"Take a symphony orchestra and some traditional African instruments, add full, sweet voices of diverse registers and put them in a spectacular setting with a varied programme spanning classical opera, jazz and township music, and you have Cape Town Aqua Opera. " - Tonight

"The weather was perfect, harbour lights shimmered on the water - and many members of the audience insisted on dancing to the finale. Cape Town has a new `signature event`" - The Voice of the Nation

Iaminawe were commissioned to create animation for the recent "Aqua Opera" production which was held on a floating stage in Cape Towns V&A Waterfront.

The brief was to a tight 2 week deadline and imagery was required to compliment the 15 varying styles of opera music ranging from "Ancient Africa" opera fusion to traditional Italian Opera through to Contempory African styles of music.

We worked closely with the shows designer Michael Mitchell to develop storyboards that captured the mood of each song and complimented Director Angelo Gobbato's vision.

The show was filmed by and aired on SABC 3 and received great reviews and feedback.

This project presented its fair share of technical issues as we were working with a new product called a Maxedia Media Server. It was great to explore this new technology which is loop based and controlled by the lighting desk but it was unfortunately still in a bit of a buggy beta version when we used it. Great potential though.

The 5m X 7m screen was an "opti-screen" which doesnt require a projector and is very scaleable as it is built in strips. It is self illuminating and is used for electronic billboards that need to be seen in the day. it was very bright.

The Animators

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