Moment Factory is a multimedia studio with a full range of production expertise in-house. Its team combines specialisations in video, lighting, sound, special effects, and architecture to create stunning experiences. Clients include Disney, Universal Studios, Arcade Fire, Boston Museum of Science, Changi Airport, Cipriani, Toronto Zoo, Reims Cathedral, Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal, and Microsoft.
Each unique Moment Factory experience draws on the ancient human drive to share stories around the campfire. It is, in effect, a ‘digital campfire,’ drawing people out of their homes to gather in a central place by telling compelling stories with light, sparking participation, positivity, and a shared sense of wonder.
The company brings together multidisciplinary talents from various fields of expertise, allowing it to create truly unforgettable turnkey projects. Speaking to blooloop, four Moment Factory experts from across three teams shared their insights into the elements that set the company apart.
The Moment Factory story
With headquarters in Montreal and locations in Paris, New York, Tokyo and Singapore, the studio has created over 550 projects globally since its inception in 2001. These projects pioneer forms of entertainment that offer the world remarkable experiences. Their multidisciplinary team of over 400 talents combines specializations in video, lighting, architecture, storytelling, sound and special effects.
The company’s partners – Sakchin Bessette, a storyteller, Dominic Audet, a multimedia architect and Eric Fournier, a creative strategist – were drawn together by a shared goal to create memorable experiences that spark an emotional response in the visitor.
Speaking about the company’s origins, Marie Belzil, creative and multimedia director for the signature experiences team explains:
“Moment Factory grew out of a gang of friends that were VJs and then started doing visuals for shows.” That atmosphere has remained a part of the studio as it has grown over the past two decades.
“The company is made up of open, friendly people, which probably makes a difference,” she adds.
A founding mission
When it comes to Moment Factory’s goals, the essential idea of the founders remains too – to bring remarkable experiences to a wider audience, inspiring a sense of collective wonder and connection.
“We hope to democratise this type of entertainment,” says Alexandre Lupien, creative director of the theme parks team. “Access to immersion, to art, to illusion, to dramatic experience, shouldn’t be elitist. The more we bring this to the world, the more people will be able to meet in the physical space. Keeping us apart behind those glass windows makes everything less personal. The more we can meet in the physical space, to enjoy experiences together, the better we’ll be able to understand each other.”
Expanding on this goal, Nadia Lakhdari, creative director of Moment Factory’s cultural & educational team, says:
“We want to create multi-sensory multi-layered experiences that are accessible, and that will reach a wide variety and diversity of audiences. Also, we love to create experiences that can input a diversity of voices and points of view. We make finding ways to bring different points of view and voices into projects part of our mission.”
Cultural & educational experiences at Moment Factory
So, what kind of projects are the teams creating, and how does their work tie in with the studio’s mission?
Moment Factory’s cultural & educational team develops projects with cultural significance, fundamental sustainability objectives and meaningful community collaboration. It reimagines traditional exhibit spaces, using storytelling to transform the visitor experience into an engaging journey.
As well as having a decade of experience in creating immersive environments, Lakhdari is also a bestselling novelist. Talking about her team, she says:
“In the work that we do with cultural and educational institutions, we bring educational outcomes and messages or cultural messages and transform them into a multisensory, multimedia experience. One that will touch both people’s hearts and their minds, where the emotion and the more intellectual content come together in an unforgettable experience.”
Creating goosebumps
One of the first things to consider when creating a new cultural and educational experience is the project’s key message and intended outcome. Then, the team looks at ways to transform those into a meaningful experience, by using tools such as active learning and immersive storytelling. In this, emotion is key, as Lakhdari explains:
“Even when we work in museums and cultural spaces, emotion is always key to our work. I often say it’s not a Moment Factory experience if you don’t get goosebumps at some point. We need to get to that point of tingling magic.”
When people feel engaged with the topic or subject matter and they feel pulled in emotionally, they will be more receptive to the message:
“We have done work in the past with issues around climate change, the Arctic, and First Nations storytelling. When people are emotionally engaged, they want to find out more on their own once they leave the experience. That way, it’s something that will stay with them for longer.”
Arctic Adventure
To see this in action, we can look at the Arctic Adventure exhibit that Moment Factory worked on in collaboration with the Boston Museum of Science.
“In this experience, a baby Artic fox comes up and peeks at you through holes in the ice. He’ll disappear but come back at different viewing points throughout the exhibit. It’s very cute and engaging for kids. Some of the viewing holes are low to the ground, so younger children have an easier point of view. It’s something that sparks curiosity. What I find amazing every time I see them is that while your brain knows that it’s a digital animal, the way it interacts pulls you in, triggering the same emotion as if it were real.”
