(Don’t) Play It Safe

Welcome to the fourth edition of the Peril Dispatch, coming to you from this cold dark and stormy November. As the clocks went back (UK centric reference) we’ve been looking back at our favourite Persistent Peril PLAY projects throughout the years. Since Persistent Peril's inception (insert Hans Zimmer BWAHHH sound effect) we’ve incorporated mostly self funded events and activities throughout our studio's years, from VR rides, screenings, apps, AR prints, live animations and large scale projections. We like to play.

One of our very first Peril plays was a free screening with BANG back in 2011, only weeks after our inception (?? BWAHHH ??), featuring an array of wonderful short films. We’ve gone on to do multiple screenings, often as part of Worthings 'Films on the Gallery Wall', and love being able to showcase our favourite animations to local audiences. ?

In terms of scale nothing has come close to our 16 minute animation for the 2012 edition of Camp Bestival, and their end of festival fireworks finale ’Silly Olympics’, which was projected onto Lulworth Castle.?

We designed a cast of sporting characters that played with the space, the building, the fireworks, and the beats of the soundtrack.?Working from technical drawing we roughed out the action in detailed animatics, avoiding areas of shadow and complicated masonry.?Brightonart, who were responsible for the projection mapping, helped us with the constraints of the process and together we were able to graphically manipulate the space and the form of Lulworth Castle. Like so many of our Play projects this was a hugely collaborative project, that we were incredibly lucky to be a part of.?

As part of Brighton Digital Festival 2014 we worked alongside coder Paul Hayes to creature a miniature ‘Dark Ride’ that could be ridden live via the Oculus Rift VR headset. ?

Another hugely?collaborative project, we worked with some amazing local artists and technical creatives to bring this experience to life.?The environment, created using paper craft techniques, cut wood and lots of spray paint, tells the abstract narrative of a demon goat. Participants of the event were first invited to take a look at the ride in person, waving and gesturing at the camera as it moved though the landscape. They could then go and ‘ride’ the train by putting on the Oculus Rift headset, and see the ride from the trains perspective.?

During the first Covid lockdown we teamed up with the wonderful Sweet Tooth Games to create the app Colourfill. This was a free colouring-in app for kids (and big kids) featuring illustrations by 28 incredible artists. These ranged from AJ Jefferies, Andy Martin, John Bond, Tim Frost, Yoyo the Ricecorpse, Yuk Fun and many many more (well, 22 more). It was such a wonderful project to take on during lockdown, and kept us in communication with the wonderful community of illustrators, as well as with exceptional sound designer James Locke-Hart, who added all the scribbles, squeaks and sound FXs to the app.?

At a recent Pictoplasma festival we were really excited by the capabilities of the Artivive app, which uses?augmented reality to superimpose video onto any image. We took some of Garth’s wonderful illustrations and got to work animating little vignettes for each one. The result was a gallery that, when viewed through your phone via the Artivive app, came to life right in front of you.

This exhibition, exotically titled ‘Animated Gallery’ premiered at Worthings Colonnade House, has toured to a handful of other locations along the south coast. Here's 'Animated Gallery: Making Chicken' which takes us from the roughs to the wall.

For more information, videos, photos and behind the scenes treats, head over to our PLAY section of the website, and thanks for reading.

All that's left now is for you to come play with us, forever and ever and ever…