In 2005 I was engaged as technical Director on an AHRC project called The Chamber of Demonstrations - the Jacobean name for a theatre where not only plays could be seen, music could be performed, but also the anatomy of the human body could be demonstrated through autopsies of dead bodies.
We re-created a Jacobean Theatre in the Drama Department of Bristol University and then I co-ordinated the shooting of this on four cameras slaved to the same time code - not for editing - but for 'switching' on the proposed DVD which I also authored. The specification in shooting was that from each camera position you could see what a person sitting there could see (so a 'standard lens' and the camera could only imitate head turns - no zooms obviously (though there was an argument around 'the narrowing of attention' which the metalanguage for that could've been a tighter shot - but best done on a turret camera with an immediate switchover of lenses) - but that couldn;t be determined at the time of shooting as the DVD output would then be fixed. A set of excerpts were chosen, The Duchess of Malfi for instance - and parts were chosen where actors at the time would've carried candles on stage - and therefore lit themselves. All of meant that, as with a theatre event at the time, the senses under duress effectively - the paying of attention was accompanied by physiological changes where you would've 'zoomed in' your attention, into the faces of the actors via concentration through the gloom. The DVD was a different proposition altogether (a technology that I'd learned so that I could technically specify the shooting on Panasonic Varicam at 1280 x 720 knowing that at that time we only had standard definition as an output. So often people forget that in the early days of HD from about 1988 to 2012, display was a huge huge problem because we didn't have a widespread means of display - only very expensive CRT's (£20k or more). So this research project was used by the cinematographer on Wolf Hall - because within this project Doctor Gordon Higson had discovered the plans for a jacobean playhouse that was actually eventually built next to the Globe in London - this was the Sam Wanamaker Building (So for once research generated an actual building) - and at that time Mark Rylance was running the globe... So by the time Peter Kosminsky the director, was booked to write and shoot Wolf Hall, everything was in place to create the famous BBC project, and its follow up The Mirror and the Light. Go here for the AHRC Project: https://www.bristol.ac.uk/drama/jacobean/project1.html And here to see some actual footage where I replicate the functuionalities of the DV where you can real time switch audience viewpoints in real time (as with the DVD) Choose a play and select your audience position: www.bristol.ac.uk/drama/jacobean/taster6.html NEXT: 6: Cinematography & Scripts 1992 - 2006 |
The Chamber of Demonstrations
'The Past' is spilt into 9 areas:
1: Vida 1976 - 1981 2: Transition 1981 - 1982 3: Triple Vision/Videomakers 1982 - 1985 4: Triple Vision & Channel 4 1985 - 1992 5: A Trip Sideways to the BBC 1988 - 1990 6: Cinematography & Scripts 1992 - 2006 7 Academia 2007 - 2016 8. CineFest 2015 - 2016 9. Sedition Art 2015 - 2023 10. Makersplace & NFT's 2019 - 2022 11. 2025 and Beyond? Click Picture below to go to the the AHRC Project for full description etc: https://www.bristol.ac.uk/drama/jacobean/project1.html
Click the image below to go to the link to choose a play and select your audience position: www.bristol.ac.uk/drama/jacobean/taster6.html
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