Two actors walk across a stage with a scenic LED backdrop behind them.
An actress speaks with a large projected image of a woman's face, surrounded by projected numbers.
Actors Helen J. Shen and Darren Criss face each other on a large stage surrounded by projected imagery.

Maybe Happy Ending

Associate Projection Design, Belasco Theatre on Broadway
Project Overview
NYT Critics Pick. Two Helperbots, abandoned by their owners, rediscover a connection that's all too human in the electric, jazzy, and heartfelt new Broadway musical. I led content pipeline development in addition to animation work throughout a variety of sequences including full-stage holographic acting and realtime 3D environment design.
Creative Team
projection design George Reeve
animation Heekyung Kim
video programming Ido Levran, Brian McMullen
production video Chelsea Zalikowski
Template Design
This early template design shows our fully 3D pre-visualization animation storyboard, which could then be matched with rendered scenic plates from the scenic design team. The template provided animators with multiple preset points of views, real-world unit movement of video surfaces, and access to every scenic rendering as a backplate.

Designed for After Effects with custom AE scripting and Cinema 4D Python render tooling by David Forsee.
"The sophisticated lighting and video elements complement a staging that’s so fully imagined and brilliantly executed that it’s impossible to tell where one element ends and another begins."
Jesse Green, The New York Times
"[Michael] Arden and [Dane] Laffrey build the design inextricably into the storytelling; key sequences ... are conjured in ghostly projections by George Reeve and Laffrey. Projection is not only the form of these videos but also their content: Humans can wind up overinvesting in Helpbots, we learn, or resenting them as too-perfect rivals."
Adam Feldman, TimeOut NY
member IATSE USA 829
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