CREATIVE TEAM INTERVIEWS
PROJECTION DESIGNER
JEFF SUGG
Jeff has designed for productions on Broadway, as well as for US and international tours, for TV and for music performances. This includes Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Macbeth at New York’s Lincoln Center Theater, and Prince’ final appearance on Saturday Night Live.
At its best, projection design is creating ethereal, magical and beautiful images. At its worse, it simply replaces painted scenery. In Tina we use projection in many different ways to guide the audience through the play: as well as its memory play elements, we’re able to document all of the different locations, create transitions through time periods, and enter Tina’s ‘Etherland’ moments. We use projection to enhance the scenery rather than replace it and to help create dynamic transitions that maintain the pace of the show.
At its centre is the giant LED wall at the back of the stage – we’re painting with light and the moving image. We also have four projectors mounted above the stage to create images on the floor surface and we have a projector on the balcony rail (in the auditorium). That projector is versatile and we can project all over the stage, choosing where each image lands on the stage.
I use a tool that many costume designers use in designing for Tina – the mood board. It’s a way of gathering ideas and communicating those ideas with the scenic designer and the director of the show. From the initial mood board I talked to Bruno Poet (Lighting Designer) and we shared a strong desire to create an integrated stage picture. One example is the early scene in Nutbush where a strong side light creates the idea of sun shining around and through the tree branches (a solid structure on stage), and the video wall shows that tree’s foliage. The colour shifts and sense of sunset is also combined through the use of video and lighting.
“Projection is not about spoonfeeding the audience”
There are abstract moments where we have images of sparks and floating gas,, and then there are other moments such as Tina’s escape to the motel at the end of Act One which really symbolises the essential dream state of the show. These intensely emotional moments contrast highly with what is often called the ‘flash and trash’ use of video and projection in rock concerts. The concert performance of Proud Mary at the end of the show is an example of how spectacular effects can be created without the need for narrative or subtlety. Earlier in the show, however, that subtlety is vital. We also don’t want to overwhelm the actors, or the other elements that the audience need to see on stage.
In terms of research for the show, I watched enough material (such as Ike and Tina’s TV appearances) to know the aesthetic, but it wasn’t necessary to watch huge amounts of concert footage. In researching locations and creating mood boards I found images online, and chose the aesthetic that we were trying to create – for example, what would London look like? What does Nutbush need to be like? From those images I worked with two or three animators who created the material. I don’t use stock footage in the same way that some designers do – instead we took elements from images and incorporated components from them into our original images. An example is the footage in Act Two during I Can’t Stand the Rain, where a street view, or view of the rain is augmented and manipulated to create the mood and atmosphere required.
Advice for aspiring projection designers: You already have a lot of tools at your disposal to experiment with video and projection design. Use your phone, your laptop, tablets, PowerPoint and iMovie – these are all great tools. Once you know your tools and what they can do, you can start to explore and expand your ideas.