Projection Design Books

[LX-Dave]

Hello All,

 

I've recently started to become more and more interested in video and projection for theatre, and am wondering whether there are any good books or resources people would recommend to read?

 

There seem to be plenty of resources for lighting, set or sound design, but few (if any) specific to video.

 

Amy suggestions welcomed,

 

Thanks,

 

Dave

[indyld]

Nick Moran's Electric Shadows is probably a good place to start. It isn't easy finding projection / media books for theatre practice reading lists at the moment as many of them are perhaps yet to be written. Of course, projection in theatre isn't that new, Pilbrow being an obvious example of someone who was called upon to deal with this along with designing lighting. However, more modern techniques using digital media are less well documented in book form.

 

I would check out anything in Live Design, Stage Directions etc. that outlines things about current or recent shows and the techniques used on them. Other non-theatre specific techniques like projection mapping etc. are more likely to be learned about online at the moment.

 

Jon Driscoll is a fairly well known theatre video designer in the UK just now and 59 Productions are a house worth following.

 

Some starting points, I hope. :)

 

Edit to add: Many theatre shows of a certain small to medium scale that are using projection are currently taking advantage of the improvements offered in Qlab 3 when it comes to the abstraction of surfaces and projector outputs. If you are into theatre stuff check out anything in this area too, in particular the few videos from Figure 53 on the 'new' video features.

(Of course, the market is currently rammed with different ways to achieve what a modern show requires of its digital media projection which makes backing a particular software 'horse' for learning quite tricky. All the way from theatre playback to VJ-ing and everything in between.!)

[kitlane]

Hello All,

 

I've recently started to become more and more interested in video and projection for theatre, and am wondering whether there are any good books or resources people would recommend to read?

 

There seem to be plenty of resources for lighting, set or sound design, but few (if any) specific to video.

 

Amy suggestions welcomed,

 

Thanks,

 

Dave

 

'Electric Shadows', Nick Moran, Entertainment Technology Press

 

'Media Servers for Lighting Programmers', Vickie Claiborne, Focal Press

 

If you can wait a year then 'Projection Design for Production and Live Entertainment', Eric Gazzillo, Focal Press

[timperrett]

Back in the day when I studied BA(hons) Lighting Design at Rose Bruford, I wrote my dissertation on this subject. It may be nearly 10 years ago now, but I think that many of the principals still hold true. If it were to be updated now, there would be many more examples and a few more variations of styles, and a number of more notable designers such as the Olivier award winning projection designer Finn Ross. Interestingly Finn has won an Olivier for the past two consecutive years, but 2013 was for set design and in 2014 was for lighting design, which still shows that 10 years on there is still no official separation between the two for where projection sits in the world of theatre and no specific category within the Oliviers for it.

 

If you are interested in reading the paper, which was awarded a first classification, it is here:

 

bit.ly/projectionfortheatre

 

Due to the nature of the degree programme, the paper is much more related to the art of the projection design as opposed to being tech heavy. Hope you find it interesting.

 

Tim