By Anna Smith

Unit 65 Technical Operations - Video

ProjectionProjection is an important part of theatre as it can portray key messages/themes of a production or it can be the difference between a scene change. There are two types of projectors which are used they are Long Throw Projectors and Short Throw Projectors.

A Long throw projector requires a longer distance to project an image whereas a short throw projector only requires a minimal amount of space. A Long throw projector would be used for larger spaces as they are more discrete because they do not have a mirror.

A short throw projector would be ideal in a situation where by you are not aware of the amount of space you will be working with and where by a long throw projector is not available.

You can project one of two ways. Front Projection places the projector in front of the stage and projects the image onto stage, this will then hit the performers on stage and create a silhouette figure. This will only be beneficial if this is the desired effect otherwise back projection would be more practical.

Back projection is when the projector is placed behind the performers and projects an inverted image on screen so that from audiences perspective the desired image is shown, stopping the performers walking in front and distorting the image.

Features of Hitachi projector: • HD• VGA Cable• USB Input• Has sound built in• Can connect to DVD player or other

external sources

MATROXEquipment:• Mac, with QLab• Matrox• Three outputs (diagram uses projectors)• Cables

A Matrox allows a image/video to be stretched across three output systems at any one time. It also allows you to have three complete different images/videos playing simultaneously at once.

The benefits of using a Matrox in theatre are endless as it allows a producer to experiment with space and time in a variety of different ways. You can use different images on each screen to cross cut from different scenes in a play, create title sequences to represent the start of a new act or even just create a greater impact on the audience by allowing them to view the same thing on up to three different outputs.

The image on the right is from ‘Priestley’s Got Talent’ this is an example of a Matrox being used. As you can see the same image is being projected onto both of the side screens, this allows better viewing for the audience as people sat further away can still have the ‘up close’ experience as the live camera focus’ in on the finer details. The image on the middle screen has been used to create an aesthetically pleasing visual stimulus for the audience. To conclude Matroxs’ are used over other resources such as a splitter because they allow us to project different images at any one time rather than the same image being projected onto multiple screens; this allows a greater impact to be portrayed to the audience.

MATROX

MACwith QLab

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QLabQLab is a multimedia playback software created by a company based in Baltimore, Maryland, known as Figure 53. Qlab uses cues as a marker for an action to take place in the software. When a cue is triggered it executes an operation.

List of Cues:• Audio• Mic• Video• Camera• Fade• OSC• MIDI (voice messages, sysex, or MSC)• MIDI File• Timecode (MTC or LTC)• Group• Start• Stop• Pause• Load• Reset• Devamp• Goto• Target• Arm• Disarm• Wait• Memo• Script

Features of QLab:• Video/Audio Playback• Allows you to drop in MP3s• Allows you to play multiple videos