Unhinged

Posted by Brian Hutchison on 11th March 2014
Posted in: Circus, Lighting, Sound, Video Production. Leave a Comment

We spent 11 days working with PaperDoll Militia as part of their artist’s residency at Summerhall. In their own words, “Unhinged is a duo fabric piece, which is currently being extended into a multimedia and movement driven “Live Photo Essay””.

We designed some of the lighting, and provided help and technical assistance, operating lights, sound and video. We also created a couple of short video pieces that are included in the show, and this time-lapse movie documenting the development process.

The photos that form the main new element of the piece are in the form of 35mm slides projected by kodak carousel projectors, and as solid as they are the age of the equipment has proven a bit of a challenge. We’re putting together a DMX control solution to allow the slide transitions to be run from the lighting desk, as it proved very challenging to run LX, sound, video and slides all at once.

The show premieres in June in the United States, but there will almost certainly be a Uk showing as well, which we’re thoroughly looking forward to.

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GoPro in Africa

Posted by Brian Hutchison on 1st February 2014
Posted in: Circus, Video Production. Leave a Comment

We spent two weeks of December 2013 in Angola in southern Africa with Gandey World Class Productions looking after all the technical aspects of a new circus show specially put together for a short season of christmas shows, following on from a successful visit with the Chinese State Circus the year before.
While we were there we took the opportunity to try out the super slow motion on the GoPro Hero 3, and put together a wee edit of the restults. Quite nice, really. Sadly, we were a bit busy doing lights and sound for the shows to shoot any video or stills of them…!

Paper Doll Milita Videos

Posted by Brian Hutchison on 25th January 2014
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We recently filmed and edited two of Paper Doll Militia‘s pieces, performed at Re-Grip at Summerhall.

The first is a trio piece, Ashes, devised by Sarah Holmes with Debbie Robbins and Phil Hardie. It’s a great high energy aerial performance which makes good use of the whole stage space, centred around a newly devised apparatus that uses weighted ropes to create unique and exciting choreography. As well as two HD cameras on the deck, we used a GoPro overhead to capture an unusual angle that really shows the performances dynamic use of space.

Seretide is a new solo piece by Sarah Holmes; again she’s devised new apparatus, this time using a dozen small ropes to create something that sits between aerial silks and rope in terms of choreography and skills. The multiple ropes make for a really interesting visual, and we’re looking forward to getting the opportunity to do some work with this apparatus again.

Chinese State Circus

Posted by Brian Hutchison on 25th January 2014
Posted in: Circus, Lighting, Photography, Sound. Leave a Comment
ow by gnomatron
ow, a photo by gnomatron on Flickr.

The 2012 UK tour of the Chinese State Circus was a great 4 months spent on the road. I was technical manager, and it was a privilege to work with amazingly talented artists who had been honing their skills for most of their lives. I’m pretty pleased with this shot of the Shaolin Warriors I took, it really nicely captures one of the many wince inducing moments from their performance. Those are perfectly ordinary housebricks, and there’s no special trickery involved. The guys have a great sense of humour too and are always good for a laugh.

It was a challenging tour, taking in 39 venues all across the UK. The show included a live band, massive double chinese pole and a cast of 30 performers. We visited a huge range of venues, from no.1 touring houses to community theatres, and at each had a single morning to install our rig of over 40 intelligent fixtures as well as rigging, set and props.

Brian