMATION

Opry Mills is large regional mall in Nashville. Because the project site was situated very close to the Grand Ole Opry itself, the CommArts design team was tasked with creating a large central space that would celebrate local history and culture. (Of course, the space had to do so with drama and a sense of show.) There would even be a stage where shoppers could perform karaoke-style or the mall could highlight professional musicians and local garage bands.

One of the proposals that came up was to create several short, documentary-style videos that would relate local history and culture to visitors during times when there was no entertainment scheduled. In order to bring the experience up to the same level as the rest of the design, the videos were to work across multiple screens and leverage the physical stage area itself as a medium.

Unfortunately, the proposal wasn't easy to visualize, and this created contention among the designers. Not only can such video sequences be expensive to produce, it wasn't really clear how well they would work in the first place. That's when I was asked to create a proof-of-concept.

I started with an outline and a script which was read by professional voice artists. (Voice artists are always a wise investment on projects like these...) I also made several visits to video stores where I rented a disturbingly tall stack of music and concert titles. (The clerk behind the counter seemed disturbed, anyway.)

There were challenges. Greatest among these was the fact that none of the video editing software and tools were designed to work with more than one output screen at a time. (Nothing a little planning, and some creative software acrobatics can't overcome.)

As a result of this proof of concept, production of the videos was given the green light and they were incorporated into the space shortly thereafter.