Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2005 - 16

Software Solutions
Other key players in the Macbeth workshop were Jason Czaja, audio supervisor, and Cobert Davis,
assistant sound designer. They were responsible for providing the multimedia technology and making it work. From the beginning, as the creative team started to develop a page-by-page storyboard,
Czaja and Davis realized they would need to invent control systems that were much more flexible
than the kind of DVD playback systems the theatre currently owned. In 2001, digital video processing was just migrating onto personal computers so Czaja and Davis spent several weeks searching
for and evaluating software applications that might meet the considerable needs of the upcoming
production of Macbeth.
They settled on two applications: Production Designer (www.wetelectrics.com) is software for
synchronizing and outputting video, audio, MIDI, and serial elements of multimedia presentations;
and VDMX (vidvox.com) is a software-based video mixer tuned for real-time performance of audio
visual material. VDMX's creator, Johnny DeKam, worked closely with ATL, going so far as to modify
the software to accommodate the way ATL was using MIDI for controlling some sequences of cues.
In production, there were four computers controlling video input from disk and from four
live hand-held cameras. Output went to four projection screens.

Timing Is Everything
Before rehearsals started with actors, the multimedia sequences were about seventy-five percent
complete. Fuchs normally takes up to three months to shoot and edit a five-minute piece for one of
her exhibits. She discovered working on Macbeth that the pace in theatre is much faster. During a
two-month pre-rehearsal period, she created fifty-two video sequences. In spite of the extensive
experimentation with and preparation of the multimedia elements, when rehearsals with actors began there was still much to discover about how to best
integrate the live performances with the projected images. The rehearsal studio
was crammed with video, sound, and lighting equipment: four video projectors, four computers, a sound system, four or five lighting instruments, and
even a headset cueing system to enable stage managers and technicians to
practice and debug some of the more complex sequences. "We had to rehearse
it as much as possible," Masterson said, "from the first rehearsal, so the actors
[would be comfortable] working with all this stuff around them." "We really
had two rehearsals going on, simultaneously, from the first day."
"One of the key questions," Masterson continued, "was timing. How fast
do these images move." Their main concern was pulling focus away from the
actors, and early on realized that, in general, the projected images should
move very slowly.

The creative team for Limonade tous les Jours (2002) discovered
during first tech rehearsal that transitions into and out of the
live video sequences specified in the script were too abrupt.
Videographer Valerie Fuchs quickly created recorded video
sequences for use throughout the play and had them ready to
go before opening night five days later. Pictured are Christa
Scott-Reed and Tom Teti. (Photos by Larry Hunt)
TD & T

http://www.wetelectrics.com http://www.vidvox.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2005