Indianapolis Opera Projectionmapping Faust
For the first time in the Indianapolis Opera’s history, projectionmapping is playing center stage. The past few seasons have seen projection playing a larger role in the repertoire, but this is the first time mapping has had a role. Gounod’s Faust, directed and designed by Joachim Schamberger, tells the tale of an aging scholar who trades his time in hell for earthly pleasures he’s missed out on. Schamberger, who’s previous projection designs were Tosca and Das Rheingold, has stepped up the projection role to a much higher level. I can’t tell you much about the actual opera itself, but I can tell you about the technical end:
For Faust, Joachim had 7 panels built (McGuire Scenic), various widths at 24′ high, that move on traveller tracks thus dividing the space into multiple planes. The panels are skinned in bright white and make absolutely pristine projection surfaces. In order to get the right perspective for sizing, he first used a camera view from the projection booth in Vectorworks to create the various scenes with line drawings. This gave a pretty good approximation of the angles, height, and space to be projected on. He then set about compiling the projection playback materiel using Photoshop and Final Cut. The resulting footage was then rendered in Final Cut at HDV 1920×1080 MPEG2. This presented a slight codec/bandwidth problem because the plan was to use VDMX and Syphon through Madmapper in order to size the scenes accurately. HDV and Mpeg2 are not the most friendly codec for playback through any software based system and the Radeon 2600HD cards in the trusty OctoMacPro were a bit under the task. Instead, I re-rendered the content, pared down the length of most of the clips, and packaged them all in PJPEG Quicktime movies. We ultimately decided on using Modul8 because of it’s extreme ease of clip organization, playback capabilities, and tight integration with Madmapper. All the content is played back via a FW800 1TB RAID 0. Viola- nary a burp in speed or smoothness. Because of the overall linearity of the set pieces, Madmapper proved to be invaluable. Joachim came up with a few templates of primitives that could be applied to many scenes and using presets, we were able to match the pieces exactly as seen in perspective. I used a Macbook Pro 17″ (quad i7, 16gb RAM), fed into an ImagePro, which fed a DVI DA and finally two DPI Lightning 35hd’s. The resultant image quality and brightness was astounding from 135′. Lensing provided by the good folks at Nationwide (thanks James!).
Projections of the Imagination in Wagner’s Flying Dutchman
A powerful new production of Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman by English National Opera (ENO) has opened in London with projection design by Nina Dunn of creative agency Knifedge.
Running at The Coliseum until 23 May 2012, ENO’s new production of Wagner’s early opera is directed by Jonathan Kent and designed by Paul Brown.
Knifedge’s video projections play an important narrative role throughout the production, revealing the tale of the The Dutchman to be a recurring figment of the main character’s imagination.
In a dramatic overture, the audience sees a child in bed at the heart of a dark and wild storm, surrounded by the crashing waves of the storybook she clutches. This sets up the director’s concept of the progression from a child’s reality through a woman’s fantasy to a final obsession.
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- Photo Credit- Robert Workman
The Flying Dutchman - Wagner - English National Opera - 28 April 2012 Daland - Clive Bayley Senta - Orla Borlan Erik - Stuart Skelton Mary - Susanna Tudor-Thomas The Steersman - Robert Murray The Dutchman - James Creswell Director - Jonathan Kent Designer - Paul Brown Lighting - Mark Henderson
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- Photo Credit- Robert Workman
The Flying Dutchman - Wagner - English National Opera - 28 April 2012 Daland - Clive Bayley Senta - Orla Borlan Erik - Stuart Skelton Mary - Susanna Tudor-Thomas The Steersman - Robert Murray The Dutchman - James Creswell Director - Jonathan Kent Designer - Paul Brown Lighting - Mark Henderson
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- Photo Credit- Robert Workman
The Flying Dutchman - Wagner - English National Opera - 28 April 2012 Daland - Clive Bayley Senta - Orla Borlan Erik - Stuart Skelton Mary - Susanna Tudor-Thomas The Steersman - Robert Murray The Dutchman - James Creswell Director - Jonathan Kent Designer - Paul Brown Lighting - Mark Henderson
In creating her projections, Dunn worked closely with lighting designer Mark Henderson to achieve the right balance of intensity, colour and mood.
From a technical perspective, the kit consisted of 6 Panasonic projectors, 12 on-stage video monitors, 3 Catalyst Media servers and a Hog lighting desk.
Nina Dunn, Video & Projection Designer at Knifedge, comments: “One of the challenges I faced was keeping pace with the Orchestra. With the complicated content sequences, it’s all about hitting certain cue points so that music and imagery are symbiotic. But such was the energy that Conductor Ed Gardner invested into the music for this production, I had to rework several of my original sequences to keep pace.”
