My company The Mega Super Awesome Visuals Company (MSA Visuals Ltd) designed and created all of the visuals for the touring streetdance show Blaze. The show toured for 9 years, and the visuals included live projection mapping of a very complex stage designed by Es Devlin. We used entirely custom software for the projection mapping and calibration, to be calibrated by the technicians on tour, usually within an incredibly tight schedule. No media-servers or third party software was used – in fact at the time of development (2010), no software existed which was able to perform the mapping and calibration with such ease, by the touring technicians, within the tight schedule.
Credits
- Creative & Technical Direction, animation & software development: Memo Akten
- Creative Direction, animation: Robin McNicholas
- Illustration: Jane laurie
Reviews
The Times – “The aptly named Mega Super Awesome Visuals Company eventually makes selective use of every available surface as a screen upon which to project a dazzling variety of digital graphics, from animated landscapes and pulsating lights to oozing liquid and raging flames.“
The Guardian – “Es Devlin’s clever set, constructed from piles of boxes, cupboards, TV screens and doors, gives the dancers plenty of levels to move on, and, better still, functions as a three-dimensional screen on which the lighting and video team can project their most astonishing effects. A B-boy trio performing against images of melting snow acquire a rare luminous purity; Lizzie Gough (also a finalist from So You Think You Can Dance) becomes a fiercely demonic figure, conjuring a kaleidoscopic storm of flashing light.”
Financial Times – “Here is the most blissfully energetic, sassy, to-hell-with-everything-except-street-dance show. And it is superbly designed by Es Devlin … Devlin has, tremendously, placed the action against a wall of grey, office-equipment- suppliers’ drawers and the occasional ice-box and a single bath. These serve as background, exits, launching pads for dance. There is stunning lighting by Patrick Woodroffe and Adam Bassett, and amazing video projections.”
Too Much Flavour – “the projection effects were sensational at extending the effect of the routines. Although the back wall of the theatre was an odd construction made up of what appeared to be stacks of drawers when lit fully, come time for those projections and the wall burst to life with action. Memo Akten and Robin McNicholas did an amazing job at putting it to use. One of its best uses was a solo from Lizzie Gough controlling a projected ball of light with her choreography making it a visual treat to watch.”
The Arts Desk – “This is a show blazing with talent and young exuberance, and it will rejuvenate you faster than a Red Bull. “
Ballet.co.uk – “van Laast has the showman’s touch and ‘Blaze’ is brilliantly designed by Es Devlin with a backdrop of cases, trunks, storage boxes and even a fridge, apparently piled on top of each other from floor to ceiling and cleverly concealing platforms, a trampoline, and the potential for pools of light and access points. It also provided texture for the brilliant video design by the appropriately-named Mega Super Awesome Visuals Company – there’s no point in hiding your light under a bushel when you’re this good!“
