The far past meets the digital future and it’s all going to be on magnificent display at the 80th anniversary of D-Day ceremonies in Bedford this weekend.
Virginia Tech students and faculty are bringing the historic day to life through an immersive video presentation.
Crews at the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford are putting the final pieces in place for Thursday’s 80th anniversary ceremony, but come Friday and Saturday when the sun sets and the stars come out — this memorial will transform into an immersive video experience unlike anything done here before.
It’s called ‘When We Went In: The D-Day Experience in Light and Sound,’ a 25-minute presentation using archival illustrations, photos, film footage and first-hand accounts of the invasion of Normandy.
April Cheek Messier, the foundation’s president didn’t have to look far for her vision to become reality.
Cheek-Messier said previous celebrations have always held the utmost importance for the foundation, but as veterans age and pass away, the 80th anniversary could be the last significant opportunity to thank many of them publicly.
“We also wanted to reach an even younger audience and engage them in a new way while detailing the D-Day story and why it still matters today,” Cheek-Messier said.
A team of six designers from Virginia Tech worked on the project for over a year.
“Our team has worked really hard to pull this together. We’ve all been looking at it on screens this size. We’re generally pretty good about imagining what things are going to be like, when they’re projected this big, but it’s completely different when you see it in person,” Project Director David Franusich said.
The project began cast onto a 3D model of the memorial, but this project unlike some in the past for Virginia Tech, had its challenges.
“What we’re doing here is called projection mapping which is taking projective imagery and putting it onto non-traditional projection services. Especially this projection service is rather challenging. There’s lots of curves, elevation change, things sticking out,” Franusich said.
The hope is people will be taken back 80 years ago.
“It’s really a privilege for us to work on this project. We are really looking forward to how people respond to this. We really tried to do our best to portray what happened on D-Day in a respectful, meaningful way that also modern audiences will find relevance in,” Franusich said.
You can purchase tickets to the event here.