Here, Moment Factory’s engaging and multi-award-winning exhibit experience features generative content and interactive tools:
“That project has a huge Arctic vista that you see changing through time. You can send drones out into it to go and research and find animals. It mimics the real-life conditions of scientists working in the Arctic. Nothing feels pre-recorded. It all feels like different things can happen, based on the environment. The soundscape is so realistic it immerses you to the point you don’t feel like you’re inside the museum anymore. The exhibit uses all your senses.
“Sound and light can be among the most powerful ways we have of anchoring people in the moment, and the experience that they’re having.”
Transformative experiences
Projects like the Artic Adventure exhibit showcase how the team can create transformative installations, where guests experience something that has a profound and lasting effect on them.
Lakhdari also refers to a recent project that opened in June 2022. As part of Anisipi, a new water-discovery route set in the region of Amos, Canada, Moment Factory showcased four immersive experiences. An initiative led by Amos-Harricana Tourism in partnership with the community of Pikogan, the project offers an opportunity to explore the region’s purest natural resource—water:
“The region has underground water of amazing purity, and glacier lakes. Anisipi is a whole journey where people learn about the meaning of water, how it came about geologically, and its preservation.
“What was very special was that it was done in collaboration between the city, and the First Nation communities of the region, who got to tell their story. Throughout, we melded scientific historical points of view and indigenous points of view of what it has meant to them throughout history. The artwork was done in collaboration with local indigenous artists.”
Encouraging engagement
Bringing educational and cultural experiences to non-traditional environments is, along with using emotion and storytelling as a tool to spark engagement, something that differentiates the brand from its competitors:
“We have created our experiences in traditional settings such as museums. However, we’ve also created a lot in unconventional environments. For instance, forests or outdoor spaces. Once, we even created something in a disused underground station.”
“In one project in two of Canada’s National Parks, where, of course, we must ‘leave no trace’, we created a portable multimedia experience. As people arrived, they got a backpack full of multimedia equipment. They then used their own handheld projector or flashlights to see the story evolve with them as they went through this space. It was a way of creating an extra layer of experience.”
There is a further element that distinguishes the work, she says:
“It is important for us to do a seamless blend of the physical and the digital. We don’t just create content that goes into screens on the wall; we create a whole decor and an entire environment. We do thorough set design as well as multimedia integration. For us, the magic lies in the moment when you walk into one unified world and every element around you, every object you see or touch, transports you to that environment.”
Moment Factory’s theme parks team
This blending of the physical and digital to create immersive worlds is something that is also important for Moment Factory’s theme parks team. Outlining this team’s goals, Lupien says:
“What we established as a vision was a reimagined themed entertainment world. We believe that the themed entertainment industry benefits from being anchored in deep, rich, magical heritage and tradition, as well as being at the forefront of innovation, new types of entertainment and ride systems. It’s both an innovative industry, and a conservative one.
“We can help the industry to push the limits in immersion, but also in new ways to tell stories, reinventing what entertainment is, and how we can reach and engage the guest in a new world.”
Moment Factory & Meow Wolf
This reinvention of entertainment can be seen in Moment Factory’s recent project with Meow Wolf, which Lupien and his team worked on. Meow Wolf invited Moment Factory to dream up Perplexiplex, an interactive space that transforms its live performance venue into an immersive discovery experience, at their largest permanent art exhibition, Convergence Station in Denver.
“The collaboration is what made the project. Meow Wolf treated us as artists, instead of engaging with us as a vendor. It changed how we approached the project, and how we pushed ourselves to deliver something that truly resembled us.
“We found in Meow Wolf a kind of mirror of our company. Their artists are creating nonstop, and we respect that. It feels good to find another company that strives to put art into the world and doesn’t care about competition – they just do it, and it’s a benefit to the world.”
Over the past years, Moment Factory’s theme parks team has also worked with Universal:
We’re helping them to push the limits of innovation and immersion,” says Lupien. “They’re a great collaborator. One key project that we worked on is The Secret Life of Pets: off the Leash, where we collaborated on the projection mapping for two scenes of the ride, creating immersion in a cool, simple ride for kids. In two further scenes, we transform guests so they see themselves as puppies that mimic their movements. Super fun and playful, but with a big background of supporting technology.
“It’s super high-tech, but the technology is completely seamless, so the guests only see the magic. We also collaborated on the middleware for Super Nintendo World in Osaka – the interface between the guest interaction and the multimedia output.”
