SCENERY: Video

[On_Headset]

I've been involved with 4 shows which used video projection of some type, and, to be perfectly frank, none of them did a good job with it. In some cases it was such a minor part of the production that nobody paid much attention to it, undermining its purpose, while in the fourth case it was SO front-and-centre that we might as well have just shown a movie and sent the actors home. I've also rarely seen it used to particularly good effect as an audience member--in fact, the only times I've seen video used well are when it is explicitly used as a device within the show (to cover costume changes, to introduce settings, etc.) or when video is projected directly onto performers, which sometimes happens in dance pieces.

Video is an emergent technology within theatre, particularly in community and educational theatre, and part of the problem might also be down to budgets. (If your budget for video is "find royalty-free stuff and plug it into Windows Movie Maker", then, yes, the end-product will probably not be terribly exciting.) So I'm curious: have you ever been involved in a production, or seen a show, which did video really really well? How was it used, and how did its use differ from weaker applications you've seen?

[missliz]

I've done two shows that used projections in very different ways. In the first, they were used to sort of heighten the drama and were very clearly theatrical (animations of birds flying overhead, projected on the actresses). In the second, they were clearly slides accompanying two major lectures/monologues (maps, photos, etc). In both cases, we hired a video designer, separate from the set designer. I think this was incredibly helpful because things could be tweaked to our individual needs, and the video designer was involved in the rehearsal process and understood the style of the show. It was definitely a better decision than trying to put something together from royalty-free images.

[babens]

Two very effective uses of projections.

The original Broadway production of Evita, directed by Hal Prince.  Great use of projections, both slides and video, in helping to set some of the historical context of the show.

The recent Broadway revival of Sunday in the Park with George.  Just absolutely stunning use of video, including replacing the original cardboard cut-outs the original used for the "Putting It Together" sequence with projections of George that "interacted" with the various actors in that number.

[kiwitechgirl]

I saw the British touring version of Les Miserables back in May and the use of video was fantastic - the fact that the projections were based on Victor Hugo's original drawings helped!  I'm always dubious when anyone says that they want to use projection in a show, as I've seen it used very badly as well as very well.

I did a gig with the Sydney Dance Company last year where they used video brilliantly - they projected onto a green "slash" curtain (backed with a smother) which looked amazing - accompanied by a banging soundtrack, and then projected static backdrops onto the cyc - but they had done it properly, spent the money and had the proper gear to make it work!  I also worked on a show last year about two retired couples travelling around Italy, and to cover scene changes the director had the idea of getting people's holiday video footage of Venice, Rome and a couple of other places, and our video designer created montages out of them all.  It was a nice idea and actually worked pretty well (we put an appeal in the city paper for footage, and people were more than happy to give it to us!) - it set the scene nicely.

On the flip side, we did a show a little while back where the set was a grey box with no front or back; the back was a white cyc which the set designer wanted to project different images onto for different locations.  Getting the footage was no problem, but projecting it was a whole other kettle of fish.  We couldn't rear-project as the cyc was virtually on the back wall, and front-projection was very problematic as it would have hit the actors before the cyc, creating nasty shadows.  So we spent a fortune on a short-throw projector, but even with it we still couldn't get a large enough image that was completely in focus, as even the short-throw wasn't designed to project an image as big as we wanted it.  It didn't look wonderful, and it also created huge problems for the lighting designer as he had been forced to bring his frontlight in very flat, because of the roof on the set, and of course it then spilled onto the projection screen, causing problems with the visibility of the projections.  All in all it was not a good experience, and looked far from good.

I go onto a production of Cabaret in a few weeks, and I know the lighting designer (who is also a video designer) is planning to use a projector coming in from either side - but he wants them as a lighting effect (beams in the air and effects on the floor) and not to project specific images.  He's planned for this right from the word go and I think it'll be absolutely fine, because it's integrated with his lighting design and the show, and not a bolt-on "solution" for a problem caused by the set designer.

