Motion design studio BIEN has produced an animation piece that highlights both the athletic prowess of the Paralympians and the thrill of watching them perform.
The Tokyo Paralympics begin on August 24. The event is close to the heart of BIEN, akin to its mission of championing inclusivity when working with Fortune 100 companies.
The animation promo is part of the studio’s “Make it BIEN” internal project series. When the project came to fruition, the creators decided to pitch it to the Paralympics. The Paralympics embraced the piece and shared it on their official social media channel.
“The goal with this project is to tell an authentic story with the kind of passion and creative excellence that communicates how heroic and powerful these Paralympic players truly are,” stated Ricardo Roberts, executive producer at BIEN.
“The inspiration for this animation came from our desire to give Paralympic sports the same polished treatment that mainstream sports enjoy. To achieve this, we went for a sleight-of-hand visual setup. We surprise viewers with a big reveal that shows wheelchair basketball players have the same energy, strength, and spirit as NBA players,” commented Hung Le, BIEN creative director.
To make sure that the animation was truly authentic, BIEN worked with disability consultant and sound designer David Jeffers at Quadriphonic. Le explained, “We learned wheelchair basketball rules, researched the right kind of wheelchairs to depict, and showcased the various types of players with disabilities who play the sport. As a quadriplegic sound designer, David used an iPad Pro to create the soundscape, using sound effects and music to bring the visuals together and develop a sense of drama. He is very proud to be a voice for the community, and to have the Paralympics endorse the end product is a dream come true.”
Roberts added, “This type of project is our passion and why we exist as a studio–advocating for diversity and inclusion at the grassroots level.”
