The Nutcracker – Arguably the most popular ballet in the world

Posted on December 1, 2011 by admin

Sarah Lamb as the Sugar Plum Fairy in The Nutcracker. Photo ROH, Johan Persson

This Christmas Sir Peter Wright will be the producer and choreographer of not one but two versions of The Nutcracker in London. Curious to find out more OffScreen went in search of Sir Peter. Words by Lynda Beckett

We arranged to meet Sir Peter at the Royal Opera House to find out more about the two productions. One will be a traditional performance at The Royal Opera House, the other will be a more dramatic version in the less familiar setting of the O2 Centre, in Greenwich, London.

The Nutcracker premiered at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg on 16th December, 1892. The Imperial Ballet performed a lavish two-act ballet, choreographed by Lev Ivanov and Marius Petipa, for the pleasure of the Tsar and court. Tchaikovsky composed the score during the Romantic era, late in his life. The storyline for the ballet was adapted from Hoffmann’s, ‘The Nutcracker and the Mouse King’. Hoffmann was a German fantasy and horror author and his story was a dark and sinister tale. Tchaikovsky’s ballet removes much of the darkness.

Getting The Nutcracker ballet into Europe wasn’t an easy task. Russian emigrees initially brought it to the West in small pieces tucked in ballets, such as Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake. However by the mid 20th century the full-length version of the ballet had become a staple for ballet companies in the West and especially in those countries that celebrate Christmas. In 1934 the Vic-Wells Ballet staged the first complete performance of The Nutcracker in London. It was based on choreographic notations that had been smuggled out of Russia.

Sir Peter’s first production of The Nutcracker was 27 years ago for the Royal Ballet, and was performed at the Royal Opera House. This production was a traditional interpretation and it is still being performed, albeit with many changes. It is this interpretation that you will see at the Royal Opera House this Christmas. He created a second production, a dramatic interpretation for the Birmingham Royal Ballet, 21 years ago. This interpretation will be performed at the O2, in London.

Everyone loves going to the ballet at Christmas. It has a ‘feel good factor’ and The Nutcracker is the perfect ballet to enchant the whole family. As Sir Peter explains ‘Hoffmann’s story is a complicated and difficult one, however it is very inspirational and sparks off wonderful ideas.’ The general format of the story remains the same with every production, however the Birmingham Royal Ballet focuses much more on Clara’s dream/nightmare, whereas at the Royal Opera House Drosselmeyer and his nephew lead the production.

The storyline used at the Royal Opera House goes something like this. Drosselmeyer, a maker of mechanical dolls and a magician, is in his workshop making a Christmas Angel for the Stahlbaum family Christmas tree. On the wall is a picture of Drosselmeyer’s nephew, Hans-Peter, who has been transformed into a nutcracker soldier doll by the evil Mouse King.

Drosselmeyer goes to the Stahlbaums’ Christmas Eve party where the family are celebrating with friends. He performs magic tricks to entertain everyone and eventually gives Clara the nutcracker. She immediately falls in love with it.

Ludovic Ondiviela and Elizabeth Harrod in The Nutcracker. Photo ROH, Johan Persson

After the party Clara awakes and creeps downstairs in search of the nutcracker. Drosselmeyer appears and makes the Christmas tree, toy fort and doll’s house grow to massive proportions, before the room transforms into a battleground for mice and toy soldiers. The Mouse King appears and attacks the nutcracker doll. Clara kills the Mouse King with her shoe and the nutcracker turns back into Hans-Peter.

To celebrate Clara’s bravery, Drosselmeyer sends her and Hans-Peter on a journey through the Land of Snow to the glittering Sugar Garden of the Kingdom of Sweets where they are met by the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Prince. Hans-Peter tells the Sugar Plum Fairy of their adventures, before they join in the wonderful entertainment organised by Drosselmeyer. The festivities come to a close and Clara finds herself on the snowy street outside her home, where she meets a handsome young man. It is Hans-Peter who then enters Drosselmeyer’s workshop, the spell having been broken.

As you can imagine, producing a well-known ballet has its own challenges, if you want to produce something close to the original storyline. ‘When you produce a ballet like Nutcracker which already exists, you first decide what of the original choreography you will use. In The Nutcracker there is very little that still exists. Then you make your plan, you have to make a choreographic pattern. You need first and foremost to make a structure. The music sets the whole thing. The Tchaikovsky score is absolutely magnificent.’

What does exist from the original is the grand pas de deux, between the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Prince, in the last act. ‘Other pieces that still exist, which I use, are the Chinese Dance and The Dance of the Mirlitons. When I first did Nutcracker, Professor Roland John Wiley went to Russia and found the notations of The Dance of the Snowflakes. The piece was for 61 girls. The notations were all floor patterns with one basic step, waltzing, waltzing, waltzing, in and out. I used that as a basis and then I re-choreographed it. In all of the productions I have done, I always try to be true to the originators, to honour the creators and be true to them. But one has to also think as time changes, audiences change, the way that things are done changes and dancer’s techniques change. All are very different to the setting of the original work. You have to move with the times.’

Sir Peter loves theatre and thinks the most important thing that the audience is able to relate to is what is happening on stage. Will what he is producing keep them absolutely fascinated?

‘Before I can go any further, getting the design right is important. Actually that to me is the most important of all, apart from the music. The music is number one, two I would say is the design.’ He works very closely with the designer. ‘That takes quite a long time.’

Sir Peter’s original production at Covent Garden was designed by Julia Trevelyan Oman, who at that time was mainly a television designer. Her design went very much with the traditional German, Edwardian-style decoration – the picture postcard – what everybody imagines as a traditional German household’s Christmas.

