| International Association of Libraries and Museums of the Performing Arts Société Internationale des Bibliothèques et des Musées des Arts du Spectacle |  |
A plain guide to video-recording performanceMargaret Benton Documents et Témoignages des Arts du Spectacle: Pourquoi et Comment? / Collecting and Recording the Performing Arts: Why and How? Société Internationale des Bibliothèques et des Musées des Arts du Spectacle / International Association of Libraries and Museums of the Performing Arts 20ème Congrès International / 20th International Congress Antwerp 4-7 September 1994. Acta. Antwerp : 1995, pp. 87-94 Introduction"When a performance is over, what remains...?" Peter Brook, The Empty Space. Live performance is the most ephemeral of arts and lasts only as long as the memories of those that witnessed it. The great eighteenth century actor, David Garrick, was only too aware of its transient nature and complained that the art of his contemporary Hogarth would outlive his own stage performances: "The Painter dead, yet still he charms the eye; Throughout the ages, people have tried to capture and convey something of the unique experience of theatre - in drawings, paintings, photographs and the written word. Their two-dimensional records comprise the bulk of performing arts collections today. Video and film are still a rarity in many performing arts libraries and archives yet these celluloid and electronic intruders into the world of books and papers can reveal more about a performance than the most detailed promptbook or review. Librarians ignore them at their peril. Video and film can never replace the experience at being present at a live performance nor can they supplant the need for traditional performing arts collections of play-texts, scores, programmes and reviews. They do, however, provide the best means currently available of preserving for future generations what would otherwise disappear forever. Recording for the archive may be expensive and complex but it provides an invaluable research and educational resource. Archival recordings are now made on video rather than film on grounds of cost and practicality despite the greater durability of the celluloid image. Digital recording has already arrived and may answer the archivists' concerns over the expected life of recording tape. Conditions in every country differ. What follows is an attempt to provide a practical layman's guide to video-recording performance based on twenty experimental recordings carried out by the Theatre Museum in London. The Museum has concentrated so far on recording staged drama the art-form most neglected by broadcast cameras. Dance has its own particular requirements and will form the next phase of the Museum's trial recordings. Background to the National Video Archive of Stage PerformanceBritain has had until now no national video archive of the type proposed although there are several successful examples overseas - the most notable being the Theatre on Film and Tape at the New York Public Library of the Performing Arts. Commercial recording of British stage productions for TV broadcast or the video market tends to be restricted to major operas and ballets and (for the education market) a limited number of Shakespeare drama productions. Television, essentially a close-up medium, has developed its own form of drama, and, whenever it does record stage drama, usually adapts it for the small screen. Non-commercial recording of productions has been restricted both by union rules and the cost: however, union agreements do allow for some archival recording and a growing number of companies such as the Royal Opera House and the Royal Shakespeare Company are making recordings of their productions for reference purposes. In 1990 following a radical rethink of the Museum's policy, aims and objectives, the Theatre Museum established The National Video Archive of Stage Performance in order to provide a permanent audio-visual record of live British theatre for education and research purposes. By adding recordings of stage productions to its existing collections, the Theatre Museum would fulfil its central purpose to provide the best possible national record of performance in Britain. It would also more fully meet the research and study requirements of its many users by enabling the recording of a production to be viewed together with prompt-script, score, related reviews, designs, photographs and other archival material in a single research venue. A unique agreement in August 1992 with the Federation of Entertainment Unions has enabled the Museum to record for archival purposes stage performances in the presence of a live audience without payment of artists' fees. A year later a major grant from the Foundation for Sport and the Arts made it possible for the Museum to carry out an intensive series of trial recordings to determine the best recording and viewing methods and technical specifications, predict accurately running costs and secure long-term funding. Trial recordings include the David Hare trilogy and Richard III starring Sir Ian McKellen at the Royal National Theatre, The Royal Shakespeare Company's productions of King Lear at Stratford and Hamlet starring Kenneth Branagh at the Barbican, drama documentary in-the-round, provocative drama like Mamet's Oleanna, fringe theatre and the best of pantomime with Dick Whittington at Birmingham Hippodrome. This paper attempts to analyse the results. Why Record for the archive?Video provides a better record of individual performances than any other medium. As such it has the capacity