Bio Steven Martin

personality, passions, working procedures, references

Thank you for allowing me

to share my passion with you

Steven Martin

BIO

Born on the 10th July 1971 in Brasschaat near Antwerp, a new and passionate adventure of life started. Raised in Antwerp by an award winning mother, blessed with 2 beautiful daughters studied the rules and theories of Communication Management, to be able to break them shortly after… A dancer that never learnt how to dance… In my mind I see beautiful things, Creativity and ideas are everywhere around us, Inspiring, tickling, teasing, confronting… My life is driven by emotion… the most beautiful gift man has ever received.

BIO

I speak, read and write Flemish (mother tongue), German, French, English Professional bachelor in Communication Management (1994) Active in event marketing since 1995 Manager of my own event agency from 1999 till 2003, freelance ever since Specializing in creative services and stage related specialties since 2001 Large artist database with decent contacts in this world Partner of MOVE (dance school) and The Groovies (professional dance squad) For endclients also represented by Patrick De Coninck (MOVE), Aurelia Cats (Art Vision Entertainment) and Alexandre Hourdequin (Talents & Productions) Some references on the next pages

BIO

1999 – “Carolus Quintus: Euro or Neuro” (Ghent, 10.000p, open air) Artistic direction Luc Petit Artistic production Steven Martin Winner of Bronze Benelux Event Award

2002 – “GuldensporenSpLAsH” (Kortrijk, 12.000p, open air) Artistic direction Dirk Decloedt Assistant artistic direction and artistic production Steven Martin Winner of Golden Benelux Event Award

BIO

2010 – ”A Human Adventure” (Avenches Zwitzerland) Artistic direction Luc Petit Artistic production Steven Martin Inauguration show for Nespresso production center

2011 – “Sensations” (Belgian roadshow) Artistic direction Steven Martin Product launch roadshow ‘bring a commercial to life’

BIO

2009 – ”Rebel, Rebel” (Groot-Bijgaarden) Artistic direction Steven Martin Product launch show for Citroën

2009 – “Le Nouveau Cirque” (Hasselt, Ethias Arena) Artistic direction Steven Martin Dinner show for Ethias

BIO

2009 – ”Man: Power” (Athens) Artistic direction Steven Martin Product launch show for Toyota Material Handling Europe

2008 – “Tonero” (Marbella) Artistic direction Steven Martin Product launch show for Toyota Material Handling Europe

BIO

2009 – ”12.000 Diamonds” (Antwerp, 12.000p, Sportpaleis) Artistic direction Steven Martin Company show for Familiehulp, winner of Silver Benelux Event Award

2010 – “Visions” (Willebroek) Artistic direction Steven Martin Fashion show for Luxottica

BIO

2010 – ”Le Grand Vert” (Charleroi, Spiroudôme) Artistic direction Steven Martin Finale show to emphasize on tha main conference theme

2012 – “Love Help” (Lint, 4.000p, Eurocam Media Center) Artistic direction Steven Martin Company show for Wit Gele Kruis, current nominee for Benelux Event Award

BIO

2012 – ”25” (Aalst, theatre show) Artistic direction Steven Martin Theatre show for 25th anniversary of our dance school and dance squad

2012 – “My Vision” (Aalst, theatre show) Artistic direction Steven Martin Michael Jackson tribute show by Christ’OF (Europe’s nr. 1 Michael Jackson impersonator)

My working procedures Allow me to give you an insight

in my working habits

PROCESS

STEP 1 - Finding the clients by scanning markets and opportunities, launching ideas, networking and lobbying (my clients are as well event agencies as officials/institutional clients/enterprises at this time) STEP 2 – Acquire the briefing, analyse and set up the creative and production team STEP 3 – Researching, brainstorming, finding of inspiration… STEP 4 – Create the storyline, writer the actual storyboard and start visualizing/illustrating it, bringing the story to life STEP 5 – Looking for partners and talent, preparing budget study STEP 6 – Creation of presentation document and budget study / business plan

PROCESS

STEP 7 – Presentation and sales pitch to get the job confirmed STEP 8 – Fine-tuning and testing of concept, rewriting, re-desiging... Imagining the show, the concept over and over again... Experiencing and testing it to make sure the ‘magic’ works. STEP 9 – Production of all elements of the show:

- travel and acocmodation - logistics and technicals - special effects - people and talents - software and programming - rehearsals and test lab - ...

PROCESS

STEP 10 – Continuous financial supervision and checks STEP 11 – Start building on site STEP 12 – Start programming / Mise-en-Scène STEP 13 – Rehearsals STEP 14 – Opening show: public relations, networking, publicity STEP 15 – Recurring shows: follow-up, supervision of teams, keeping them ‘sharp’, repairs, rehearsals, trainings…. STEP 16 – Final closing of budgets, financial closing report and opening new business opportunities for future projects with the same client.