‘There aren’t rules about how you come together with your ideas, the important thing is that it has to make the choreography work for the dancers. It is no good having a very interesting stage, on different levels, expecting the dancers to dance on them. That is the hardest thing for the designer. Usually you have got to leave a 40ft square for the dance and then make it interesting around the edges, which is hard, very hard. But of course in certain scenes it doesn’t have to be like that.

The Nutcracker. Photo ROH, Johan Persson

‘The audience comes to the ballet primarily to see the dancing. The production has to enhance that, so you have to get the set right for the dancers whatever else is happening. But experienced designers understand that you have to have a circle or a square with a diagonal to achieve your basic patterns.’

Great examples of theatre in both of the productions are the transformation scene, particularly when the Christmas tree grows and the living room changes scale. ‘Here at the Royal Opera House the big transformation scene is absolutely remarkable, because the Christmas tree that is quite small at the back of the stage, grows and grows out of the floor to the height of 40ft.’ The aim of the production was to use the stage and its versatility in full, and to play with the size of the stage and use the mechanics within to full effect. The tree grows to spectacular proportions. It starts off actually three levels down, so that you just see the tip of it. And then when the lift at the back of the stage brings the tree up, it takes over the entire stage. At the same time the walls also change and the toy fort and dolls house become big enough for life-size dancers. Sir Peter remarks, ‘It can only be done at the Royal Opera House; it could never be done at the O2 Centre because they haven’t got the depth beneath the stage.’

At the O2 Centre, the audience will see the production that John Macfarlane designed for the Birmingham Royal Ballet. Sir Peter loves his work. ‘John is totally involved in the story which is spectacular and magical. He has a wonderful sense of theatre’. His designs are painterly and abstract. In this production John had to be very inventive about how he did the transformation scene because he didn’t have the mechanisms, traps and space of the Royal Opera House. In the Birmingham Royal Ballet production whole walls turn as Clara stands in the middle of the stage. The Christmas tree starts to grow on one side of the stage. At the same time huge branches come in from the side and from above. The fireplace becomes massive. King Mouse (a rat in this production) appears out of it, followed by a hoard of rats ready to fight in what is now a battlefield. The combination of all this happening at once is magical.

Sir Peter hopes that huge audiences will attend the six performance run at the O2 Centre. The O2 Centre is a vast empty space, so the production team has to build a complete proscenium arch with all the lighting bars and the grids to fly scenery up and down. Building a proscenium arch creates a problem with sight lines. With this in mind a couple of things have been planned. ‘There will be a thrust stage in front, so that everything can be brought out beyond the proscenium arch and eighty strong orchestra. This will give more people the ability to see everything. That means that most of the choreography will have to be adapted to bring it further forward, especially the big scenes involving the corps de ballet’.

Four cameras will film the complete production. The footage will be cut live and transmitted onto a huge screen above the stage. So, way back in the rafters, the audience will be able to see in detail the faces and footwork of the dancers and then can look back at the stage to see the whole ballet.

With a lot of careful planning, Peter thinks the filming of the ballet can be turned to the production’s advantage. ‘I think that this is going to be very special because there is so much happening in Nutcracker; the magician does amazing tricks and there are remote control rats running all over the floor. But the cameras can’t get too close or they will give away the tricks with all the little wires. This is all under the supervision of Ross MacGibbon, the famous television dance director’.

Because of the time needed for the build and the O2 Centre being used for other things, by the time the company goes to the O2 Centre they won’t get a week’s rehearsal there. As far as the dancers and the orchestra are concerned, they have two days to get it all done. ‘We are going to rehearse in Birmingham in a large space with a mock-up of how it will be at the O2’. The company will have a week in Birmingham to prepare. They will travel down to London and have a full rehearsal in the afternoon and another rehearsal in the evening. The next day will be the opening night following a full dress rehearsal with the orchestra. Turnabout for both productions is fast. At the Royal Opera House they get slightly more rehearsal time, but there are ten different casts for the principals, they need every moment available.

Because it is a Christmas ballet, The Nutcracker draws a young family audience. Sir Peter hopes that the production at the O2 Centre will inspire a lot of new people to go to the ballet at Covent Garden, Sadler’s Wells and the Coliseum. His aim is to make sure that the quality of both productions is the best that can possibly be achieved.

The Nutcracker, Andrea Tredinnick, Tyrone Singleton and Artists of Birmingham Royal Ballet in the 'Arabian Dance'. Photo courtesy of Roy Smiljanic

The Nutcracker will be performed at the Royal Opera House on:
3, 23, 28 December, 3, 14 January at 7pm
5, 7, 13, 29, 30 December, 7, 11, 18 January at 7.30pm
20, 31 December at 12.30pm
24 December, 2 January at 12 noon
11, 18, 23, 28 December, 3, 14 January at 2pm
7 January at 2.30pm
31 December at 5.30pm

And at The 02 Centre on:
27, 28, 30 December at 7.30pm
28, 29, 30 December at 2.00pm

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Style and Subversion at the V&A

Posted on December 1, 2011 by admin

Postmodernism - Style and Subversion. 1970-1990 © V&A Images

Postmodernism, will we ever get an answer to what it is?
Words by Lynda Beckett

Postmodernism is said to be the most controversial of the all the art movements. I can only presume this is because it is so difficult to define, however ‘style’ and ‘subversion’ are a good place to start.

