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XL Video Projects for Muybridge Festival
XL supplied equipment and crew to HFM Lighting to help realise the projection of three separate giant moving images onto the curved fascia of the town’s attractive Guildhall building. The 50ft high Guildhall was chosen because its circulator shape reflects the ‘Zoopraxiscope’ invented by Muybridge and used to animate film.
The Muybridge Festival celebrated the life and works of Edweard Muybridge, one of the finest pioneering Victorian photographers who was born in Kingston and died in the town in 1904. The majority of his highly acclaimed experimental work was completed in America, and Muybridge is credited with being a founding father of modern cinema.
XL Video supplied three 17,000 lumen Barco ELM R18 projectors to transform Kingston High Street into a public gallery for two evenings as part of a wider series of Muybridge events and exhibitions.
The project was conceived by artistic director Robin Hutchison, and the projection co-ordinated by Chris Birch of One 80 Degrees. HFM’s Mick Scullion co-organised the production infrastructure and audio with XL Video’s Paul Wood.
Each projection measured 16 metres wide by 13 metres high. One R18 was trained centrally on the building’s front portal, and the other two were lined up to flank either side, effectively wrapping the entire building in moving images. All three showed 15 minute loops stored on 2 Doremi hard drives, with the two side projections being identical and different from the central images.
The specially created films were produced using original glass plates from the Muybridge archive, edited together in a series of inspirational animations made by Kingston University postgraduates combined with footage of contemporary dance artist Bode Lawler.
The projectors were housed in three 4-metre high weather proof towers standing 15 metres away from the building, and the main road was closed for approximately 6 hours. Despite atrocious weather both evenings, over 500 people turned out to view the event.
After 18 months of planning and pre-production, the first ever Muybridge Festival Projection was a phenomenal success and has established Kingston as a cultural hub for future innovative film related projects. The Festival, aimed at promoting talented young film makers, artists and composers, is now set to become an annual event.
XL’s Paul Wood says: “This was an excellent project to be involved with on several counts – because of the event’s challenging nature, the relevance of the subject material to our industry and the fact that we were presenting historical cinematic images within a contemporary context.”
For HFM Lighting, Mick Scullion comments: “It was a hard call for the crew who battled tirelessly against gale force winds and torrential rain to deliver a spectacular show over the two nights. The end result was superb.”
1st November 2004
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