Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1978 - 9

be illuminated with white light! The image itself has become
more manipulatable and can appear behind the film, floating
in front of it, or straddling the film plane'
Holography has also been combined with cinematography
by Lloyd Cross to produce motion picture holograms, known
variously as multiplex holograms, integral holograms, or,
more accurately, holographic stereograms.' A conventional
motion picture camera records a subject rotating on a revolving turntable. Each frame of the developed film is holographed in a system that records the hologram in the form of
thin, vertical lines side by side on the holographic film.
The finished piece is mounted on a clear, plastic cylinder
and illuminated from above or below by an ordinary, clear
light bulb.
Because each hologram is too thin to be viewed singly, the
viewer receives a number of two-dimensional perspective
views of the object from viewing positions around the cylinder. (Since each movie frame contained two-dimensional information, so do the holograms.) The brain synthesizes these
multiple views into a composite dimensional image that appears to be floating in the center of the cylinder. The effect is
similar to stereo photography, but instead of offering a stationary, three-dimensional view derived from two images, a
holographic stereogram offers hundreds of moving, threedimensional images from over a thousand holograms!
Holographic stereograms are also extemely colorful, although not realistically so; nor are the images completely
three-dimensional during viewing. To produce a bright image,
the recording system forms holograms that break white light
into its component colors along a vertical line. When the
viewer moves up and down, the color of the image moves
through the spectrum from red to blue. Vertical movement
also produces no change in perspective, i.e., one cannot look
down or up at the image. Changes in the horizontal perspective, however, create a strong sense of three-dimensionality.
One of the few instances-the only one encountered by the
author-of holography in theatre involved a holographic stereogram. Held in New York in 1977, Evenings on a Revolving
Turntable included among its collection of performance art
pieces a holographic stereogram by Simone Forti, a dancer,
and Peter Van Riper, an artist. The hologram turned out to be
the performer revolving before the audience, but only part of
the audience could see the image clearly. (See "Simone
Forti's Angel," p. 17.)
The presentation difficulty of the Forti hologram is but one
of several problems faced by holographers when contemplating the design of holograms for theatre environments.
To appreciate the sort of obstacles the creation of a holographic image for theatre could cause, consider having a motionless image of Hamlet's father appear on stage. The image
should be full-size, in color or monochromatic, projected
away from the hologram itself and visible to the entire audience.
One approach would be to form a transmission hologram
that could be placed inconspicuously on stage and project its
image a few feet away. This would require careful consideration of the physical theatre and the staging. Any hologram
can be thought of as a lens that bends and focuses light, and,
as such, offers a limited viewing area. For a projected transmission hologram, this area is relatively narrow. Therefore,
the format of the theatre could be the determining factor in
design feasibility. Developing an approach for locating the
hologram onstage in an unobtrusive position and fulfilling its
stringent lighting requirements (either light from one or more
USITT/FalJ, 1978

"Developing an approach for locating the hologram onstage ...
and fulfilling its stringent lighting
requirements . .. would surely provide a challenge for the set and
lighting personnel. "

lasers or filtered mercury arc light of high intensity) would
surely provide a challenge for the set designer and lighting
personnel.
Given a workable design, the next task would be to gain
access to equipment, a laboratory and a skilled staff of holog rap hers. To suitably project the image, the recording
plates would have to be larger than the subject. The largest
commercially available plates are only a few feet square in
area. Although custom coating can provide larger plates-a
hologram three by four-and-a-half feet has been producedit could be prohibitively expensive. At least two of these would
be needed, one to record the image and another for reholographing the image for projection.
Laser requirements would vary according to the type of
hologram. If a full-color image of a manikin were sought, two
or more continuous wave (constant light output) lasers capable of providing red, green, and blue light would be needed
for recording and for projection. The cost would be about
$10,000 to $15,000 per laser. If the subject were a person, the
lasers would have to be of the pulsed variety. Pulsed lasers
generate intense, brief bursts of light needed to freeze object
motion during recording. These cost $15,000 and up. To play
back the pulsed hologram, continuous wave lasers would still
be needed. If the goal is a monochromatic image, only one
laser, either continuous wave or pulsed, according to the
subject, would be needed for recording, and a mercury arc
light could conceivably replace the laser for playback.
According to Stephen Benton, however, even with suitable
equipment, "holography remains a tedious and painstaking
craft, requiring considerable technical competence ... for
first rate results."· The staff would have to be well-grounded
in physics and chemistry in order to insure a bright, useful
image.
Another approach more congenial to theatre would be to
project a holographic image from a distance in a manner
similar to conventional motion pictures. All work in this area
has been experimental thus far, with few working models
appearing outside the laboratory. However, one system was
unveiled to a group of visiting scientists in the Soviet Union in
1976. It represents the first true holographic movie system.'
(See "Soviets Explore Several Systems for Holographic Movies," p. 13.)
Developed at the All-Union Cinema and Photographic Research Institute (NIKFI), Moscow, the system consists of a
unique camera employing a pulsed laser to make about
twenty holographic exposures per second. The seventy millimeter film is then projected by a specially designed projector
onto a direction-selective screen. The screen, itself a hologram, behaves like a lens with several focal points, each one
Theatre Design & Technology

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 1978