ON LOCATION - November, 2018
Obscura Digital
Light & Pixel
WRITERS/REPORTERS: Kyan Baker, Jack Calloway, Nathaniel Eves, Kylar Flynn, Eliza Gould, Ella Hyman, Lydia Kitzel, Sammi Dostart-Meers, Jane Merkle, Berta Muza, Lilah Richman, Kylie Sebastian, Eve Sloan, Zadie Winthrop (FROM: International High School, Marin Academy, Marin Catholic, Marin School of the Arts, Redwood High, San Domenico, San Rafael High, St. Ignatius Preparatory, Terra Linda High, The Menlo School, Urban School of San Francisco)
Nestled among the shipyards, artists’ lofts, coffeehouses and tech firms of San Francisco’s Dogpatch district lurks a revolutionary force working to create multimedia art that defies limitation. Its unassuming exterior cloaks a vast inner workshop/laboratory/studio where light and pixel are the clay by which an innovative team of designers sculpt 21st century art. This isn’t, in other words, your average Bay Area media firm. This is Obscura Digital, and in the realm of modern media it is a world unto itself.
One recent afternoon, we explored this unique world, one in which visual art and cutting-edge technology are combined in a wholly new way.
After greeting us at the front desk, art director Marc Melzer escorted us through Obscura’s spacious offices, explaining that the employees need a lot of breathing room to craft such giant displays. “In the art department we have a team of 25 people who do all kinds of work. We have photographers, we have videographers, we have Photoshop artists, concept artists…we basically do it all.” Virtual reality is employed as well, helping test and enhance projects to keep the company up to date with the latest innovations in visual media. “It really is the same type of technology,” said Melzer, “capturing a 360-degree image and allowing the viewer inside of that world, so the experience is more ‘real life’ than staring at a screen.” The experimental potential of virtual reality fits perfectly into Obscura’s immersive process.
“Our founders’ mission was to get video and entertainment out of a simple rectangle…We wanted to create media that the viewer can actually walk inside.” Back when the company was founded in 2000, today’s cutting-edge media tools and platforms weren’t available, representing a vacuum in visual art Obscura intended to fill. It was a new millennium, and the Obscura team knew that moving with the times meant creating an art form that rejected past convention. With this vision in place, the company’s founders developed an editing software all their own, one that translated camera footage into a 360-degree projection. Instead of projecting footage on a traditional rectangular screen, Obscura created pieces that were meant to be projected on buildings or even to fill the inside of a dome. On grand canvases like these are beamed radiant choruses of imagery, each formed of pixels specifically timed and programmed to entrance those who not only admire but walk among them. Today, with their works having graced the Empire State Building, San Francisco’s Salesforce Tower, and even the Vatican, Obscura’s reputation continues to grow.
Peter Sapienza, the firm’s vice president of business development, told us, “We’re exposing people to realities they’ve never been able to see before. It’s the most exciting way to tell stories, to really ask: Is this experience unique? Has this never been done?” This daring attitude has attracted numerous high-profile clients, among them Coca-Cola and MGM Studios, turning this small San Francisco startup into a media powerhouse. A plethora of 21st century art forms are realized under Sapienza’s financial oversight; multimillion-dollar projects are just another day in office for him, but his respect for Obscura’s artistry never takes a backseat to profit or client demands. “We pay the artists their true value…A lot of the people here are half Burning Man and half mad scientist (laughs)—they’re the ones who create our new ways of experiencing storytelling.”
This approach is vital to survival in today’s high-tech market. The world of digital media offers as many challenges as opportunities, and what gives Obscura an edge is their constant drive to top themselves. In tackling bigger and bolder projects, Obscura overcomes the obstacles of programming and logistics in pursuit of visionary art. Describing one current project, Melzer said “As part of The Madison Square Garden Company, Obscura is involved in bringing a state-of-the-art, next generation venue, MSG Sphere, to Las Vegas and London. Featuring advanced, cutting-edge technologies, this groundbreaking music and entertainment venues will pioneer transformative, immersive experiences and revolutionize the way artists and audiences connect. The venue will have the largest and highest resolution LED screen on Earth.”
Obscura hasn’t just evolved into a multimedia giant since it was founded 18 years ago, it’s become an agent for positive change. In its collaboration with the Vatican, Obscura helped focus attention on endangered animals around the world. “We’re really proud to have been a part of that, to have created something millions of people saw,” said Melzer. “We’re proud to have brought attention to this issue and to try and make the world a better place.” Obscura takes a primarily apolitical stance in their projects, but when it comes to the greater matters of environmental protection and the survival of Earth’s many species, their expert talents help deliver the message in a memorable way. And in this day and age, what better way to promote values and common decency than with the spellbinding power of digital magic? As Sapienza says, “To move humanity, to do something positive is a key driver in what we make.”
Obscura is a company that’s always asking: what’s the next step? What is the next creative push, the next leap that no one else has taken before? In leaping forward they place luminescent art and multimedia projection at the forefront of modern entertainment. No longer is the moving image confined to a ridged square. Now it’s part of the world around us, bright and brilliant for all to see.
