marquee at Burton Cummings Theatre
changing and calibrating short throw lens
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backstage wired and ready for show time!
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opening remarks, note headset mic
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Guy Maddin narrating My Winnipeg live
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The historic Burton Cummings Theatre in downtown Winnipeg was the venue for the special "live" premiere of Guy Maddin's award winning film "My Winnipeg".
The My Winnipeg live premiere was presented by the Plug In ICA .
The film won the Best Canadian Feature award at the Toronto International Film Festival and has been earning rave reviews across North America.
The My Winnipeg, Winnipeg premiere presentation was as unique as Guy Maddin. He returned home to perform a live narration of the film. The doors opened at 7 pm on a warm June night and the audience mingled while sipping drinks and viewing a slide show of the movie’s highlights. An hour later, the curtain went down and the 15' x 20' rear projection screen was whisked off the stage to reveal a local band that entertained the audience for half an hour. The curtain came down and the screen was quickly put back into place.
Guy Maddin was introduced by Anthony Kiendl, Plug In Director. Guy provided a brief introduction to the film, the film began and Guy started into his live narration:
For the next 80 minutes, Winnipeggers experienced My Winnipeg through the eyes and mind of Guy Maddin.
Behind the scenes, creative processes and high tech products had been used to produce the results required. While the use of the 15' x 20' rear projection screen is fairly common, the challenge was to quickly and quietly move the screen twice during the evening. This task took careful planning and co-ordination with the local crew.
To achieve projection with the large screen, given the space on the stage, the 5,200 lumen DLP projector required the installation and calibration of a short throw lens. (see the calibration images on the right).
Guy Maddin requested a monitor from which to read the closed captioned narration text. Senior Inland AV technician, Edgar Peters, custom-designed a monitor stand using a 19" flat screen LCD "music stand" display; according to Mr. Maddin’s specifications.
During the film screening the videotape played on both the 15' x 20' screen and the 19" monitor. The challenge was to play only the video on the screen and the video with the closed captioned text on the monitor. The use of a close captioning decoder and scan converter achieved the desired result.
In order to amplify Mr. Maddin’s voice without the use of a cumbersome microphone, a very slim headset microphone and wireless transmitter was used. This enabled Mr. Maddin to move freely about the stage and ensured that the microphone was always close to his mouth; picking up his voice. The resulting consistency in vocal level and quality made it seem that Mr. Maddin was in our own living room, speaking to us as we watched the film.
Vanessa Kroeker, Plug In ICA Curatorial Assistant Intern commented "The team at Inland AV was exceptional, both anticipating our needs, and providing creative solutions that made any hurdles on the way to our ideal presentation seem non-existent. This creativity, along with technical expertise, was instrumental to the success of the night."
Inland AV was proud to be a part of this special film premiere.
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