Projecting images from a PC

[TimOliver]

Hi

 

We are a small am-dram group (Silchester Players) and are attempting to stage "Oh! What A Lovely War". Our director wants images of WWI projected onto the backwall. He has already made a powerpoint presentation with them, and has suggested using his projector from work.

 

Now, all this is fine in theory, but what are the pitfalls in practise? Anyone else done backwall projection on a tight budget? What aboput the splashscreen on the projector? The PC screensaver etc, which we will have to take into account. Also, there are times when there is no projection against the backwall. How could we cope with this?

 

Any suggestions of a reasonable projection system that we might be able to hire? Any feedback would be appreciated. :)

 

 

 

Tim

[The Gaffa]

Hi Tim,

 

I've done this,

 

Turn the screen saver off on the PC, Fire up the projector before the show (like 30 mins).

 

As for the no projection at times, I suggest editing the powerpoint to add blank black slides in where needed.

 

System I used was Dell 2300MP projector, laptop, and when projecting keeping the upstage lighting at 50% while the downstage lighting at 75%.

 

HTH

 

Steve.

[Andrew C]

Couple of thoughts for you:-

 

1) There are several threads here on making a remote control shutter for the projector. These things always project something, and it'll ruin the lighting designer's blackout.

 

2) If you use a laptop, you can have a different image on the projector to the laptop screen. This way the operator gets a list of the slides and controls, but only the image required is shown to the audience. There may be dual output cards for PCs that do this "presentation mode". The other benefit of this is that if a virus update pops up on the screen, it is only on the operators view.

[niclights]

Olie's ScreenMonkey software might be helpful.

[oli]

I had the same problem for a uni production.

 

Didnt have the time or budget to make a remote control shutter so cut a piece of cardboard just bigger than the lense stuck a wing nut to the under side and a piece of rope on a pulley. Pull it and it opens let go and it shuts. Crude I know but it worked! :)

[jamed2017]

All are projectors have "No Show" on the remote.

We power up the projector at the start, hit the no show button, get to the point we need it and hit the button again and on it comes seemlessly. But I dont know what projector your using, I've used quite a few and presumed this was a standard feature for projectors, maybe I'm wrong.

[Johnno]

Hi there.

 

Our school productions use backwall projections every time as the drama teacher doesn't like the disturbance of scenery changing. She starts her scenes in blackout and turns on the backwall before any lights. This clearly sets the scene as the projection is quite visible despite being projected to about 5m wide (2000 lumen projector). When the lights are on it's not so easily seen but that doesn't detract too much in a school production as the audience is there to see their own children.

 

In one show I noticed the colour being projected (green) formed a distinct cast on the actor's face while she was singing. Not so good but I could've re-arranged the slide to eliminate it. That's one of the advantages, by the way, you can fit the scenery around your cast.

 

We put a black slide between every image where we want a blackout and the blackness of the "blackout" hasn't been a problem. We don't use any kind of shutter. Remember that the eyes of the audience will not dark-adapt immediately on lights out so the blackout will seem blacker than it is at first.

 

We only had one problem with a wrong image suddenly appearing. We were using a radio link to the projector as we didn't have any wiring in place and someone passed in front of the antenna. Bright purple "HITACHI" in the middle of Narnia :)

 

Screen Monkey software only works with computers that have a double screen output. That's not the same as just having a VGA output which is what most computers currently have.

[Pete McCrea]

All our projectors have "No Show" on the remote..... I've used quite a few and presumed this was a standard feature for projectors, maybe I'm wrong.

Most projectors will have no show function. The comments were more directed at the fact that most LCD or cheaper DLP projectors as found in schools and offices will still out put some light when in 'Black' due to the design of the imaging system. Using a shutter can block all the light output giving a true black out.

[little_jaie]

Hi,

 

I did projection for Oh What A Lovely War back in november! We used rear projection screens for our production. When projecting onto a back wall, there are a few considerations (though not necessarily problems):

 

- Where will your projector will be positioned in relation to your back wall? Depending on how close you place it, i.e. furthest upstage lx bar, you may need a projector with a good short throw distance, or a lens for your current projector which allows you to have a larger projection area from a short distance.

 

- Will the lighting affect the picture? i.e. if you have lots of bright light on stage during the projections, you'll likely need a higher lumen projector to achieve a desired picture brightness. When we did our production of OWALW, lighting was quite minimal, so was never a problem. We were able to get away with using 1500 lumen projectors. (Very cheap to hire/buy!)

