Case Study : The Macallan

by Clearcut Sound

The Event

High-end, luxury whisky brand Macallan reached out to Projection Artworks at the beginning of 2018 to be involved in the grand unveiling of their brand new multi-million pound distillery at their home in Moray, Scotland. The event was going to run across three nights over the course of a week and host 150 VIP guests on each of the three evenings. The scale and cost of the whole event was enormous and the grandeur of the projection mapping show had to match.

The Idea

The history of The Macallan was going to precede the big reveal of the new distillery. Using intricate and visually stunning projection mapping and lighting Projection Artworks were going to tell the history of The Macallan on the facade of Easter Elchie’s house – their spiritual home on Speyside. This would bring us all the way through to the modern day and tell the story of how far the brand has come. The culmination would be an enourmous and truly spectacular Projection Artworks mapping and lighting show revealing the new distillery.

The Strategy

Our strategy alongside Projection Artworks was to compose music for the entire show that would be truly bespoke and be connected across the whole 15 minutes of content. It would be delivered as a work in progress even before animation had started so as to lead the animation, then vice versa – then back and forth from thereon in.

Our idea was to have a musical theme and motif that ran throughout the fifteen minute show. The entire show was to have a crescendo throughout. Starting out with a soft, considered classical feel all the way through to a huge dubstep and electro house assault on the senses the music was going to truly take the audience on a journey.

The Execution

Separate music composition projects were collated and elements of each track rendered down to use in new and interesting ways as the music developed. All music was created virtually using soft synths and instrument libraries with some special drum effects being recorded for texture.

Along with composing the music, which was the main driver behind the piece, we recorded voiceover, used atmospheric dialogue and created bespoke sound design to tell the entire story and bring everything to life. We created a truly dynamic soundtrack that tied everything together and ended on a truly high-octane note.

Part one to the left shows the projection on Easter Elchie’s house. Part two revealing the new distillery can be seen here.

 

 

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