Montreal’s 375th birthday has become a showcase for a homegrown international success story that churns out memorable experiences.
On Tuesday, Old Montreal’s Notre-Dame Basilica became the latest local institution to unveil a multimedia show by Moment Factory, the fast-growing company that’s also lighting up the Jacques-Cartier Bridge.
Aura — a multi-million-dollar multimedia show being launched March 20 as part of the city’s 375th celebrations — is one of the rare spectacles the company has built recently on its home turf.
Founded in 2001, Moment Factory has seen its workforce quintuple to 250 since 2010.
Though 230 of those employees are based in Montreal, 85 per cent of the company’s revenue comes from international sales, Moment Factory partner and executive producer Éric Fournier said in an interview.
Other employees work out of offices in Los Angeles, London and Paris. Projects have included Madonna concert tours, the illumination of Atlantic City’s boardwalk and a sound and light show on the façade of Antoni Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia basilica in Barcelona. Other clients have included Cirque du Soleil, Microsoft, Disney and Sony.
Fournier said the multimedia entertainment studio has tapped into a growing demand for “collective moments” — group experiences that create emotions and bring life to physical spaces.
“Our clients are trying to attract people to their environments and to restore in people a real sense of experience that balances the virtual experiences that have become so predominant in our lives.”
Moment Factory’s “job is to hijack technology from other domains — video games and the movies, for example — to transform an environment,” Fournier said. “It could be an airport, it could be a Bon Jovi show, but it could also be in a majestic place like this church.”
Or forest. At the Tremblant resort in the Laurentians, the company is working on an “immersive, interactive and illuminated night walk” that will begin with a ride on the Flying Mile chairlift.
“It’s our fourth forest,” Fournier said. “By playing with lighting special effects, immersing oneself in a forest at night takes on a whole new dimension.”
Moment Factory is a private company but Quebec’s pension fund manager — the Caisse de dépôt et placement — owns a piece of it after investing $18 million last year. In December, the Quebec government provided another $2.6 million to help with employee training.
At Notre-Dame Basilica, Moment Factory’s show will highlight the art and architecture of a religious gem and tourist attraction that is one of Montreal’s most recognizable symbols.
Almost 1 million people visit every year to take part in masses and to take in the sculptures, paintings and stained glass of the 188-year-old Gothic Revival-style church’s ornate interior.
The Aura show will run about 60 minutes, beginning with a “path of lights, revealing the Basilica’s wealth of exquisite works.” Visitors will be guided to the heart of the church, where “light, orchestral music and grandiose architecture (will) combine to create a unique, three-act multimedia spectacle.”
Tickets for Aura, which is expected to run for at least five years, will cost $23 for adults.
The Fabrique de la Paroisse Notre-Dame de Montréal, which owns the basilica, said it is paying the bulk of the cost of the project, though it would not reveal the budget.
A Tourism Montreal document last year pegged the total cost at $5 million.
Quebecor is providing an undisclosed amount of financial help.
It’s unclear if governments are providing any funding.
The show is listed as an official 375th birthday event.
But a spokesperson for the non-profit company organizing the festivities said it does not disclose whether it provides cash to individual events. The Society for the Celebration of Montreal’s 375th Anniversary receives funding from the city of Montreal, the Quebec government and 12 private donors.
Funding for another Moment Factory 375th event is more transparent. The federal government will contribute $30 million to the lighting up of the Jacques-Cartier Bridge, with the remaining $9.5 million coming from the city of Montreal.
