Post 36: Starting Rehearsals

     We practiced with Sarah this week for the piece on live cam from the front, using a piece of spandex with a small hole the head can barely get through. We will stitch two pieces together and trim a circle for the full costume. Having the purple LED Flood on the white backdrop, the live image has a bright blue background, and the dancer is magnified.

    We decided on music by HildegardeVon Binden.

Post 34: Moving to a new rehearsal space

    We were able to store our set parts at CDF for a week or so until we found a free rehearsal space, graciously loaned by a dear old friend. We immediately started to move all the stuff and getting the space ready. It was a bit of a mess, having been abandoned for so long since it was a night club in the 70's, but the lights worked. And that happens to be where I met my wife 40 years ago, at the Opening of the Joe Namath Club, featuring Lou Rawls! Memories…
  Anyhow, it's a little cramped because of a very low suspending ceiling, except over the dance floor, which was just big enough at roughly 12ft x 13 ft.There is just enough space to back up the front projector against the wall using the wide angle adapter. 
  We painted the floor flat black, and attached all the front panels together.
  I am still amazed at the amount of cables necessary for power, AUDIO and VIDEO. I had to get HDMI Repeaters, HDMI Signal Splitters, a Dimmer Pack, a Dimmer Controller and a 50 ft DMX Cable, a powerful Amplifier, a Blue Ray Player.
  There were two huge speakers left in the club, and we can use then, as well as some old stage lights.
  I hung a monitor on a swing arm just above the window so the dancers can see where they are in Livecam. There are both an overhead live cam, and a front one mounted just under the window.
  The Mitsubishi Ultra Short Throw 1280 x 800 Projector is hung high to cover the backdrop.

Post 33: Playing with the Leap motion Controler

   Finally, before we took the set down on Sunday, I finally got the Leap Motion Controler to work, and we could play with projected particles following finger movement and position:

  My intention is to mount it just under the window the a dancer can "conduct" the movement of the projected images with her hands. 

Post 32: Testing the Set

   I set up my 5K projector on the floor to project images on the plywood set, and an identical 5K borrowed from a friend on a 10 ft pole connected to a live cam either facing the backdrop and placed inside the set right beneath the window or overhead. I also installed the new 3K ultra short throw about 7 ft away from the backdrop and 2 ft above.
I moved my whole MacPro with quad monitors to the space, and we started playing with things. 
  We don't have time to put together a "real" show for light Dreams by May 5. So we ended up with ideas for 4 short very simple demonstrations that could be followed by public interactivity periods:

   1."SHADOWPLAY": Very basic, but effective. A bright graphic image is projected and the dancers move in front of the projector.

   2."GIANT CLONES": A live camera is mounted beneath the open window facing backstage, and the enlarged live image is projected on the plywood panels, while the dancers are seen through the window and move from the front to the back of the set through the doors interacting with themselves, the set itself, and their virtual selves:

  3."NEWTON CHALLENGE": An overhead live camera image of the dancers crawling on the floor is projected on the front plywood set, giving an illusion of weightlessness:

Charling may do a version of her hand and feet drawing.

 4."BARN FLIP": The front of the barn is projected on the plywood set and the inside on the backdrop. Then the point of view is turned 
180 degrees and the inside wall of the barn with farm implements is projected on the plywood set while the landscape outside is projected on the background while the dancers circle in and out:

Post 31: A New Toy: the Leap Motion Sensor

  I just got a new toy to play with, a Leap Motion Sensor. It is kind off a mini Kinect that works at a distance of about 8 to 24",and is capable of seeing each fingertip:

  Unlike the Kinect, it works right out of the box, and developers have already written a bunch of apps, that are available either free of for a few bucks on the Airspace Leap Store.  I downloaded a bunch of them, and have been playing with the few that have potential for our project.There are a couple of Music apps, particularly Chordion Conductor, which offers many synthesiser sounds and controls, AirHarp:

 and Syntheremin. The drumming apps don't work very well, and would require practice.
   There are also a couple of Particle Generation apps that work very well, like Flocking:






Midnight:

Beautiful Chaos:

Airbow:

VIZ.it

as well as a plugin for Photoshop called Ethereal:

  A search on the internet turned up a lot of tests, demos and reviews, but surprisingly few serious used.
  I am considering mounting the Leap Sensor on the front wall so Mary can control the projected image or the music, at least till we get the Kinect working.