Knifedge is one of the UK’s leading projection design companies, serving corporate, broadcast, sports, music and charity markets as well as the arts. Other recent theatrical productions have included The Phantom of the Opera Tour, Pippin, AIDA, Backbeat, Emperor & Galilean and Cleopatra.
The Visual Drugstore’s Intel Mapping of 2012- Hamburg
We let you know about The Visual Drugstore’s partnership with Intel a while back. Video artist Mar-K.os (aka Markos Aristides) just completed a projectionmapping in Hamburg for the Ultrabook 3D tour….Lot’s of Sanyos and the awesome MMOV! Check it out:
Doug Aitken SONG 1 at the Hirshhorn
rendering courtesy of Doug Aitken Workshop
For nearly eight weeks this spring, internationally renowned artist Doug Aitken (American, b. Redondo Beach, Calif., 1968; lives and works in Los Angeles and New York) illuminated the façade of the Hirshhorn’s iconic cylindrical building by completely covering it with moving images, accompanying them with an original soundscape. Using 11 high-definition video projectors and media servers (Christies, provided by WorldStage- natch…), Aitken seamlessly blended imagery to envelop the museum’s exterior, creating a work that redefines cinematic space. A bold commission that will enter the Hirshhorn’s permanent collection, “SONG 1” (2012) will enhance the museum’s ever-expanding holdings of cutting-edge moving-image art. Between sunset and midnight from March 22 to May 13, visitors to the National Mall witnessed the first-ever work of 360-degree cinema to be presented in a continuous cylindrical format, unfolded on a monumental scale across the concrete façade. (more…)
Christie and RealD Debut Brightest 3D Dual PJ System- CinemaCon
CinemaCON is in full-swing right now in Vegas (oh man I wish I were there….) and some big headlines are starting to come out. Here’s one from our friends up North:
CINEMACON/LAS VEGAS – (April 24, 2012) – Christie Duo™ combined with the new RealD XL-DP Cinema System today to project Warner Bros. Pictures’ “Sneak Peek” of The Hobbit in 3D, presented at High Frame Rates (HFR) of 48 frames per second, achieving an unprecedented combination of uniformity and brightness. Christie, a global visual technology company, and RealD, a leading global licensor of 3D technologies, powered today’s major studio presentation in the Colosseum at Caesars Palace.
In the setup for this presentation, projection engineers calibrated the system using brightness measurements taken towards the edges of the screen, rather than at the center. The abundance of light available allowed the center brightness to be reduced considerably and still provided luminance measurements in excess of six foot lamberts (ft-L) across the better part of this massive 70-foot-wide screen. By combining the Christie Duo and the RealD XL-DP 3D Cinema System, exhibitors can actually achieve double the light output over the previous leading large format solutions, and at a significant overall value during regular, commercial movie showings.
“With the new RealD XL-DP Cinema System, there is a technical solution for achieving 3D brightness at 2D light levels on some of the largest movie theater screens in the world,” says Rod Archer, vice-president of Cinema Products, RealD. “RealD technology delivers twice the light of other 3D providers, allowing premium large format screens to demonstrate the true potential of digital 3D cinema with a lifelike and immersive 3D presentation without compromising brightness.”
Says Don Shaw, senior director, Christie’s Entertainment Solutions product management group: “Although it may seem too good to be true, the incredible experience delivered today by RealD and Christie was achieved on a silver screen, using Christie’s Pureformity Color™ Technology to ‘control’ the center brightness, allowing us to obtain the most uniform image possible across this large screen. Standard Christie Solaria® projectors, the Christie Duo integration kit and the RealD XL-DP Cinema System combined to achieve this industry first, which will present a compelling alternative to the more costly, but half as bright, offering from the current large-format market leader.”
The RealD XL-DP Cinema System is a pair of matched left and right eye polarizing filters featuring the patented XL light recovery technology. This Cinema System is designed for use on dual DLP projector installations on large screens, usually over 65 feet in width (20 meters). Early users of this combination of the XL-DP Cinema System and dual DLP projectors report 3D presentation brightness at 2D light levels on screens as large as 92 feet (28 meters).
Christie Duo and Christie Pureformity Color™ Technology Immerse Audiences in the Movies
Introduced in February, the Christie Duo is a new dual–projector integration kit intended to give exhibitors the ability to create and deliver their own, branded premium theater experience. The Christie Duo™ integration kit can be used with either 2K or 4K Christie Solaria® Series digital cinema projectors, purchased with new projectors or purchased as a standalone integration kit for Christie customers who already have Christie projectors. Christie Solaria® Series digital cinema projectors are the world’s best-selling, DCI-compliant digital cinema projectors, with close to 30,000 shipped and installed to date.
