Patrick Rochon “Inspired Light”

Prepare to have your mind blown out of your head.

You may have seen recently Light Painting Photographer Patrick Rochon teamed up with the creative design team at Infinity to create the most beautiful automotive advertising campaign ever. I know I am a little bias but oh my goodness this is some stunning work! Now that things have settled down a bit for this inspiring light painter, Patrick finally had a few minutes to answer some questions about the project. Check out these images, the BTS video and the short interview with Mr. Rochon below!

LPP ∇ Holy cow Patrick this is just great, how did this project come about?
PR ∇ It came through email from TBWA. The Infiniti client was looking for something fun, new and creative to do. TBWA saw the Red Bull wakeboard video and asked me if I could do something with cars.

LPP ∇ Who else was involved? Did you work with any other light painters on this project?
PR ∇ Evan Jones is my partner on this, he’s the mind behind the Red Bull project we did last year. As soon as I got this offer I got him on board. It’s amazing to me that he invested two months on this going at it non stop never knowing if this was going to work. This was a big risk for him but he sticked in all the way until we got a green light. We did a photo shoot and the making of video as a first part and we also created a live show similar to the shoot in front of a crowd at the Dubai Motor festival.
For the live part I reached out to Cisco and his partner William. First to get the live light trail on the video screen and second for Cisco to do portraits with participant, he’s a specialist at this. So we ended up with a team from Orlando, Los Angeles, Montreal, Paris, Morocco. Plus in Dubai the local team was composed of “we are the world” with so many nations working together, it was great!

LPP ∇ This must have taken some time to bring this vision to life, can you tell me a little more about the process what was involved?
PR ∇ Like I said before, enormous time of preparation, thinking, designing, bouncing ideas and negotiating with the client. I was spending hours every day and sometimes full days with Evan on Skype. The project started six months prior but it took a good four months of work.

LPP ∇ How many lights were on those cars?
PR ∇ Each vehicle has a total of 2,520 LEDs with output exceeding 30,000 lumens. Designing and assembling the Light Rigs took a team of six specialists several weeks. The specially-made LED strip lighting is a proprietary product manufactured in China under U.S. specification.

LPP ∇ Where were the final images created?
PR ∇ In Dubai

LPP ∇ Thats a pretty awesome place! How many trips did you get to make there?
PR ∇ Just one, I worked from Montreal the whole time by Skype. The computer is now such a resource, a real powerhouse. Then I went one week in Orlando to meet with Evan and work on the final preps tests and tweaking of the lighting on the cars. From there, we went to Dubai for three weeks. First one for the shoot, the second for the edit and the third for the live show.

LPP ∇ What were some of the technical challenges of a project of this magnitude?
PR ∇ The technical challenges!??!! That’s basically what we did all day every day. Solve problems. It is impossible to list the amount of difficulties we had, it was like a non stop fight uphill. That is why I chose my team wisely and this became one of the main keys to this successful accomplishment. To name one, time was one of the biggest challenges, we needed more time to do this. We were constantly working in emergency mode. We had to change the design of the rig on the car three times because of the lack of time we had once the first deposit was given.

LPP ∇ You also did a live performance for the launch?
PR ∇ The live was amazing because of the direct response and contact from the crowd. This was a tour de force with many obstacle heading our way. We would like to refine it and push it further.

LPP ∇ What was the most rewarding part of the whole project?
PR ∇ Seeing the dream go from mind to matter and the feedback we are getting from the public watching, definitely.

LPP ∇ It is just wonderful work congratulations on a very successful project!
PR ∇ Thank you.

To learn more about the project check out the Infinity website HERE.