Friday, June 6, 2008

More SomerVaudeVille Video from Geek Force Five

Chris Clark of Geek Force Five has put together an eight-minute and one-second video featuring a sampling of the acts that appeared at Theatre@First's production of SomerVaudeVille. An excerpt from my piece, "The Marmalope" starts about 4:40 into the video:

If you have seen Shelly MacAskill's video of the same piece, it is interesting to note how different camera angles create a very different effect when filming mime or dance, though as I stated in my previous entry, it is a matter of translating a three-dimensional art form (four-dimensional if one counts time as a dimension) into a two-(or three)-dimensional medium. The segment that Clark captured is certainly choreographed to be seen from the front of the stage as opposed to the side, while I think the earlier sequence when my legs, arms and torso are bent into a sculptural form for the marmalope (played by my right hand) to run about, works very nicely from the angle that MacAskill presented in her video.

Of course, this leaves me to wonder just how many people were taping the performance?

Also appearing in the video are Can Can Revolution, Uncle Shoe, Heisenberg's Mezzos, Justin Werfel, Gilana and her Hula Hips, and The Pluto Tapes.

3 comments:

nancy said...

Hi Ian,

I am visiting your blog. Really interesting site. I am enjoying exploring it. I tried the google alert. Since I am completing a writing about Marceau and studying with him...it is so interesting to know about this feature on-line. Thanks! I read about your work at Bead and Puppet and the incident in Israel. Very interesting stuff!

Nancy

Anonymous said...

Hey, Ian.

Very interesting thoughts. I loved the performance, but I definitely think that something is lost when you try to capture live art on video. Also, the short clip-based nature of my vid doesn't really do your performance justice. It's the sort of thing that should be seen live and in its full form.

Thanks for the link.

~Chris

Ian Thal said...

Hi Chris,

Of course there is something lost in the filming of a performance that is intended to be performed live, but as a performer, it's nice to have that video as a calling card.

Still, I'd love to see the full footage of what you filmed of my piece some time. There's something very educational both to see how the different camera angles reveal different things and also it's just beneficial for me as an artist to see how I move on stage.