Dance Ensemble performance – #6 of 6

Just as we were nearing the end of our over-the-top busy season at NVCC, disaster struck. Our electrical system for the main stage went DOWN. The short version is that the transformer on the roof had some serious issues and we had no reliable power for stage lighting. House lights and standard electrical wall outlets were unaffected. My carefully-laid plans to do new and creative video projections were tossed aside to deal with the crisis.

We ran a ton of cable through the scene shop and down the hall to our other theatre, which had power. The lighting design had to become minimal, as we rushed to pull some LED fixtures out of one theatre to the next (while not as bright, they use standard wall power).

We also had two concerts in three days before tech for this show began…

As time consuming as this was, I managed to get some live video capture effects up for the show. I used VDMX for the camera and effects, controlled and run through syphon and projection mapping laid out in QLab. Timecoded MIDI triggers meant my operator, who was new to this part of stagecraft, only had to work within one application and push “Go.” The extra bit of flash helped us compensate for the lack of lighting.

We made it, despite the odds! Video is below, followed by some photos.

-brian