A clear vision
The collaborative process offers both challenges and opportunities:
“We work on a wide range, from bigger parks to smaller attractions. I love bigger projects for what we can ultimately achieve. However, I also love working with smaller parks on immersive spaces and new forms of entertainment. They bring a novel context and a novel set of constraints. Collaborating within those new contexts forces us to think outside the box.”
When it comes to maintaining a clear vision, he says:
“There are two things I try to establish in a project. The first is finding our North Star: what we are trying to establish; the essence of what we’re trying to do. The second thing comes from my engineering background. At each step, I check whether we’re converging towards our North Star, or diverging away from it. Knowing that our progress is in the right direction gives us the confidence to move forward faster. One of our partners calls it ‘the compass of amazing’.”
Finding a balance
Moment Factory wishes to act as a key partner/collaborator to the theme park industry, elevating standards by crafting the ultimate guest experience through rigorous creative and technical multi-media artistry. It is, therefore, important to have a balance between creative and technical:
“As a group, as a partner, and as a collaborator on those projects, we challenge ourselves and others to achieve the ultimate guest experience. In creating immersion and illusion, we devote ourselves to every little detail, to keep you within this universe.”
Alexandre LupienWe challenge ourselves and others to achieve the ultimate guest experience. In creating immersion and illusion, we devote ourselves to every little detail, to keep you within this universe.
Emerging immersive technologies present opportunities adds Lupien:
“However, it’s also important to be critical. Immersion in a fantastic universe is complemented by doing it with other people. There is nothing like sharing an experience with your kids or your friends. So, we must use technologies in a way that supports this guest experience of bringing together in the physical world, where possible.”
This is an area where Moment Factory excels:
“We’re tech-savvy, and are always seeking the newest innovation, but we always keep in mind that ‘we do it in public.’ “We use this technology to bring people together, to live those moments in the physical space. Technology is the means to the experience.”
Signature experiences with Moment Factory
Ensuring that technology doesn’t take centre stage while allowing it to elevate an experience is something transformative is also a familiar concept to Moment Factory’s signature experiences team. This works to reinvent entertainment by developing a portfolio of original and creative signature experiences that showcase Moment Factory’s talent and expertise, creating value through the development of intellectual property and brands.
Examples such as the Lumina Night Walks, the Aura experience and Moment Factory’s new augmented games take unique, revenue-generating experiences to a new level.
Marie Belzil, creative and multimedia director for the signature experience team, has conceived some of Moment Factory’s most emblematic projects. This includes a collaborative, multimedia-infused performance with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal; the Pointe à Callières Museum’s luminous transformation of a historic underground artery; and Foresta Lumina, the first immersive night walk of the series that won many awards around the world.
Working with her is Manon McHugh, director of business development and marketing for the signature experience team.
Transporting guests to new worlds
When creating new projects, this team focuses on the connections between people, offering experiences that transport them to new worlds.
“We create that moment, and get them out of their phone, their day-to-day reality, replacing it with that notion of being in the moment, and feeling alive,” explains Belzil.
McHugh agrees:
“The digital world has taken on so much space, especially in the last few years with COVID. It’s about exploring how we can use digital technology to bring us all together, rather than us being isolated at home alone in front of our screens.”
“Digital tools are just the means we’re using to suspend reality,” Belzil says. “The technology isn’t noticed in the things we create. It’s forgotten. We use illusion, immersion, and mise-en-scène to create this suspension of reality. That has a huge impact on the visitor.”
This is reflected in the creation of the Lumina Night Walks, as well as the Aura experience and the augmented games. The Lumina enchanted night walks are about connecting guests to nature and using technologies in a natural environment. A Lumina experience is inspired by the cultural heritage or natural beauty of a site. There will be 15 Lumina Night Walks by the end of the year.
Aura
Then there is Aura, an experience that is also very much inspired by its environment, specifically by architecture, and heritage. It celebrates the site through light and first started in a Basilica. There is a transcendent quality to Aura, says Belzil:
“It’s about assembling people around this beautiful heritage. We use projection mapping in a massive, grandiose way with a lot of sensibility to all the details that would be part of that physical architectural world. And then we introduce a story.”
McHugh adds:
“We strive not only to create these awe-inspiring moments but the core of what we do is also rooted in a respect of who and what we’re dealing with. The idea is not to detract from the sanctity or heritage, but to enhance it differently. Lumina Night Walks are the same. Our canvas is the site. The canvas inspires us, and the local culture and community are what guides us in how we can highlight that.”
