Future Screen Concept – Kevin Lim
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3SixT
Introduction
Rather than a proposal for a future new screen, this conceptual model is for an entirely new theatrical model. Mixing elements of live theatrical performance, installation art and of course film/video, this new theatre stands as a metaphor for the new globalize world. Embodying notions of multi media, this theater is decentralized, non linear, hyperactive, mobile and contains less definitive boundaries than both conventional theatre and film
Concept
The audiences sit in the center of the theater on chairs that can spin 360 degrees. The audience is surrounded by a stage where the performers are. The performers move around the audience, immersing the audience in the performance. Between the stage and the audience is a pit. In the pit, videocamera persons with wireless live feeds record the performance. The live video signals are sent to the main control room above the audience to the control room. The video feeds (from 3-5 cameras) are cut and dissolved live as the performance runs. The output is than projected from projectors in the control room onto the very stage that the actors themselves are acing.
The Screen
The video feed is projected onto sheets of fog curtains which drop down from the ceiling, these curtains provide a multitude of purposes: close up, replays and flash backs play directly behind the actors on stage. These curtains materialize and rematerialize throughout the performance at different distance both from the actors and the audience, thus providing a new kind of depth perception for the audience. The actors are also free to move from plane to plane walking through sheets of fogs; the equivalent of exiting stage left or right.
The Audience
The spinning chairs provide the audience with the freedom and comfort to rotate themselves in any orientation they wish, in order to follow the actors on the 360 degree stage heightening the sense of immersion. As with conventional theatre, seating orientation may prohibit clear view of certain events but with this environment, all members of the audience have visual access to all elements.
The Performers
There is a new kind of discipline required. With live theatre as a base, the actors now have to consider the backdrop on which they are performing. Close ups provide the audience with an additional level of spectacle, lost in theatre. Actors in this apparatus have to maintain an appreciation of conventions for both theatre and film. The 360 degree stage means that stage direction and presence becomes a far more mobilized task. Spatial understanding and proximity to the audience becomes an additional element of the performance that the actors may use.
Inspiration:
Partially inspired from two screens I saw in Disney land over the holidays: Canada 360 Film and The Pirates of the Caribbean.