to revolutionise the work of both those who teach literature, drama, dance and theatre crafts and those who research into the performing arts. It can assist theatre professionals not only as a heritage record of their work (for copyright purposes among others) but to sell a production to another venue, restage the production, review a performance and help new cast-members learn a part. It is essential for art forms such as dance, mime and improvisation, where notation is lacking. ConcernsCertain performers and directors dislike videorecording since it cannot replicate the experience of being present at a live performance, and camera angles and editing can alter the stage director's artistic intention and leave a distorted record for posterity. Acting techniques required to project a performance to an audience differ from those used in television and may not do justice to the performer when reproduced on the small screen. The entertainment unions and performers also fear the possible commercial exploitation of recordings ostensibly made for archival purposes. All these concerns generally evaporate as theatre professionals see for themselves the value of the recordings. In its short life, the Museum's video archive has been used by theatre practitioners to review individual performances, to persuade the Arts Council to continue its subsidy to a theatre and to sell productions overseas. What to record?To record one performance from every run,- even with a single camera, would be prohibitively expensive in a country like Britain where there is so much theatre. Selection is a necessity, yet what to record remains a controversial issue. The Theatre Museum aims through its collections to document most forms of live entertainment and, in particular, drama, dance, opera and musical theatre. Its video archive will focus on recording stage performance but will also record demonstrations of techniques, workshops and interviews with performers and other theatre professionals on the craft and history of British theatre. It also aims to acquire from external sources archival, off-air and commercially produced recordings. The Museum must ensure that the archive contains a representative cross-section of contemporary performance in Britain. Productions selected for recording must meet one or more of the following criteria: - artistic excellence Even with these clearly defined aims, what to record remains a fiercely debated issue. There are as many opinions about the qualities of a given performance are there are people watching it. Forward planning is near impossible with the vagaries of theatre when an eagerly anticipated new work turns out to be disappointing or when a good show is suddenly pulled because of unexpectedly poor audiences or illness. Add to this the problems of a limited budget or, as is the case currently with the Theatre Museum, no guaranteed budget at all, and all too many excellent productions finish their run and disappear unrecorded. To ensure objectivity and a wide spread of information, the Theatre Museum seeks informal guidance from a wide range of external experts including leading playwrights, producers, directors, performers, critics and academics representing all the performing arts. Selection by committee is, however, impossible when dealing with such an unpredictable medium as theatre, and the Museum must be ultimately responsible for the selection of recordings. Education/Research UseWhen a production is selected for recording, the Museum also endeavours to collect relevant ancillary material such as prompt-script and designs. Indeed, for certain productions, the Museum also photographs backstage and where it can afford to do so videos rehearsals. The video archive is not a separate add-on but an integral part of the Museum's collections. It is important that researchers when they view a production should have access simultaneously to programme, prompt-script, score, reviews and as much other relevant production documentation as is practical to collect. For educational use, the Theatre Museum will endeavour to record or acquire recordings of good stage productions of classic works and those set for secondary or higher education study or examinations. Where possible it will record different productions of the same work to demonstrate the effect of director, performer, designer and audience in interpreting a work. For example, the Museum recently recorded the Royal Shakespeare Company's acclaimed production of King Lear starring Robert Stephens and the production by Talawa, the eminent black theatre company. In addition to the recordings, both productions were photographed backstage and in rehearsal and costumes, props and designs have also been acquired. For student groups to compare in detail both the approach and the actual performances of two such very different contemporary productions sheds valuable insights into the interpretation of text and the different political and artistic concerns of the two directors and designers. SecurityAll tapes produced will be the property of the Theatre Museum and will not be lent to any other individual or organisation. For conservation purposes only, master tapes may at some point be deposited with the National Film Archive. The Theatre Museum will provide secure storage for the tapes and secure viewing facilities. Access will be confined to professional and educational users only. Would-be users of the collection must apply in advance for access to allow for applications to be vetted. Every freelance involved in the recordings and post-production work