LA Opera’s Grendel
PRG’s proprietary products keep pace with the most creative visions.
Challenge:
Translate a director’s creative vision to video - in real time and on the spot.
Solution:
In LA Opera’s premiere production of Grendel, legendary director Julie Taymor chose video to express the mystical images and emotions central to the Old English tale. To help her shape her vision to the developing production, projection programmer Matthew Cotter recommended PRG’s proprietary Mbox Extreme™ media server.
“Mbox lets designers manipulate media on the fly instead of hand compositing it in the studio - making it ideal for the fast-paced environment of a big new production,” says Cotter. “Traditionally, playing cue to cue, the video would need to be set weeks in advance, and you’d have to go back to the studio every time you wanted to re-edit. Instead, Mbox lets the director easily change color, size, ratios, aspects and other elements during the rehearsal process, right in the theatre.”
Importantly, this meant Taymor could wait until sets and costumes were complete to finalize the video images - and test the results with actors and lighting in place. “She could see a composited clip and easily make the changes she wanted - like move it or resize it,” Cotter adds. “She also could time the clips with music and easily adjust to changes in the score.”
Mbox also gave the director the freedom to explore new effects and take advantage of sudden inspirations - spontaneity that’s nearly impossible when working cue to cue. Adds Cotter, “Mbox is an incredible tool that just blew everybody away.”