Operation of video can also be problematic - for years we've been running off DVD players, which I hate, but we haven't had the budget for a better solution.  Recently we got some funding to buy Arkaos and a laptop to run it off, so now our video is triggered off the lighting desk, which has made all the difference in the world!  I operated a show earlier this year where we had two video sequences (in the script - the characters made a couple of short videos which the audience then see) and we actually ended up running them off VHS!  The show was set in 1995, and the video designer was busy degrading his footage so that it would look like it was running off VHS, when it suddenly struck him that we could just run it off a VHS which would make everybody's life easier!  And I have to say, it was a breeze to operate; when you hit PLAY on a DVD it spins the disc up, thinks a bit, then plays the track, so you have to pre-cue it then pause it and hope that you did it late enough that it won't stop, having been on pause for too long; with a VHS you hit PLAY, the tape rolls and it starts instantly!  It was dead easy to cue up - I'd just run the tape through to the right time, then hit STOP - no faffing with the pause button!

[lauria]

I've been involved with one production that I felt really made projections work. We used a cyc painted to look like the sky as the backdrop to project on. The projections were really useful in furthering the story and dropped hints about the terrible accident that shook the town ten years prior to when the show took place. They seemed to stem from what was going on in the main character's mind.

A professional was used to create the video and they were really well done. We basically did a remount with new cast from the original production and kept the design team, so we were able to use the same video as in the original production, with some changes where a character was seen or heard.

When I first read the script I thought, "There's absolutely no way we can possibly do this onstage." There were lots of clever ways to tell the story and the projections became one of them. We played them off of a DVD, and most nights everything synced up. I know that there was one sequence in particular that was very tricky to time out and it didn't usually go perfectly.

[SMfairy]

I stage managed an original dance piece which used video projection on the floor as well as on a cyc which was very effective. They were images which the lighting designer had created. Some were of natural images, and other were of the dancers dancing certain excerpts of the piece which were then played at varying speeds. The floor projection, particularly, created some interesting effects. It was used more as a lighting tool rather than being a stand-alone entity. It informed the piece, but it wasn't essential to the understanding of it-it purely presented an interesting artistic dynamic to the piece.

On a side note, I have also seen the 25th Anniversary production of Les Miserables in England and also did a week of work experience with them, and I found the projection used in this production to add so much to the show. I loved it!

[bex]

I've worked on one show that used a combination of video & projections, and another that used just projections. 

The one with video & projection was a dance piece that was inspired by a letter written to the choreographer by a friend of hers serving in Iraq, and the video was a combination of a voiceover of the letter itself with pictures of his unit, pictures from the news of soldiers' funerals, etc. and some dynamic text using words from the letter.  There was also a portion of the dance that was performed with a projection of the American flag on the dancers' bodies. We used QLab to sync everything together, and it worked really well in my opinion (technically, anyway. The choreography left something to be desired, but I had no control over that...).

The other production we used projections in was in Lynn Nottage's Intimate Apparel.  Each scene in the script has a title, and the scenic designer had laundry lines strung above the set, with the center piece of laundry being a bed sheet folded over the line.  We used the sheet as a projection screen for the titles of each scene.  We also used it to solve the problem that the script calls for the end of each act to end as a photograph with a caption- we had a flash and then fade down to a sepia-tone wash and the actors froze in place as the caption of the photo was projected above them.  It was REALLY subtle, but it worked really well, I think.

[Tempest]

I'm doing a show with video, right now.  It's still in development with the playwright, so we've acutally cut some that was called for within the play, and are just using three sections: One leading into the top of the show, one leading into the top of act two, and some throwaway footage after curtain call.  It acutally seems to be working out pretty well.  We're just projecting across the set walls, so that's not a problem.

We're using Q-lab to send it to the projectors, and there hasn't been a bit of problem with that aspect of it.  Adding fades, layering sound, and linking up light ques to the video has been a dream.  We have had a bit of a problem with projectors.  One of them has a sleep timer on it that we haven't been able to disable, so goes out if one of the acts runs a minute or two long.  The other is hung over the audience and the fan is pretty noisy.  And they're projecting some light, even when they're not projecting, so I've got two tie-line strings coming into my booth to work the manual dowsers (which occasionally get hung up).  But, overall it's been a good experience.

Video tip for Q-lab folks!  If you're using a lot of video make sure your video designer sets it up as all the same format!  I know Q-lab will run multiple formats even at the same time, but it can casuse instability and spontaneous crashing.  Two years ago, I was doing a musical with canned music and lots of projections, MIDI gos for the light cues.  HEAVY Q-lab stuff.  The first two weeks, it kept crashing on me, never in the same place, about every other show.  Finally, we chatted with Q-lab support, and they suggested putting all the video in the same format.  Never crashed again.