The integration kit features the choice of two configurations: a compact and convenient stacking system for 3D installations, or a new, innovative physical configuration that perfectly aligns every pixel on the screen for optimal 2D and 3D presentations. Coupled with automated features that easily calibrate, align and optimize the images from both Christie Solaria® Series 2K or 4K digital cinema projectors, Christie Duo delivers a completely seamless, premium movie experience for the world’s largest screens.
Pureformity Color™ Technology – a contraction of the words Pure and Uniformity – aptly describes Christie’s innovative ability to achieve optimal image color and brightness uniformity. While every Christie projector is built to exact DCI standards, every projection system has inherent color and brightness uniformity variations across the screen, especially towards the left and right hand edges. These effects can sometimes be exacerbated by certain screen materials and auditorium lighting conditions. Christie’s Pureformity Color™ Technology provides an unprecedented level of field optimization for these issues so that image quality perfection can easily be achieved across the whole screen.
Visual Drugstore to Map for Intel Again
Due to last year’s success of the Intel Visibly Smart Experience 2011 (Dresden, Berlin, Munich, Hamburg), Intel has decided to collaborate again with the Visual Drugstore to promote the new 2012 Intel Ultrabook 3D-Tour. With 8 locations in total, the premiere will take place in Hamburg starting at 22:00 on 28.04.2012,
where renowned visual artist Markos Aristides Kern will map the Internationales Maritimes Museum, with visuals revolving around the theme of the Titantic. Many more new and unique visuals to top the the 2011 Intel tour. Accompanying Kern again will be popular DJ Boris Dlugosch providing an hour of the best audio visual live performance there is to offer. The following video shows some great highlights of last year’s adventure in mapping. (more…)
Christie HFR Laser Demo
KITCHENER, Ontario – (April 13, 2012) – Christie® hosted a high frame rate (HFR) Summit yesterday at Christie’s worldwide center for engineering, research and development in Kitchener, Ontario, touring cinema-industry luminaries through its manufacturing facility and providing the first-ever laser projection of high frame rate cinema and alternative content on to a 30-foot white screen.
Recent Gordon E. Sawyer Academy Award winner Douglas Trumbull, Ian Bidgood, Technical Director, Park Road Post Production; Matt Cowan, Chief Scientific Officer, RealD; John Helliker and Bert Dunk, Directors at the Screen Industries Research and Training Centre and Demetri Portelli, Stereographer met with Christie engineering and product development staff for a vibrant information sharing session and discussion on high frame rates, laser projection, and the future of 3D and 4K projection.
“Our guests were very impressed with our demonstration of high-frame rate content using one of our prototype laser projectors,” said Don Shaw, senior director, Product Management, Christie Entertainment Solutions, “as well as the laser projector development roadmap we shared in these frank discussions.”
Big, Bright and Crystal Clear Will Spark Cinema Industry Renaissance
The consensus of the assembled industry experts was that the industry needs to differentiate itself from the plethora of varied viewing options, from tablets to home theaters and all manner of exhibitor setups, to raise itself out of its current malaise.
Doug Trumbull said, “Spectacular movies delivered at high-frame rates, on to big and vividly bright screens, will enable the production and exhibition of amazingly immersive cinema experiences that will be far more powerful than any other medium.”
Echoing Mr. Trumbull’s sentiments, Ian Bidgood suggested that “…3D images must be awe-inspiring to bring back the crowds to theaters worldwide, and the higher brightness levels that are required to do justice to these images, along with higher frame rate material, will be delivered by Christie’s technology in the laser field, with new projector and cinema solutions for today and the future.” Christie plans on incorporating laser projection technology into its cinema product line, business products line and visualization and simulation solutions where it benefits its customer base.
The new Christie Laser Engine projector, with cinema industry leaders including (left to right) Matt Cowan (RealD Inc), Doug Trumbull (Trumbull Ventures LLC), Ian Bidgood (Park Road), Bert Dunk (Screen Industries Research & Training Centre), Demetri Portelli (3D Stereography) and John Helliker (Screen Industries Research & Training Centre)
Rafmögnuð Náttúra
Marcos Zotes, winner of the Reykjavik Winter Lights Festival 2012, and Chris Jordan presented Rafmögnuð Náttúra in Reykjavik, Iceland, as the main event for the festival in February. The work consists of a temporary, site-specific installation that appropriates the facade of Hallgrímskirkja church with a large video-mapping projection. The aim is to transform the static condition of this iconic landmark into a dynamic, engaging and participatory visual experience, and to intervene by socially activating its surrounding public space.
