To coincide with the debut of his short film "Cruel Summer," Kanye West created an impressive seven-screen theater for his audience to enjoy the piece, providing audiences a completely new viewing experience.
Kanye West on 'Cruel Summer'
"It related to a post-Steve Jobs, post-Windows era, where we're always on our BlackBerry in a ball game or at the movies," West said. "I was very particular about having the screens separate, where your mind puts the screens back together, the way you put memories together. I'm not the best director in the world, but I had an idea that I thought would be amazing to inspire people, like a dream of one day this being the way people watch movies. You know, [Quentin] Tarantino doing a movie like this or a horror movie like this, animation, 3-D ... in this form that surrounds you. People want to go back and see it more and more because they missed something to their left or to their right, and it feels more like the experience of life."
The concept and physical structure was created by West's creative firm DONDA, alongside New York architectural firm OMA. The seven-sided Pyramid sat 200 guest before seven 17' x 17' displays. Created to immerse the audience within the space, the theater was specifically built for the film, which was shot on a custom seven-camera rig.
