MEN IN BLACK, TOO

A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Production of
the Opening and Closing Sessions of the
Event Solutions Expo 2003

E. Through the Eyes of the Production Team and Entertainers

  3. - CHOPS & Associates Live Animation

A show as big and special as the Event Solution General Sessions needs a host that is larger than life.

We couldn’t get attention with every special effect known to the industry, and then just put John Baragona out in front by himself. Not when we had a special trick up our sleeves.

The sessions were my chance to showcase my work with live, interactive virtual characters and one of my favorites, “Professor Millennium,” was up for the task. But the special effects didn’t stop there.

Earlier that year, I had been pursuing a technology that was introduced to me by Image Event’s Len Piotrowski of Virgina, Robert Bottom’s colleague. He called me just before Miami’s show last year and said, “Hey, CHOPS, have your ever heard of the Catalyst projection system? You should check it out. And by the way, I have one you can try.”

By January, I was on the phone with Baragona and the show’s creative team, including Chad Everett of Galaxy. We agreed to find a way to use this amazing new system, and Piotrowski kindly agreed to ship it to San Diego for our use, at no charge. What a guy!

Now I’ve been doing corporate special events with my characters for about seven years, but this time, I was more excited than ever. With the Catalyst, I could offer my audiences special effects never seen before. I could fly my characters all around the room, projecting them onto anything, appearing in thin air and disappearing just as quickly.

By June, I got involved with High End Systems, using their prototype of a new updated Catalyst system, and now it was in my blood.

In early August, the team started working together under the direction of Anthony Bollotta, who set up conference calls with about 10 or 12 of us at a time. I heard Bottoms agree to get the Catalyst to San Diego. Perhaps my goal would be realized at this show. But we needed a programmer. Bollotta agreed to help me find one and get him onto the team. Programmers are rare, but my sources led me to Rodd McLaughlin of PreLite in NYC, and we made our deals. The Catalyst was a “go.”

One of the challenges of working with this type of equipment is visualizing how it will look and creating the moves and effects. The Catalyst is a combination of a mirror-head attachment onto a projector, an Apple Mac G4 computer, called a “media server,” and the lighting console. In our case, MPG supplied a separate lighting console, a Whole Hog 1000, and a Roadie 10K, with 10,000 lumens of output power, enough to make Professor Millennium look his best.

For days and nights in advance, I pictured some of the effects in my head, trying to tap into the power of the Catalyst and integrate the live interaction of my characters on the Session’s set, which included side wings, a 10x30 center screen, a 30-foot water screen and an airwall surface. The professor was to host the meeting with John Baragona. That was in Bollotta’s script, and he did a good job of writing the lines I was to perform. My creative energy could be fully directed at visualizing the special effects we wanted to achieve.

The effects I chose for the show involved moving the Professor’s image primarily, which is only part of the Catalyst’s capabilities. For example, we could have prepared the media server with all different types of content, including digital video, stills, digital gobos and so forth, and creating intriguing layers of color, animation and video clips, but our show had plenty going on already. All the Catalyst’s effects can be delivered via timed cues or from presets, just like other intelligent lighting instruments, from the console over DMX channels, which is the language of standard communication between the console and a variety of stage devices.

Instead, I would feed the media server with a digital version of my signal via Firewire, in real time, and that image would be projected according to the effects we could program into the control console.

Some people may think that integrating CHOPS, Catalyst, & video requires a bit of "black magic." Actually, since all our products are compliant with video standards, hook-up was a breeze and we were looking at images in minutes. I've designed my CHOPS system so that I can generate any type of high-quality output signal a producer wants, without any hassle (formats include 1024x768 VGA, S-video, Beta SP component, Firewire DV all at the same time, if necessary). The concept of using CHOPS with Catalyst technology is an easy and compact way of creating a cool, attention-getting show.

During load-in, McLaughlin and I mounted the mirror-head to the projector, tested it and sent it up on truss about 35 feet overhead, directly above the audience, in front of the stage and water screen. I set up my Live Animation control booth in a corner backstage, along with the Catalyst media server, and connected it to the Whole Hog console, which McLaughlin operated, at the front of the house on the director’s riser. Once we could see Professor Millennium appear on the projection, we could start the process of turning my visualization into elements of the show.

One of the best effects was when we overlapped the projected image of the character with the projected image coming from the Catalyst, and then “tore” it away to another part of the stage. I also was able to send my system’s signal (of the Professor) to MPG’s “video village,” where John Peterson integrated it with the other video elements in the show, on the side screens or the 10x30 screen in the back. We were also able to use the Catalyst to spin him, move him all around the room, and to finally put his image above the doorway to say good-bye as people left the show, all from the one projector overhead.

With the Catalyst, we were able to correct for any distortions caused by projection angles. We could also line up the image anywhere, on a preset, and have it return automatically to that exact same spot, which was very helpful in rehearsals. Many people normally think that if you see a projected image on a screen, it is all coming from one projector, but not in this case.

Our only limitation surfaced when it came to the water screen, which requires rear projection. For these shows, it was necessary to project from the front of the water screen. In an ideal situation for rear projection onto the water screen, we would have placed the Catalyst projector on the upstage (closest to backstage) edge of the stage deck, and projected up onto the water screen. That way, the projector’s light would not have been so bright on the audience’s eyes. When the water screen was down, we still could have projected into the room, but not onto the side screens, which was a necessary part of the show, in this case.

The combination of CHOPS and the Catalyst in the second show, the Closing General Session, was also fun to prepare and perform, but it was a little dicey for me, personally. Due to the intense schedule of the team pulling off two very complex shows with lots of elements, there was no time to rehearse the last few minutes when CHOPS would appear. Since I normally get to prepare and rehearse all my presentations well in advance, I was a little anxious. But I realized this was my own opportunity to come through for the audience and the team, to give a dramatic and powerful ending to the weeks and hours of hard work we had all contributed, in order to show people a glimpse of our potential.

I had been given the opportunity to introduce the audience to two new ideas – virtual characters as show hosts and the power of the Catalyst media projection system. And now, a third new idea – writing my report and webcasting it to extend the value of the team’s efforts on behalf of Event Solutions. I appreciate being included and working with such a great bunch of people.

Gary Jesch
CHOPS & Assoc. Live Animation
P.O. Box 6290
Incline Village, NV 89450
888-766-6677
www.chops.com
www.chopswebcasting.com