'I'm Going on an Adventure!' - A Hobbit at Some Point

Currently my idea for Maps and Journeys follows up from my previous post regarding theatre and how they use projection to add effects to the background of the set. At the moment I'm playing with the idea of doing a projection based project showing my interpretation of a famous play (Think Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde.... anything out of copyright) and making what I believe would work in a theatre as a background for a modern adaptation. I would complete this idea by having silhouettes of actors blocking out the scene (as if they were on stage) and adding sound design over the top to give the audience a feeling of being immersed in the theatre. Or making it a performance piece that I could edit after it's initial showing to make sense without the actor.

I got the idea when I came across the company 59 Productions, now I have been admiring their work with out even realising it! This year alone I was watching the trailer for An American In Paris  (They won the Tony award, rightly so.) and the projections in this show are phenomenal, they are so intricate and immersive it's like they are the shows secondary character rather than set design.

So last night I sat down with my Complete Collection of Shakespeare and watched the DVD version of The Tempest live at The Globe theatre - one of my personal favourites, not going to lie. I was on the look out for Ariel the spirit,  as I watched the show he seemed the most descriptive of what was happening. The first monologue for Ariel caught my attention because it describes The Tempest that he controlled, in my head I can imagine the way it would move how to choreograph the actor to move with the screen - I just got a bit over excited really.

Ariel. To every article.
I boarded the king's ship; now on the beak,
Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin,
I flamed amazement: sometime I'ld divide,
And burn in many places; on the topmast,
The yards and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly,
Then meet and join. Jove's lightnings, the precursors
O' the dreadful thunder-claps, more momentary
And sight-outrunning were not; the fire and cracks
Of sulphurous roaring the most mighty Neptune
Seem to besiege and make his bold waves tremble,
Yea, his dread trident shake. 

Ariel. Not a soul

But felt a fever of the mad and play'd 
Some tricks of desperation. All but mariners
Plunged in the foaming brine and quit the vessel,
Then all afire with me: the king's son, Ferdinand,
With hair up-staring,—then like reeds, not hair,—
Was the first man that leap'd; cried, 'Hell is empty 
And all the devils are here.'

Whilst I re-read the monologue I was actually researching how to do video mapping and whilst I would love to do it and it is something I will look forward to doing in the future right now in the time frame I have rear projection seems best, so that I can have an actor work in front of the projection rather than have to map it out. I also have a very badly drawn storyboard that isn't going to see the light of day but the way I'm thinking of it is this; I can do this After Effects, I can use found footage/animation/something else I have yet to think of and I honestly think if I can pull it off it will look really freaking cool.

So that's all I have for now, but I'm researching and I'm reading but if everything works out the way I'm planning in my head I think this is going to look really good. Now I just have to figure out how exactly I'm going to do it.....