Briefingroom on LiveDesignOnline: Luc Peumans from Genk, Belgium based creative visual design practice, Painting With Light, has designed lighting for the new “Ice Age Live” show, a vibrant stage adaptation of the 20th Century Fox ‘Ice Age’ animation movies featuring the same much loved characters and a new story.
15 comments:
Wow, this show truly sounds magical. I don't even like the Ice Age movies, but this article has me dying to see the on-ice show. It's incredible the way so many elements of technology can be connected and synched now for performances so smooth, it seems as though inanimate objects really are moving and talking. It is also intriguing that one of the co-directors also designed the costumes and built the animals. That is quite some multitasking, and if there were one person I could interview about the show's entire process, it would most definitely be him, since he would have such a wide, many-viewed perspective on how the show fits together and works so well.
I would be really interested to see this show. A typical piece of theatre is adapted from a text but when you already have a visual representation I feel like that provides insight with its own chalenges. I think for the costumes specifically that must have been quite a challenge to go from an animation stand point to a physical costume. I also think the lighting in regards to the ice posed a serious problem. The easiest method would be to have ice that you take with you for each performance but with something that travels so much that simply is not an option. So in a way it is like making ice using lighting I think that is truly an interesting proposition.
I was never a big fan of the Ice Age movies, but this show sounds like a real specticle. The costumes sound like they could have really great potential. They could go very cartoonish, which is what I would imagine for ice age, a more child friendly enterprise or they could go more edgy like the Lion King did on Broadway which worked out amazingly. Also as Emma mentioned the intereation between the actors and the technology could be really facinating. It is important to make sure the technology is apart of the story and production and not just a fancy piece slapped on during tech.
They're turring another movie into a live show? Really? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for adaptations between media. When they brought Newsies from film to stage it worked out, but that is quite different from going from and animated film to a live show. If how to train your dragon is any testament to this then this will not be good. Sure it's a great way to get some money from small children and their parents but that doesn't make it good theater. Really its just sad that this is what theater has come to.
I have always been slightly bias against shows like this. However, this one seems to have a good premise. While I haven't been the biggest fan of the Ice Age movies, they have provided several laughs for many people over the years. While I am always down for a good story, this particular production looks like it will fulfill my need for spectical. Everything from the set to the lighting to the larger then life costumes leads me to believe that it will be a visually stunning show all around. However, I would also like to echo that Jenni said. This may just be another "on ice" adaptation with no value whatsoever. I when to see "How to Train your Dragon Spectaular" and while the technology took my breath away, the story was more then lacking. I hope that this production takes what was learned from that and makes it better.
Thought this was pretty cool. I am through impressed to read that all of this fits into one single truck. I was just amazed in all the ways that started to integrate the different mechanisms of lighting, media, sound, and animatronic into one seamless and smooth production. Realizing that it takes a lot of work to make it "seamless and smooth".
I personally think that this type of project would be really fun and challenging to bring to life a beloved movie. Reminds me a lot of How to train your dragon from earlier this year.
I disagree with what Jenni has said. These types of ice shows aren't really theater. Comparing these ice shows to theatrical productions is like comparing rock concerts to opera. I don't find it "sad" at all that these types of performances have developed. Sure, they're main audience are small children and their parents, and their main goal is to make money, but it's another medium for designers and production personnel to become involved in. These shows mean more jobs for more artists and technicians. How can someone working in theater complain about that? If you're going to say that anything that goes out with the purpose to make money shouldn't be permitted in our world of art, then you're immediately shutting yourself off to commercial theaters and fabrication shops, concerts, the circus, television, and a whole myriad of other things that people in our industry work with. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it doesn't change a child's world. Who knows, maybe seeing this will make a child want to grow up and be the person that designs all the costumes, or who lights the arena. This is also far from the first ice show of it's type. Disney has been creating and touring ice shows for as long as I can remember. Children's television shows have also gone on tour as ice shows (Dora the Explorer comes to mind). Why is it that when Disney does it it's ok, but when another enterprise tries the same thing with another movie (and in the process creates an amazing lighting design), it gets ridiculed?