must sign a contract pledging that there will be no commercial exploitation of the material or unauthorised copying. As a national institution, the Theatre Museum recognises its duty to protect the rights of those whose work is represented in its collections and already imposes strict standards of security in all areas of its activities. Clearing RightsBefore a recording is made, the Museum is responsible under its agreement with the Federation of Entertainment Unions (FEU) for clearing all rights and securing approval for the recording two weeks in advance from the theatre management, all rights holders (such as writers, composers and designers) and from the Federation of Entertainment Unions who will consult all their members involved in the production. The unions have been remarkably helpful. Pro-forma consent forms have been produced and permissions have been granted quickly and efficiently. Equity has even changed its main agreements (at the Museum's request) to allow the major London West End companies to produce their own archival recordings and to give a copy to the Theatre Museum (subject to the usual conditions). If the other unions follow suit, this will enable the Museum and theatre companies to act as co-producers sharing the costs and the benefits of an archival recording. Recording LimitationsThe main requirements for an archival recording are that it should be made of a typical performance in front of a live audience and that it should provide as detailed and as accurate a record of the action as possible. This presents certain difficulties. It has been agreed with the unions that there will be no retakes or special rehearsals and no changes in lighting or action. The recording team cannot move their cameras or cause any disturbance to the audience, and, as a consequence, effective shots are sometimes compromised. Spectacular lighting effects are hard to reproduce as television cameras are not able to accommodate the wide dynamic range of theatre lighting; and the two dimensional video image can present a distorted view of space and dimensions. The dramatic opening of the Museum's first recording of Hamlet was somewhat diminished as the cameraman played "Hunt the Ghost", Hamlet's father having merged into the stygian gloom on the technician's black and white viewfinder. Number of Cameras; camera angles and positionsTo cover the action, a wide shot of the stage is needed to show the disposition of the performers, the scenery, the lighting changes. A single camera recording a static wide shot is the simplest and cheapest method; however, the output is hard to watch for any length of time and shows none of the details of the performance. It was clear from the Museum's trial recordings that the most successful recordings were the multi-camera recordings with good close-up coverage from camera positions close to the stage, and with wide shot coverage from a camera that was central and on a level with the stage. Three or more cameras A conventional broadcast relay of an opera or ballet is usually covered by a minimum of four operated cameras placed in the best audience positions in the auditorium. These are generally: Centre back of the stalls for both wide shot and closer coverage Centre front of the balcony for high angle wide shot coverage Side boxes or similar on Prompt and O.P. side for close-up coverage. For most dance and some drama/opera productions, it is also desirable to have cameras close to the front of the stalls in fairly central relationship to the action on-stage. The more cameras the more complete the coverage of the action. To offer a good balance between close-up detail and the overall stage picture, productions with a large cast or with a strong dance or movement element, a minimum of three operated cameras is essential with a fourth camera on a locked-off high angle wide shot. Two operated cameras Many productions can be reasonably well-served with two operated cameras - with the possibility of a third locked-off wide shot. The positions need to be chosen with care and depend on the requirements of the individual production. David Mamet's controversial Oleanna is essentially a dialogue: it was reasonably well covered by two cameras placed in two side boxes, giving equal cover to both actors mostly by cross-shooting. To have only favoured one side of the stage in detail (in effect one actor) would have been misleading in terms of the psychological power-play represented in the play. (A third camera in a central position giving a wide shot would have given a complete approximation of the director's intentions regarding the placing of the actors on stage.) In general, however, with only two cameras it probably advisable to keep them on the same line as central to the stage as possible if attempting to shoot wide-shot coverage and close-up coverage simultaneously. The layout of most theatres rarely allow for ideal camera positions, and compromises must be made. Single camera recording With only one camera, the best position is one that provides the best view of the whole stage with some height (usually centre balcony). Although this type of recording can be made without an operator, experience has shown that it is better to have the option of changing the size of frame when following the action. The very large wide shots, whilst providing a record of lighting and scene changes show very little, if any, detail. The wide shot is useful for a stage technician watching for specific cues but for most people is difficult to watch over a long period of time. Some pre-set framing on