So, on a crazy-warm evening in early autumn a friend and I went to try and get our heads around Postmodernism at the V&A. Hundreds of people were hanging around the bar in the entrance hall, and in the quadrangle beside the stylish and beautifully lit paddling pool, drinking cocktails. I must admit the thought of cocktails was tempting, however the queue was five deep, so we decided to go and tackle ‘Postmodernism’. We wanted to see if we could get our heads around this subversive and amorphous art movement.

The opening piece of work was ‘Destruction of Lassú chair’ (1974). A replica of a beautifully crafted wooden chair by Alessandro Mendini sat on some wooden steps. A photomontage of the original chair and steps being burnt, in a disused quarry, was projected above the replica chair and steps. I wasn’t sure about the symbolism of this piece. Was it capturing a moment in time, a phoenix rising from the ashes, postmodernism about to enter the world, or was it simply an anarchic act?

Next came the artist and architect Ettore Sottsass. It looked like he had been inspired by Bertie Bassett and made totems from oversized liquorice allsorts. The totems made me smile, they were fun, however they looked more like something out of the Pop Art movement, and at first glance had very little to do with postmodernism. Then to my horror virtually the whole room turned into a display of architectural drawings with only a couple of models of houses and some teapots incased in glass. It had all become a little to 2D for my liking.

Yes this exhibition is subversive, but not in the way I think the curators intended it to be. It was subversive because I was in a gallery looking at drawings and objects and I didn’t have a clue as to what was going on, and neither did anyone else as far as I could see. I needed a bit of an overview of postmodernism with objects and works from artists and designers that I was more familiar with. I was finding it difficult to connect to anything. I thought the postmodernist movement kicked off in the early to mid 20th century with the French philosophers and writers, Jacques Derrida, Jean Baudrillard, Jean-François Lyotard and Michel Foucault, but there is no mention of them here. The subversion had definitely started.

In this exhibition the V&A has chosen to focus on the ‘Postmodernism’ movement that started in the 1970s. Just after the fall of modernism. It explains that on the 15th March 1972 at 3.22pm, the historian Charles Jencks declared modernism dead when the Pruitt-Igoe housing project in St Louis, Missouri, was dynamited. Just deserts, as far as I am concerned, the Pruitt-Igoe housing project was a hideous bunch of modernist high-rise buildings comprising thirty-three, eleven-story rectangular concrete building on a 35-acre site. So, this is ‘the end’ of modernism, but what about Postmodernism? I needed to know more.

Few academics seem willing to define Postmodernism. And fewer have written anything that us mere mortals are ever going to be able to understand. Other art movements in the 20th century have been much easier to define; Impressionism by Monet’s water lilies and haystacks, Cubism by Picasso’s naked women and Surrealism by Dali’s melting watch and Duchamp’s urinal. Postmodernism as yet doesn’t seem to have seminal pieces of work that define the movement, but there are contenders – Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons are in the running.

The height of postmodernism, or ‘po-mo’ as it is affectionately called, was during the 80s and the early 90s. Warhol and Koons captured the consumer’s desire for wealth and power of the 80s. Society was infatuated with money and so was the art world. Warhol was literally printing money in the early 80s with his Dollar Sign series of paintings and drawings. One of his silkscreened dollar signs is here. So is Koons’ trademark silver-coloured bust of French King Louis XIV. The beautiful bust reflected the fascination with consumer desire, affluence, and power of the 80s. The Daily Telegraph describes it as “a glittering totem of capitalist kitsch”. Koons wanted the bust to look expensive. He loves shiny. It’s actually made of polished steel, but could so easily have been cast in silver. It stands as proud as any 18th century bust. However when push comes to shove, it’s a phony. But it’s not alone, there is a phoniness about many of the objects in this exhibition. They were beautifully crafted over-the-top designs, impractical as product designs, but always pushing the boundaries.

I enjoyed seeing Warhol and Koons’ work within this exhibition. Their work is both stylish and subversive, however I did feel that I was wading through a pan-cultural soup of product design and popular culture, fashion, graphics and architecture. Taking a quick look at Blade Runner, the maternity dress for Grace Jones designed by Jean-Paul Goude and Antonio Lopez, and the cover of i-D made me think about the impact this movement made on 20th century western culture. A combination of clashing colours, eclectic design, and wry wit shone through.

Grace Jones Maternity Dress. 1979 © Jean-Paul Goude

Still looking for a definition of Postmodernism, after seeing the exhibition, I stumbled upon a paper by Professor Martin Irvine of Georgetown University, Washington. He sees “Postmodernity as a phase of knowing and practice, abandoning the assumptions, prejudices, and constraints of modernism to embrace the contradictions, irony, and profusion of pop and mass culture. ‘High’ and ‘low’ culture/art categories made useless and irrelevant, art from outsider and non-Western cultures embraced, consumer society turned inside out.” It would have helped if I had been armed with that walking through the V&A postmodernist exhibition.

From what I understand, ‘Postmodernism’ was a reaction to modernism. Jane Pavitt the co-curator of the exhibition explains Postmodernism as “a reaction to the orthodoxy of modernism, a reaction against a single narrative and a monotheistic position in design and architecture”.

Wet Magazine. © April Greiman and Jayme Odgers

If this information had been available to me I would have understood the architecture with features from another era stuck on. But the impracticality of many of the teapots and everyday objects is still beyond me. If they were art for art’s sake then that’s fine in our post postmodernist world. There are many weird and wonderful objects, but only about 15 punters going round the exhibition; the V&A bars were obviously more appealing on a Friday night.