[bex]

Video tip for Q-lab folks!  If you're using a lot of video make sure your video designer sets it up as all the same format!  I know Q-lab will run multiple formats even at the same time, but it can casuse instability and spontaneous crashing.  Two years ago, I was doing a musical with canned music and lots of projections, MIDI gos for the light cues.  HEAVY Q-lab stuff.  The first two weeks, it kept crashing on me, never in the same place, about every other show.  Finally, we chatted with Q-lab support, and they suggested putting all the video in the same format.  Never crashed again.

Thanks for the tip! The theatre I'm working at now has me running lights & sound out of QLab and it's a brand-new experience for me (I've never actually run it myself, I've always had a board-op...), so I appreciate any Q-Lab tips I get.

[maximillionx]

Video tip for Q-lab folks!  If you're using a lot of video make sure your video designer sets it up as all the same format!  I know Q-lab will run multiple formats even at the same time, but it can casuse instability and spontaneous crashing.  Two years ago, I was doing a musical with canned music and lots of projections, MIDI gos for the light cues.  HEAVY Q-lab stuff.  The first two weeks, it kept crashing on me, never in the same place, about every other show.  Finally, we chatted with Q-lab support, and they suggested putting all the video in the same format.  Never crashed again.

Thanks for the tip! The theatre I'm working at now has me running lights & sound out of QLab and it's a brand-new experience for me (I've never actually run it myself, I've always had a board-op...), so I appreciate any Q-Lab tips I get.

I am opening a show this evening with video.  I also run everything with Qlab.  Excellent program.  Any questions bex, I'd be happy to help.

I find that video cues can be superfluous at times and can be vital in others.  In Best Little Whorehouse, we used a projector for the TV show segment (superfluous).  In I Am My Own Wife, we used a projector to help the audience identify what Charlotte was describing and where the play was moving next (important). In my current show, we're using images of clocks to stress the theme of time and death while also setting the location (car clock, kitchen clock, etc...).  For the last two examples, we're also in the round and have minimal seating.  For Whorehouse, we were proscenium with lots o' set.  I've also seen a production where I couldn't make heads or tails of what they were showing.  It was just plain distracting.

[MatthewShiner]

Projections that are done well are amazing . . . the ones on Broadway in Fela right now do an amazing job in helping tell the story, and also create atmosphere.  But, there are a whole bunch of projectors - I could go back and just watch the picture of the mother.

Some of the projections Cirque use are amazing.

I think it's a new emergent technology - and to really pull it off well, needs a good designer, very pricey equipment and a director and creative team who are willing to give it the time, attention and money it needs.

[LizzG]

I agree with MatthewShiner, most of the time to pull it off you need a large budget. 

The show I'm currently working on is one of those - we have the "video wall" technology being used by the major concert tours.  The upstage wall is a complete LED screen, while we have 4 more smaller video walls that fly in and out, and a hi-res video screen that is automated and can split into three different sections (each section travels horizontally and vertically).  We also have a rear projector to project onto a cyc.  It is really amazing what the designer and programmer made this show into with all the technology, and it works so very very well.  But I've also been involved with much smaller productions where projections were used, and not nearly as efficiently.

[Cedes]

On a recent mount of "A Comedy Of Errors" that I staged managed, we hired a separate designer for the projections, which was a slideshow on a gigantic "laptop screen" and a live video chat (intranet) projected onto a smaller screen in front of the second fire curtian at top of show. 

Another show I recently saw using projections/video is the remount of Roger Waters does "The Wall" and it was absolutely amazing how they used projections on the wall and the 15 foot diameter screen upstage.

[shatbox]

Does anyone have experience running video off Isadora? I hear it is a fantastic program.

sBox

[NomieRae]

Does anyone have experience running video off Isadora? I hear it is a fantastic program.

All of the best projection/video designs I've seen or had in shows I've done have been through isadora. It's an amazing program which is able to literally do almost anything.. the big caveat: you have to have someone who knows how to program it. It's not a point & click user friendly software that is fast to learn like Qlab is. It's all programming, and it takes about twice as long to program, scale, keystone, and troubleshoot as you think it will.

I've had a great experience with it where we had a bevy of programmers, an extraordinary designer and plenty of time and money. I've also had a terrible experience with it where we had one designer, no time, no money, and ultimately it didn't look as nice.