Martin Frobisher is standing in front of a green screen in The Banff Centre’s Rice Studio. Surrounded by the unsettling brightness of the chroma key background, his tall leather boots, woolen doublet, and dark cloak seem hyper-real. Air from a wind machine tugs at his hat and hair. At his feet, cameraman Aubrey Fernandez fine tunes the focus on a high definition camera. Colleen Bonniol of Seattle’s MODE Studios and Luke Azevedo of the Centre’s Creative Electronic Environment watch the scene intently on a video monitor. They have just one day to capture the digital ghost of a 16th-century explorer. When Frobisher premieres at Calgary Opera at the end of January, audiences will experience more than a traditional opera performance. Thanks to the magic of multimedia video projection, both Frobisher’s ghost and the arctic landscape will be brought to life on a grand scale. Setting is an essential element in the Frobisher storyline. “One of my first thoughts about Frobisher was about the far North — the magnificent isolation and desolation of the Arctic,” says librettist John Murrell. “I was drawn to the concept of a landscape that is forbidding and challenging — that you have to respond to and that gives you superhuman accountability for your ideas and for living up to your dreams.” Using video projection to bring that landscape to life was a natural choice says Banff Centre technical director Robert Rombough. “Frobisher has a story and a libretto that invites an immersive experience. The set becomes more than a setting. In Frobisher it actually becomes a storytelling device.” |
Adding Colleen and partner Bob Bonniol of MODE Studios to the creative team was also a natural choice. “Bob and Colleen are leaders in the industry. They bring an artistic creativity, as well as the gearhead component to their work. What was appealing to them about Frobisher was that the video projection is part of the story, it is not just window dressing.” Seattle’s MODE Studios is at the leading edge of theatrical multimedia techniques. Responsible for video design on such diverse projects as Sinatra Live at the London Palladium, Seattle Opera’s Parsifal, and Nickelback’s All the Right Reasons Tour, they are also no strangers to The Banff Centre. In August 2005, they were faculty for the Centre’s Video Projection Workshop, an opportunity for Canadian theatre, dance, and music designers and educators to gain an understanding of cutting-edge projection techniques. Bringing MODE onboard also enhances the learning opportunities offered during the creation of Frobisher. Centre work-study participants, mentored by theatre professionals like the Bonniols, will participate in every aspect of Frobisher’s production, including set and costume construction. Back in the Rice Studio, crews are struggling to get exactly the right angle as Frobisher’s face fills the monitor, peering at something which cannot be seen. The effect is at once compelling and oddly disturbing. Lit by the glow of the monitor, John Murrell sits back, obviously pleased by what he sees. “We wanted to sail into uncharted waters for our second opera — to use what we had learned from Filumena and do something completely unexpected.” |
Published: January 2007.