PHYSICS OF PROJECTION WHAT IS PROJECTION DESIGN?
Projection design is the creation and integration of film, motion graphics, live camera feeds, and video technology into a performance. It is one of five theatrical design disciplines, along with costume, lighting, sound, and scenic design.
Projection designers create the images used and also design the systems needed to display the images. Projection design technology can range from a simple slide projector to a video wall to projections digitally mapped to scenic elements. Good projection design is visual storytelling and must work with other design disciplines and actors and director to create a unified and coherent production.
“MY FAVORITE PART OF THE PROCESS IS RESEARCH. AS A SET AND PROJECTION DESIGNER, I GET TO BECOME AN EXPERT IN MANY DIFFERENT GEOGRAPHIC REGIONS AND TIME
PERIODS...BEING A THEATRICAL DESIGNER ALLOWS ME TO TAKE 'DEEP DIVES' INTO ARTISTIC AND CULTURAL MOMENTS THAT WOULD OTHERWISE BE FOREIGN TO ME.” —Edward T. Morris, Projection Designer
Edward T. Morris
“I started as a scenic designer,” Edward T. Morris, projection designer for Darling Grenadine, says. “At first I started looking at projections purely as a means to change the scenery. But as my facility with the medium increased, I found new ways for projections to help with visual storytelling. Projections bring an immediacy and flexibility to the stage. It takes time to fly out a wall or change a costume. Projections can work at the speed of light.”
THE ORIGINS OF PROJECTION DESIGN Projections were first integrated into live theatre in the 1920s. Movies—introduced to the public around 1900—had become an important art form and part of everyday life around the
12 ROUNDABOUT THEATRE COMPANY
globe, and cinematic techniques, technology, and early film artists soon made their way to the stage. Early adopters were German and Russian directors who were developing a style of theatre that went beyond the realism popular at the time, a style in which imagery, music, text, and technology work together to incite the audience members to take political action on contemporary issues. In 1927-28, German director Erwin Piscator built projection screens into the set and incorporated extended film sequences into two productions: Hoppla, We Live! and Rasputin, the Romanoffs, the War and the People Who Rose Against Them.
Projections began to appear in theatre in the United States during the Great Depression in “Living Newspaper” productions, part of the government-funded Federal Theatre Project, which explored social issues of the day from the perspective of multiple characters. These projections included charts to illustrate topical data.
PROJECTION DESIGN GOES MAINSTREAM Projections were used in theatre occasionally throughout the mid- twentieth century, but the high cost of technology and the space needed to install it kept projection design out of the mainstream.
Technicians prepare to use projection during a Living Newspaper production in the 1930s Photo: Library of Congress
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24