Marcos explains: “I am fascinated with finding new ways to interact with the existing urban environment. I feel the city is there for us at our entire disposal, and we must reclaim its public spaces and urban structures in ways that exceed the limited uses for which they were originally intended. In this case, I wanted to subvert the static and timeless (more…)
4AV projectionmapping for Manpower Experis
4AV spent the weekend putting out a great cylindrical projectionmapping on 40m high steel tank in Westerpark Amsterdam. Rudy Vorstenbosch acquired four (of course, if your name is 4AV I’d think it would HAVE to be four…) of the big Barco XLM HD30′s from PRG and used fixed 1:1 lenses to shoot the gig. All content was played out via two Catalyst media servers running over fiber DVI, along with an Ethernet line for projector control through Barco’s management app. Postpanic did all the media content and the audio was provided by Massive. I don’t know what I like more- the still imagery or the video, but it’s all pretty nice work folks!
Christie Projects 3D in Titanic Proportions
So what exactly do you do after diving into the center of the earth in a futuristic/techno/burrito submarine by yourself? I mean, what on earth could compare? Well, you’d go to the premiere of your (already) fantastically successful film in 3D. That’s what James Cameron does. Huge things. Huge crazy things. And when you want to see your (already) incredibly expensive, successful film that’s been re-mastered in 3D at it’s best, you use a Christie. The biggest, baddest, Christie you could find. Actually you’d use 2, or 4, or whatever at that point. That’s what Jim did. The premiere of Titanic 3D at the Royal Albert Hall last week was a prime opportunity for Christie Digital to use the new Duo, a system that stacks, aligns, and calibrates their high-end CP-series projectors for perfect alignment (more…)
CALL 911 NOW! UMF takes over Miami and is SOLD OUT
EDM superstars Skrillex and Fat Boy Slim are just a drop in the bucket at the Ultra Music Festival. Combine that with a stage and visual design from V Squared Labs and you get the real star of the show– the mainstage rig! Here’s a look at the rig courtesy of MTV and Vello: Get More: Music News
If V Squared is there you know it will be great….maybe rivaling the famed Amon Tobin ISAM rig….we’ll see. “We have this crazy high-definition output system taking it to the next level at Ultra this year,” Virkhaus beamed. Of course, possibly the most exciting one-up from last year’s undertaking is the presence of, wait for it, an “LED roof” over the stage that is going to be an added visual element for each set.
“This is the overhead grid that’s going to be over viewers,” Virkhaus explained. “You’ve got artists like Tiësto, Afrojack, Skrillex, Avicii — people coming who are going to make a fantastic show for the audience — and we are going to do some amazing visuals. I know [the fans] are going to be blown away with the experience we are bringing.”
Of course there are other projects going on as well. Large scale projection masters Senovva will be projectionmapping for Red Bull with 12 Barco FLM 20k’s as seen here:
Send pics please…..or a ticket and a flight to Miami….
Utah’s Megaplex outfits with Christie
More and more theater complexes are switching to digital as the new standard, and Christie Digital isn’t wasting any time getting their products in the door. And for good reasons- brightness, image quality, and ROI. Here’s a quip from their press release announcing Megaplex’s upgrades:
Christie, a global leader in visual display technology, is providing the 4K DLP Cinema projection solution at a new screen at the Megaplex Theatres at Jordan Commons, which debuts March 15 with VIP seating, table service and full reclining chairs as part of Megaplex’s transition to complete digital projection throughout its chain. Megaplex, a leading independent cinema chain in Utah, is converting all of its screens to digital projection, drawing from the Christie Solaria™ Series. The new projectors, (more…)
Indy Opera Goes to the Movies
While not quite the same scale as Aida at the RAH, the Indianapolis Opera is in full swing this week and the program is entitled “Opera Goes to the Movies”. The idea is to have a massive movie screen and play clips of various movies that have music from operas….combine that with live singers, a live orchestra, and IMAG and you get the idea. For my part I get to set up, align, and generally babysit two Christie HD 12k’s. All the clips and editing by Derek Tow of South 40 Productions.
The general size of the screen when combined with the physical depth of our stage dictated .73:1.0 lenses which, if you’ve ever had to use them on a big gun Christie, are not the most cooperative of glass. The PJ’s had to be center of screen, which in this case was 18′ so scaffolding had to be done as you can see in the following pics (No, there’s no Pandora’s box on this gig, I just use their totally useful grids). These HD12k’s don’t have Twist or warp, or even enhanced keystone correction, so all the convergence is manual. Big tip for anyone using a rental like these- shoot some lithium grease into the rigging feet and screws before stacking them and sending them in the air! You’ll save a ton of hassle and have less blisters. Trust me. All playback is coming from 2 iMacs (primary and backup) using Playback Pro + running into a Panasonic AV-HS400 and sent down the line HD-SDI. We’re using a 24′ jib, a 33x Canon on sticks, and my Vaddio HD19 cameras for IMAG. Surprisingly- the little PTZ cams look pretty good!
