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Retro XL for Frost Nixon
XL Video’s specialist theatre and arts department is supplying Grass Valley Turbo media servers, three Sony broadcast cameras, vision mixing and video integration facilities for Michael Grandage's acclaimed production of ‘Frost Nixon’ at the Donmar Warehouse.
XL is again collaborating with cinematographer/projection designer Jon Driscoll who created the show's film footage design in conjunction with scenic designer Christopher Oram and LD Neil Austin. It evokes a classic 1970’s retro look, based around a large video monitor-wall backdrop – made up from 36 near ‘antique’ Barco 2850 video monitors - hanging behind the two main characters sitting in the TV studio.
Donmar production manager Pat Molony has previously worked with both Driscoll and XL, and suggested they came aboard the production team for “Frost Nixon”. The account was handled for XL by performing arts specialist, Malcolm Mellows, who says: “Jon Driscoll’s meticulous attention to detail is always a rewarding challenge to meet. It’s also a pleasure for us to be working on three shows with Jon in quick succession - including Sonia Friedman's ‘The Play’s The Thing’ with Pat Molony, and the f orthcoming spectacular, ‘Dirty Dancing’.
From an A/V point of view, continues Mellows, Frost Nixon is “completely different to any other recent stage production because of the aged nature of much of the specified equipment”. This has also included finding a quality technician who is familiar with the display technology. XL is extremely lucky to have Colin Barnes working with them on this element of the show.
Starring Michael Sheen (Frost) and Frank Langella (Nixon), ‘Frost Nixon’ is built around David Frost's seminal 1977 interviews with former US president Richard Nixon, following his political disgrace in the wake of the Watergate scandal. Jon Driscoll's brief from Grandage was to make it authentically resemble a 1970s TV studio and to reflect the seminal nature of these interviews - a defining historical moment in the history of American TV broadcasting.
The strong 'televisual' image at the essence of the stage design is provided by the combination of “old fashioned” videowall technology and the more contemporary theatrical device of live camera mixing throughout the 'interview'.
Pat Molony and the production team tested their resourcefulness in sourcing the 36 plus Barco 2850 video wall monitors and image processors - an ancient display technology dating back to the 1980s.
It was "a complete nightmare" recalls Molony. After approaching every video wall company in the country, and following up numerous leads from XL Video, they eventually discovered that Impact-Marcom was about to put its entire stock of Barco 2850 video monitors on E-Bay. So fortuitous timing led to the acquisition of the majority of the cubes needed for the set, as well as the Electrosonic Pick Bloc III rack controller and Opti-Sense colour balancing device. The remaining monitors were sourced from YSL in York, just five days before the show was due to start.
The output from XL's cameras, media servers and vision mixing system is hooked up to the screen processing rack allowing for a variety of “classic” monitor wall and multi, full and split screen looks. In the first half of the show, the video wall is used to supply narrative information and set the scene with special, very tightly edited footage compiled by Driscoll and cued to Adam Cork's soundtrack.
In the second half, the space becomes the TV studio, with vision mixer Dominic McDowell cutting live to screen as the interview progresses. The way this is done is highly stylised, the camera language shifting as the interview progresses, starting with very wide shots, drawing in to increasingly intense facial close ups as the tension builds.
Driscoll spent about two weeks compiling archive footage and shooting new clips on a Bolex 16mm film camera for an authentic period feel. These were telecined and are stored on the Grass Valley Turbo hard drives. They also recreated David Frost’s famous Mike Wallace interview with a studio shoot, and the final edited version is integrated into the show as a scene in its own right.
The main challenge, says Driscoll, was finding and creating the right type of footage, which was a complex and dedicated process requiring meticulous attention to detail. He adds that as always, it was an excellent experience to work alongside XL on all aspects of the video production.
30th August 2006
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