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Double Take for XL Video on Jekyll & Hyde
XL Video UK supplied video projection to Tim Saward’s lively and innovative production of ‘Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde - Make Mine a Double’, staged at the Broadway, Barking, by the Leytonstone-based Woodhouse Players.
The show was produced and directed by Saward, and the script written by co-producer Thos Ribbits. Their version of the Robert Louis Stevenson classic is a high energy part-panto-part-melodrama Gothic style escapade, set in a Victorian hospital on the verge of bankruptcy … and witnessing some strange goings on!
A large onstage projection area utilising multiple openings and traps was used to great effect to create all the scenic backdrops and for various animated effects and digital props
Saward had produced a version of ‘Dracula’ in 2003 which had explored the advantages of video to some extent. When ‘Jekyll & Hyde’ started evolving, he decided to go with a fully digital backdrop from the outset. “It’s hugely flexible, highly visual, extremely cost-effective as well as being exciting and contemporary,” he states.
Seeking some classy and unique content, he wrote to every illustration college course in the country, asking if they had any artist/illustrators who would be interested in undertaking the work as a portfolio piece. He found Matt Latchford and Lucy Izzard, both finalists at Kingston University, and he gave them a detailed brief to produce imaginative original material for the three hour show.
For hardware, he was recommended to XL’s arts and theatre specialist Malcolm Mellows, who says: “This must be one of the highest quality and thoughtful visual realisations I have seen and all used to great effect. It is an excellent and creative production that proves the point I often make: that video can be of great benefit to smaller theatre shows where there simply isn’t the space to use elaborate sets and drops. XL Video’s experienced and understanding theatre department is truly available to serve all types and sizes of performing arts productions.”
The projector supplied was a Barco SLM G8. Initially Saward had envisioned back projecting, but theBROADWAY lacked the space. There was also only a 5 metre throw distance from the front and they needed a 5 metre tall image, so Mellows calculated a front projection solution that filled the screen using Barco’s 0.8 : 1 ratio lens, and keystone correction software. .
XL’s technician, Ed Browne installed the projector, did the line up and stayed for the technical rehearsals.
The imagery – which included a diverse array of locations including the laundry room, Dr Jekyll’s study and laboratory, hospital wards, entrance and exit doorways as well as a variety of other interiors and exteriors including sinister London street scenes at night, were often overlaid with animated action like churning washing, fantasies invading Jekyll’s head and textual elements – all of which were stored on a specially built turbo-charged PC.
Saward gave Latchford and Izzard ideas about what he thought the script needed in certain places terms of virtual scenery, and he also left enough space and scope for them to create their own visions. They worked on the project for three months and delivered the resulting material as 19 FLA flash files, each containing a series of content for each scene. Saward and Richard Lockwood then did some additional action-scripting to ensure continuity.
The files were set up to be activated easily and logically as cues from the PC which also had to be synched to specific musical cues.
The run of shows was a resounding success. The video in particular attracted plenty of positive audience reaction, fuelling Saward’s belief that it’s a highly practical medium for small and medium scale performance as well as a tour de force for West End blockbusters like ‘Woman In White’ - also serviced by XL Video.
9th November 2005
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