MY ACTIVE PARTICIPATION

I remind you that on my level of show production budgets and briefings force us to become very ‘polyvalent’ so that we can provide professional results in many services. Therefor you might get the impression that I (think to be able to) do everything myself, which is of course impossible. However a lot of things i can do and these things are used in my working proces:

ANALYSIS OF BRIEFING, RESEARCH, INSPIRATION AND BRAINSTORMING As i also teach at Karel De Grote Hogeschool in Antwerp on business event marketing as well as creative techniques and brainstorming, I know very well the importance of a good brainstorming to inspire the creative team. I very often organize brainstorming sessions with the class of my 9 and 10 year old daugthers. I have a series of experienced creative people for brainstormings as well as total externals, giving an extra ‘’pure’ vision on the project.

MY ACTIVE PARTICIPATION

STORY WRITING I write the basic story and think about the images and feelings I want my audience to experience, depending on the tone of voice needed in the story I have a series of ghostwriters/authors I work with to create a more poetic experience in the show. Often I do this myself when there is no budget for an external writer.

ILLUSTRATING & CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT A whole range of interesting techniques exist to present your storyline. Varying from the artistic roughs and traditional storyboards to a whole range of audiovisual tools: 3d renders, animated movies, video mock-ups... For projects with limited or no budgets I create these documents myself in Sketchup, Photoshop, Premiere... A part from that I have a small team of freelance top experts in 3D, graphic design, roughing, storyboarding, scenographic design, lighting design....

MY ACTIVE PARTICIPATION

TECHNICAL STUDIES & CREATIVE DEVELOPMENT A whole range of interesting techniques exist to present your storyline. Varying from the artistic roughs and traditional storyboards to a whole range of audiovisual tools: 3d renders, animated movies, video mock-ups... For projects with limited or no budgets I create these documents myself in Sketchup, Photoshop, Premiere... A part from that I have a small team of freelance top experts in 3D, graphic design, roughing, storyboarding, scenographic design, lighting design....

THE STORY

THE STORY

THE STORY

THE STORY

THE STORY

MY ACTIVE PARTICIPATION

PRODUCTION AND COSTING All of my productions are being managed on a ‘live’ principle. I insist on having a clear view at any time of what the team is doing, what still needs to be done and most of all where we are in terms of budget. With over 17 years of experience I have had the time and missions to be able to put in place my own working procedure based upoin some key documents (although they off course vary depending on the charachteristics of the mission: Briefing > analysis > concept draft > research > storyboard > scenario > show flow > roadbook > cue list Backed up at all time by a live costing/business plan for the job. Some examples (as I take the discretion of my clients very seriously, I can only show documents from past events/shows).

What moves me? You asked me what

moved me emotionally recently

WHAT MOVES ME?

Just some elements I think of… MY DAUGTHERS First of all my daugthers are my main source of inspiration and everyday motivation, I am a very active dad and relive their youth and discoveries with them.

THEATRE/SHOW I can be amazed and positively jealous at easy but impressive creative ideas, showing the real human power of imagination and phantasy. Technologically spectacular shows amaze me from their complexety but most of the time they impress me less (for example the Opening show of the Olympics which was beautiful in each of its details due to the ‘cinematographic approach’ (what companies like Dragone have been doing for years) but which for me was a huge barnum of too much and not well staged chaos. Only resting point for me was for that matter the choreography with ‘only’ 50 dancers).

WHAT MOVES ME?

PHOTOGRAPHY / ART David La Chapelle and his vision to create photo’s like they were 3d real life Photoshop artwork. In my opinion images in phot and video are an underestimated art form, event with all the creativity of videomapping techniques people still consider them as ‘only TV’. Therefor one movie that really impressed me nevertheless the public opinion (they just did not get it) was Moulin Rouge.

SHOW CITIES & BUILDINGS WITH HISTORY Broadway, Moulin Rouge, Crazy Horse, Le Cirque d’Hiver, Kodak Theatre, Tuchinsky, Carré, Opera House… I am very sensible to the magic of time, and imagining inside these theatres and on their stages what this building already lived… wow!!

WHAT MOVES ME?

TINTIN AND THE TEMPLE OF THE SUN A beautoful show production in musical, unfortunately only a few people had the pleasure of experiencing it live due to a corrupt French booking agent causing the production company to go down. It was impressive in scenography both as in its creation of a cartoopn world on stage, picture frames and all.

SLAVA’S SNOW SHOW So minimalistic, so intense and everything balanced perfectly. I am a fan.

ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER A genious and pillar of the entertainment world

WHAT MOVES ME?

BLUE MAN GROUP The way they use the stage and most of all the audience keeps surprising me. Great concept.

MOST SHOWS BY DRAGONE, CIRQUE DU SOLEIL , MAYUMANA, MATERIALI RESISTENTI… We would not be talking if your productions and the ones of you most direct competitors would not touch me. Creating a dream world of magic for an audience to live during a short time, but with memories that will last forever. That is what I want to mean to others in this life.

AND SO MUCH MORE… Circus Ronaldo, Okidok, Béjart, Peter Pan, Franco Dragone (of course), Magritte, Light Art, Tate Museum… Life itself is a stage of inspirations. Thank you ‘whoever’ for allowing me to be living it.

WHAT MOVES ME?

Looking forward to continue our conversations.

Steven Martin

Live the emotion www.architectofemotion.com

+32 479 550 235

steven@architectofemotion.com