The Tim Burton Waffle Experience
A 360° and multi-sensory experience in a Burtonesque atmosphere
There are few creative talents as uniquely recognisable as the legendary film director Tim Burton. ‘The World of Tim Burton’ is an international exhibition that has showcased his work as an artist, sculptor, photographer, puppeteer and animator in addition to his work as a film director and producer. From the gothic ghostly Beetlejuice to the colourful fantasy adaptation of Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Tim Burton’s work is always original and distinctive yet always with the ‘Tim Burton’ signature.
C-mine, the cultural hub located in Genk, played host to the exhibition’s three-month sojourn in Belgium and Painting With Light were responsible for the technical installation as Luc Peumans, CEO and Creative Director at PWL explains, “As technical partners in this creative experience we worked together with the ten partners in the C-mine centre. We did the technical design, supplied the media server and programming as well the complete installation for the video and audio.
Challenge
The brief was to demonstrate the sense of peculiarity and original Burtonesque atmosphere of the event to visitors in an inclusive and interactive fashion. Creative Producer at C-mine Koen Windmolders was also very keen to amalgamate a very special visitor experience with profiling the inspirational powers of some of Belgium’s creative companies.
Part of Painting With Light’s creation, the Wafl experience, is an 360o and interactive activity. A massive central table surrounded by an immersive video inspired by Tim Burton’s work deliver each visitor a personal message and an image to be transferred onto each participant’s napkin. These were later translated and served up as a waffle further on during the tour.
Result
How did Painting With Light achieve this? Luc Peumans again, “We used nine laser projectors from Panasonic. Panasonic’s reliability was an important aspect of this choice; a failure from any one of the projectors would be a disaster for the whole experience. They are also very compact, lightweight and run almost silently all of which contribute to the success of the activity.”
Tim Burton himself visited C-mine and declared himself very happy with the result and as, Art Director, Leon Leenders concludes, “When we see our visitors leaving after thoroughly enjoying their experience, we are happy that we have achieved what we set out to do. We wanted to create an experience and we wanted to make people happy.”
