Undergraduates of Backstage Academy’s Visual Production course showcased their skills to over 110,000 professionals from around the world this month, as they assisted in the success of a stand at the world renowned Prolight + Sound exhibition in Frankfurt.
Employed by global entertainment fabrics firm, J&C Joel, to bring their stand to life with a number of ambitious projection mapping designs, the students received huge praise from both client and visitors alike with their professionalism and level of expertise, completing the project on time, within budget, and with astonishing results.
“We were delighted with how the students made our exhibition stand out from the thousands of others,” said James Wheelwright, CEO of J&C Joel, “we have enjoyed links with Backstage Academy for some time now, and whilst their talents were shown to be incredible once again, we were not surprised at the outcome in the slightest. We’re not ones to take risks with how our company is branded and knew we were employing some of the brightest young minds in the industry.”
Showcasing J&C Joel’s new range of products alongside the launch of their brand new catalogue, the students were instructed to use 3D mapping to produce a show-reel expressing the vast heritage of the West Yorkshire firm, which in turn was projected onto a large cube suspended above the stand itself. They also developed a cutting edge iPad app in the style of J&C Joel’s web catalogue, allowing visitors to choose a specific fabric and see a live demonstration of what it looked like under different projection content and lighting conditions.
“The brief was an ambitious one, however, I had absolute confidence our students would rise to the challenge,” said Visual Production course leader Shannon Harvey, “Backstage Academy pride ourselves in developing students into the most well-equipped and industry-ready young professionals in the industry, and it is work placements like this that pay testament to that.”
This is far from the first exciting work placement undertaken by Backstage Academy undergraduates, with previous opportunities having taken them as far and wide as Prague and Taiwan. Whilst the location brought a touch of the exotic to proceedings, it was the sheer scale of the event that most pleased Harvey, who was impressed at how his students coped under considerable pressure.
“Prolight + Sound is the biggest live events exhibition in the world, with well over 100,000 visitors coming through the door in just a few days. Industry experts from all over the world will have enjoyed the work of our students, and of that they can be incredibly proud.”
