Credits Photo: Ciara Holmes
“A fabricated Midwest.
Worldeater and Amos meet.
The never ending road extends in front of them. The two set on a journey back to oneself.
Worldeater is a show about road movies, responsibility, and what it means to be human."
This performance was part of Scenoworks, a collection of work from graduating MA Performance: Design and Practice students
Working as Production Manager, Projectionist and Set Supervisor
Description
"Worldeater" is a theatre piece written and directed by MA student Simone Martis. In this one-hour-long theatrical production, I served as the Production Manager, Projectionist, and Set Supervisor. This project was essential for me this year as it helped me develop the skills, habits, and knowledge needed for my future professional life. It revealed my attraction to working as a Production Manager, particularly in performance and theatre pieces. It highlighted my profound interest in bringing talents together, organizing all the necessary elements to create a successful production, managing teams and people, and working collaboratively with various talents.
I simultaneously worked as the Set Supervisor, collaborating closely with Set Designer Ciara Holmes to bring her ambitious vision to life. Together, with the help of the technicians and the rest of the team, we managed to create a 17-meter-long road, which we hung in the Platform Theatre at Central Saint Martins.
The last aspect of my work on this performance was creating a moving visual landscape as the Projectionist. For this role, I created more than 15 visual sceneries (both static and moving) through sourcing, editing, and visual collage.
On this page, I aim to showcase the final stills of the production along with a few projections I created for the show. At the bottom of the page, you will find links to my Process Production Portfolio, my Projection Portfolio and Research Page.
This project was a tremendous learning experience for me, including set building, rigging a theatre, managing the tech team, handling cue lists, managing performers, and efficiently directing crews. I learned to think quickly and efficiently, to be resilient in the face of issues, disagreements and stress, and to always be solution-oriented. This is a performance where time management was key, as we only were allowed one entire day for Tech and Dress Rehearsal. This short time allowance has taught us to be extremely efficient, not lose one second of our time and make sure to optimize every second we had. As a Production Manager, this meant I had to be extremely organized, prepared, alert and aware of everyone's role and timetable in order to make sure everything would run smoothly.
This was one of the largest productions I have worked on, with significant responsibilities, where I acted as the right hand to director Simone Martis. This experience taught me how to bring creative ideas and written text to life.
Besides the organizational work, I also contributed creatively by serving as the projection artist and bringing my creative vision to the project.
Credits Photo: Ciara Holmes
Stills of Performance
Image Credits:
Ciara Holmes, Sung Hoon, Ophélie Verhaeghe de Naeyer
PROJECTION WORK
It was through the projection work that I had the chance to instill a bit of my creative practice into Simone Martis’ production. I created and curated a series of projections to develop visual landscapes that portrayed the world Simone Martis envisioned. I began by sourcing numerous clips, videos, and images related to his text, descriptions, and references, with the creative process truly starting in the editing phase.
Being a projectionist is always a delicate task, as it involves bringing the imagined world of the writer to life. It requires working with sound, atmosphere, symbolism, color composition, and rhythm. This project was particularly enjoyable because it involved creating an openly fabricated, eerie world. I had a lot of fun exploring how to craft this fictional scenery and creating something "décalé."
I extensively used techniques such as repetition, layering, and masking to convey the overall emotional themes in each scene.
Projection creation is a practice in which I have some experience, and each time I engage in it, I learn new skills. This time was no exception. I developed new color grading skills, masking techniques, and learned how to smoothly elongate very short videos. Due to the limited timeframe and technical support at the Platform Theatre (three shows were running on the same day), we didn’t use Isadora. Instead, I had to ensure every projection clip was perfectly edited beforehand so we could input them directly into QLab. This means that in between Tech Runs, I had a lot of refining to do within all of my edits.
Video Montage edited for the Performance and trailer - Including footage of "Mulholland Drive" - David Lynch (2001) and "Paris Texas"- Wim Wenders (1984), "My Own Private Idaho" - Gus Van Sant (1991) - This montage was a nostlagic homage to the road movies which have inspired Martis and it introduced the whole performance.
PROJECTION SCENES
CONCLUSION
Looking back, I realize how much this project has taught me. I worked with a team of very talented and ambitious students with whom I got along extremely well. I feel very privileged to have had the experience of working on such an intense, successful, and ambitious project, and to have had significant responsibilities within it. It has truly propelled me onto a professional path I would like to pursue and inspired me to explore the world of production.
What Went Well:
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As a Production Manager: I found my confidence and established respect by working hand in hand with the entire team. We maintained a positive atmosphere and strong work relationships.
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Organization and Management: I successfully organized, managed, and structured the entire production. Everything fell into place despite the short timeframe and high stress levels.
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Director Support: I assisted the director by bringing his ideas to life and providing the necessary support during very stressful moments.
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Projections: I created visual scenery that reflected the atmosphere of the piece, evoking an eerie, surreal feeling that enhanced the production.
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Set Production: I collaborated with technicians to produce a 17-meter-long road, experimenting with paint and stiffening methods to find the most efficient way to create a realistic road hanging from the ceiling.
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Problem Solving: I managed and found solutions for complicated situations, such as dealing with limited access to studios and technicians due to the performance being shortly after a holiday. We still managed to create the set, cut, paint, and texture it in time.
What Didn’t Go So Well and Solutions:
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High-Stress Rehearsals: We had only one dress rehearsal before the actual performance, with the so short time we were allowed to access the Platform Theatre. Everyone came out of that dress rehearsal very confused, stressed and high in emotions, almost a bit defeated. To mitigate this, I created stage direction documents for backstage reference, ensuring everyone knew their cues. Assistant Director Poppy Waxman and I also directed stagehands and ensured everything ran smoothly.
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Set Sourcing Issues: Miscommunication and unclearness resulted in missing car seats and a steering wheel just before the performance. I worked with Ciara Holmes to find quick solutions. We sourced a steering wheel that arrived a day before the show and used deep leather seats to effectively create the car setup. Sometimes the simplest setups create the most powerful effects.
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Projections Adjustments: The process was trial and error. Some projections needed resizing, less pixelated images, reworked rhythms, and adjusted luminosity. I collaborated closely with light designer Amelia Fenwick to create a cohesive world with projections, colors, and light composition.
Next Steps:
This production and the Collective project have deeply inspired me to pursue theatre production work. I have learned that I thrive in intense, fast-paced environments and enjoy collaborating with creative talents. I hope to continue on this path alongside my film Master’s next year. Simone Martis and Pablo Temboury have already asked me to be part of a show in October next year, and there are discussions about forming a creative collective. I look forward to continuing to work with this team, as we complement each other well, work efficiently together, and share a collective ambition and talent. I believe my msaters in Film Studies will bring me the knowledge and research I deem essential to create more elaborated and informed work, and I hope to continue parralelly to work as a Production Manager and Projectionist on shows.
LINKS
All projection work has been sourced, creatively edited and curated by myself, references upon request
Credits Roll made by Ophélie Verhaeghe de Naeyer