Moment Factory’s Timeless Creations

Anybody who watched Madonna’s Super Bowl XLVI halftime show could see there was a lot more going on than just singing and dancing.

Montreal, Quebec,-based Moment Factory, in collaboration with Cirque du Soleil, created a multimedia show that transformed a grass field into a virtual field of dreams. 

The company was formed in 2001 when partners Jason Rodi, Sashkin Bessette and Dominic Audet combined their expertise in technology, photography and film at a time when technology was growing and the freedom to create was no longer limited. 

Moment Factory has since become globally known for its 3-D, interactive multimedia shows using video, sound, lighting, architecture and special effects that can transform a single wall, a building facade or a concert production into an ever-morphing work of art.
 
The company handles 50 to 60 projects a year including ongoing collaborations with Cirque du Soleil and most recently Madonna’s “MDNA Tour,” Jay-Z’s benefit concerts at New York’s Carnegie Hall and Celine Dion’s show at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
 
Moment Factory Head of Communications Julie Armstrong-Boileau and Live Show Producer Daniel Jean told Pollstar a staff of 85 takes part in creating the painstaking details that customize each production. 
 
“What we create is not for the computer screen, TV screen or movie screen. For each project, our canvas is different so we really have to adapt and understand our canvas – our surface – before being able to play with it and magnify it,” Armstrong-Boileau explained. “Sometimes we could be projecting on water in a fountain or a net in the sky. The design phase in our process is really important.
 
“For Madonna’s ‘MDNA Tour,’ we worked four months on the project. Right after the Super Bowl, we started working on content for 12 of the 24 songs here in Montreal. Then one month before the tour started in Tel Aviv, a crew of about 12 people went to New York City for integration and to adjust the content with the show, costumes, choreography, lighting designers and everything. At the end of the month, we worked with and trained the video director who was going on the tour. Even if we’re not always part of the tour, we make sure that everything is seamless.”
 
Each production can also be interactive thanks to the Moment Factory’s own X-Agora software.
 
“X-Agora’s main strength is to take any kind of signal and interactive elements and put all of that together to execute a show,” Jean said. “It’s kind of like a playback machine. It’s not off the shelf. It’s customized project to project.”
 
The program’s flexibility allows it to link to different systems and its capabilities continue to evolve.
 
“We created this software a few years ago … and we’re having our in-house team of research and development [work] to find new ways to push it. We think that in the future we’ll be able to use smart phones to change the content of massive shows,” Armstrong-Boileau said. “For the moment it’s impossible. If you try to use a cell phone in an arena, for example, all the lines are blocked. But we think there’s a way we’ll be able to achieve this at some point and X-Agora will be one of the tools that will allow us to do that.”