the camera zoom control would offer the facility for quickly changing the size of shot from say maximum width to 3/4 width, half width. If the recording is being made for theatre technicians, it is worth checking how tight the narrowest setting could be before depriving them of the information they need. Vision mixingOpinions are fiercely divided on whether or not to vision-mix, that is to edit together the various camera outputs into a single playback video (like a typical television or film programme). Roger Jenkins has piloted for the Theatre Museum a multi-camera recording whereby the outputs of three cameras (usually one static wide shot and two closer shots) are recorded separately and subsequently played back simultaneously on the requisite number of monitors. Other methods include the superimposition of a closer shot over the wide shot in order to show the detail of a performance as sometimes used by the Royal Opera House, or a "quad" split whereby the monitor is divided into quadrants, each of which shows the output of a different camera. Some people are concerned at viewing a selective version of an original stage production, possibly distorting the original director's intention, and prefer the "triptych" method piloted by Roger Jenkins: this method makes it very clear that they are watching a staged performance and not a production made for film or television, and forces them to engage actively in watching the tapes, selecting which picture to view. Even with an un-mixed recording, however, the director is selecting what part of the actions his cameras should follow.... Separate recordings of each camera output will certainly in the future facilitate the production of interactive Compact Discs for teaching purposes. However, such a recording format is not suitable for every use. As the Theatre Museum's trial viewings have shown, it can be difficult to watch the outputs of three cameras separately, and some people much prefer to watch a vision-mixed recording, preferably projected on a large screen. The main disadvantage of the triptych system is that it is complex to operate, labour intensive, expensive, and inappropriate for theatre company internal use. A vision mix provides a ready guide to the main activity on stage. The trial recordings have also shown that the discipline instilled on operators and directors following a scene with specific shots in mind for a mix, generally results in better pictures. The preferred option must be to cover all eventualities and preferences and record the outputs of each camera separately and provide a mixed version. This does add, however, up to 㷵0 to the cost of each recording (for extra machines, engineer and tapes) and, with the present state of technology, requires extremely expensive playback equipment. Quality of Camera crew and directorLive multi-camera recordings of stage productions require highly skilled cameramen, technicians and directors. For cameramen it is hard to keep focus in low light levels and equally hard to concentrate on providing continuously good shots for up to 2 hours at a stretch. It is not easy to provide good sound when the actors move around and do not have radio microphones. Very few film and video directors are experienced in live outside broadcasts. It has been advocated that the Museum should use student technicians to keep down costs, but experience to date shows that this is ill-advised unless the students are exceptionally well trained. It can take many days to acquire the necessary permissions and organise a recording; poor sound, an inexperienced cameraman or director failing to follow or anticipate the movements of performers in a low-light conditions can ruin the recording, waste the preparation and equipment hire-costs and possibly damage the Theatre Museum's reputation. To provide good coverage, it is necessary for the director to script shots and cuts and ideally rehearse cameras (at a matinee performance on the same day to keep costs down) or at least have access to a wide shot recording of the show ("scratch tape") in advance to show the operators. A few experienced directors are able to direct and vision mix, but on long and complicated productions such as King Lear, it is usually advisable to have a vision-mixer or P.A. to share the task. Post-production editing rather than a live mix, while desirable, is not an economic proposition. People nowadays have very high expectations of television pictures. While accepting that the only purpose of the archive is to provide an accurate record of a live performance and not a broadcast television programme, it is important to aim for the best technical standard possible and to provide something that it is easy to watch and where the mechanics of the recording do not detract from the performance itself. Choice of equipment and tape standardAn archive should acquire the best and most durable recordings available. There is no doubt that Sony Betacam, the main current broadcast standard, provides the most acceptable recording format. The advantage of Beta which is a component system, over a composite system such as SVHS, is that the colour signals are recorded separately resulting in a clearer picture and more detail in black and white. Unfortunately the maximum tape duration is 100 minutes. With many shows lasting well over 100 minutes before an interval or break in the performance, two recorders overlapping the action are needed. In order to have continuous recording and to keep the costs down, the Museum initially experimented with SVHS which is a good industrial recording