The V&A markets itself as a ‘design museum’. Within this exhibition it looked liked they’d just tried to link a load of stuff they had at the back of a cupboard under the banner of ‘postmodernism’ as a catch-all for their leftovers.

Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970-1990 V&A Museum – London until 15th January 2012

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Christmas List

Posted on December 1, 2011 by admin

Wacom Inkling

Words by Lynda Beckett

Buying presents for people in tv, film and theatre production is always difficult because they have everything. So this year at OffScreen we thought we would give you a few ideas.

The first is a gadget. We all love gadgets. This one is especially useful for the doodlers and artists amongst us. In fact it is a top gadget for anyone who writes on scraps of paper, draws on napkins or the back of fag packets. The Wacom Inkling is a really neat way of capturing those ideas that come to them in a café or pub during a meeting. It enables them to transfer their thoughts and images into their computer. And the beauty of this gadget is that it’s small, something they can carry around in their pocket. The Inkling digital sketch pen comprises a pressure-sensitive ballpoint pen and a wireless receiver that captures your sketch/notes and stores them digitally. The wireless receiver just needs to be clipped to the edge of the piece of paper, cardboard or napkin you are using. Then you tap the receiver and start to draw. It’s a clever little gadget. Tap on the receiver again and you can create layers in the digital file. It is compatible with Adobe® Photoshop®, Adobe® Illustrator® and Autodesk® Sketchbook® Pro. It’s a versatile piece of kit that means their moments of inspiration in the pub or the coffee shop will never be lost.

Everyone enjoys a good book over the Christmas holidays, and one full of pictures that you can get stuck into is a god-send when you’ve had your fill of turkey and the rellies. Oliver Messel – In the Theatre of Design covers the work of the designer who lived from 1904 to 1978, It’s a great book for anyone interested in film and theatre set design. Shortly after leaving the Slade School of Fine Art, Messel made his name as a stage designer, working for Sergei Diaghilev in 1925. From the 1930s to the mid 1950s Messel was one of Britain’s leading theatre designers working on revues, musicals, ballet, opera, theatre and films. In the post-war years he designed several films, including Caesar and Cleopatra with Vivien Leigh in 1945. In 1959 he designed Suddenly, Last Summer, with Elizabeth Taylor and Katherine Hepburn. A master of design, he was able to capture the mood of any design, be it for film or the stage, and interior design.

Published by Rizzoli

An offshoot for Messel from film and theatre design was lavish interiors and architectural design in his later life. This book holds the life and works of a very talented man and is well worth a read.

If you want to give your friends presents that are going to inspire, why not buy annual memberships for the Tate or the Royal Academy? For a year they will get unlimited free entry to all exhibitions, access to the Members’ Room and a quarterly magazine from the gallery. If you think your friends would enjoy more variety an Art Fund Pass is great value. It will get them into over 200 museums and galleries throughout the UK for free, and will enable them to visit most major exhibitions for half price.

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Bond Video Games Rebooted – GoldenEye 007: Reloaded

Posted on December 1, 2011 by admin

Jaws, GoldenEye 007. Reloaded All photos courtesy of Eon Productions

Video games are bigger business than films, but they require many of the same production skill sets. To find out how the most successful video games are made, OffScreen met with David G. Wilson, an executive producer on the current Bond games.
Words by Zoe Campbell

In 1997, Nintendo released the first ever James Bond video game for its brand new N64 console, “GoldenEye 007″. It quickly became the biggest video game release ever. Based loosely on the original film title, it sold 8 million copies at a time when console games were lucky to ship product in the six figures. No one had ever seen anything like it and to this day it remains one of the most popular game titles of all time.

In November of this year, games publisher, Activision – hoping that lightning in a bottle can strike twice – released their homage to the film with their new title, “GoldenEye Reloaded”. It is in every way an entirely new game, redesigned and redefined for the new HD console platforms – Sony Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360.

Reinventing such a beloved film was never going to be easy. Just witness how feverishly fans have debated casting changes to the James Bond character himself over the years and you’ll understand the situation. But Activision and games developer, Eurocom, wanted to make the best Bond game ever and felt that they could deliver a great property – just as the filmmakers had done with Daniel Craig.

The timing could not have been better. Games have finally come of age. They are big business now – bigger than film, even. And the games market is still growing year on year.

Unlike film, however, game development is very sensitive to technological changes. If a film is delayed for a year, it isn’t going to make much of a difference to its audience. Even if the film is special effects heavy, radical shifts in the industry occur once a decade, if that, with releases like ‘The Matrix’ and ‘Avatar’. Console games, on the other hand, live or die by their cutting edge technology. If a game is delayed, even by six months, whatever technical edge the development team may have had will have been lost to the competition.

Consequently, game developers have very tight, punishing schedules that must be adhered to. On average, a triple-A console game title takes 18-24 months to get right. Some titles take several years. It’s not uncommon to see hundreds of people pulling all-nighters for six months in a row, as the team reaches the final lap.

Games budgets have increased. Each ‘Call of Duty’ or ‘Modern Warfare’ release is rumoured to cost $50-80 million in production costs plus hundreds of millions in promotional spend. This puts even more pressure on the development team to keep the heat on, streamline their process and abandon anything that doesn’t service the game.

Enter the Storytellers. In the case of Bond, this is Eon Productions Ltd – the producers of the James Bond film series and protectors of the franchise. More specifically, enter David G. Wilson, VP of Global Business Strategy, who is also an executive producer on the current Bond games.

