Creative Director Molly Hawkins approached Silent Partners Studio in 2021, asking for a video effects-laden show for the newest Harry Styles tour throughout four continents. The creative team wanted to use cameras to highlight the band as much as the artist himself. Rather than going for commonplace realistic video looks, Silent Partners strived to develop an ecstatic and artful colour palette with fun looks to match the aura of each song.
With so many legs of the tour to handle, songs and setlists changed. As such, the visual show evolved, but with a solid plan in place, Silent Partners could maintain their vision and workflow throughout. Inspired by vintage cinematographic tricks, the team set out to stay loyal to film looks and classic optical effects, avoiding anything that felt digital.
Notch Designer Heath Saunders helped develop a workflow allowing the D3 programmer from Earlybird Visual to access the Notch Block parameters on their console and programme the musical hits. As Saunders explained, after using TouchDesigner internally to test Blocks, they used one large Block for the whole show with each look and its various effects on its own layer. With this process, they could be flexible while maintaining a firm structure for the programmers. The final result was an intemporal and singular combination of new technology with high-quality looks borrowed from past aesthetics.
Credits
Client: Harry Styles
Creative Director: Molly Hawkins
Production Design: Silent House
Producer: Baz Halpin
Content Producers: Silent Partners Studio
Screen Producer: David Emmanuel Fafard
Creative Director: David Emmanuel Fafard
Notch Designers: Heath Saunders & Brett Bolton
Project Manager: Leah Younesi
Animation Studio: Open the Portal
Animation Producer: Jason Milov
Lighting Design: Silent House
Lighting Director: Jesse Blevins
Lighting Programmer: Tyler Santangelo
Video Director: Larn Poland
Screens Director & Programmer: Steve Foster
Screens Technical Producer: Kirk J Miller
