Or
"You WILL give me funding for my multimedia production"
I wasn't planning on writing about multimedia in theatre until much later... when my thoughts had coalesced and formulated a thoughful thesis on the subject. But the world has conspired to get me typing sooner than I anticipated. (Which is fine, as I'm a terrible procrastinator and usually need a good kick in the pants to get moving.)
Namely, the recent announcement of STAR WARS: A Musical Journey, aka. the musical-but-not-really-a-musical stage show. From the PR:
The show features an extensive selection of Oscar-winning composer John Williams' unforgettable scores from all six STAR WARS movies into an extraordinary two-hour musical event that features scenes from the movies, live narration and, at The O2, the 86-piece Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and choir.
Lucas' foray to the stage didn't really get me thinking about theatrical form because of its "innovative" structure. Personally, I think that Lucas is banking on the success of Video Games Live, to build a pre-existing market for his musical journey.
Er... other than the legions of STAR WARS fans that will throw down cold hard cash at whatever scheme Lucas concocts to further milk his signature franchise. (Myself included.)
Rather, I got thinking about form because what Lucas is doing is similar to what I want to do with my own pet project Superhero LIVE! (A little background about SHL! can be found on this blog here, and here.) I even have a couple of grants submitted for development.
Now, I don't pretend to imagine that I can amass the same kind of budget for my piece like Lucas can. And, after the '07 Edmonton Fringe run of SHL!, I had pretty much given up on any further evolutions of the play as "too damned expensive." Until I went to the Aurillac International Street Theatre Festival earlier this year and saw a piece called Run For Love (clik link and scroll down for You-Tube links and pics from the show). It was an outdoor concert/multimedia performance co-created and produced by the Betontanc dance-theatre company and Matej Andraž Vogrinčič, with live music by EZ3kiel. It was inspired by that scene in The Battleship Potemkin (S. Eisenstein) and featured live-feed video of dancers filmed in front of a blue screen with their images imposed against prerecorded film, projected onto 2 large screens.
Oh yah... it also had 7,000 slinkies crawling down a 2-story raked plynth.
Cool...
What inspired me was less the content of the piece but rather its spectacle, its popularity at the festival, and the fact that they actually got it done. I'm sure that they spent at least a third of their budget on the slinkies, and yet, the idea of producing something in a similar format... well... it just doesn't seem as impossible anymore.
So this post is less about multimedia theatre theory, but rather about possibility. It is possible. And, judging by shifts in the theatrical world around us... hell, it may be more and more probable.
As long as Lucas doesn't f@#k it up for the rest of us.
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2 comments:
Hi my name is Matej Andraz Vogrincic, responsible for slinkys and set design in Run for love project. My girlfriend just found that blog. So I just wanted to encourage AAron and all the others. Yes it is possible and it is not even outrageously expensive! Slinkyes were not third of the budget, not even close. Actually they were one of the cheapest things. They cost less than 2 euros each so with a little discount they were around 10000 euros. The platform to roll them down was much more expensive, 18.000 euros made with scaffold from iron tubes (aluminum would be more expensive). The most expensive thing is the cost of labour to build all that and the cost of hiring the equipment needed for the show. If you have any questions i will be very happy to answer. Matej Andraz Vogrincic
Hi Matej;
Thanks for reading my blog. Listen, if you'd like to chat about your project, and other things you've been up to, why don't we do a little e-interview, and I'll post it on my blog.
Email me if you're interested, and we'll set up some details.
mail(at)superherolive(dot)com.
~Aaron
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