After several months of web-building many "on web" pages were born on both theatre and film sites "with Anatoly"... Web, Internet, Hyper-Linked Text became a subject, which is not in between but a result of merging traditional and new technologies.
So what is this "virtual" chronotope of new performance? See vtheatre @ vTheatre Forum!
Lists for Virtual Theatre projects: 3 Sisters -- Method Acting, Cast Directors' Forum -- tech, film and high-tech discussion group. Acting for the Camera while performing LIVE show?
The Digital Performance Archive - charting cybertrends in performance @ vl-theatre.com (not updated since 2001)
prof. Anatoly AntohinTheatre UAF AK 99775 USA (907)474-7751
"Imagine, if you would, a theatrical performance: the stage is set, the actors are acting and singing, the lights are lit and the audience is engaged and enjoying the show. Now envision each one of these participants to be in different parts of the world, sharing the same theatrical performance over the Internet. This is the goal of a Virtual Theatre system: to enable actors, crew, and audience to share and participate in a single theatrical performance over the Internet.
The Virtual Theatre Project is also designed as a springboard for learning through interdisciplinary collaboration and teamwork. Students participating in the project enroll in one of two companion courses, one given in the School of Design, the other by the Department of Computer Science at RIT. Aesthetic and design elements, interactive techniques and innovative staging are developed in the design course. The underlying technical framework that implements and enables the artistic vision are designed and created in the CS course. Effective communication and collaboration between the two teams is essential for the success of a performance." *
"Единственный зритель, которого должен представлять себе автор, это идеальный зритель, то есть он сам. Все остальное имеет отношение к театральной кассе, а не к драматическому искусству."
Nabokov [ The only spectator, any author should invision, is an ideal spectator, i.e. himself. The rest has relation to box office, not to dramatic art. ]
Virtual Theatres: An Introduction by Gabriella Giannachi; Routledge, 2004 - 1: Hypertextualities
- 2: Cyborg Theatre
- 3: The (Re-)Creation of Nature
- 4: Performing Through the Hypersurface
- 5: Towards an Aesthetic of Virtual Reality
This was the first page on Virtual Theatre and I leave the data about the production of The Three Sisters for references. If you are interested in theory aspects of VT, read files in Virtual Theatre directory. I do not have time or energy to work on practical applications of VT, not even on the theory -- the task is too big. I still try to explore the new hyper-drama principles, but I writing it in Russian (since last Summer, 2002). I had to focus on the the basic organization of the new spectacle in order to understand how it could be staged. I used the public domain scripts for VT shows (Chekhov, Shakespeare, Wilde), but the old linear narrative can be rearranged only that far. So, I had to go to the very beginning -- the play.
In the Fall 2003 I direct The Possessed and if you know Camus' adaptation of the Dostoevsky's novel, you probably understand that Camus killed the most valuable in organization of the book -- poliphonic principle (Bakhtin "The Poetics of Dostoevskly"). Time and space structure of the novel is designed for this hyper-drama perception (almost film-like). I do not know if I can get it right during the production or after I done with the show. Perhaps, there are natural limits, perhaps, such a hyper-drama must be an original story...
UAF Virtual Theatre
Fall'99
[ first vthr production ]
This fall, UAF Theater Department is producing Chekhov's Three Sisters.
This production will serve as a platform to further develop and establish Virtual Theater, a new and exciting multimedia approach within theater, which has been developing in our department for the last two semesters. Virtual Theater as a new form of theater is based on three media elements: film, the world-wide-web and its language, HTML, and live theater. The technical aspect of Virtual Theater centers around the live camera coverage during the performance, its simultaneous projection to the live audience, and its live stream on the WWW. In a Spring 1999 pilot project, we explored and developed the possibility of video camera coverage within a live performance staged in the round at the UAF Lab Theater (Advanced Directing Final, Three Sisters Act I & II). The pilot project was successful, and we were able to get high quality footage under minimal lighting conditions (Three Sisters, 1999, Video by R. Stacheter). Virtual Theater, as we envision it, transcends the traditional interaction between film and theater. In Virtual Theater, the live camera becomes a beacon and is an additional artistic and creative direction on top of the stage direction, which guides and refocuses the audience on the dramatic events. In addition to their own perception, the audience views selected dramatic elements enlarged and amplified, similar to close-ups in film. This dual platform, live stream on the WWW and live performance, gives new and innovative meaning to the maxim "Think globally; act locally." Virtual Theater provides an exciting and promising amalgamation between the old (staged drama) and the new (HTML: the text of the new millenium).
The following crew has been assembled for the UAF Fall Production
of Three Sisters:
Cast : Diana Williams, Kate Koehler-Platten, Heather Mass, Ann Turner, Mike Karoly, Shannon Luster, Micah Borer, Chip Brooker, and Gavin McClure;
Stage Direction: Anatoly Antohin; Stage Manager: Rafaela Stacheter; Assistant Stage Manager: Tyler Brooks; Dramaturg: Tracy Cambell; Scene and Lighting Design: Kade Mendelowitz; Costume Design: Tara Maginnis; Costume Shop Supervisor: Lorraine Petit. WWW crew: Scott Kiefer (Media Services Rasmussen Library), Chris Lott (Media Services Rasmussen Library), Steve Smith* (StateWide), Frank Williams* (Supercomputer Center), Anatoly Antohin, Kade Mendelowitz, Tara Maginnis, Maureen Sullivan, Rafaela Stacheter, Kyle Erck, and Sean Bledsoe. Film Crew: Rafaela Stacheter, Kyle Erck, and Sean Bledsoe.
