Following the announcement that Moment Factory has opened a new office in London, we talked to managing director Simon Lupini (pictured), and co-founder and executive creative director Sakchin Bessette to find out about their plans for the new location.
Moment Factory is a multimedia and entertainment studio headquartered in Montreal with additional offices in Los Angeles. One of the most high profile projects the studio has been involved with was the Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport. Working with Marcela Sardi of Sardi Design and Mike Rubin of MRA International, the result is the largest immersive multimedia system of any airport in the Americas.
Additional projects include visual content and multimedia installs at the Casino du Lac-Leamy in Gatineau, Quebec and a Jean Paul Gaultier exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris.
The new London office will serve as a European base for the company’s client base in the region and expansion into the Middle East. “By opening a new office in London we are looking to nurture relationships with existing clients, as well as building new ones in the industry,” said Lupini. “Being based in London will ease the production process for our European and Middle East projects being closer to local partners and clients.
“We hope to build on our previous European projects such as; working with the City of Barcelona creating a multimedia show on the Sagrada Familia, working in the Grand Palais, Paris, for an interactive experience at the Jean-Paul Gaultier exhibition or with the Fête des Lumières in Lyon. Our London office will give us easier access to existing and new partners as well as easing the project development process.”
In terms of the areas of the market with the most potential Lupini added: “We will be concentrating on creating shows and events (concerts, special events and experiential marketing), as well as permanent destinations (retail experiences, airports, parks, and public spaces).”
The approach Moment Factory adopts when it comes to technology is one of mixing and combining different technologies, Bessette explained: “By taking technology out of context, hacking and twisting it, we can create new experiences. It’s not just about the new technologies, but also the ways they are used in new contexts, like external environments for example. We did this last year with our night-time experience in a Canadian forest called ‘Foresta Lumina’. Technology has become more robust, brighter, more effective, it allows us to create crazier stuff, making it more invisible.
“We’re not just excited about the technology that we see, but also the back end. How do we manage the complex environments and how can we develop tools that facilitate the workflow? We’ve developed our own tool called X-Agora. It’s a software platform that can empower designers with freedom and control over their multimedia experiences, from design to operations. X-Agora’s interactive media system captures and processes data in real time.”
