Gold Run – DeepScreen Advertising
An anamorphic station screen built to spill Norway's gold into the real world
A forced-perspective DeepScreen advert for Viaplay's Gold Run, designed specifically for a curved display at Oslo Central Station. I built the 3D scene and perspective solution around the actual viewing position, pushing crates, a truck and flying gold beyond the apparent screen plane so the format did something a normal poster could not.
Brief
The brief was to promote Gold Run, a film about the effort to protect Norway's gold reserves during World War II, on a large curved DeepScreen installation at Oslo Central Station.
Rather than treating the screen as a very expensive flat billboard, I wanted the visual to use its physical geometry and create the illusion that the scene extended into the station.
The Challenge
Anamorphic advertising only works properly from a specific viewpoint. The screen curve, camera position and distorted 3D scene all have to align so the image appears natural from that one spot.
There was also a creative tension between a traditional poster-led marketing approach and my wish to push the illusion further. The final idea needed to communicate the film clearly while still earning the use of the unusual format.
Maya is also not especially enthusiastic about this kind of setup, so the perspective construction required a fair amount of manual problem-solving.
Execution
I built a cinematic gold-transport scene around a wooden truck, broken crates and bars moving toward the viewer. The composition was deliberately arranged so key objects crossed the apparent screen boundary when viewed from the target position.
I manually calibrated the camera and geometry against the DeepScreen viewing angle, distorting the scene in 3D until the output resolved correctly on the curved display.
The final direction became a hybrid: enough film storytelling to satisfy the campaign needs, but enough forced perspective to make the placement feel spatial rather than flat.
Stills & Styleframes
Results
From the intended viewing position, the illusion worked as planned, with the crates and gold appearing to project into the station environment.
The advert used the installation as part of the idea rather than simply as a delivery surface, helping the film stand out in a visually busy public space.
Personal Reflection
DeepScreen work sits in a nice place between design, maths and stage magic.
I would happily push the illusion further next time, probably with a workflow better suited to anamorphic content. But solving it manually in Maya under a real deadline made the result considerably more satisfying.