Working in partnership with a team of visual engineers and producers at Bild Studios, we bridged the worlds of film and live performance to help create the opening ceremony for Birmingham's 2022 Commonwealth games. The ceremony, directed by Iqbal Khan, starts with a short film to introduce the story and symbolic characters as a preface to the live performance.
The film presents a number of athletes from different commonwealth countries inside their homes, representing the commonality these characters share. Using Bild’s technical pipelines and server infrastructure, we created a sequence that presents the houses breaking free from their foundations, flying across land and sea and then landing in the Alexander Stadium where the buildings become part of the stage.
The athlete’s homes became flying props on two occasions throughout the ceremony. Firstly, to crossover the film footage with the live performance at the start of the ceremony, and again later where they join the night sky, the fireworks, and the star-lit ‘Welcome to Birmingham’ banner. Graphics for both segments of the ceremony were live composited on-site for viewers watching the BBC coverage. The live composite ensured a seamless augmented-reality experience.
