Agency Defies Odds to Make VR Rockumentary about Latvian Band

One of the highlights of the 4As CreateTech conference in New York yesterday, was a presentation by Cory McLeod and Greg Swan of Fallon on Perkons- an immersive VR film about a 1970s rock band from Latvia, who despite being banned by the government, continued to make music with homemade instruments and equipment and in so doing, happened to change the course of history, by bringing down the Soviet Union.

It was the type of thing that might have been brought up for 5 seconds at an agency  Creative Department meeting and immediately dismissed for being too obscure, too challenging, not to mention the strains on agency bandwidth and the cost.

However, the creative leadership at Fallon gave the project the greenlight and the small team worked tirelessly to learn VR tech and traveled to Latvia to collect material on the band.

The development and production process took around two years and culminated in  the film getting demoed at a Paris multimedia show to widespread acclaim.

The third year was spent getting credit for the project and getting it seen and shown in events all over the world including in Lativa, and by the band members themselves, generating media coverage and gaining sponsors, which have included Walker Art Center and the US Government, and marketing the film through social media.

It’s a case that shows what is possible with persistence, leadership and smarts.

One pivotal idea was to build a war room with a giant storyboard, so the project was visible to the creative department, where work in progress could be seen and teams could volunteer to get stuff done.

For agencies there are some good lessons here about the importance of building and making tech stuff yourselves to acquire the skillsets that can be used well beyond the original project, so it is not just about the PR, the Fallon team claimed the tech learning has helped them win new clients. 

 Trailer