How I Learned to Drive images
Some technical details this time.
The final design had six projection screens surrounded by a forest of road signs. At right, a selection of signs as they were first created by Kelly and Bryn, who used an opaque projector to copy the images. They both must have had clear consciences, because even up close you could not see hesitation marks and do-overs.
The signs were hung in multiple planes both in front of and behind the screen planes. Allen definitely didn't want the graphics and texts of the signs to occupy much space in the audience's picture of the stage, so he asked to have them blurred a little.
At left, then, a group of signs after they'd had two or three washes applied in order to reduce the contrast and blend the colors across the stage. What I'm telling you here is, no, the camera was not out of focus when I took the photograph.
People don't listen to me. I 'splained and 'splained to Allen and Tom why the rear-projection setup was not workable. (1) You have to use a special back-projection screen medium; (B) the tiniest ray of light leakage onstage will obscure the projected image; thirdly, the projector lens will make a hot spot for half of the viewing audience; and last but not least, the projector won't cast a big enough image on the screen unless it's 20-30 feet away, and increasing the throw (lens to screen distance) will quickly lower the brightness.
I turned out to be right on the third point. When I saw the show on opening night, I had a projector lens in my direct vision, and it did distract me. Then seven or eight seconds passed and I didn't notice it again. But I was right. Allen should have paid more attention to me.
In the end, Tom mounted, get this, FELT in the screen frames. It worked like a charm. The projected images (of roads, Li'l Bit, cars, Uncle Peck) were brilliant, and they filled the screens even though the projectors were fairly close up. Images came from a variety of sources. Tom aligned two digital projectors (located in the backstage loft) to light up areas larger than the translucent screens. Steve measured the visible areas, created masks in the presentation software, and dropped images into the slots to give a totally programmable six-image slideshow. Sure enough, most of the people who saw it believed we had six slide projectors backstage.
Genius. The images consistently added to the impact of the action but never interfered with it. The next page gives you a view of the "backdrop" to the set.
| Previous image | Image index | Next image |
| Approved Ben Teague web site |
 |
Images