Q LAB 4 FOR PROJECTION

The learning curve on all things projection has and is huge! Words banded about such as media servers,pixel mapping and much more. In my time at LIPA I have tried a few different platforms such as Resalume which is primarily designed for DJ’s and Isadora more the the theatre world. Both ok but not quite there for me on speed and ease of use, me and Isadora fell out several times as it has a tendency to just stop working ! not ideal. Over the summer I attended a Women in AV gathering in London with guest speaker and personal projection heroine of mine Nina Dunn, her talk was fascinating as yes there is a lot of technical aspects to get your head around but she talked about her journey and those learning curves which gave this newbie hope. During the networking following I had the chance to talk further with Nina and talking about my new adventures at university and all things projection, her advice was to have a look at the new QLab 4 with a dedicated video element . I had in my first year had a tiny play with the software for my sound module and had found it really nice to use, perhaps because it is a Mac based software yey!!

QLab4 pixel mapping

So a little research and playing with it pre tech for Bright Lights Big City my biggest video work to date at LIPA , both me and my assistant Matthew Wane were convinced . There are more complex and stable ways of projection as we were running with two laptops and no media server, with some incredible companys out there producing some powerful pixel mapping tools . One standout for me is Disguise who have worked on some amazing projects, including a few for Nina.

https://www.disguise.one/en/showcases/theatre/ great powerful software

https://figure53.com/qlab/ home of q lab 4

https://somethinggraphic.net/ Nina Dunn

FIRST TIME WITH THREE

Was a great challenge on Bright Lights Big City to incorporate three projectors , the theory was there but the practice of rigging two above the set proved a little trickier. A lot learned and to be carried forwards but loved the creativity it allowed me especially in the final scene, where my design was to be the feature as the lead character Michael begins to type and reflect on his journey.Working in what is quickly becoming one of my favourite software’s Adobe’s powerful After Effects, I created and animated word drop with a fabulous typeface I discovered AlbertSthal Typewriter. The director Graham gave me the freedom to develop the concept, seeing it for the first time in tech was nerve wracking ! with a little tweak on timing working with my assistant 1st year LIPA TPT student Matthew Wane we ran it again and it worked in perfect timing with the final number. We ran the footage in slightly different sizes and positions through the two Panasonic projectors over the set and a Christie positioned front of house to cover the floor and frontal aspects of the set. Many thanks to Brian Roberts for the clip

CONTENT CREATION AND WHERE WE LOOK

So my final year sets off at a relentless pace in my role of video designer for the big first show of the year, an epic rock musical “Bright Lights Big City” directed by Graham Hubbard

http://www.grahamhubbard.co.uk/

The first meeting about this was in July with set designer Rebecca McGrory and costume designer Rachael Noonan also fellow final year students. It was very apparent from the get go that this production would feature video and projection heavily , so much so the set was to have huge side portals for just this purpose. In this post I am going to focus on the search for resources and collection material for projection rather than blast you lens throw  calculations and other technical aspects. Important considerations as they are, without the right content it could be seen as money down the drain.

can this be the answer?

Set in the 80’s ahem yes I was there, my brief was comprehensive so where to begin? OK confession time I remember a world before google (twas a strange and dark time ) one had to look to resources in paper form or from art and TV/Film. We can so quickly now rely on this one resource to answer all our needs and indeed it is brilliant; but not always the one stop shop we have become so dependent on. Keywords and their importance to searching comes into play heavily , thinking outside the obvious to take us to other places for both footage and still images. That and the rise of the photo libraries and their all engulfing of footage in particular was to cause me some headaches on this show. Alongside this my always ultimate goal is to create as much content from scratch and my own vision as possible as hey why else would I be here? And finding enough royalty footage can become a very time consuming job and yes time is money. So here I am going to share a few brilliant resources and some ideas on where and how you can search for more interesting content past page one of google!

One of the most important parts of searching

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1) Don’t search images only! a very common mistake I see people being sucked into page after page of images which are using their own keywords to stalk you out and direct you to chargeable image banks and in truth can be much better at a loose tag to your subject than you give them credit for . Be ultra precise in your search ie : Paris by Night  will indeed bring up a multitude of images and footage ( mostly royalty ) For this show I wanted ariel and a sense of being there in it’s feel so my first searches featured lines such as “ ariel nightime footage royalty free of top tourist sights in Paris at night” this instantly cuts out a batch of time wasting non royalty free stuff which on the outside to you the viewer appears so until you try to access it ( this is how the libraries work).  Also look to other more art based worlds for video footage such as Vimeo rather than the be-mouth  that is Youtube, here you will find fellow creative who may as on a show I did last year let you use some of their footage for a small fee ( always a good feeling to give to a fellow creative) For BLBC I was able to find some amazing drone footage that I played with in After Effects to add a little rain and extra glow to the original footage.

Bright Lights Big City

2) Think about the mediums you search for? By this I mean it can be footage generated by both traditional methods and that of say CGI so try adding computer generated to your search and explore other mediums. Another great tip especially when looking for period content is to add the word amateur, people have always being fascinated in capturing the world around them . With keen adventurers and hobby filming people investing in equipment and getting out there to do just that, think of the rise of the ubiquitous home movie and the rise of the video camera (pre smartphone)  I found some tremendous vintage 1960’s Christmas footage for this production in just this way, nestled in a homage to American home movies archive complete with scratches and colour degeneration. Saving me time in post production which was great .

http://www.chicagofilmarchives.org

3) Some love to play and share?

This takes me to one of my most favourite resources a family of sorts and one I also add my work to .  DeviantArt is an online artwork, videography and photography community. The website was launched on August 7, 2000, by Angelo Sotira, Scott Jarkoff, Matthew Stephens and others I have being a member and contributer for while and am always having a look at what others are creating , this stretches to really useful tools such as effects and brushes for use in Photoshop and other mediums to wonderful created backgrounds and a lot free to use in exchange for a credit. I used a few of these in a photographic project a few years ago with fashion stylist Nicky Rybka Goldsmith featuring trans gender burlesque avant guard performer Grace Oni Smith in our adaptation of the Four Seasons, without the creative family of Deviant Art this would of being impossible. Go join and discover an immense resource.

Four Seasons styling Nicky Rybka Goldsmith featuring Grace Oni Smith

https://www.deviantart.com/

http://www.my-fashion-stylist.co.uk/