Post 30: Finally building the set

   I have been working for a while now building elements of the set as time permitted, and we are finally able to put it together and test it this AEA vacation week. The Children Dance Foundation , where Mary works, was kind enough to let us use their large studio for a whole week, and we started transporting the parts and putting things together on Sunday. We have done most of the construction and assembly now, and will finish putting up the 10ft x 12 ft fabric panels and setting up the projectors to morrow. Four 12 ft poles on concrete bases with rubber feet hold up a frame made of three 2x4x12ft boards. A 2x4x16ft laying across and a perpendicular 2x4x8ft hold the lights, background projector, and and the live cam. Three 3/4" plywood panel free standing on flat steel brackets make up  the front wall(which will be completed with three 1ft hinged flaps and hinged doors and windows to make up a solid wall when needed:

Post 29: Brainstorming Away!

    That set design that started life a few weeks ago as the "Marrakesh Set" has turned into a "Coyoacan Blue House Set" to stage a Frida Kahlo inspired show. I made Mary watch the movie with me last week to try and fire her up… So much color, so much drama, so much visual candy, and such strong characters. There are certainly already been several plays based on her persona, but I think we can bring it something new and exciting with the use of multiple virtual "reversible" projected sets and multiple angles live camera feeds.
  We basically work on a stage made of three spaces: the virtual space behind the projected backdrop, the actual space between the backdrop and the front set(boxed with two black side panels, and the space in front of the front set. These spaces can be virtually changed ad infinitum, and as I explained in a previous post, switched around 180 degrees. For example, we are in the street in front of the Casa Azul:

 The façade is projected on the front set with real doors, the front space is the street in front of the house, the center space is the patio seen projected on the backdrop. Behind this backdrop is Frida's bedroom, barely visible through the door. The spaces can move forward: the street disappears, the front stage becomes the patio (the image projected on the backdrop moves to the front set), and the patio turns into Frida's bedroom with Frida in her four poster bed. We could even go one step deeper into the kitchen if we wanted to, somehow bringing the bed in front of the front set(wheels?).  
   Now, if we had two more short throw projectors and used white side panels, we could actually create a four sided patio or bedroom. Pushing it further, if the side panels were also plywood and had functional doors like the front set, we could also virtually move sideways to another room in the house… 
   Any of those combinations of spaces could be flipped 180 degrees, and the front stage could become the patio, with doors looking out to the street and the houses across the street virtually visible through those doors:

   Brainstorming some more, we could conceive of using plywood panels with real doors for the backdrop, through which we could see another backdrop 10 feet behind on which the patio of the house across the street is projected, adding a third actual space. 
  If you flipped that back, you would find yourself in the house across the street looking out to the street, to Frida's patio through the open doors of the front set, and further to Frida in her bed into the bedroom though the open doors of the backdrop… I am getting all worked up! But that would of course require yet another projector… It IS possible though.
   Now, we could take Frida in her bed forward from her bedroom to the patio, to a truck in the street:

 that takes her to the show opening with houses moving by projected on the front set with all doors and window closed(making it a solid screen. We stop in front of the gallery, which can be seen projected on the backdrop through the doors that have been re opened, and manually move Frida in her bed into the gallery space behind the facade. We can then enter the gallery by moving the projected images forward, and spin around looking out to the street outside. Did I lose you? Well you get the jest I hope…
    We can the same way take Frida anywhere, in bed with Diego or Trotsky, at the club getting drunk with Chavela Vargas singing, in New York City at the Rockefeller Building, in Paris at a cafe, etc… The possibilities are endless.