format and provides up to 3 hours of continuous play tapes. Cassettes and recorders are half the cost of the Beta equivalent. However, the quality of SVHS is definitely inferior - particularly when the material is transferred to make viewing copies. The Theatre Museum now aims to use broadcast-quality Beta equipment for recording and post-production work but to create viewing copies on cheaper SVHS or similar format. It aims to progress to digital Beta recording when this becomes financially practicable. StorageVideo tape deteriorates in time; the adhesive which sticks the magnetic particles to the backing tape, eventually dries out and the recording is lost. Longevity increases when the tapes are stored in a cool, dry environment. The manufacturers do, however, recommend transferring the tapes after seven years; the tapes should also be periodically checked and rewound. This requires good library management and has staffing implications. Viewing FacilitiesThe Theatre Museum needs to provide both group viewing facilities (multi-monitor and widescreen projection) and separate carrels for individual researchers: the carrels should include space for the use of traditional research materials. For security reasons, users should not have physical access to the tapes but be provided with remote playback controls. StaffingTo produce good quality recordings in the most cost-effective manner, the Theatre Museum will use freelance directors, camera crews and equipment for multi-camera recordings. To develop and provide access to the archive the Theatre Museum will require additional specialist posts. Initial essential requirements for the early stages of the archive include a contemporary theatre curator to develop the archive, select productions for recording, supervise the recording and collect and catalogue appropriate ancillary materials such as designs and prompt-copies. An experienced part-time television drama/opera production manager is required to clear all rights for own productions and bought-in material, hire freelance crews and make all technical arrangements for recording and post-production work. A video technician is also needed to carry out emergency technical "first-aid", basic post-production work, make in-house and single camera recordings and provide access to the tapes. As the archive grows and greater access required, the Museum will also need to supplement its existing library staff with a video library assistant to organise viewings, catalogue the tapes and check for deterioration. Costs/FundingThe costs of producing a regular series of programmes are high. There are capital costs for the playback, editing and recording equipment (which requires regular maintenance and usually replacement after 3-5 years). There are also staffing costs and the costs of the actual recording which when using external professional staff and outside broadcast equipment ranges from 㶬500-㸬000 per multi-camera recording to 㱬000 for a 2 man crew and a single camera recording. After a highly successful series of trial recordings, the main problem facing the archive is how to find a guaranteed source of funding to carry out a regular programme of recordings. The current hand-to-mouth existence makes it impossible to carry out a planned and representative coverage of performance in Britain. Ideally the National Video Archive of Stage Performance should be funded by government (as the National Film Archive and the National Sound Archive are funded). Desirable though this may be, however, the reality is that at present the Theatre Museum must proceed as best it can trying to raise funding from external sources. It has been suggested that the Arts Councils could make it a requirement for those companies receiving grant-aid, to fund a video recording of their productions for deposit with the Museum. It has also been suggested that companies looking for funding for productions should be persuaded to ask the sponsor/commercial funder for an additional sum to make an archival recording of the production for deposit at the Museum. There is also a lobby at present seeking funding for broadcast companies to record more stage productions: the video archive should be a beneficiary of this process. ConclusionThe National Video Archive of Stage Performance represents a landmark in the history of the performing arts in Britain, providing for the first time the opportunity to create a permanent and accessible national record of this country's unrivalled theatrical tradition. The Theatre Museum regards the National Video Archive of Stage Performance as an essential development to the Theatre Museum's collecting of traditional performing arts materials and central to the Museum's main purpose - which is to provide the national record of performance in Britain. Its most difficult task remains - to find a permanent source of funds for this unique and important initiative. AcknowledgementsThe Theatre Museum is indebted to Roger Jenkins, Sian Busby, Derek Bailey, Annie Williamson-Noble, Sony UK Ltd and Panasonic, the many directors, cameramen and technicians who were involved in the series of trial recordings; to the Foundation for Sport and the Arts, the Rayne Foundation, the Equity Trust Fund and E&B Productions who funded the recordings; and, last and most important, the theatres, production and creative teams and the entertainment unions who have made the National Video Archive of Stage Performance a reality. 20th Congress URL: http://www.sibmas.org/congresses/sibmas94/antw_25.html |
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