For information of this project see VFilm or subscribe to Directing Y2K -- scripts, 12th Night Class project (Main Stage Spring'00 (required for students in THR470 Film Directing Class).
This is a new field and new for us -- your advise and expertise are welcome!
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Advanced Tips & Techniques : How To Improve The Quality of Your Streaming Media
The Internet was designed to move basic data, but it fails badly when tasked with carrying streaming media. Streaming media requires each packet of the stream to arrive at the end location without a significant time lag before the next. Unfortunately, as there are many paths for each packet to take across the Internet, they arrive at highly staggered times to the end user. This "jitter", as well as outright packet loss, results in the choppy pictures and broken audio that most of us experience while watching streaming media on the Internet. But there are several ways you can improve the quality of your streams:
·Encoding. Nothing impacts the quality of your audio-video as much as encoding. Make sure you have the latest encoding software. Windows, Real and QuickTime all frequently update their encoders. Your video may look great on VHS, and you may stream it across a good network, but if the file is encoded poorly, you won't be pleased.
·Encode at a higher speed: While files encoded at higher speeds require more bandwidth, it is often a necessary investment. While video is viewable encoded and streamed at 56K, it pays to step up to no less than 100K. The same goes for audio. Your audience will be able to hear content encoded at 8.5, but you have no margin for error. Recommendation: Opt for 28K.
·Make the viewing window smaller: This works hand-in-hand with your encoding speed. If you reduce the size of your window, you can improve the image quality. So, if you can still view the video clearly in a smaller screen, scale down.
Reviewing The Compression Systems
Compression-Decompression technology or Codecs, as they are most often called, is an essential component of streaming media. Media files must first be compressed so they may be streamed effectively over the Internet. When these files reach the end user, they are decompressed by the media player.
There are a variety of compression systems used today. Here's a look at the most popular:
MPEG: Short for Moving Picture Experts Group, this is a working group of ISO and a term refering to the family of digital video compression standards and file formats developed by the group. MPEG achieves a high compression rate by storing only the changes from one frame to another, instead of each entire frame. The video information is then encoded using a technique called DCT. MPEG uses a type of lossy compression, since some data is removed.
But the diminishment of data is generally imperceptible to the human eye.
There are three major MPEG standards: MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4.
MPEG-1: The most common implementations of the MPEG-1 standard provide a video resolution of 352-by-240 at 30 frames per second (fps). This produces video quality slightly below the quality of conventional VCR videos.
MPEG-2: Offers resolutions of 720x480 and 1280x720 at 60 fps, with full CD-quality audio. This is sufficient for all the major TV standards, including NTSC, and even HDTV. MPEG-2 is used by DVD-ROMs. MPEG-2 can compress a 2-hour video into a few gigabytes. While decompressing an MPEG-2 data stream requires only modest computing power, encoding video in MPEG-2 format requires significantly more processing power.
MPEG-4: The standards committees skipped right over MPEG-3 and went to MPEG-4, a graphics and video compression algorithm standard that is based on MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 and Apple QuickTime technology. Wavelet-based MPEG-4 files are smaller than JPEG or QuickTime files, so they are designed to transmit video and images over a narrower bandwidth and can mix video with text, graphics and 2-D and 3-D animation layers. MPEG-4 was standardized in October 1998 in the ISO/IEC document 14496
Real Networks: In conjunction with Intel have recently collaborated on the new System 8 codecs. The new Real System 8 encoders claim that significant reductions in bit rate are achieved through the use of high-accuracy motion estimation and block sizes tuned to Web video resolutions. They also claim VHS quality at 500kb/s and near DVD at 1Mb/s. Real's number-one advantage
is its reach: The company claims that over 70 percent of all streaming media content on the Internet today is in the Real format. The Real player is by far the leading media player today.
Windows Media: The Windows Media 7 codec results in higher quality output for high motion content (320 Ч 240 Ч 60fps from an interlaced source using unique processing capabilities), as well as improved quality at 640 Ч 480 Ч 30fps. The new format supports processing for de-interlacing, which improves video playback quality of TV-sourced content by reducing the flicker effect of progressive scan displays (computer monitors). It also supports inverse telecine, which improves playback quality for film-sourced content.
QuickTime: Companies like Sorenson Labs have developed critically acclaimed codecs, which Pinnacle and others have incorporated into production hardware specializing in the QuickTime format. The new codecs in QuickTime 5 will include Sorenson Video 3 and On2's VP3. Today's QuickTime streaming is arguably the highest quality for a given bit rate and its codecs were the model for the new MPEG-4 standard.
Visit www.StreamingDigest.com to learn more about streaming media and enter into a drawing to win a year's worth of streaming media hosting. [Part I]
2005: Oedipus.05 is the last online showcase (when I started the first web-directory in 1999, I didn't realiase how much time take the "post-production" cycle: after the show is closed I still have to work on the webpages, as if in film production).
theatre theory and 
blog: anatoly-film