Iconic Tank Chase Sequence

“Everybody presumes that storytelling and narrative are important to games but in practice nobody treats these elements with the same reverence as rendering speed, game engine design and other engineering pyrotechnics,” says Wilson. “Luckily, both Activision and Eurocom take story seriously enough to make this an important differentiator for Bond.”

Wilson’s job is to ensure that the game is true to Bond and that it preserves the characters and quality storytelling of the original film.
“Games often focus on the action to the detriment of all else. And why not? Players are there to play, not to watch a movie. But stories can be told in many ways… not just through cut-scenes.”

The challenge is greater in First Person Shooter games (FPS), like GoldenEye Reloaded, because players prefer to ‘run and gun’ rather than take the time to explore the story environment. The challenge, as Wilson sees it, is “to make not-shooting more exciting than shooting.”

This is a tough call, given that FPS console games are becoming ever more violent. Games like “Medal of Honor” and “Battlefield 3″ are given restricted ratings for their violent and photorealistic depiction of combat. These are games in which everybody dies, many times over. Bond, on the other hand, has opted for a balance between weaponry and intelligence. The phrase often used by the GE Reloaded production team is, “a thinking man’s shooter”.

Eon and Eurocom have had an unusual collaboration this time around. Most publishers keep licensors and developers far apart. However, Eon brings a wealth of talent to the table with its film crew – many of whom have worked on Bond films for generations. For instance, the game’s script was penned by Bruce Feirstein who wrote the original film screenplay.

Rob Cowper, a veteran of the Bond Art Department, provided concept art and set designs for the game. Bond composer, David Arnold, has rewritten the score and Daniel Craig’s stunt double, Ben Cooke, was brought in to work with the Eurocom motion-capture team to ensure that all the fight sequences in the game were as authentic as the ones in the current films. In fact, Cooke’s choreography and moves resulted in the ‘take-down’ feature that is now intrinsic to the gameplay. Instead of dealing with every situation with lethal force, Bond has the option of stealth take-downs – furthering the team’s goal of positioning Bond as an intelligent adversary who doesn’t require firepower to get results.

Dam Artwork Concept

Says Wilson, “Great gameplay, great characters in a great story is what you get with Bond. Story matters.”
And it seems that the public concurs, despite the game being launched against its stiffest competition. Which just goes to show: you don’t have to make a killing to make the best game.

GoldenEye 007: Reloaded is now available for Xbox & PS3. For more information visit:
www.GoldenEyeGame.com

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Exciting New Purchases Seen in Creative Technology’s Inventory

Posted on December 1, 2011 by admin

All photos courtesy of Creative Technology

Always looking for more creative, more innovative and more exciting ways of providing the audio visual content for major events, Creative Technology (CT), world leading rental operator of high performance LED products for the exhibition, broadcast and events market is delighted to announce a major new purchase agreement with Belgium based Barco.

CT has committed to a spend of over US$ 11 Million across their European and US operations which will result in a phased delivery of a number of products based on the existing C Series platform. Incorporating some technical modifications developed by the manufacturer of video and graphics display technology in consultation with CT has provided that extra mile that CT constantly strives to deliver to its customers.

The first product, the C5, which will be available at the end of 2011, is a new black face, indoor display offering a 10% resolution premium over the most established 6mm products on the market. A number of significant additional mechanical and electronic features are expected to rapidly establish the C5 as a benchmark against which other products will be judged. A flown weight of less than 40kg per m², integral concave and convex curving, no fans (resulting in silent operation), and most importantly Barco’s NNI interface allowing full integration with the DX700 processing unit, provide a sample of some of the technical features of the new products.

Paul Matthijs, CEO of the newly formed “Live Dots” venture of Barco focussing on LED displays remarked, “The past couple of years, we have seen a massive increase in cheap products from China and that made us shift our focus to the development and production of competitively priced products for the events and permanent installation market. The C5 and renewed relationship with CT is a good example of our ongoing commitment to the rental market and our improved ability to respond quickly, effectively and competitively to customer’s needs.”

Equally pleased with how CT’s long-standing relationship has resulted in this agreement is Dave Crump, CEO CT in Europe and the Middle East: “CT has a number of premium and long-term customers in the automotive, technology and entertainment sectors who demand the highest performance and reliability at a competitive price. After extensive research and following recent investments of Barco’s LED business in its supply chain, CT has selected the C5 LED product as the cornerstone of our indoor LED range for the foreseeable future. Unlike some of our competitors we believe that the improved international support and service offered by a substantial European manufacturer outweighs the short term gains that can be achieved sourcing directly in China. We have every confidence in the new team at LiveDots and look forward to continuing our partnership with the Barco group”.

The Barco C Series are not the only new products to be seen in CT’s inventory. Video Flex, designed and developed by LED Poison with the television and event industries in mind is one of the first, fully flexible, smart chasing LED strips controllable and mappable via DVi video source or standard video connections. With minimal processing components making the product even more flexible and reliable, the flex is controlled via its own software and can interact directly with a video source. Video Flex’s first live outing on UK television will be for Strictly Come Dancing’s spectacular live programme in aid of Children in Need, where 450m of the product will be utilised around Wembley Arena and the biggest ever dance floor in the BBC programme’s history. Impressing Strictly’s largest ever audience of around 6,500, plus the many millions more at home, Video Flex will sit alongside a variety of CT’s other products used not just for the Wembley show but also for the studio set used throughout the series.

