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XL Video in Saigon National Tour
Ortel specified a Catalyst digital media server as the best video solution to heighten the performance’s intense visual drama. The original West End production didn’t feature video, but 15 years on, the new show embraces technology not available in 1989 to great effect.
Ortel was originally approached by lighting designer Jenny Kagan to join the creative team and co-ordinate and realize their projection requirements. Kagan was keen to keep the show’s video elements under operational control of the lighting department, as there was no room at most venues to install an additional video tech/operator. She also wanted to be able to manipulate, colour and tweak certain video clips to match and contrast with her lighting effects.
Ortel examined the various options according to the brief, specifying Catalyst as the most flexible. He asked XL Video’s Malcolm Mellows to supply the kit which includes a Barco R12 ELM projector and a 6 x 4.5 metre upstage projection screen.
The production had already decided on the medium, and commissioned video material from three different sources by the time Ortel came onboard. These including animated cartoons by Gerald Scarfe and CGIs from Tronic Studios in New York. They also had some original archival 1970’s footage of “Bui Doi” children – those born to Vietnamese women and American soldiers – named "Bui Doi" or "dust of life" and shunned by Vietnamese and Americans alike.
Ortel’s main challenge was to integrate these three video elements plus new footage and the Catalyst into the show. The gripping, dramatic climax sees a video helicopter flight sequence amidst the chaotic evacuation scenes at the American Embassy, as Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) falls to the North Vietnamese in 1975.
All video sources are stored on the 6-layer Catalyst, and played back through the show’s Strand 520i lighting console, running with specially updated software. The lighting desk was programmed by Rob Halliday.
The Catalyst computer runs a SCSI hard drive to maximise data transfer rates, and it also sends serial commands to the projector for remote on/off switching and iris control.
Space restrictions at some venues are overcome by the projector being rigged on its back, beaming up onto a custom designed and constructed mirror, specified by Ortel and supplied by XL.
20th October 2004
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