Indianapolis Opera’s executive director John Pickett says that during the planning of this year’s season they wanted to present four entries yet include something that was on a lesser scale financially, while attracting newer audiences at the same time. That’s how Opera Goes to the Movies came about.
“It will be a great situation for people who like film and understand the role that music and opera have played in it. However, they may have never tried or have had limited experience with live opera singing with an orchestra. I think people who are new to opera will love it because it is a lot of the greatest hits of opera that they know or have heard. It will give them some context about it,” says Pickett, who also thinks that the singing “will be of high enough caliber that the ‘foamers’ (those who foam at the mouth or get excited about opera) and aficionados of opera will enjoy it too.”
The Visual Drugstore Invades North Africa
The Visual Drugstore invaded North Africa last month on a mission dubbed ‘MMOVΞ’ to travel, experience, and project onto, the desert and any structures that presented themselves. Mar-K.os and crew loaded up the world’s most tricked out mobile projection platform, the MMOV, and some trailing vehicles and headed out for a month of cruising the dunes to project onto whatever they could find. Love this!
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Nuformer expands their digs…..
Looks like our friends at Nuformer are growing- the projectionmapping/multimedia production company based in the Netherlands has opened a second office and along with it- a job opening!
From their Twitter stream:
“We are proud to announce that today is the official opening of our second office in the Netherlands. The NuFormer office is centrally located in the bustling heart of Rotterdam. The Rotterdam team will dedicate itself to research and innovation in the field of interactive video mapping and projection.
To complete the team in Rotterdam office we are currently looking for an experienced programmer in Unity3D (m/f) ”
So get on it all you Unity 3D freaks! Employment awaits! For some outstanding examples of Nuformer’s work, just search their name in our handy search box over on the right there (or perhaps from ‘Related Posts’ below)…..or hit their website and blog….
DPI Lightning 45sx+ Lights An Entire Arena
OK….not the whole thing…but it’s pretty damn bright in there. The pre-game and intermission display at Rogers Arena, home of the Vancouver Canucks, got a make-over this year that includes four DPI Lightning 45sx+ projectors and Green Hippo media servers. I’ve always thought that arena’s should trick out their team intro’s and halftimes. I mean, the mascot shooting baskets and “shoot-the-puck” contests just don’t cut it any more.
There are also lightweight scrims that come down from the rafters in the for corners of the ice so it really opens the dimensionality of the show. The displays are split into segments by a Datapath X4 video wall processor, creating a 200-foot by 80-foot image on the ice. The DPI Lightning 45 sx+ packs a walloping 30,000 lumen punch with a contrast ratio of 1800:1. It also has an Intelligent Lens Mount (ILM) system that allows up to 10 different presets for lens settings (zoom, focus, shift) that can be recalled automatically. I own 2 of the 35hd’s and I can tell you, these are not your typical PJ’s- they’re big and super bright and it looks like they’ve accomplished their mission for the Canucks.
3DM Architectural Maps a Skatepark
Brazilian firm 3DM Architectural did this cool projectionmapping of a skatepark. They tell me that it started out with two 15k PJ’s but they ended up only using one with a wider lens as it achieved a better overall effect. Graphics were done with a combination of 3D max, Maya, and Premier.
Vortex Immersion Dome at Indy SB Village
Surprisingly there’s not much projection-wise in town for the big game. I figured there was going to be no shortage of large scale mappings and/or other projection eye-candy, but from what I can tell it’s pretty dead. Why no one has coated the ridiculous amount of tent fabric space available with wacko projection is beyond me. I mean, it’s the Superbowl so it’s not like anyone’s short of cash…..
The one that seems to be standing out so far is the Microsoft Kinect Play60 Fan Dome in a parking lot just north of the Fieldhouse. Vortex Immersion Media are the folks behind these domes and by all accounts it looks pretty entertaining. They have a number of different styles of interactive dome projection rigs, the largest of which can have over 50,000 s.f. of interior floor space and accommodate 10,00 people! They have a number of geodesic options too- be sure to check their website for details. Vortex Immersion has a whole team of content creators as well as an architectural consulting arm that can do projection analysis….you know- for when you need an upgrade to the home theater/man cave.
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