Sundance goers, get ready for some Klip Collective action. The Philly-based creative production shop has been commissioned to turn their massive 3-D projections into a pre-roll trailer that will play before every film screening at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.

After the success of last year’s large-scale installation, Sundance asked Klip Collective to create a trailer commemorating the Film Festival’s 30-year anniversary. The team produced a 3D video-mapped narrative featuring clips from iconic films that have premiered there including Reservoir Dogs, Clerks, Little Miss Sunshine and Beasts of the Southern Wild projected onto the exterior of the Egyptian Theatre. The site-specific projection map was created to highlight the architecture of the Egyptian not only as the canvas, but also as the inspiration. Incorporating certain parts of the theatre façade into the narrative, the history of the Festival’s three decades rolls on before viewers’ eyes in all its projection splendor.  Take a look at the behind-the-scenes video of the projection for the trailer here: https://vimeo.com/79198425

Sundance was so pleased with the trailer that they commissioned the team to create a similar project as part of the New Frontier program. The concept behind the 2014 piece What’s He Projecting In There? (The Projectionist) expands upon Klip Collective’s much-buzzed about immersive installation What’s He Building in There? from last year’s Festival. By using the same actor and essentially the same creative team, What’s He Projecting in There? (The Projectionist) shares the same vibe and pace as its predecessor, while also creating a visual bridge to the pre-roll trailer.

This experiential installation is a parable of the projectionist, the unsung hero of cinema. The piece begins with the similarly to the trailer, before the panels move away to expose a room behind the wall: the theatre’s projection booth. A tale of the mysterious projectionist unfolds, before the walls close back up, patterns from the trailer continue, and everything returns to how it was before.

Klip Collective’s Creative Director Ricardo Rivera explains that the projection is a “love story to the festival,” and that the Sundance projects signal the next wave of innovative media-making from the Klip team, “Creatively, we really are getting pushed into a new uncharted space. I feel like pushing the boundaries of narrative and projection mapping is something that few are doing. It’s hard. But we’re pushing it because we believe in it. Where it goes? We’ll all have to see.”