Evolving our Verses film series from 3D stereo to reality, Nice Shoes hosted a live Poetry Slam complete with reactive projections controlled by the iPad. Building on the stylings of Rico Frederick, the main talent in our film Heartbreaker, Nice Shoes developed visual content as a live backdrop for Rico and his spoken word team.

Weeks in advance, the poets provided their pieces for live performance either in text or audio form. The collaborative efforts between our Design and Visual Effects studios then developed abstract visuals based on each poet’s own words.

The work ranged from footage we shot ourselves to drawings and calligraphy to generative CG visuals. Along with producing and creating the visual content, Nice Shoes designed and built a live interactive system that could control the videos via the iPad.

A grid controller (the LED light panel) triggered clips and the iPad controlled the behavior of the video. At the end of the night we floated additional iPads out into the audience so they could participate in controlling the live environment.