Adventures in Projection

I do lights. Not that often, but that's what I'm (reasonably?) good at.

Projection is alien to me, a dark (or bright?) art form that is used to great effect in professional shows but never looks great in any small scale amateur productions I've seen.

I've luckily had the opportunity to experiment with them recently in a small venue, and on a tiny budget, and thought I'd share what I learned along the way and perhaps help make projection work for you in a small or an amateur theatre space.

Everyone thinks that small-scale theatre is easier, but actually small venues have a number of problems that make projection harder that larger theatre spaces don't struggle with;

• Cheap projectors. Good (bright) projectors are expensive, affordable projectors are usually designed for offices or home cinema and aren't bright enough to compete with stage lighting.
• Small Stages and the Fight with Light. The cast are usually right at the stage edge, and almost against the upstage wall / screen / cyc, which limits how well you can keep light off the screen.
• Poor Control. Professional venues have media servers (that cost many £1000s in most cases) that make integrating projection easier and limit the chance of embarrassing mistakes like a mouse pointer or other computer interface element showing up in your show!
• Design Variety. This is a bugbear of mine in many (but not all!) amateur productions - a lack of creativity. Often projection becomes a 'digital backdrop' - a white screen behind the actors with flat scenery projected onto it in an attempt to replace a painted cloth or flat but usually looking worse than either.

Will tackle each of these over a few posts. This is not expert advice (I am most definitely not an expert in projection) but my own musings and what I've discovered when playing with this exciting 'new' (to me) medium.