 

- Have you considered using a syke at the very back of the stage as a projection screen instead of the wall? This means you can rear project, which should minimise the shadows that the actors on stage may cast on the image. On a recent show with a very very small budget, we rear projected onto a heavy cotton cream syke, which although not as ideal as using proper projection material, worked very well.

 

Hope this helps!

[Belerophon]

Hi Tim,

 

I would say getting a high power output (lumens) is the biggest priority. It doesn't matter so much in B/O, but when you have lights up then the image is going to be faded. What I would recommend is that you try your directors projector out with lights up (your brightest scene with the image) before the show. This enables you and the Director to see how faded the image will be. If you do have to resort to hiring a projector, then forget the contrast ratio, or anything like that, just look at the throw distance and ultimately the amount of lumens it puts out, the more the brighter the image!

 

As has been said a piece of cardboard in front of the lens is probably the cheapest and easiest way to go about it, if you can access the projector during the performance; has always worked for me!

 

Hope this helps :)

[Adam M]

Hey

 

I guess if your director is borrowing it from work then it wont be a really powerful one, so you may have to have the lighting really dim.

 

Another thing is unless you have it in the right position then you will get shadows and really bad key stoning which I know you can get rid of some of with the settings on the projector but usually not all.

 

I know somebody else suggested black/blank slides but even if it is black the projector still projects light, which is a pain in the back! So if the projector is accessible all the way through the production then you can put a book or something in front of the lense but this isn't always practical.

[ianknight]

The light from the dark slide on an LCD is really only a pain if you have a perfect blackout in the space. Few places do, so the spill from things like emergency exit lights, wing blues and so forth help minimise the visual impact of the dark slide.

 

Also - the show is 'Oh what a lovely war!' - the images are used when there would be a blackout in a lot of the show and as backgrounds to some of the scenes so the problem doesn't really arise (and I think this is the way the show was intended when it was devised). The other thing to consider is - does the space you're presenting the show in allow really steep lighting angles so that you don't get any spill on the projection surface? If it doesn't, then the spill will mask some of the light from the dark slide too.

 

Don't get distracted in a 'small' space with things like projector blanking - get the show lit nicely first then let the projection take its place in the whole thing!

[Andrew C]

Don't get distracted in a 'small' space with things like projector blanking - get the show lit nicely first then let the projection take its place in the whole thing!

I'm going to have to disagree here. There is nothing that looks more "Amateur" and naff than a large grey (or worse, blue) rectangle showing up during what should be a blackout. It is SO easy to put a flag in front of the projector, it is daft not to.

 

Either a DMX controlled shutter or a cardboard and string contraption, you do NEED to do this. If you are too busy, delegate it.

[paulears]

The one thing with adding technical 'cleverness' to a straight play is that anything that can distract, or interfere with the action is unwelcome. Many years ago I did this production with a 35mm Kodak Carousel, and it had a slow blackout shutter that kind of wiped the images onto the screen. This became very distracting after a while. The problem with video projection is, as Andrew says, blackouts. A blacked out stage with a grey screen standing out really does look grim and is just wrong in a period drama. Maybe in Forbidden Planet you can get away because of the setting, but for something old, it kind of stands out.

 

Period drama has differing quality thresholds. In an amateur performance, maybe it doesn't matter too much if some props are out of period, or the odd costume is wrong. Attention to detail, I think, is pretty important. If in the great scheme of things, there are other areas that have 'issues' then maybe worrying about the blackout being black isn't that important - or if it is, how about not having the screen blackout at all? Maybe instead of a near blackout, how about a Union flag, that could be on screen when there is the need for blackout? Could be quite a powerful dramatic advice? The grey screen just screams yuk, to me. Drawing attention to something very contemporary - as in a projector just seems wrong, somehow.

[ianknight]

...and the show is 'Oh what a lovely war!' - intended to be staged as an 'End of the pier pierrot show'.

 

Yes - if it was period drama then worry about blanking shutters (DMX, cut up coke cans, or cereal boxes or whatever) - but that begs the question - why would you be using projection in something like Gaslight for example? But for something like 'Oh what a lovely war!' the lack of blanking can be worked around (by using intermediate images or short animated sequences or the once integral ticker tape of the numbers of the dead - it's a cyncial look at war remember). Also, the OP expressed concern about the output power of the projector - its low output may in this case work for him.