Video design orprojection design is a creative field of stagecraft. It is concerned with the creation and integration of film, motion graphics and live camera feed into the fields oftheatre,opera,dance,fashion shows,concerts and other live events. Video design has only recently gained recognition as a separate creative field becoming an integral tool for engagement and learning while spanning its influence to different realms of intellects such as education. A review conducted by 113 peers between 1992 and 2021 revealed a marked increase in research on video design principles, particularly after 2008. This surge correlates with the proliferation of platforms likeYouTube, which have popularized video-based learning.[1] The United Scenic Artists' Local 829, a union representing designers and scenic artists in the US entertainment industry, added the Global Projection Designer membership category in 2007.[2] Prior to this, the responsibilities of video design would often be taken on by ascenic designer orlighting designer. A person who practices the art of video design is often known as aVideo Designer. However, naming conventions vary worldwide, so practitioners may also be credited asProjection Designer, "Media Designer",Cinematographer orVideo Director (amongst others). As a relatively new field of stagecraft, practitioners create their own definitions, rules and techniques.[3]
Filmmaking andvideo production content has been used in performance for many years,[4] as has large formatslide projection delivered by systems such as the PANI projector.[5] The GermanErwin Piscator, as stage director at the BerlinVolksbühne in the 1920s, made extensive use of film projected onto his sets.[6] However, the development of digital projection technology in the mid 90s, and the resulting drop in price, made it more attractive and practical to live performance producers, directors and scenic designers. The role of the video designer has developed as a response to this, and in recognition of the demand in the industry for experienced professionals to handle the video content of a production.[7]
United Scenic Artists' Local 829, the Union representingScenic Artists in the USA has included "Projection Designers" as of mid- 2007.[8] This means anybody working in this field will be doing so officially as "Projection Designer" if he or she is working under a union contract, even if the design utilizes technology other thanvideo projectors. The term "Projection Designer" stems from the days when slide and film projectors were the primary projection source and is now in wide use across North America.
MA Digital Theatre,University of the Arts London is the first Master's level course in the UK designed to teach video design exclusively as a specific discipline, rather than embedding it into scenic design. Also, Opera Academy Verona has a Workshop Laboratory from 2009 of Projection Design for Opera and Theatre, Directed from Carlo Saleti, Gianfranco Veneruci and Florian CANGA.
In the USA, a number of programs started at about the same time reflecting the growing acceptance of the profession and the need for skilled projection designers.Yale University began a graduate level program in Projection Design in 2010.,[9] It's being headed byWendall K. Harrington.CalArts had their concentration Video For Performance[1] since the mid-2000s and is currently led by Peter Flaherty whileUT Austin started the MFA concentrationIntegrated Media for Live Performance also in 2010. It is being led by the Sven Ortel. Both the UT Austin and Yale program are part of an MFA in Design and graduated their first students in 2013.
These component of video design serves as a basic foundation for developing a theatrical play, that mesmerizing and enhances audience's sensory experiences. They include: Environment, Color, Space, Scale, Movement and Sound design
This is the canvas video designers are faced with when constructing a compelling story to the audience, asMiroslaw Rogala's describes in her article "Nature Is Leaving Us: A Video Theatre Work", "by implicit contract with the audience, I am promising them a vaster canvas than their predetermined notions of television; I am therefore demanding more from them in terms of their attention and engagement.[10] "By harnessing the physical 2D layer of video projection, designers have the ability to construct a visual field where their artwork is a living-breathing physical manifestation of their idea.
This component of video design is describes manipulation of perspective of a play. Rogala breaks these perspectives into 3 namely, "frog-eye-view", "human view" and "bird-eye-view". By tilting the projection or camera along an axis, the designer manipulates the views to create invoke imbalances or invoke an emotion to the audience.[11]
This is a tool used by a video designer to fit a video projection to multiple screens (or video walls); ranging from small, intimate displays to large video-walls. Doing so, shift the audience's perception ofproximity,presence, andimportance. Manipulation of scale, allows video designers to disrupt the realism creating a constructive views that contributes to the overall play. According to Rogala, "By altering the scale of the projected images—from close-up facial expressions to full-body silhouettes—we shift the viewer’s perception of spatial relationships and intimacy."[12]
This is a tool used by video designers to invoke emotional response from the audience.According to Parker-Starbuck, "The projected image does not merely serve as a backdrop or setting, but becomes a performative element that interacts with the live body, space, and time, thereby challenging traditional notions of theatrical presence."[13] The use of color in this context serves as a means of creating an immersive experience which ultimately influences audiences' emotion.
This is a multilayered tool not constrained by just a performers body movements, it extends tocamera movements,projection movement as well astransitions medias. as Rogala puts it: "Movement inNature Is Leaving Us is not confined to the body. It is distributed across multiple visual planes — live, recorded, and projected — producing a spatial rhythm that defies theatrical gravity."[14] It is used by video designers to create fluid, nonlinear experiences to the audience."The transitions between live action and mediated movement are seamless, allowing the viewer to experience a choreography of perception as much as of bodies."[15]
In Nature is leaving us, sound is not treated as just a background or temporal filler. Instead, it is used as a tool to for shaping temporal rhythm and psychological tones. Manipulation of this tool induces a heighten sensory reception of the audience. AsRogala puts it, "digitally altered voices, sampled sounds, and non-linear loops envelop the viewer in a sonic architecture that resists narrative cohesion."[16]
Depending on the production, and due to the crossover of this field with the fields oflighting design andscenic design, a video designer's roles and responsibilities may vary from show to show. A video designer may take responsibility for any or all of the following.
This is a very wide skills base, and it is not uncommon for a video designer to work with associates or assistants who can take responsibility for certain areas. For example, a video designer may conceptually design the video content, but hire a skilledanimator to create it, a programmer to program the control system, a production engineer to designer and engineer the control system and aprojectionist to choose the optimum projection positions and maintain the equipment.
Concert video design is a niche of thefilmmaking andvideo production industry that involves the creation of original video content intended explicitly for display during a liveconcert performance.
The creation of visuals for live music performances bears close resemblance tomusic videos, but are typically meant to be displayed as 'backplate' imagery that adds a visual component to the music performed onstage. However, as the use of video content during musical performances has grown in popularity since the turn of the 21st century, it has become more common to have self-standing 'introductory' and 'interstitial' videos that play on screen on stage without the performers. These pieces may include footage of the artist or artists, shot specifically for the video, and presented onstage with pre-recorded music so that the final appearance is essentially a music video. Such stand-alone videos, however, are typically only viewed in this live setting and may include additional theatricalsound effects.
The earliest concert video visuals likely date to the late 1960s when concerts for artists such asJimi Hendrix andThe Doors featuredpsychedelic imagery on projection screens suspended behind the performers. Live concert performances took on more and more theatrical elements particularly notable in the concert events put on byPink Floyd throughout their career.
Laurie Anderson was among the earliest to experiment with video content as part of a live performance, and her ideas and images were a direct inspiration to performers as diverse asDavid Bowie,Madonna andKanye West. In 1982,Devo integrated rear-projected visuals into their concert set, choreographing themselves to match and interact with the action on the video for several songs, but the concert that made video content 'standard practice' was the 1993U2'sZoo TV Tour, conceived and designed byproduction designer Willie Williams, a collaborator ofLaurie Anderson's.
Video designers make use of many technologies from the fields ofstagecraft, broadcast equipment and home cinema equipment to build a workable video system, including technologies developed specifically for live video and technologies appropriated from other fields. A video system may include any of the following:
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)The acoustic environment collapses time and space through its disjunctive layering of voice and sound effects.
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