Live Design: Raymond St-Jean, image content designer for Zarkana, made his Cirque du Soleil debut with Zaia in Macau (2007-08), and began work on Zarkana two and a half years ago. “We knew had a huge 40’x90’ Panasonic LED video wall in-house at Radio City Music Hall, and the set was designed with that in mind,” he notes, pointing out that there are three arches, or portals, on the set, one of which is also LED to add to the big screen look in the back.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Zarkana: Video Design
Live Design: Raymond St-Jean, image content designer for Zarkana, made his Cirque du Soleil debut with Zaia in Macau (2007-08), and began work on Zarkana two and a half years ago. “We knew had a huge 40’x90’ Panasonic LED video wall in-house at Radio City Music Hall, and the set was designed with that in mind,” he notes, pointing out that there are three arches, or portals, on the set, one of which is also LED to add to the big screen look in the back.
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6 comments:
its fascinating the new wave of media we have coming into our vary styles of theatrical experiences. after speaking recently with a friend of one of the heads of cirques design team out west , i learned how new this medium is as thier are so few media designers out there and with the field growing and expanding as fast as it is it would be a wise field to study right now, funny thing about that is that we are one of the only schools you could really study it at and i found that to be one of those moments where you gotta appreciate being at such an innovative school
What media and projection are just beginning to do for live performance is remarkable. It is truly becoming a major tool in enhancing not only the design of the overall piece but also the effects which are seen in the show. We are starting to see media design drip down into the collegiate level, particularly at Carnegie Mellon where it is being incorporated into mainstage pieces more and more frequently and is on its way to becoming a concentration within the School of Drama. This goes to show that innovations with this type of technology within the industry are far from coming to a halt.
As a Stage Manager I find the motion sensor technology fascinating. That when the wheel moves the technology follows. Sometimes finding the timing for things like that is hard and this allows a more foolproof method to it all. Will this making calling a show obsolete? I will be interested in following the progression of this kind of technology in the next several years.
i cant help but compare this media to the media in spider man. with out seeing spider-man or zarkana i have to base my opinions on on what i have read. now that i have said this looks a lot more holistic than the spider-man media design. i think the media in zarkana was created with the set design in mind from the beginning to the end. this seems to make make the media much more entertaining, like a lot of good light and sound production it helps to better immerse you in the production not distract you. spider-man in contrast had a ton of visual history and the media design ended up falling into that trap instead of a cohesive design.
One of the coolest parts of this article is when they talk about the wheel of death actually controlling the media behind it. Projected behind the wheel of death are lots of wheels,cogs, and gear that stop, start, speed up and slow down as the wheel of death itself does. This interaction of the physical with the digital really ties everything together and demonstrates an appropriate use of media. We are always trying to decide when is media necessary and one answer is when it adds to the show, not detracts or distracts. Making the connection between the aerialist, the machine, and the media add another dimension never before possible.
I'm very interested to see how media will continue to be incorporated into live events, specifically theatre. I've seen some productions where media really contributed to the show, and others where it didn't.
I think some productions use media because they think that it will instantly make their show more accesible to audiences - especially in such a content-saturated generation. However, there are some shows where media has felt like an after thought - it was low quality, unincorporated, and unnecessary.
Sometimes shows don't require a huge costume budget, or sometimes a sparse set is better suited for the action of the play. Similarly, not all shows need media.
This all being said, I am extremely interested in media and video production and I would love to explore that here at Carnegie Mellon
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