Production manager Karl Westlake first introduced video to the show last year. One of the things it did was replace a large four tonne scenery flat of the Marine's crest logo with a more flexible projected version.
This year they wanted to make visuals a bigger element of the show and to run sequences of still images plus some video animation throughout most of the performance. This was beamed onto a three-metre diameter circular screen hung centre stage.
The screen, two Christie projectors and the VideoDrive were all supplied by Entec, who also sent Richard Hutton to oversee the operation and to programme and run the video.
Radical Lighting's Simon Carter had originally demonstrated their NG1 digital media server to Westlake. However when the new VideoDrive became available, he and Hutton decided that Radical's simpler, entry-level video playback product was more appropriate for their needs for the MFM.
VideoDrive is user-friendly digital media server software that allows professional quality video control and effects that can be applied to stage productions of all sizes. It can be operated via PC, laptop or DMX lighting console and will play all Quicktime based media. Adding media is fast and simple and an extensive media library is also included in the package. The powerful effects engine is based on the same technology as Radical Lighting's NG series.
This new version of VideoDrive was further customised by Simon Carter to allow it to run sequences of images and videos from the laptop computer, rather like a Power Point presentation. This additional feature means that the show can be scheduled, with cue times that can be easily changed when these cues may differ from performance to performance.
Being able to hit the "next" button and rearrange the schedule at the press of a button enables the user to save programming time and resources. The simplicity of setting up, adding keystone correction, masks and edge blending in VideoDrive means that the whole of the video element of the show can be managed from a laptop.
On site, time was extremely tight, and Westlake and Hutton needed to work on developing and programming the visual show without also tying up lighting designer Mark Jones by having to integrate video/image cues into his desk.
The majority of the 120 plus still images were created and produced by Westlake who developed and programmed the show with Hutton. As this progressed, they started adding animated video sequences which were originated by Hutton utilising VideoDrive's onboard media library.
"VideoDrive's image processing capabilities were invaluable," says Hutton, it saved them huge amounts of time via quick and easily achieved keystone correction of the images, and masking them to fit the circular screen.
All the changes made in this customised version of Radical Lighting's VideoDrive are now available in the current release.
(Chris Henry)
