Dark Providence is an online experience offering deeper, in-depth character features. The experience centers on six distinct, video-based character stories with interactive, real-time overlays controlled by the user for a truly immersive interaction. Characters deliver monologues about their respective paths and future journeys; stories of destiny, ambition, and salvation.
Dark Providence
Once introduced to Harp’s (Jason Momoa) murderous persona before being presented with the experience’s brand, navigational, and social share elements. A dark, moody soundtrack accompanies users as they scroll through a series of beautifully designed story gateway screens, each replete with intuitive gyroscopic feedback (mobile) and mouse-based parallax effects to give a sense of richness and depth.
The Process
Working with the show’s producers, we developed and built out scripts, storyboards, and art directed the interactive scenes for each character. The film and audio production was done, with full crew and cast on set, in St. John’s, NFLD, while post-production VFX, interface design work, and programming was completed across the country in Vancouver, BC.
Scene Editing
During the on-set filming for the character videos, photos of backgrounds, settings, and assets were taken to later be used in the digital experience. The images needed extensive colour correction, editing, and rebuilding in order to capture the high contrast, dynamic, gritty aesthetic. Characters were removed from their scenes in order to then mask and isolate individual layers for the parallax interactivity.
Video Controls
Each unique video layer adds depth to the characters that can be experienced within the already rich story in the television program. As you dive deeper into each character and their videos, you are given control over each experience. The character videos can be watched as is, or for a heightened experience, users can toggle the D&H (Declan Harp) keys both individually or together to discover unique VFX layers.
Character Exploration
Each character scene is built on several different independent layers. This allows for a mouse and gyroscope-based parallax within each scene, adding a layer of depth to the experience for both desktop and mobile. For an engaging mobile experience, an additional version of each individual character video was created with certain layers automatically activated for the user to view.