Post 28: Building a Portable Set

    I have been very busy with Light Dreams, but since we are going to do a "Virtual Clones" mini impro show and interactive display with Mary at Light Dreams, I am working on that too. Time is limited, so we will not try to come up with a real show, but rather keep things loose with demonstrations, explanations, and interactivity. Anybody will be welcome to crawl on the floor under the overhead camera.
  As usual, I am taking on more than I could reasonably chew, by also moving "The Gate" to the entrance of the parking lot, and creating several totally new animated sequences to play on it. I may rename it "Palladian Dreams"
  So I have been working on a set we can erect in the parking lot as the "Virtual Clones" Point of light, and looking for a rehearsal space. I have ordered 120" wide ivory and black polyester poplin to box our internal "stage", made 12 ft stands to hold them up, made sturdy steel brackets to hold the plywood sheets up. I have ordered a Mitsubishi WD380U Ultra Short Throw Projector:

  But I am already moving ahead thinking of our Scaena Luminaria Project, and designing the set so it can be expanded and modified later to become our basic adaptable free standing self sufficient set:

   I want to be able to take it to small theaters, clubs, school gymnasiums, outdoors, requiring nothing but a plug.

Post 28: Other Projected Sets

  I have always loved old barns and decaying architecture, peeling paint and graffiti, and have tons of pictures. 
 So I am also proposing this "Wooden Red Barn" set, using the same basic plywood panels:

  The view looking in with the doors open would be:  

   The reverse view looking out from the inside would be:

  I also came up with a Graffiti Projected Set with metal doors:

   The view looking in with the doors open looking into a big warehouse could be: 

  The reverse view looking out from the inside could be:

Post 27: A set made of Functional doors and windows?

  I have been struggling with ideas for a flexible set that could be used by Mary and Randy as a green screen in a first stage, but also used for a Projection/Dance piece at Light Dreams, and later adapted to other stages, swapping and adding panels. 
  Both Mary and I love doors. She has used them on stage before, as well as frames. I have photographed a lot of them. Open/close, Hide/see through, Behind/in front, Going in/Going out, Leaving/Coming back, a lot of visuals and feelings hinge on doors(pun intended).
   Staying away from hinged screens, what if for a start we used 3 free standing 4ft x 8ft x 3/4" birch plywood panels lined up about a foot apart:

 Two could be cut out for double doors, and one for window shutters, and all the doors and shutters hinged in place using double screen hinges so they can open both in and out.

   The panels will need supports that don't get in the way of the dancers. I propose bolting them with strong angle brackets to some 1/8" x 3" x 36" steel flat bars.
   There could be also two narrow hinged panels to fill the gap between the three main panels. It would look something like this:

   The doors,shutters and narrow "gap panels" could be opened or closed in various ways, and hide or show through to the back wall.
   We could project any kind of image mapped to the set. For example, I made a "Marrakesh Set" mapping these three panels:

 If we close the gaps between the panels and open doors, it could look like this, showing through the doorways into the bright blue courtyard projected on the back wall:
  

 Somebody could crack the shutters open and look out. We could have extra panels with doors and window and mix them in different configurations.
  An idea I like a lot is to turn the virtual set inside out, and project the inside of the courtyard on the front panels and the street outside on the back wall, suddenly reversing the stage 180 degrees while the actors change side :

 The point of view reversal could take place as the "actors" are in the doorways, and would require a 180 rotation in place for them during a very short black out. Walk in becomes walk out.
  Actually, this set feels as much like Mexico or Guatemala than Marrakesh. No wonder actually, the Arabs occupied Spain for centuries after all. How about a Frida Kahlo storyline then? Now that's rich subject, and would make for very colorful sets:

"interesting" costumes:

 and accessories...

   Right down my alley…