Ok. So it's been forever since the last blog update - which means the season 2009/2010 has kicked off with incredible speed.
I've been most busy with Svenska Teatern's new musical production Play Me, which premiered on the 090909. I designed the sets, screens and lights for the production and also programmed it all on a Grand Ma Full Size console. It was one hell of a ride, I tell you.
I'm proud to say that I had the best possible team making this piece. Peppe Tannemyr and Lennart Wahlin from Beacon, Stockholm created all the screen content for this production. I think in the end I use like 1% of stock content, so pretty much everything is custom made for this piece. Peppe and Lennart are really so fantastic to work with. working with this kind of people is what makes this job taste like honey from day to day. Also, I would not be doing these productions without Johan West, he's the one who sorts out the pixels and then tries to explain it to me too... When it comes to Green Hippo and Hippotizer mediaserver my words are not enough. Again we pushed some borders and beta used some ground breaking features the world has yet to see. Video Mapper is the brainchild of Johan West and it will change the world as we know it. The way Green Hippo corresponds to all customizing requests made by yours truly is just amazing. There's still plenty in store and I'm sure our collaboration will go on in the same manner in the future. So special thanks to Nigel, Sean, James and really everybody at Green Hippo. The same goes for Ma Lighting for their support. Once again I was able to sort out some programming issues by the kind help of Mr. Ubergerman Marcus Krömer.
In Play Me like any other big production it's a core question how the creative team works together and this time collaborating with director Maria Sid and choreographer Reija Wäre was really pleasant. They both are great personalities and they both put their hearts into this crazy business. Svenska Teatern is a small theatre that tends to make productions bigger than it's capacity, so very ambitious and unique I'd say. The real strength they have is the team spirit and good athmosphere in the house. I had such a fantastic time working with each and everyone at Svenskis. I guess they eaven taught me a little swedish... Jävla...
During the Play Me rehearsal period I also designed the screens and lights for a contemporary flamenco production of Peppi Pitkätossu for the Helsinki Festival / Kaari Martin Dance Company. This was a production for the kids and the screen content was 95% from one of our most incredible artists, Rosa Liksom. Most of the screen content was based on the drawings she'd made of Peppi. Then I animated them and added some clouds, colours, effects etc.. Peppi was played in National Opera's Alminhall. Again, for screens and lights it was Grand Ma & Hippotizer. Johan West carried out the technical setup for the mediaserver & Panasonic projectors came from Johan / West Lighting as well. I have been super happy with Panasonic projectors as I use them also in Play Me. Their quality is superb and they are very straight forward to use too.
I'm also very happy to be part of this years Elämä Lapselle charity concert. To make schedules eaven more challenging, the concert date was 090909! So I ended up rushing from Play Me press premiere on the 8th straight to Hartwall Arena for overnight programming, then after sleeping for an hour did the camera rehearsals and again rushed back to the Svenska Teatern for last corrections before the opening night. I was ready just 30 minutes before the show - so perfect timing!
For Elämä Lapselle I donated my design and all my equipment needed for this show. This is an annual project where the goal is to collect money for the kids hospital in Helsinki. It was also good to see that we got all the equipment needed for the show free of charge. Every single rental company in the country is willing to participate in this good cause. Especially Moving Light Oy was very pro for this cause. Not to forget Eastway, who handle the crew and so on. I hope we can continue this eaven further next year. This year's design was based on using semi-transparent projection screens. As the A and B stages were back to back in the center of the arena (to maximize the capacity), I wanted to block as few sightlines as possible. Showtex delivered the white gauzes and Panasonic / KaukoTelko Oy delivered the Panasonic projectors. The screen setup worked eaven better than I had thought. We used 8 pcs 10.000 Ansi-Lumen projectors to deliver the punch needed, and they sure did. Needless to say, Johan West was the center of all evil in terms of projection / mediaserver setup. Hippotizer, Grand Ma.. All the basic goodies. Pekka Martti (who's most likely the best Grand Ma operator when it comes to live music) was the light OP. All in all the gig was a grand success, though we had to make some drastic cuts in the original plan and personnel for budget reasons. Mini Me a.k.a. Jussi Kallioinen was the production damager for the show. For us up here in Santa Claus Land Jussi is really out of this world with the job he does. Hats off everybody, when MiniMe comes around.
No rest for the wicked.
I'm just on my way to Alexander's Theatre in Helsinki. One of our best actors, Martti Suosalo, has a one man production that premieres on Wednesday this week. Two more days of rehearsals still ahead.
www.green-hippo.com
www.playmeon.net
www.ckm.fi
www.malighting.com
www.westlighting.com
www.elamalapselle.fi
www.digigobos.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment