et cetera...: San Diego Opera used creativity and all the tools at their disposal to stage a full run of the opera classic La Bohème recently. Presented as a drive-in experience in the parking lot of a local sports arena, the opera came together under tight constraints. Luckily for the lighting team, ETC’s suite of lighting tools on the Eos 3.0 platform, including the Augment3d visualizing software, was there to give a high-tech assist to this classic opera.
4 comments:
While the implementation of Eos 3.0 platform was interesting, the other guidelines for the show explained in this article was also shocking. Having the specific distance restrictions for various circumstances (when actors are facing each other or looking away from each other) seems to be a huge challenge for blocking although it would be assisted by the Augment3d program, and I think it was very wise of the director to use this feature as a tool by making a core character as a ghost. As much as it is shown differently from the typical performances, and extra efforts are being spent for a production, I think it would become more unforgettable memory for the audience that are watching it. While I am worried that they would be extremely vulnerable to severe weather conditions, I appreciate how this performance became a new tool to explore the recent technologies in an idealistic way.
Augment3D is a really powerful tool that I only started to take advantage of last year, during our class projects in the light lab. I can only imagine how helpful it is to those who are working on actual productions under time and space constraints. I am a little confused as to the difference between pre-viz and what Augment3d does, because the designer talks about not being able to pre-viz the space due to not having a programmer, but then sings Augment's praises for being able to visualize and cue the show in the afternoons before the sun went down. Either way, it's really cool to see professionals utilizing this tool in order to streamline their process and work on the fly. Also, it seems like a big challenge to light a theatrical performance so it looks good on stage, but also as filmed and plastered on large video screens for wider viewing.
Augment3d is proving to be a really powerful tool in the industry, especially during pandemic times when access to the venue is very limited and sometimes not possible at all during the cueing period of time. We used it heavily in Design for the Stage: Lighting which was my first experience using it heavily. We were able to realize our designs on our laptops with a 3D model of the light lab to avoid having to go in person to use the light lab over the course of multiple weeks. It significantly helped reduce any kind of exposure and it certainly seems like it streamlined the process for this specific opera. It was interesting when they were talking about how they needed darkness for any period of cueing to be able to see the lights on the stage. Augment3d allowed the designers to not have to waste any of the day and gave them the ability to program the show ahead of time.
Pre-visualization software, such as ETC’s Augment3d, is proving to be an incredible and powerful tool for artists around the world. In the case of this drive-in rendition of the classic opera La Bohème, Augment3d allowed the entire opera to be lit and programmed on an incredibly tight schedule, and allowed the designers to work on an outdoor plot during the day. Without Augment3d’s incredible ability to accurately portray these fixtures and their throws, programming an outdoor, night show during the day would be nearly impossible. The light of the sun would almost completely drown out any beams of light, and anything actually visible would look drastically different in the light of day than it would at night. Another excellent example of the power of Augment3d is for education – right here at CMU. Since we as students all have access to Augment3d’s functionality for free, we are able to get working knowledge of the consoles as well as programming and syntax information without even having to be at a console. This proved to be incredibly helpful for Design for the Stage last semester, especially for those students who could not attend class in person and were able to remote in to the light lab rig from as far as thousands of miles away, halfway around the world.
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