CT’s MiTrix LED display utilised for the two curved proscenium arches realise the Patrick Doherty designed art deco inspired concept of the ballroom while Flyer 18 display, also recently added to CT’s stock, is used for the main set backdrop. With each step down from the mezzanine floor fitted with CT’s MiStrip and the floor visually enhanced with projected images and graphics courtesy of six Barco FLM projectors, also supplied from CT’s inventory, Strictly has certainly received the CT factor in shedloads.

Strictly Come Dancing

As Adrian Offord, CT’s Director of Business Development comments: “As one of the most high-profile programmes on BBC in recent years, CT is delighted to be part of the show. To choose the best of the latest new and innovative products for this, or indeed any show, is a huge responsibility, but we are 100% certain of the products in our inventory and 100% assured of their quality and reliability. Video Flex definitely matches CT’s criteria as a flexible and creative product, and will be ideal in enhancing Strictly’s already stunning set.”

For more information please contact:
Dave Crump
CEO CT in Europe and the Middle East
dcrump@ctlondon.com
+44 (0)1293 582000

Adrian Offord
Director of Busines Development
aofford@ctlondon.com
+44 (0)1293 582000

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OffScreen interviews Adrian Kohler, the creative mind behind War Horse and Woyzeck on the Highveld

Posted on December 1, 2011 by admin

Woyzech on the Highveld. Photo courtesy of Barney Simon

Adrian Kohler, the innovative mind behind the animatronic horses in War Horse, the West End and Broadway hit, recently brought Woyzeck on the Highveld to the Barbican Theatre. In the second of a two part interview, OffScreen talks to Adrian, a world class Artistic Director and Puppet Maker, about forming the characters in Woyzeck on the Highveld and developing the horses for War Horse.

Who visualised the characters for Woyzeck on the Highveld?
William Kentridge did the drawing of Harry, the man on the street. The bandaged head was Harry’s head, because he’d been in a fight. The coat he wears was Harry’s coat, a thick tweedy kind of coat. So those two images were real concrete details brought in from real life. Then the rest of the characters in the play were a combination of myself and William.

What does this production of Woyzeck have that actors can’t bring?
I suppose we spend all our time as puppeteers trying to analyse what the puppet theatre brings to the theatre that actors don’t. The actors performing the puppets of the book, and I suppose the puppets themselves represent the characters as they are in history or in the story, and they are performed by people now, in the same room as the audience. So the actors are like the audience, but the puppets represent the author and the ideas in the piece. They also have to be brought to life. They are not alive. They can die, but to live they have to strive to live, and that is part of the empathy that they draw from the audience, the fact that they’re trying to live and trying to behave like people. And sometimes they succeed.

The puppets are full of emotion. How do you capture the spectrum of emotions they need to convey on a single carved face, for the entire play?
Yes, that is an interesting observation. At the time we were making it, the famous Johannesburg director Barney Samuel started to mock the theatre in Johannesburg. He also loved Woyzeck as a play and had done a celebrated version about 10 years before we did. When he heard that we were doing it he said “Ah, no, but I was about to do it again”. So we had to say “Ok, well then, which plays are we not allowed to do, Barney, because you want to do them?” Anyway, so he felt entitled to come to one of the run-throughs, and he said “You’ve made a big mistake. The face that you’ve carved on Woyzeck is the face of the man at the end of the play, not at the beginning. How are you going to sustain it?” I had worked with him, he had worked with puppets, but he didn’t understand that you only have one face and that you have to show everything else with body language. It’s a bit like a masked actor; if you put somebody in a mask, the strange thing is that you see the person you know even more clearly, because they can’t hide anything. Every little insecurity comes out in their body. So the puppet works in the same way. Its body language, its attitude, and the thing is as audience members, as people in the street, we read so much “stuff “ from everything surrounding the person, not just the words and not just the face.

What qualities do you think that puppetry and animation can give to a production that you can’t get from actors?
Well, when you’re watching a puppet you don’t have to contend with the star behind the role. You don’t have to even think about that. You can think about the character straight away. You don’t have to think “Well, Vanessa Redgrave is doing very well tonight.” You don’t even have to think that; you’re looking only at the character. Your imagination is triggered. It has to participate if you’re to enjoy a piece of puppet theatre. You have to tolerate these wooden figures performing for you, and you have to invest in them. They ask you to invest and if you do you get rewarded. And because you’re involved creatively as the audience, you get a different experience in the theatre.

Why do you call the puppeteers actors?
I do call them actors. I’m not scared of the “p-word”, but for a long time in England puppeteers really suffered. We’ve been travelling a lot over the last 20-30 years, and when we met English puppeteers playing European festivals, they called themselves “The so-and-so visual theatre company”. They never used the word “puppetry”. But things have changed a lot now. The English theatre public has opened up to the puppet. So, we call them manipulators, puppeteers, puppeteer actors. But you have to be an actor first, before you can work a puppet.

Why?
Well, because of the demands of theatre performance. And you have to understand the rules of performance in the theatre.

There was one person and place the animation made us think of – Jan Švankmajer and Prague. Are there any connections?
Well, William’s style is very expressionist, which comes out of a sort of German and Czech European style. Švankmajer has a pretty dark sense of humour, very sort of bizarre, and I would say there is an element of that. I didn’t know about his work until we did our next production with Kentridge, after Woyzeck. We have looked at Švankmajer, though I don’t know to what extent he directly influenced us. William was born in Johannesburg, and the industrial landscape of Johannesburg and the layering of greed and exploitation, and the gold-rush, get-rich-quick town, the human debris that has resulted from that, the exploitative business man, these are all recurring themes in his work.

