Keyframe Helps Suzhou Light Up the Sky

On January 16, the new Sky Screen in Suzhou, China's new shopping center in Harmony Times Square, lit up for the public for the first time, including a five-minute animation created by Keyframe. The Harmony Group, a marketing agency heading up the project, contracted Keyframe to produce two five-minute animations and 18 30-second spots for the new LED display.

"Emily Minor -- the Keyframe Shanghai Manager -- and I traveled to Suzhou many times, proposing new creative ideas for the content before we actually signed the contract," said Yvonne Zhang, Keyframe Account Executive on the project. "This was a challenge to Keyframe's Shanghai office, never having a project of this magnitude before, but we made it happen."

Keyframe's content was created for a 200 meter long section of the sky screen that is 16 meters wide and rests 20 meters off the ground. A daily 15-minute show is planned for 6, 7, 8 and 9 p.m., with each show including a varying assortment of animation.

"There are only three sky screens in the world -- Las Vegas, Beijing and now Suzhou," said Minor. "It's a great creative challenge to imagine and then create content that will captivate viewers attention so they stand with their necks uncomfortably craned to the screen above their heads."

"It's such a different viewing angle, so we had to account for the audience being under the screen from the beginning creative phase," Creative Director David Qiao said. "A long 3D animation of such a large size is very time consuming, so we had to adhere to a strict workflow and ensure we chose the most effective way to realize our creative vision."

The Sky Screen display runs along the center of the new 510,000 square meter Times Square, in the 100,000 square meter shopping center. The shopping center is a multi-functional carrier of businesses and tourism, while also boosting urban expansion and the region's economy.