About
Starlight Express
Music by Andrew Lloyd Webber
Lyrics by Richard Stilgoe
Starlight Express opened in London on March 27, 1984 and closed on January
12, 2002 after almost 18 year run in the West End! It is second only to
Cats as the longest running musical in British theatre history. The show
went on to achieve international success with productions on Broadway, in
Las Vegas, Japan, Australia, a North American tour and in Bochum, Germany
where it is still playing after 14 years.
The story is a modernized version of The Little Engine That Could and
teaches about the triumph of the human spirit. Actor on roller-skates play
the part of trains and cars. The most recent touring production features
an updated score and stunning 3D race sequences which use IRIDAS
stereoscopic projection technology.
To find out more about Starlight Express visit
http://www.troika.com
Inside Inition
Inition is the story how four young British entrepreneurs with a passion for 3D graphics
went to annual sales of £1m in just two and a half years. Inition provides its customers
with a range of virtual reality (a.k.a. VizSim) and graphics products and
services. For the founders, Stuart Cupit, James Gant, Chris Sutton, and Andy
Millns, the passion for 3D
began early.
Read more... |
When people talk about media integration these days, they are probably
not thinking about bringing large format 3D film into live theatre. But
that is exactly what is happening now as
Inition and IRIDAS have joined
forces to provide the technology for the first use of 3D digital
projection in a Broadway musical.
The new touring production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s
Starlight Express includes dramatic 3D race sequences rear-projected onto
a 30-foot wide screen and artfully interwoven with the live stage action.
“This is not just a first in theatre,” says Inition co-founder Stuart
Cupit, “this is a sign of things to come.”
The Challenge
The production opened on April 1, 2003 at the Grand Casino Theater in
Biloxi, Mississippi, but the story began much earlier with a fundamental
question – how do you recreate the complex staging of the original
Starlight Express in the new touring production of the musical? The
original theater had been specially fitted with ramps and runways so that
the actors could hurtle around, and through, the audience on roller
skates.
3D film projection has been around almost since the invention of movies,
but, until recently, digital projection systems have not been able to
provide 3D images which were sufficiently high resolution, bright enough,
or large enough scale for use in theatres. Now, thanks to advances in
projection and digital playback technology, all that is changing. The
benefits to theatre are obvious. 3D projection adds the dimension of depth
making it possible to enhance a production with realistic, tightly
integrated scenes that couldn’t otherwise be staged – such as the famous
race sequences in Starlight Express.
IRIDAS Answers the Call
Inition had already been working on the problem of delivering portable,
cost-effective 3D projection systems for several years, but nothing yet on
this scale. They determined that the Starlight Express sequences would
require high-definition dual-stream playback at 30 frames-per second Their
first efforts for this project were based on the widely used MPEG2
compressed video format. But synchronizing the two video streams required
for stereoscopic playback proved an insurmountable challenge. Another
solution was needed and IRIDAS answered the call. “They were very
helpful,” says James Gant, Inition’s technical director. “They got their
software and a box over to us in days and the whole thing was up and
running within a week.” “Like it so often is in the business, big developments sometimes have to
happen in days, not months,” says Lin Kayser, IRIDAS CEO. “We knew we had
the technology to do this (the Digital Cinema Playback System), but we
hadn’t anticipated it going into real-world use just yet. We are delighted
with the results.” DCPS uses uncompressed full resolution playback
technology so image quality wasn’t an issue at all. Another advantage it
has over the MPEG format is that it does not require hardware decoders
thus reducing equipment costs. But the trump card for this project was the
fact that with DCPS, the dual channels are queued through the same display
pipeline. Not only is there no possibility of drift, there is also
absolutely precise sound synchronization.
Thumbs up from Andrew Lloyd Webber
The official test screening took place on March 14th and used a
preliminary version of IRIDAS’ new Digital Cinema Playback System. It went
off without a hitch. Andrew Lloyd Webber was in attendance and was
impressed by the technology. He gave the go-ahead to include the system in
the new touring production of Starlight Express.
This initial success was followed by a period of intense product
development. “We gave IRIDAS a wish list of features and right away we
began receiving patches and updates on an almost daily basis,” says Gant.
The last issue that needed to be resolved was the problem of achieving
adequate brightness for the 30-foot screen. The simple solution was to
split the two channels using two 7700-lumen projectors for each: four
projectors in all. The Inition team also made some great discoveries as they worked with the
IRIDAS product. For example, DCPS technology makes it remarkably easy to
import new footage into the system without the lengthy and tricky encoding
process which MPEG requires. This came in handy! “We were able to
incorporate changes right up until the opening night, says Gant. “In fact,
changes were made after the opening night.”
Taking it on the Road
Once everything was ready, Gant and Andy Millns (Inition’s creative
director) left London for Biloxi, Mississippi along with their “rig” of
four digital projectors. For two hectic weeks the Inition team fine-tuned
the technology, conducted technical rehearsals with the cast and trained
the Starlight Express technicians to operate the system. “It was amazing
to see the way that the show integrated the stage action with the scenes
projected in 3D,” says Millns. “For example, one transition began with
real fog on the stage which then gave way to 3D projected fog. It was
almost seamless.” In another scene the movements of the actors in the 3D
film are paralleled by the actors on stage providing a smooth transition
in and out of the film sequences. “These were the sorts of things that we
had to practice (and practice) in the technical rehearsals until they were
really perfect. I was very impressed by the cast and crew.” Then, all of a sudden it was opening night. “I don’t think the audience
realized that they were about to witness the real world debut of this
technology, but once the show began they responded. Their gasps and “oohs”
in response to the 3D race sequences made all the hard work worthwhile”
says Millns. “From my experience, this is the way most people react when
they see modern 3D projection for the first time. They just can’t believe
how good it is. I love bringing this new medium to people. It’s one of the
things I enjoy most about my work.” But what about the need for 3D glasses
during the stereoscopic sequences? “That was very cleverly done,” adds
Gant, “a voice informed the audience that the race was about to begin and
instructed them to put on their ‘safety goggles.’ So even the 3D glasses
were integrated into the story. The audience loved it!” In May the show opened in Houston at a gala performance with Andrew Lloyd
Webber and George Bush senior in attendance. This production of Starlight
Express will run until the summer of 2004 and play in 22 cities throughout the
United States.
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Image (c) 2003 Inition, London
Image (c) 2003 Inition, London
The integration between live action and stereoscopic projection is an
industry first
Photography Credit: Joan Marcus Copyright: Starlight Express™
©1984 RUG
Ltd.
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