Usher recruits digital backup dancers for upcoming concert webcast
by Aaron Zorgel
May 31, 2012
We are truly living in a post-hologram world. Case in point — Usher has recruited digital backup dancers for an upcoming concert to be performed at the Hammersmith Apollo in London and streamed live to the internet on Usher’s VEVO page. As part of the American Express Unstaged series, the performance will feature digital backup dancers that have been created by the viewers themselves. Users will be able to create their own avatar, and watch it perform alongside Usher.
We are truly living in a post-hologram world. Case in point — Usher has recruited digital backup dancers for an upcoming concert to be performed at the Hammersmith Apollo in London and streamed live to the internet on Usher’s VEVO page.
As part of the American Express Unstaged series, the performance will feature digital backup dancers that have been created by the viewers themselves. Users will be able to create their own avatar, and watch it perform alongside Usher. This virtual backup dancing technology is being developed by Moment Factory, a Montreal-based production company responsible for Madonna’s Super Bowl half-time show, Arcade Fire’s 2011 Coachella performance, as well as other high-profile audio-visual happenings.
In an interview with the NY Times, the webcast’s director Hamish Hamilton said that Moment Factory are “feverishly beavering away, trying to put flesh on the bones of this fantastic idea that they said they possibly could do and we all jumped on. They foolishly, in a meeting, said, ‘Yeah, we can do this.’ At which point we went, ‘All right — do it. We’ll see you in two weeks in London.’”
You can watch the American Express Unstaged concert featuring Usher and his crew of crowd-sourced virtual backup dancers on June 11th at 4:00 EST on Usher’s VEVO page.
[via NY Times]
