Concept Pitch.

My concept for this project is a performance revisiting and expanding an experimental piece I originally developed at BRIT exploring the documentation of war and how in the 21st century there is a feeling of separation and at times lack of empathy as we view from a distance, comfortably in our own homes. And so we focused on utilising ideas from Katie Mitchelles “live cinema” specifically taking inspiration from the production of “Bluets” at the royal court theatre. The earlier version drew heavily on archival and literary extracts, including one of hitlers speeches, the British declaration of war on Germany as well as timelines and narrative/scenes from Christopher Isherwood's goodbye to Berlin. While the original piece used live streaming to project the scene from a different angle onto a monitor behind us while we acted access to the more advance virtual production and motion capture resources weve been introduced to would allow me to integrate the technology as an active way of story telling - working as a metaphor to exposing the mechanics through which war becomes images. This would allow for both better visuals and more impactful work

The main technological focus would be how i can use the LED volume with real time camera tracking. Instead of using motion capture for making avatars I want to harness the mocap and tracking systems to the camera in order to allow it to connect with a spatial relationship to the volume - so that the camera would be able to move dynamically through the performance space. It also means that there would be a somewhat hybrid or fluid movement language between the two as they would be able to communicate so that the theatrical space and virtual world (made up of real footage from 1942) would be able to continue seamlessly on the live feed. This would allow the audience to perceive both realities while in the same room and allow for interesting explorations of how they could at time juxtapose/conflict with one another pushing the story forward as it emphasises how their viewpoint is never neutral but actively constructed in some way (by the media).

Saying this i do also want there to be a few specific moments where motion capture is applied on the performers directly. In these sections the data would be used to subtly distort the performers on screen image for example by desaturating facial details or adding shadowing to obscure recognisable features blurring how we view the individual and instead making it so there sihoutetes blend with the environment showing how they become one collective movement (in reference to the nazis) or our perceived as non human (the victims). Because of this i would need mocap resources such as a real-time optical tracking system and software capable of live compositing and manipulation.

To finish the project i would need to get a interdisciplinary team together including:

• Director/Writer (myself)

• Creative technologist

• virtual production supervisor

• Cinematographer

• live editor

• motion capture technician

• sound designer

• stage manager

• actors

Early collaboration with the creative technoligists would be really important for the camera tracking pipeline as it would would allow us to test the relationship between actors and movement and LED responsiveness. Rehearsals will incorporate different testing of different techniques, refine performance timing camera choreography and virtual environment shifts.

Ultimately, this project uses virtual production and motion capture as tools for critical interrogation rather than spectacle utilising this style of experimental theatre to expose how war is technologically framed and edited for contemporary audiences.