When did you choose to set the play?
The play is taking place in the early 1990s. South Africa is at a transition, Mandela is out of prison but we don’t yet have a new government. It’s in the interim period where the old South African structures are still in place. Our next piece was set in 1994, Faustus in Africa, which is based on Goethe, which is about colonialists carving up the continent for their own fun and games. But it was really about the compromise of the first constitution in South Africa, and the talks, and who was going to get away free.

Is there anything you’d like to tell us about the work?
Well, the curious thing is that it’s still performing now, so long after we made it. We had initially played it for 4 ½ years … in 1992.

Why has it taken so long to get here?
Because of “the p-word”! Between 1992 and now, things have changed in England. We did play it at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, I think (laughs). And we did play our Faustus in London, and indirectly I got on to War Horse because of Faustus. Tom Morris was the Artistic Director of the Battersea Arts Centre then, and he became an Associate Director at The National, as people do, they go up in the world. And that’s how we got to put onto War Horse.

War Horse Photo courtesy of Simon Annand

Let’s talk a bit about War Horse. Can you tell me about the making of the horses?
We had for a long time admired the puppet tradition of Mali in West Africa. In the dark days of apartheid of course we could never go there, but there exists in Mali one of the really ancient puppetry traditions, which had its heyday in the 12th century. There are some unique puppet forms. We toured a lot. We played in Washington at the Kennedy Centre, where they presented a Malian puppet company and they presented us. We thought, “Wouldn’t it be nice to put them together.” So I’ve been to Mali three times and we made a show about a giraffe that went to visit the King of France – it’s a famous story – and it was the giraffe show that Tom Morris brought Nick Starr to see in Cape Town, when we opened at the Baxter Theatre. We thought, “Yay, they want to buy our giraffe show and put us on at The National Theatre in London!” But they said they’d help with the script, and then they went home. And then two months later Tom phoned me with the story of War Horse, and I said yes immediately. It sounded perfect.

But once I’d read the book, the challenges were that the horses had to plough, they had to be in cavalry charges in the war, and they had to be ridden by human beings. So, we made some backpacks and put a ladder between two of us and put our neighbour’s daughter on top to see if she’d fall off, and we could hold her up no problem. So I started making the prototype – it took about four months, with me and another guy working on it – and brought it over here. A number of things were discovered in the workshop. One was that if I continued with my front-leg controls, within two weeks I would permanently destroy the wrists of the person working it. They brought in physiotherapists, which is a very good thing, and I had to do a lot of re-designing. But at the workshop we were able to test that it could indeed be ridden and that it could walk like a horse.

War Horse. Photo courtesy of Simon Annand

We discovered a lot of things. The choreographer, Toby Sedgwick, was at that workshop and he devised a moment when the horse grows up from a foal into the big horse. Nick Starr, the Executive Director, was sitting next to me in that particular phase of the workshop, and he doesn’t like to show any emotional approval at too early a stage, but I could feel the green light go on in his head at that moment, and we knew we were probably going to make a play of it.

But it took a while still after that. We did all together about four workshops. It’s amazing at The National Theatre. In the system they have the studio and everything, and they can put a significant amount of R&D into a project. Without it, we wouldn’t have had the play we have. Even when we opened it was three and a half hours long, and people were falling asleep. So Nick Starr said yes at that point, and Nick Hytner came in and cut an hour and something out of the play in the previews, and that’s what made the show.

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One (Too Many) For The Road?

Posted on December 1, 2011 by admin

We’ve probably all been there at one time or another. The night is going well and everyone seems exceptionally witty and good fun. It is a sensible time to go home when someone says ‘one for the road?’ to which you reply ‘oh go on then – it can’t hurt!’ Boy were you wrong. When the alarm goes off the next morning it feels as if someone is hitting you on the head with a hammer and you feel unexpectedly nauseous. This is the time that you vow never to touch another drink… ‘til the next time!

The festive season is well and truly on the way and social calendars are filling up. If you are thinking of not attending these imminent events to avoid the dreaded hangover then we need to talk! There are more natural ways to deal with the self-inflicted pain caused by an increased toxic load on the liver, dehydration, and electrolyte imbalance in the body. Of course the easiest way to avoid hangovers is to drink in moderation – and never get drunk. But in case this fails let’s look at some tips to get us through the holidays.

Lining is key
If you are off to a party have something to eat before you go. Do not drink on an empty stomach. Food slows down the body’s absorption of alcohol and helps protect against irritation and vomiting.

Drink this!
Alternating alcoholic drinks with a glass of pure water is the best way to slow down your drinking and fend off dehydration which leads to headaches, soreness, and nausea. If you did not manage this golden tip have a good drink of water afterward to avoid a pounding headache, and again first thing in the morning. The faster you replenish your fluid loss, the faster you will begin recovering.

Keep it moving
If someone asks you to dance, accept. If nothing else at least you will have put your drink down for a few minutes.

Stick to your guns
Variety is not the spice of life in terms of a hangover. To avoid a hangover cocktail of assorted additives, flavouring and other elements stay with one type of alcohol and away from shots.

Mind your mixer
Avoid carbonated and sugary drinks which speed up the absorption of alcohol into your bloodstream. Drink clear liquors such as vodka, gin or white rum. Darker alcohols like bourbon or red wine contain higher concentrates of congeners, a toxic substance which helps contribute to hangovers.

Love your liver
The liver is an amazing chemical factory and its job is to process the alcohol as quickly as possible. After a night of drinking, help the liver by having cleansing foods such as beetroot, carrot, leeks, garlic, onions, eggs, broccoli, watercress and (breath freshening) parsley.

