Hanze Panorama

Panorama Hanze in an immersive audiovisual experience that allows the city of Zwolle to tell the story of her history.

Footage from Hanzejaar Zwolle, RTV Oost, Kunstreporter

The show, requested by Academiehuis Zwolle and created by Mr.Beam, allows the viewer to step directly into the history of Zwolle and its ties to the Hanseatic period. The location of the experience, inside the city's historic church, ties the past to the present and lends a true sense of tangibility to the narration. In this way, something that seems distant and seemingly insignificant to the present becomes newly important.

The experience ends in a 360° panoramic view of the city from the rooftop of the church, side by side with the statue of the archangel Michael that has stood witness to all the history discussed in the experience.

Photography by Quinn Broers

Visual style and themes

Water is a key element in this story. It made sense to tell the story through the medium of watercolour painting. The style is interwoven with golden threads - a nod to the famous historical religious manuscripts discovered in the area, as well as the ornate historical decorations on the church ceiling.

Fragmentation is a key visual metaphor, from the shards of pots and other archeological objects dug up in the area, to the snippets of memory that Zwolle shares with us in her retelling.

Part 1

Part 2

Development

We took great pains to ensure that the look of the recurring elements (water, fire and golden lines) consistently tied together throughout the story, and also from room to room.

Several artefacts and scenic plays are pulled through from the first room into the second as a continuation of the story.

The differing vantage points - top view in room 1 and panoramic in room 2 - allowed a unique opportunity to repeat key elements by playing with these differing vantage points.

Top view of boats sailing in the pre-show vs journeying in a convoy of boats in the main show

Top view of bird sweeping over scene transition, vs sailing with bird flying alongside:

Top view of artefacts dug up from underground in the pre-show vs being underground with the artefacts.

One of the big challenges we faced was turning around a water colour style for multiple scenes, with a consistent look, in a short amount of time.

The development of a watercolour style for the water was a particularly fun challenge that included lots of experimentation. We tried out EbSynth, relying on different amounts of frame input, and standard frame by frame animation but ultimately relied on After Effects with realistic input and watercolour overlays for a smooth and liquid effect.