THE GUY SHOWING US THAT BIG IDEAS CAN BE ACHIEVED ON SMALL BUDGETS: David Liu, 35, director, Aeronaut VR music video

With Aeronaut VR, a virtual reality music video starring Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins, David Liu became the first Singaporean to win the Digital Craft Grand Prix at this year’s prestigious Cannes Lion awards. He nabbed the accolade together with his co-director, Rob Ruffler, vice-president of Viacom Next.

The collaboration with the rock star might not have happened if David, who was working as creative director of VR at Viacom Next in New York, hadn’t met Ken Waagner from digital agency Isobar. Through him, David found out that Corgan was interested in the new possibilities VR technology presented, but had visions of a project on a mega level.

With David’s colleague, Rob, they managed to pivot frontman Corgan from a big-budget mindset to a more low-cost, low-key approach, but with ideas that were still grand in scale. They proposed something that could be done quickly and in time for his Aeronaut single launch, off his second solo album Ogilala, which was just a few months away from being released.

Rock great Corgan was sold. Rob persuaded Microsoft to give them unprecedented access to its proprietary holographic capture technology – Mixed Reality Capture Studios, which makes it possible to capture a performer in a photorealistic way for virtual reality and other fully 3-D applications. They used it to capture Corgan performing Aeronaut, and added stunning backgrounds – watch the dazzling video on the Internet.

It turned out to be a win-win for all, an approach David champions: “It is my hope that Aeronaut VR has pushed the envelope a little, inspiring filmmakers and creators all over to experiment with new mediums and not be too precious about how stories ‘should’ be told,” he says. “I hope that my win… will offer some credence to those of us who trudge through visionary new work that often doesn’t have a reliable quantitative return on investment.”