Like the Anisipi project that the cultural & educational experiences team worked on, as mentioned above, for the latest Lumina experience the signature experiences team has been working with indigenous first nations in Quebec. On a previous Lumina creation, they also collaborated with the Ainu people in Japan. Working with these local communities ensures that everything the studio does is aligned with the nature of what and who they are.
As McHugh says, for Moment Factory, “Respect is key to what we do.”
Moment Factory’s augmented games
Another thing that the signature experience team is working on is Moment Factory’s reimagined games. These were born of experimentation, says Belzil:
“We do a lot of R&D and are always experimenting. Happy accidents lead to creation. That is how this idea of bringing the video game world into the real physical world came about. The team wondered, ‘What if the person were the joystick?’ That’s how our augmented games came about.
“We use projection on the floor, and people move their bodies to play the games. It’s great to incorporate healthy movement into what we do.”
In addition, McHugh adds, there is a new development:
“Marie has also been working on developing a fun and dynamic signature immersive experience. It’s a multi-sensory explorative journey into the human mind.”
“We played a lot outdoors, doing discovery walks,” Belzil continues. “At one point we thought: ‘What if we were to bring this idea of discovery and playfulness indoors, allowing us to play with different tools, and to control the environment even more?’
“We wanted to create something that would be our signature. What we have to bring to the world is what we are always playing with: illusion, perception, and dreams. So, the idea of exploring the mystery of the human mind, the senses, arose naturally from that. Sometimes it will be with lights, sometimes through video, sometimes with smoke. It’s a sensory experience, exploring the different phenomena of the human mind artistically, starting from what consciousness is, and looking at dreams and the delusions your senses can create. It’s fun.”
We do it in public
Having looked at some of the key examples from each team, it is clear that the same ethos runs through the whole company. So, what does “We do it in public” mean to this team of Moment Factory experts?
For Lakhdari, the motto ‘We do it in public’, Moment Factory’s foundation, became even more relevant in the wake of the global pandemic:
“Recently, I was in Boston, and I visited our Arctic Adventure exhibit. I walked in and saw a girl of maybe three or four years old in her little ballerina dress, and she was touching an ice wall that we put there, interacting with an Arctic Fox at her height. She was saying, ‘Look Mommy: it’s magic!’
“It gave me goosebumps. For the last two years, children have not been exposed to much. Now that they are going out and interacting in the world with all these learning experiences. Their sense of wonder is magnified; our work is more relevant than ever, in that context.”
Spreading the word
Meanwhile, interpreting the Moment Factory motto in the context of theme parks, Lupien says:
“We say ‘we do it in public.’ The word ‘do’ is very important. Being doers is part of our DNA; it is what we bring to this industry. We imagine cool stuff, but, most importantly, we bring it to the world.”
This is a key differentiator:
“We are boots on the ground. This enables us to strive to deliver magic, inform our design, and create better concepts. We not only create blue-sky concepts, but we also know we can bring them home.”
McHugh adds:
“How do we ‘do it’? We make sure that we’re speaking to the right people. We make sure that our flagships, and the events we create in different markets, have recognition, and that people are aware of what we do.”
That, she concludes:
“…is how we are doing it. We are rolling out more, we are present, and people are recognising the value of what we do.”
Working towards a shared goal
While they are working in separate teams, when speaking to all four of these Moment Factory experts it is clear how much of a shared goal there is across the studio as a whole. As Lupien says, it all comes down to three essential qualities:
“We are known for three things: quality, innovation, and rigour. We do things well, but we’re also super-flexible; we will always adapt and converge towards the best outcome while having fun. Every project has its twists and turns. It’s like riding a coaster; it’s a matter of how you take those curves and how you brace for the next twist. The power of a team comes from the synergy and the pleasure people draw from working together. It’s a business, but it is also our passion, and there’s no need to make it painful or rigid.
“What I am looking for in true collaborators is people that want to push the limits, make amazing stuff, and still have a blast.”
Belzil adds:
“I think we have an extraordinary team. The casting of the mavericks that are part of Moment Factory is amazing, and everyone gathers around the same goal. On a given project, someone will have an architectural background, and someone else will have a technological one. Someone will be a writer, someone will be a programmer, and everyone influences each other. We’re very lucky in that we attract amazing artistic technologists and people from all kinds of backgrounds.
“We are obsessed with quality, and we raise the bar high. We push each other to bring that quality.”
All this adds up to a successful formula when it comes to creating mesmerising and memorable experiences for visitors, footfall, and dwell time for the company’s clients. As it enters its third decade at the cutting edge of the industry, this drive for quality will keep Moment Factory innovating, and doing it in public, for many years to come.
