video pitfalls 101

One of the things we've been discussing is how to avoid the big ol'screen smack dab in da middle of de stage. Where the video is totally extraneous most of the time and when it's not playing you have this ugly white square dominating everything.

Saw a piece tonight by Sylvain Emard called Temps de chien (you can watch a video excerpt and see some great dancing) that had some beautiful solutions. The screen was a piece of steel on wheels that could be easily moved forwards and backwards, creating angles and dimensions. It served to reflect the light sometimes and the dancers other times or as a projection space for video - not video of dancing but actual abstract video art. Quite beautiful. The dancing went on a bit (lovely but after a while, it's like Mozart, too many steps for me) but the staging, lighting and video were masterful. It made for a show. A real, all encompassing show.