| ”Feel Like A Kid
Again”: Manick Sorcar's Laser Dream at the Pepsi Center
Arena
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Pepsi Center,
Denver Colorado
(Photo © 2005 Jackie Shumaker)
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| February 5, 2005:
The football game between the Grand Rapids Rampage and
Colorado Crush, at the Pepsi Center of Denver, Colorado,
kicked off with an unforgettable show in the beginning: "Feel
Like A Kid Again", directed by Harlan Hendrickson. With
the popular song Wishing Upon a Star of Disney's Pinocchio
in the background, the audience experienced how the dream of a
young boy literally came to life. The adolescent was an avid Colorado
Crush fan. He imagined the sounds and excitement of his favorite
football game at play. He desperately wanted to be sitting in
an arena engrossed in a game where his heroes were tossing the
football across the stadium. This young boy’s dream was
simulated in three distinctly separate media - laser, video, and
live action.
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| The inauguration ceremony started with the imagination
of the youngster which took him through space, the galaxy of stars,
and finally to a fantasy world where he could see the football players
and roaring fans screaming at an arena. The child, overjoyed with
contentment and disbelief, could not stop smiling or his excitement.
This fantasy world sequence was depicted through a series of complex
laser animation. Later, the medium changed to a four-sided, overhead
video screen where the young boy was supposed to go to bed but gives
into his urge of listening to the commentary from a game on the
radio. "Touchdown! Touchdown!!" - he screams as he hears
the news - jumping up and down on his bed with joy. The video shuts
off, but the shouting of the little boy continues as the audience
finds, under the spotlight of the stadium, - the boy truly is jumping
up and down, live, on his bed inside the field. The boy's scream
is now joined by the roaring voices of the fans from the entire
stadium as the Colorado Crush and Rampage teams
rush into the field to start the exciting game. |
Boy
wishes upon a star.
Laser animation projected on the football field.
(photo: Timothy Adams) |
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| The laser dream sequence of the
youngster was the creation of Manick Sorcar
who used the cutting-edge technology
as his paintbrush to create each of the graphics and animation.
But how to present this fascinating work in front of the 18,000
spectators of the stadium? He used the massive football field
as the flat screen projecting from the audio-visual room of the
stadium, five levels above.
The game had a dramatic ending as it had a start; the boy's dream
indeed came true! Colorado Crush players pulverized the
Rampage team winning 72-56.
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