The Weeknd
Live interactive broadcast on TikTok
In summer of 2020 (yes that summer) we partnered with XO and Tik Tok and did a live virtual concert for The Weeknd over a live broadcast on TikTok on Aug 7th 2020.
The final product was a dark and surreal, fever dream pitched, fast paced 30 minute virtual concert featuring The Weeknd and Doja Cat, broadcast to millions of viewers on tik tok, and using their real time chat API to offer interactive moments like voting for what outcomes to happen in the show. Not to mention, we raised $350K for Equal Justice Initiative through merch sales.
Only two of the songs from the production are available online to show, Save Your Tears and Blinding Lights but we also did Pray For Me and In Your Eyes
Challenges
This might have been the most challenging project I have ever worked on. Besides directing, the majority of the actual creation of this show rested on my shoulders as Wave was also doing another production at the time for John Legend. Not only did I have to direct and flesh out the concept of this show, but I had to think up and implement the majority of the art content in the show, not only for 9:16 ratio for mobile, but also 16:9 for wide screen.
I also had three bosses so to speak, The Weeknd’s creative director La Mar who had a high aesthetic bar and wanted the most visually stunning show, Tik Tok who wanted to maximize audience engagement and branding, and of course my employer Wave who wanted the show to be highly interactive.
All of this during the summer of 2020, at the height of the pandemic, with a very short timeline of just under 3 months
- First interactive live stream on TikTok — lot’s of risk
- 4 songs
- 30-minute interactive pre-show
- outro sequence & credits
- 2 avatars: The Weeknd and Doja Cat
My role
I led a small but talented crew of artists, including animation support from studio Future House and concept support from Strangeloop Studios, on a very tight schedule, as well as support from friend & collaborator (Sutu Eats Flies)[https://sutueatsflies.com/] who made a lot of the beautiful hand drawn 3D painted assets in the show and provided great ideas for how to maximize the psychedellic and surrealness of it all.
I also thought up and created the majority of all the VFX, camera shots, lighting, and animations.
One of the sequences I designed involved an "inter-dimensional channel switching" effect to jump between different scenes I setup
The first big moment in *Pray For Me*, the first song of the show. Big Akira moment here
Direction
The show takes you on a wild and psychedelic ride through diverse dream states, starting in dystopian city ruins and ending in an explosive cosmic trip. Story elements revealed themselves as we experimented with striking visual imagery — veins taking over a city left in rubble, dream-like vignettes tuning in and out like channels on a TV, or a nightmarish decapitated head chasing The Weeknd through a tunnel. Users could affect the show through text they typed in the chat, from voting on whether to engulf the world in flames or electricity, to seeing their names appear on signage and fireworks throughout the show.
various interactive moments throughout the show on TikTok