What’s for breakfast?
Avoid the classic cooked English breakfast post-alcohol meal. Eating heavy, greasy foods creates more work for your poor liver, which is already overloaded. A hot porridge breakfast will fill you up and the oats will soak up the toxins while being rich in B vitamins to nourish your nervous system.

Eat your fruit and drink your vegetables
Eating fruit such as pineapples (they contain bromelain), cleansing apples, and bananas (they are rich in potassium and vitamin C) increases energy and replaces lost vitamins and nutrients. Drink ginger, fennel or dandelion tea to help soothe the stomach and assist your liver.

Above all else remember to drink responsibly! Have a happy, healthy, and safe festive season.

Angelique Panagos is a Nutritional Therapist with a special interest in female health, hormonal imbalances, fatigue and digestive disorders. She also sees clients with general health concerns. Angelique completed her 3 year training as a Nutritional Therapist at the Institute for Optimum Nutrition in London.

Consult your doctor, practitioner, and/or chemist for any health problems, before embarking on any new health regimes, using any supplements or before making any changes in prescribed medications.

Website:
www.angeliquepanagosnutrition.com

Email:
yourhealth@angeliquepanagosnutrition.com

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Spotlight on Gillian O’Brien, Decorator/Buyer

Posted on October 4, 2011 by admin

Teen Vogue. All photos are courtesy of Gillian O’Brien

How did you start your career?
I moved to London after being offered a placement at a fashion trend company. Knowing no one in London it was definitely a case of “Bright Lights, Big City”. After finishing my placement I decided to make London my home and got a job designing windows for Habitat. I was very young and ambitious and after a year thought that perhaps I could design bigger sets. I called a television production company and managed to speak to the production designer on a show that I loved. He took me on as an assistant a week later. That was when it all began.

Italian Vogue

What is your role within the industry?
My role and title changes depending on what industry I’m involved in and the scale of the project. For all editorial and advertising work, I’m the set designer and have my own team of construction, scenic artists, dressers and buyers. I collaborate with the photographer to ensure a set is built and designed to the brief and budget. In film and television my roles include art directing, set decorating and buying. I enjoy working with the production designer, helping to capture the vision, it’s similar to the relationship I have with photographers. My role is to facilitate them and their vision.

Aquascutum

Is this what you always imagined you would do?
I was always creative and loved stories, especially the details of stories, how people lived, what they bought, the smells and colours in their homes. Had I not got into Art school I would have studied English and been a writer, but my first choice was always Art school. I like telling stories visually, showing the details of a character’s life and experiences, be that a character in a film, fashion shoot or television programme.

i-D Magazine

Where and what did you study?
I studied at Glasgow School of Art. My degree was Embroidered and Woven Textiles, which is an unusual one to study to end up in set design, but it proved very relevant for me. It was a very creative course. Drawing and painting featured heavily and the technicality of constructing a fabric on the loom requires a lot of mathematical problem solving. Later I applied that training when dealing with scale and budgets. The use of colour, pattern and texture helped when decorating a set, and creating a look.

i-D Magazine

Who gave you your first break?
My first break was by Production Designer, Marcus Blee, who took me on as his design assistant. He taught me so much about production design and was incredibly generous. He worked on many live shows pushing boundaries; his background is art and architecture so the mix was always very creative. He designed the iconic Big Brother house in 2002, using ethical materials and gave me the decorator/buyer role. It was a fantastic design project as the house not only had to look good for television and be suitable for filming but also had to function as a house with working amenities. At that time, the design team was exceptionally small and we had no idea how big the show would then go on to become. It was an exciting time.

i-D Magazine

Which aspect of your work do you most enjoy?
I love the whole process from the initial idea to standing in the finished set all lit and dressed and watching the character or model become part of the world that you and the team have created. Ultimately, the finished set is a collaboration of lots of people, their ideas, experiences, and skills. I really enjoy being part of a team, sharing stories with people that often go on to become friends.

Italian Vogue

What is your main inspiration that drives you?
The main inspiration for me is emotions. I want to know how a character is supposed to feel and act in the space. What their story is… from there I can start to build a visual picture. Music is also another source of inspiration. Lyrical content and sound paint a picture and create a mood. Often, especially in fashion shoots, I don’t have a script to work from and therefore have to use my imagination creating a character in order to design the set. I try to understand who this fictional person is, how they dress, the language they speak, what items they would buy, and music they’d listen to, how they will behave in the space. These are all clues as to what the set will eventually look like.

The Farm - Channel 4

Which production have you most enjoyed working on and why?
That’s very difficult because my projects and roles are so varied! Recently I worked as a buyer on HBO’s Game of Thrones and was on location for a couple of months in Malta. It was an amazing project and the scale of sets was very exciting. It was great to be part of such a fantastic and experienced team. I also really enjoyed designing and building a classroom for a fashion editorial for Vogue Italia. Despite the budget and deadline being very tight, my team brought their own creativity and skills to the fore to make a rich and detailed set.

Teen Vogue

What are you working on at the moment?
I’m working on 2 cover stories for Vogue.

What is your proudest professional moment?
Having my first work published and shooting in New York would probably be my own personal proudest moments, but I also love when as a team we can stand back and collectively feel proud of what we all achieved.

Big Brother - Endemol

If you could choose to work on a certain TV or film genre which would it be?
I never want to choose. I always want to be as creative as possible and chase the creative project be it a film, commercial, fashion shoot, television or music video. To me that’s what is exciting. They are, all in their own way about telling and sharing a story.

www.gillianobrien.com

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