It is with this production that Zero 88's Frog 2 console makes its debut in the West End, controlling both lighting and video in a compact but complex design created by designer Ben M. Rogers.
Directed by Andrew McBean, the work is a highly collaborative and continually evolving piece with a history of 14 producers, the original conceiver and director Rob Ruggerio and the writer Willam Finn all involved during its evolution. Rogers was also responsible for the set and video design and covered the on-site production management, so precision planning and time management was paramount.
"With all these other responsibilities, I needed technology I was familiar with to minimise the potential for headaches and the flexibility to quickly incorporate changes during the technical period," explains Rogers, "especially since we were so heavily reliant on video within the design concept and had less than one week of production fit-up before the first preview."
Rogers has used the Zero 88 Frog 2 extensively on international touring shows including Noise Ensemble, The Opera Babes and Nicky Slater's Ice Times. Having owned a Frog 2 since 2005 and being familiar with its operation, Rogers chose this as his control option, supported by Zero 88's Peter Kirkup.
"To combine video with the lighting in such a short space of time it was important to have full and instant control of all attributes of the system in one easy to use package - hence the choice of the Frog 2. This takes the established technology of the Arkaos video software and supports it in a user friendly interface which made the production programming very straight forward," states Rogers.
The set for Make Me A Song is a minimalist black box with black grand piano upstage overhung by a multi-globed glass chandelier. Five black and chrome stools line the front of the stage while, upstage left, is a raked section of roadway which 'disappears' into a projection screen vertically divided into three sections. It is on this that most of the technical action takes place, with video clips of New York city skylines, subways and roadways taking the place of conventional set to establish location and set mood within a limited space and budget.
The video content is comprised of original photography by Rogers and his associate designer Claire Bilyard and some royalty free stock content, all of which was loaded onto the Arkaos system. This, in turn, was then linked to the Frog 2 via Ethernet using the Artnet protocol. The Frog 2 is then used to manipulate, colour, position, control and add effects to the clips using same attribute control interface as would be used for programming intelligent lighting on the console.
"The speed at which I have been able to work using the Frog 2 has been invaluable," states Rogers. "Much of the video content was only introduced at about 5pm on the day before the first preview but I was able to drop it directly from my laptop onto the server via ethernet and run it through the Arkaos system onto screen immediately."
The lighting design includes a range of conventional fixtures including PAR cans and ETC Source 4s plus Rainbow scrollers, VL1000s and ETC Source 4s in City Theatrical AutoYokes which, along with the Frog 2, were supplied by Stage Electrics.
(Jim Evans)
