Projection Technology in Opera

A Conversation with Jeremy Knight
Jeremy Knight was the Projection Designer on our recently concluded production of Don Giovanni at the Bankhead Theater in Livermore, Calif. Stage Director Mark Streshinsky and Music Director Alexander Katsman teamed up a second time, to bring a modern presentation of this popular opera to the stage in the Tri-Valley. Jeremy was also a part of both collaborations. This marks the first time in its 19 year history that LVO has used projection technology as a part of the set design for an opera.
View to more projection design work by Jeremy

LVO: How long have you been doing this, how did you become a projection designer?

Jeremy: As with most things it sort of happened accidentally. I’ve been doing this for six years and it actually started around late 1999. My son got a digital video camcorder and I had been interested in making movies since a teenager. I had a movie camera. Silent movies were a very difficult and expensive thing to make. It cost me $10. So, I had been singing in the Berkeley Opera chorus since the late 80s. It was always hard to get a good video of the show.

LVO: So, you were already aware of some of the challenges of being in the theater.

Jeremy: Oh sure, yeah. I thought this would be fun and that I could use my position with Berkeley Opera to develop my skills with video taping the shows. So I dropped out of the chorus and started video taping the shows…

LVO: Oh no, I have to say I am sorry to hear that because opera companies always find it harder to recruit men as chorus members!

Jeremy: Well, I am a much better videographer than singer…

LVO: Oh, okay, well now we have to know what was your key?

Jeremy: I am a second bass. Anyhow, so in 2004 Mark Streshinsky was directing the current production of Don Giovanni. He and Jonathan Khuner, who was at that time the Artistic Music Director at Berkeley Opera decided to do Wagner’s Ring (Cycle) in one evening, which Berkeley Opera just reprised this season in El Cerrito. And, Mark had the idea that a very good way to handle the fact that there are about 40 different scenes in the opera would be to use a minimal set and use projections on large screen for scenery.

LVO: That sounds like a big challenge.

Jeremy: Well, this was my first project. And, Mark says “well where are we going to find somebody who can do this?” and Jonathan said “well I can ask Jeremy, he’s been videotaping the shows, maybe he knows somebody.” And, when I heard about the project, I thought this would be a wonderful thing, and I talked Mark into having me do it. We got along very well and the production was a terrific success.

LVO: Yes, I guess it was if they just produced it again. So the first time was 2004 and they just brought it back this season?

A projection scene from the Legends of the Ring.

Jeremy: Yes, that’s right. And, ah, pretty much, Mark wanted three screens, three videos going at once. This is something actually very hard to accomplish, it’s getting easier now, but um, I had…three screens, three projectors going. I worked on it for three months. I devised a system using the projections on DVD. I had just gotten the hardware to allow me to make DVDs. I found some DVD players that would not show anything on the screen when you press “play” or “pause”. We had to use one remote control to cue all three DVD players simultaneously.

LVO: Did it ever make you nervous relying on technology so much?

Jeremy: Yeah, it was. In fact, on opening night one of the DVD players froze about 2/3 of the way through Act I, but it never happened again.

LVO: Jeremy, would you say projection technology in scenes is kind of a trend right now?

Jeremy: It seems to be, though it’s been around since the 19th century. The Magic Lantern slides were a part of theatrical productions in the 1870s or 80s…it is now relatively inexpensive to visual programs. You don’t have to use film. It (the technology) has come a long ways as far as cost and ease of creation.

It’s popular now because it’s cheap, relative to building sets. It’s flexible…but does have a lot of limitations.

LVO: Can you give us an example of the challenges to incorporate projection?

Jeremy: Well, lighting is a challenge. For example, you have to keep light off the screen. It is a really different approach to theater. You need to decide what it is that projections are representing. They can either be part of the set, they can be somehow abstractly giving a feeling to what’s going on in the show. The Don Giovanni projections are kind of in both categories. In the first scene that takes place at night, the first projection is a simple star field. Mark likes to keep his projections fairly abstract. So, in the wedding scene, there are flower petals falling down. In the party scene, there are mirror balls spinning around.

