Digital Pulse develops visuals for Australian Chamber Orchestra’s production of ‘Timeline’

Content and animation specialists, Digital Pulse, has been chosen by the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) and renowned events director, Ignatius Jones, to develop the visuals for the production of Timeline – a 40,000-year journey through music.

Timeline combines the musical talents of the ACO and electro-pop duo, The Presets, with Richard Tognetti at the helm as artistic director. Timeline is touring nationally from May 19 to June 4, including two shows on May 25 and 29 at Sydney Opera House as part of Vivid LIVE. Following Wollongong and Sydney, the show will tour to Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth.

Timeline is a time-bending musical odyssey, which explores the history of music from the big bang through to the 21st century with more than 200 pieces of music. The whole production is woven together with the visual genius of Digital Pulse under the creative direction of Jones, also the creative advisor for this year’s Vivid Sydney, renowned for his work on the Sydney Olympics Opening Ceremony and the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games Ceremonies.

Jones and the ACO chose Digital Pulse for its ability to blend animation, visual effects and live action with sound to entertain and inspire audiences.

Says Jones: “There are many challenges in trying to illustrate a 40,000-year story about rhythm and melody, not the least of which is that the old  material is low resolution or hard to find and newer material is covered by copyright. And this is one of the places where Digital Pulse was particularly helpful in coming up with creative imaginative solutions.

“I love working with digital pulse because … they’re willing to go that extra mile … it’s a collaboration because they don’t expect me to come in to tell them what to do, it really has to be something that we to do together.

“I love to … let them surprise me with what they come up with, and 99 per cent of the time it’s great and the other 1 per cent it’s fabulous.”

Working closely with Jones and ACO’s artistic administrator, AJ Benson, Digital Pulse creative director, Fabio Nardo and executive producer, Tracey Taylor extensively researched and designed visuals representing key moments in history.

Using a combination of original artwork, photography and historical references, the Digital Pulse team brings to life the entire show with subtle animation techniques from antiquity through to the mind-bending visuals that accompany The Presets’ ‘mashup’ of current music.

Says Brett Heil, Digital Pulse managing director: “In our world of content you often hear people say that sound is half the story and after watching Timeline I couldn’t agree more.

“During final rehearsals our team felt incredible emotion seeing how beautifully the visuals blended with the stunning performance from Mr Tognetti, The Presets and the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

“We are proud to be part of Mr Tognetti’s amazing vision for the Australian Chamber Orchestra and how he reaches out to new audiences with innovative shows like Timeline.”