badgerblog - The End of Cinematics
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11:37 pm
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The End of Cinematics
Tonight I went to Chapel Hill and Memorial Hall to see the premiere of Mikel Rouse's show The End of Cinematics. A multimedia non-narrative theatre performance involving six screens, three live actors and three live actresses, three stationary and one roving robotic camera, I found the performance extremely cool.
Soda, popcorn, and candy was for sale in the lobby to set the tone of a cinema experience. A translucent scrim that was a rear-projected full-size screen opened with three upcoming film trailers:
The Simpsons Movie (summer 2007)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (30 March 2007)
Lucky You (Eric Bana, Drew Barrymore, noticed Christopher Young did the film score - he did the Hellraiser films among others)
Then an animated piece that was part of the performance.
Then two more trailers:
The US Versus John Lennon
Spider-Man III
then the performance began in earnest.
Q&A session afterward:
Someone asked what's the show mean. Always a difficult question.
Rouse mentioned he was unsure how to handle the blocking, until he saw a dance piece called ocean by Merce Cunningham and figured out "stillness was ok" in the right time.
He was asked how he financed the development of the project, he mentioned he ran up about 50-75k of debt maxing out credit cards, then worked various odd jobs and paid them back off. He also added a "don't try this at home" caution. The financial limitations caused him to have to trade off some technical issues between how many items to sync up through software and hardware control, and how many to do manually.
Rouse talked about the non-narrative theatre (think Cage, Glass, Cunningham) tradition that this piece is part of. He likes it because the members of the audience "have permission to check in and check out" of the work mentally. He expanded on that comment that it's ok to watch the peformance, think about your day, think about how you personally relate to the piece. The way he spoke of the piece reminded me of Brian Eno's definition of ambient music:
Ambient Music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting. Ambient music may be actively listened to with attention or as easily ignored, depending on the choice of the listener.
Where was the video shot? All in Paris in 2002, all assembled using Final Cut Pro.
What's his next project? Well, this show is touring through 2008, but he's working on two pieces called The Gospel of Thomas, and the Devil's Chaplain.
If you're in the area of any of the performances (UNC Friday night, then Brooklyn, Gainesville, Liverpool UK, then Miami through the end of the year) and this is remotely your kind of thing, I strongly recommend it. I'm considering going back Friday night to UNC for the second night's performance. (If I'd noticed the symposium tomorrow before tonight, I would have registered.)
Current Music: _London Voodoo_ score
Tags: the end of cinematics
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| From: | (Anonymous) |
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| Date: | October 3rd, 2006 09:21 pm (UTC) |
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| | End of Cinematics was brilliant | (Link) |
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Thank you for that synopsis.
I did not expect to see such a performance in Chapel Hill. I commend the Performing Arts management for their courage to bring such innovative works to our local arts arena. This is a big city type of show, something I would expect to see in NYC or Boston or San Francisco. But Chapel Hill?
**I loved it** and every student majoring in communications, film, dramatic/performing arts and the visual arts should have been there that night.
The End of Cinematics was actually a celebration of the **Beginning** of New Cinema, free of the impedences of corporate sponsorships, studio excesses, and celebrity trappings inherent in current motion pictures. New cinema Technology is available to almost anyone who can afford a computer and a digital camera. Websites like Youtube.com are further proof of the new paradigm in motion picture creation and distribution.
Likes & Dislikes
Likes:
innovative Use of AV technology
Lennon-McCartney sounding vocals
Quadrophonic audio
Lyrics
Dislikes:
Why so loud? Instead of handing out earplugs, turn down the sound.
More movement please. Actors appear too static.
| | From: | ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) badger |
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| Date: | October 3rd, 2006 11:01 pm (UTC) |
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| | Re: End of Cinematics was brilliant | (Link) |
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Glad you enjoyed it as well, whoever you are :). I'm hardly Mr. Rouse so I have trouble accurately speaking for him, but I'd like to address the two dislikes you mention, at least from my personal perspective:
Regarding loudness, volume can be a component of the experience, at least to me. A rock concert would feel different if it was at conversational voice volume levels, for one example.
Regarding too static, I'd hazard a guess that Rouse's remark during the Q&A
Rouse mentioned he was unsure how to handle the blocking, until he saw a dance piece called ocean by Merce Cunningham and figured out "stillness was ok" in the right time.
might indicate that, whether the decision worked, he made a conscious decision or at least acceptance of the actors' lack of movement. There might be a technical component as well: with the multiple cameras, too much movement (by movement I mean footwork, which may not be exactly what you meant) could have been ruled out by an actor needing to stay in the field of vision of the fixed camera at a given time.
I'm not claiming you're wrong, but I'm trying to think why those issues might have been chosen ones. |
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