Multimedia Monday 16th March

Within a Theatre production, how does the use of multimedia help in its communication to an audience? What does it add to the piece?

I watched https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLcnj0pJMA0 which a multi media production in Hong Kong. It helped to communicate to the audience not by the actors speaking, but the music and the imagery they used in the background. It shows that multi media can over come the language barrier and can communicate to anyone from any different country.

 I really liked the simplicity of this piece, it showed how you can tell a story through music and basic images projected onto a sheet behind the actors. In this particular production they had white sheets placed all around the stage, which meant they could project everywhere on the stage. This was really effective, it was very interesting to watch and gave a sense of anxiousness as you dont know what or where the next image will be. 


I really like the music they used because it matched the physical theatre the actors used and the images that were projected. This has now made me think a lot about the music we will use in our piece, as we need to find the right contrast so there isnt too much going on or there isnt enough impact. The music also needs to relate to what we are performing and showing, so the piece makes sense to the audience.

I am definitely going to use some of the ideas from this in my piece. We were already going to use two sheets and project things onto it but also use it as a cave. But I really like the idea of having sheets on the floor as well, so I need to talk to my group and see if there is a way we can use that, as there are other groups that perform before us.



review of a multimedia theatre production 

http://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2006/dec/04/wavessetsahighwatermarkfo

This review of the play Waves by Katie Mitchell shows that multi media if used right can be a amazing, spectacular show, which is really interesting for audiences to watch. It shows how people watching can connect to the piece on a different level than a non multi media production. It also shows how the audience can understand to a bigger depth about the characters and their emotions, and also the story of the play. 


Mobile Phones

We use our mobile phones in the chorus during some of the lines. At different points of the chorus some people will raise up their phone and when we have them all up it looks really effective. By using this multi-media it allows the audience to take in the beautiful figure we have all created with our bodies, like the view of Greece. The phones have the torch on, and in a dark room it looks really effective when we there are some lights shining from different areas and angles of the portrait we have created.


Live Feed
In one of the performances they used live feed. This is a really good use of multi- media, as it shows the audience a closer more interment way of using mulit - media. The audience get to see one conversation in two areas of a room. By having the person being filmed in the live feed in the room, the audience get to see kind of like a behind the scenes of what is happening and i think thats really interesting. Also using the live feed gives the actors a new challenge as they have to talk to a projection of someone instead of the live real thing.