Living Movies

Pre-produced video and improvisational theater can be combined with audience interaction using computer technology to create a new performance medium I call the Living Movie. The goal of this project is to explore the ways in which actors can bring out computer video in the form video backdrops and short scenes out into the real world where live actors and audience members can interact with these media. This differs from virtual reality which seeks to immerse the user/audience in a digital realm. The goals is to empower the actors by giving them additional tools with which to tell a story.
The actors in this project are composited by shooting them against a blue screen and then combining that video with video clips that are selected by a computer operator. The computer operator can also play music or audio clips in order to enhance the scene as it progresses. These elements can either reinforce what is happening in the scene or add in contrasting elements which the actors have to justify.
The audience can comment on the story and offer suggestions for actions that actors can take by means of an online chat. The actors will be able to see them selves on the screen as well as the text of the online chat so that they can react accordingly.
The goal is to create a story from seemingly disparate and at times random elements.

My interest in this area stems from early childhood.
At around 4 years of age I visited the house of one of my mother's friends. He had a video camera setup, which was very unusual in those days. My younger brother and I took delight in appearing on the video screen. We had achieved being "on" TV and thus gained a sense of power over the medium.
Computers can also be seen as having some degree over us, as they alter the reality we exprerience. By utilizing computer technology to tell a live story, it's possible to break out of the "box" and reclaim the ascendancy of what is human.

Recently, the concept of "Digital Theater" has arisen, defined by Wikipedia as "the coexistence of "live" performers and digital media in the same unbroken space with a co-present audience." Digital Theater is generally seen as having narrative content to differentiate it from performance art, which seeks to provoke the user into exploring an artistic statement. Digital Theater is also defined as taking place in a single location as opposed to "Desktop Theater" which includes web-based role-playing, games and collaborative storytelling.

The Gertrude Stein Repertory Theatre is one theater company that has endeavored to use computer technology as an integral part of their productions. Initially, the company used computers as a way to visualize productions before building costly sets. Now The Gertrude Stein Repertory Theatre has been experimenting with what it calls "digital puppetry," which involves the combining of computer generated images with a live performer to create a new dramatic entity.

They have also done a great deal of work with performing via teleconference. By partnering with technology companies such as Lucent, they have been able to take a technology primarily used for business communication and create a forum for dramatic collaboration over long distances.

The Builder's Association uses video and computer graphics alongside live actors in order to bring out the complex relationship between humans and computers. In their recent production of SUPER VISION, The Builder's Association presents a series of vignettes on the theme of privacy in the digital age. Digital information in the form of numbers, words and graphs are projected onto the stage. Live actors communicate with virtual ones existing as digital video.

Blast Theory, a UK based art and performance group, uses a range of media such as video, computer graphics and the web to tell a story. They have used video projections as a way to create sets that transform the context of the theater experience. Their work has been described as closer to cartoon than theater.

The Wooster Group is known for using video and digital media in their plays. Their aim seems to be to set up a kind of interaction with the dramatic text of the live performance. Sometimes the projected video reinforces the action onstage and other times it is in direct conflict.

Improvisational theater troupe Neutrino uses digital video in order to construct a completely improvised movie while the audience watches. In order to do this, a group of actors solicits a suggestion from the audience and then disperses. The actors leave the theater accompanied by a technical crew who use digital video cameras to tape them performing scenes. The technical team then races back to the theater where they quickly edit the scenes together and present it to the audience.

The theatrical duo of Kraft & Purver has experimented with using video in different ways. At times they project video as a backdrop. Other times they project images directly onto the actors to make a statement or set a mood. Ed Purver is currently developing an interactive video system which enables an actor to control a video projection in real time.

These groups differ in their methodologies, but they all seek to use technology to enhance and alter the theater experience. It's too early to tell how much technology will infiltrate the somewhat conservative medium that is dramatic theater. But it's unlikely that the use of video and digital media will be just a fad. More likely is that these tools will take their place alongside stagecraft such as recorded sound and computer controlled lighting as methods of enhancing the theater experience and augmenting the powers of the actor.

I should add that comedian Drew Carey has been experimenting with combining comedy improvisation with graphics on television. However his program, "Drew Carey's Green Screen" achieves the melding of improvisational performance with the multimedia content by shooting performers against a green screen and then combining the improv performance with animations in post-production. What I have in mind is the production of a multimedia performance that combines disparate elements live before an audience.

The audience is everyone interested in improvised theater and chat interaction. People who are interested in helping to help actors to create a story out of somewhat illogical components.

A computer operator selects a video of an actor either completing a simple action or a short monologue. This scene is projected on a screen. Actors then start their own scene based on this.

The actors are composited against video backgrounds provided by the computer operator. Music and audio sound effects are played. The actors adjust their scenes/characters accordingly.

Audience members participate in an online chat with is superimposed over the video of the actors. Actors use the comments/suggestions to change the scene.

Actors are shot in front of a "blue screen" This video is feed into a video mixer. The blue color is "keyed out" and the video of the actors is combined with video backgrounds and scenes from a computer. Audio in the form of music and sound effects can also be sent from the computer into the mixer.
The resulting composited video of the actor and the video backgrounds is then fed into a second video mixer, where it is combined with text subtitles that are coming in from a live video chat. The audience members participate in this chat and provide suggestions in the form of suggested actions, locations, emotions, etc.
The actors use whatever suggestions they choose to move the action in the scene forward.
The improvisation form is known as a "Harold," in which characters are presented in several short scenes, followed by the same characters presented with a jump in either time or location. The aim of the Harold is to eventually bring the scenes together either in location or in theme.

Although the technology used in this project is not exactly cutting edge, the combination of many devices means the possibility for technical difficulty is great.

I feel the combination of theatrical improv with video technology can lead to an emergent medium with similarities to theater and movies but with its own flavor.