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Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Rockettes Dance To New Projections
Live Design: The Rockettes are more technology savvy than ever before in the latest version of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, which opened on November 16, 2011 and runs through January 2, 2012.
It is always fun to see projection design developing within the industry, especially when those displayed are beautiful. The ones the Rockettes danced to were especially well designed. They set the mood of the hall for both the performance as well as the holidays. It goes to show that projection design can serve as a integral part of a performance - that it does not simply need to be an extraneous bit added in after the fact. I believe that is more big names such as this incorporate these types of design, then they will become a more widespread trend and develop more quickly in their smoothness as designs. Also, more schools than CMU need media programs! IT is vital to the developing theatre world today.
The projection across the entire dome of the Music Hall is pretty stunning! In that space, it presents a huge canvas to wrap the theatre into the world of the musical number, and with a big spectacular like the Rockettes, every bit counts. I was impressed by the 3D animations and was wondering about the interactivity of them. The dancers seemed to be blocked into outlines on the floor - is this for motion tracking to synchronize the dancers onstage with the projection? And what system is being used to control this synchronization?
When I first saw this clip and looked at the description, I was a little skeptical as to how this altered show was going to pull this off. I think that it is a nice new change, it will certainly be a different experience to the audience. What is also nice is that the show is now stepping up the whimsical nature of Christmas with this kind of performance. I know that younger children tend to see this performance and are inspired by the performance. Now, they are exposed to a whole other branch of art and can opt for the technology aspects of entertainment. I hope this works out for the Rockettes, it will be incredible when they pull this off.
Great idea to bring new life to an old show by introducing 3D technologies. Based on the preview video, it looks like there is a lot of opportunity to innovate. New approaches to choreography and totally different dance / movement styles will come of this adventure, which is pretty cool. I do hope that the way the dancers and projection interact doesn't get lost. Otherwise, it will be the usual show with a film behind it, and the two will no longer inform and involve each other.
This is great and sad what they are doing this with the rockets. I fell that they are messing with something that should not be messed with and they should let it stay very similar to the way it has been forever. If they wanted to do this they should have left the original and added this version to their repertoire. I am glad that they are working with 3d on a stage but it seems very gimmicky with the things that they are showing. I just wonder how much of the show a 3d show is with actors doing stupid things. I hope they are successful with this but I also hope that they maybe go back to the original and allow people to see both.
5 comments:
It is always fun to see projection design developing within the industry, especially when those displayed are beautiful. The ones the Rockettes danced to were especially well designed. They set the mood of the hall for both the performance as well as the holidays. It goes to show that projection design can serve as a integral part of a performance - that it does not simply need to be an extraneous bit added in after the fact. I believe that is more big names such as this incorporate these types of design, then they will become a more widespread trend and develop more quickly in their smoothness as designs. Also, more schools than CMU need media programs! IT is vital to the developing theatre world today.
The projection across the entire dome of the Music Hall is pretty stunning! In that space, it presents a huge canvas to wrap the theatre into the world of the musical number, and with a big spectacular like the Rockettes, every bit counts. I was impressed by the 3D animations and was wondering about the interactivity of them. The dancers seemed to be blocked into outlines on the floor - is this for motion tracking to synchronize the dancers onstage with the projection? And what system is being used to control this synchronization?
When I first saw this clip and looked at the description, I was a little skeptical as to how this altered show was going to pull this off. I think that it is a nice new change, it will certainly be a different experience to the audience. What is also nice is that the show is now stepping up the whimsical nature of Christmas with this kind of performance. I know that younger children tend to see this performance and are inspired by the performance. Now, they are exposed to a whole other branch of art and can opt for the technology aspects of entertainment. I hope this works out for the Rockettes, it will be incredible when they pull this off.
Great idea to bring new life to an old show by introducing 3D technologies. Based on the preview video, it looks like there is a lot of opportunity to innovate. New approaches to choreography and totally different dance / movement styles will come of this adventure, which is pretty cool. I do hope that the way the dancers and projection interact doesn't get lost. Otherwise, it will be the usual show with a film behind it, and the two will no longer inform and involve each other.
This is great and sad what they are doing this with the rockets. I fell that they are messing with something that should not be messed with and they should let it stay very similar to the way it has been forever. If they wanted to do this they should have left the original and added this version to their repertoire. I am glad that they are working with 3d on a stage but it seems very gimmicky with the things that they are showing. I just wonder how much of the show a 3d show is with actors doing stupid things. I hope they are successful with this but I also hope that they maybe go back to the original and allow people to see both.
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