In order to glitz up the 2001 Bessie Awards, Toronto’s Spin Productions has undertaken a project that will see the shop working feverishly to create a show-stopping show opening. This is no easy task, especially when working gratis for the Television Bureau of Canada, but Spin senior designer/animation director Boyan Stergulc and executive producer Lisa Hemeon say they are up to it.

The 30-second opening is the first thing several hundred creative and production types will see at the Bessies show, so it is important to make an impression right off the bat.

‘The opportunity in having the audience at the Bessies is that you can push the envelope a little bit and this gave us a design springboard,’ says Hemeon. ‘It gives the artist a chance to express himself as an artist in that kind of medium to a visual audience.’

‘In our understanding, we know that the Bessies is one of the only awards shows in Canada specific to television advertising,’ adds Stergulc. ‘We know what a huge market presently exists for the television advertising arena. We also realized that the awards show has been around a good number of years and has had some concern about keeping its look fresh, current and up-to-date.’

The concept for the opening was to modernize the show right from the top, putting on display the new technologies utilized by Spin.

Stergulc explains the opening animation is set in a ‘slick, glassy 3D environment wherein the viewer is taken on a journey through a labyrinth of indefinable glass structural pieces.’ Set against a dark background, Stergulc uses light effects to imprison the audience in a web of beams and light trickery.

‘Our overall concept and approach to this animation is to address the fusion of television technology and the creativity of advertising,’ says Stergulc. ‘The aesthetic approach works well with the conceptual approach we are taking as the slickness of the glass structure lends itself well to the idea of television technology. In order to more closely unify the concept with the aesthetic, we are placing within this 3D environment several panels of scientific information pertaining directly to television science.’

The light will travel through Stergulc’s animated, scientific-looking environment, ending up in the Bessies 2001 logo. When On The Spot spoke to Hemeon and Sterlgulc, they had just started work on the project.

‘Boyan has been exploring some ideas and doing research and developing it conceptually,’ says Hemeon. ‘Now he has the foundation of it. From there he will get into building the animation, the layers, and working on the architecture of it. Then he’ll be working on his moves and motion design, whether it is lighting and atmospherics or reflection and refraction, and incorporating the elements to give it the depth, dimension and the visual impact.’

Hemeon, also chair of the Bessies’ Bob Mann Post Production Award, says even after years of working with various artists at Spin, she is as fascinated by their work as she was her first day on the job.

‘In today’s dynamic and creative environment, artists are having to push the envelopes and it is compelling new breeds of designers to expand and express their ideas,’ says Hemeon. ‘I find it always an honor to work with any of the artists. The group we have here is really quite dynamic and everybody has their own specialty, but they have to constantly redefine the aestethic of our visual culture. Boyan is one of those guys that has a really interesting design aesthetic and he is really impressive to watch.’ *

-www.spinpro.com