HowlRound Theatre Commons: Mary John Frank is a New York-based director and choreographer. MJ's film and XR works have been shown at Lincoln Center, the Hammer Museum, Pioneer Works, film festivals, and more. She has been selected to competitive tech residencies, grants, and awards from Google Daydream, IBM, Panavision, and New Inc. And she also held production leadership roles at film studios like Warner Bros. and Paramount. Wow. Today we met to speak about her VR/360 project, From Sea to Rising Sea.
4 comments:
The title of this article immediately made me curious to read it. Reading it and hearing this artist talk about their work was fascinating. Her path from the dance world to the film world to immersive experience sounds fascinating, and it sounds like it gives her a really unique perspective on all of those areas. I liked how she talked about finding 360 filmmaking and VR because she felt that flatscreen wasn’t the right medium for what she wanted to do. That clarity of mind and bravery to say “what I know isn’t what I need so I’ll learn something new until I find what I need to tell this story” is incredible and so inspiring. In addition, the way she spoke about flatscreen vs. 3D as being a medium made me start thinking about what a medium is in art. It’s what an artist uses to create their art, so in a way whether something is flat or three dimensional is an element of medium, which is really cool to think about.
Gonna start off by saying I absolutely hate virtual reality. In today's political and cultural landscape of detaching from the tangible world and environment, I think it is inherently harmful. However art is art and it is important to explore mediums from all angles (literally). I think Mary John's upcoming career is so cool and interesting. Mixing dance and mixed mediums is awesome. 360 filmmaking is super cool and I love how it can immerse the viewer to almost feel like they are being an active part of the art being made and performed. I'm saying this with the idea in mind that 360 filmmaking is a moving camera, but according to Mary John, and ym goldfish brain didn't realize the rest of the world meant VR. The “global gag” is also very interesting, which I did not know about and cant full comprehend BUT i think it would be cool to see the performance recorded so it would be more accessible to those who don't have VR headsets.
Honestly before even reading the actual article the title of the article is absolutely hilarious. The idea of combining theatre and synchronized swimming to create a live performance. Now once you bring virtual reality into it, it makes a lot more sense. I do think virtual reality has a lot more theatrical potential than people give it credit for. I mean, how much would a director like the opportunity to get to actually walk around a set before it was built? Even then going farther being able to block with actors on a virtual reality set so the transition to the actual set would be that much easier? Overall the technology of VR currently is fairly new, its not that accessible, its expensive, and its overall mediocre. I think the technology of VR needs to advance a lot more before it's actually viable and has professional potential, but I think it's getting there!
The idea of having shows in VR is very cool. Each audience member can feel like they are having their own personal 360-degree experience. Once I have access to my VR headset, I plan to watch this film. I love the message this musical is based around. I think there is something special about using modern and emerging technology as a medium to talk about modern issues like the climate crisis, which is powerful in the extreme. I think the message the combination sends out is a juxtaposition of the upsides of the modern world compared to the challenges we are facing and how some choose to just look at the positive while ignoring the negative side effects of our society. While exploring the website mentioned in this interview, I am impressed with the dedication to the cause with the many action items included with the film links. I hope that through the efforts of Mary John Frank and other activists humanity’s eyes can be opened to our negative impact on our planet.
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