An iPhone list of Don Giovanni's conquests from the LVO production;
Marie Plette and Roberto Perlas Gomez on stage. [Photo credit: Barbara Mallon.]

LVO: As I understand one thing that’s kind of hard with Don Giovanni is the final scenes, where he goes down in flames…very hard to do real flames in a theater setting. Everyone has to figure out how they’re going to do that, so there again it was projection to the rescue, right?

Jeremy: Right, right…

LVO: Where do you get your images?

Jeremy: Some of them I photograph myself, either video or still, such as the disco balls in Don Giovanni. Some things I find on the Internet. I have purchased still photographs on-line from iStockphoto. Once I have the image it usually gets considerable modification in Photoshop. I also have an animation program I used to make the flower petals and leaves dropping for Don Giovanni.

LVO: Have you exclusively done projections for operas? Where there any changes from the way Berkeley did Don Giovanni compared to Livermore?

Jeremy: Mostly just operas yes, …in the last six years. I also did an opening scene for a Lamplighter’s gala, an event called “Star Drek”. We did an opening scene that like the Star Trek (TV series) opening scenes with the space ships coming around…

LVO: Tell us more about Don Giovanni. Were there any significant differences for the way you did it at the Bankhead Theater in Livermore?

Jeremy: Actually, the Livermore used many of the existing projections. As luck would have it, the Commandatore was played by the same singer, so I did not have to re-shoot that.

Eugene Brancoveau as Don Giovanni with the James Grainger as the
Il Commendatore projected behind him. [Photo credit: Barbara Mallon.]

LVO: You really made him larger than life…we have a photo of this posted on our our Facebook page.

Jeremy: So, the main change was this was the second show I’ve done with the video on computer. When we did Don Giovanni at the El Cerrito theater, because of the location of the projectors, we had three DVD players and three operators. Because the projectors are off of the boxes on the side of the stage. The stage manager cued the changes. So, we worked with the high school students as the operators.

LVO: Now, I am not familiar with El Cerrito, can you tell us about this venue?

Jeremy: Berkeley (West Edge) Opera productions are at this new high school theater…It has fly space above the stage, dressing rooms. …it just opened last year.

LVO: Any other challenges doing projections at the Bankhead Theater? I don’t thinks it's ever been done in that theater.

Jeremy: There are some limits to what you can do with just one projector at the back of the house. It is (located) in the sound booth.

LVO: And, that’s at the very back of the theater above everyone’s heads in the audience, right?

Jeremy: Yes, it’s shooting down. The performers are casting shadows on the screen sometimes, and that’s okay.

LVO: In other theaters, where are the projections done from?

Jeremy: In the Julia Morgan Theater, we were able to hang projectors over the audience. It was a small theater with a relatively low roof, so we were able to latch things up above. The last show we did there last summer, at Julia Morgan, was the one show where sets were totally projected and I was also able to design the set, so there were four projectors, three screens.

LVO: Was it like being a kid in a candy store for you in terms of creative control?

Jeremy: It was very nice to have the thing look like how I wanted it to look instead of how the set designer wanted it to look. Yeah. And ah, the Julia Morgan Theater doesn’t have a proscenium curtain, the curtain that goes across the front of the stage. The way the opera was written, there were 11 scenes and there was (supposed to be a) curtain between each scene. So, we decided to project a curtain between each scene.

Actually, it was a hilarious effect and the audience really enjoyed seeing this animated curtain come up.

LVO: How did you get a curtain image? Or, is that a trade secret?

Jeremy: No, no…I started with a picture of a curtain, and I animated it, moving it up from the bottom. Jonathan also served as the Stage Director, this was a very bare bones production, no costume budget…

LVO: Very creative. Now we wanted to ask about a perception. The use of projection technology does not necessarily save a lot of money on the overall budget, because you have to spend a lot of time making sure the effect and the technology works right. Is that right?

Jeremy: That is certainly true…

LVO: So what’s next for you?

Jeremy: We’ll see what comes along. Including the LVO production (Don Giovanni), I’ve worked on six productions in the last calendar year, which is really a lot and I am looking forward to a small vacation. I am going to be working with Mark on a series of one act operas he’s producing at Yale.