I think I have to agree with Jess. At first I did kind of see these shows as theatre because they were live and not film. But now I'm beginning to see that there can be an in-between. This is more of a spectacle than an artful message but that doesn't mean it can't be a great way for designers to show their stuff. In fact it seems like shows like this are the ones pushing the new technology even further when it comes to automation and projection. I'm really quite intrigued by the ability of Pandora's Box to now sync with voice and movement. It looks like people are doing some really amazing things these days and I'm excited to see more.
It sucks to know that Ice Age has now become a live production.. but aside from that, it is pretty cool to know how they put the show together. "Painting with light" seems like such an innovative design choice that seems to pose a great challenge, especially complementing with costumes and working with the story of the show itself. I feel if I were to watch this show I'd be more interested in looking at the fixtures themselves and the design aspects than the story and the show itself.
I wish this article had more pictures or at least allowed the two pictures included to be clicked on and viewed in a larger window. I've always been fascinated with how to bring beloved films to life--especially when so much of the film is distinctly cinematic and includes very little that could be portrayed realistically on stage. It appears that Ice Age Live takes a more realistic approach, with giant costumes doing their best to duplicate the animated animals from the film. Or you could take the Julie Taymor approach to The Lion King (remember that? that show she did before Spiderman) and make a distinctly theatrical piece. Both can be successful. I guess it just depends on the individual project.
It looks to me like this came to be most likely due to the recent success of the live adaptation of the "How to Train Your Dragon" movie. I have a suspicion this is not the last live movie adaptation we will see either. It has too good of a recipe for success. Find a popular children's movie, design a big budget show with a grand set full of expansive media design and lighting rigs, make sure its portable, take it around the country, bring in lots of cash. Done deal.
I totally agree with what the last sentence of the article says: "The audience get to see the characters they love up close and become immersed in the story with them." Reading at this article, I was amused by how even a famous animation is turning into a live show. I think there is no limit on how much a theatrical art can reach. Especially for this show, I think there should have been a lot of challenges because first of all, audience's imagination on how the characters and background look like is already fixed due to the movie. Not only the animation had a lot of intricate details in character's appearance, but also the background was even elaborate and beautiful due to computer generated system. Therefore, transforming those ideas into one set might have been very hard. Also, I agree with what Alex Kane said how going from an animation stand point to a physical costumes might be really hard. However, it still looks fantastic. I think the effect of the lighting design that helps animate characters and ice-scene will definitely look amazing. I would definitely want to have a chance to see this show, especially the lighting part.
Wow. This show sounds great. From the pictures themselves, the beams of light look like jagged pieces of ice, and the gels used give an overall cold feeling to the viewer. The custom items used were very interesting to hear about; the starlit sky especially. I liked how they used the LED lights rather than projections, and it sounds like the sky is able to completely surround the stage. This will give a very life-like effect as well as make the stage look infinitely longer. I would like to find out what kind of gobo patterns they used to get the texture of the ice. Overall, I think this show sounds really fun.
Wow this is awesome! As some others have said, I'm not a big fan of the Ice Age movies, but this live show sounds really cool. Lighting the ice and props with lights to give them their proper textures and effects seems really ingenious, albeit fairly simple. I'd also be interested to see how the animal costumes were translated from animation to real life. I think it's really cool that they're bringing the animated film to life through theatre, reaching a whole new generation of kids!
I have no doubt that the technology in this show is great. I am sure that they have done a nice job in storytelling, but I do feel that sometimes a movie is best left as a movie. I am not speaking specifically about Ice Age because this may be a nice treat for families. And it is a chance to get children into the theater, but shows like Catch me if you Can, legally blonde, bring it on, and I could go on...come on. Have we run out of new ideas? or is it all for the quan.
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