Campaign

New Annual is a ten-day contemporary arts festival in the heart of Newcastle, bringing together artists, performers and audiences through a diverse program of contemporary art and culture.

For the festival’s campaign, I led the creative direction and production, developing a concept that transformed contemporary dance into a striking digital character that could move through the city.

Working with contemporary dancer Lilian Steiner, we combined motion-capture technology, 3D animation and VFX to translate Lilian’s movements into an undulating, fluid form. The evolving digital mass travelled through Newcastle’s beaches, streets and urban spaces, creating a visual representation of the energy, movement and diversity of the festival.

The concept was designed to connect the festival with its home city, taking the physicality of contemporary dance and placing it within Newcastle’s distinctive landscape. The result was a dynamic campaign that blurred the boundaries between performance, technology, animation and live-action filmmaking.

The project brought together creative concept development, directing, production, performance and visual effects to create a distinctive visual identity for the festival.

Winner: AGDA Award for Motion.