A Living, Breathing Stage
Sets and backdrops help convey a storyline. Lights add color and mood. But what if storyline, color and mood could be combined through one medium, creating a more palpable environment? Meet video designer Gilles Papain.
Born in Marseille, France, Papain moved through the theatrical ranks, from director of the Opera de Marseille, to artistic stage manager of Ballets de Monte Carlo, to an independent career collaborating with powerhouses like Nederland Dans Theater, Franco Dragone, the Bolshoi Ballet, Cirque du Soleil and Companhia Nacional de Bailado of Lisbon, Portugal.
Papain knows a thing or two about dancers and three or four about stages; put them together and they come alive in his hands. “The video projection gives an incredible flexibility,” he says. “The moving in the light, or better, the moving light; the possibility to bring more life into the lights rather than a traditional lighting…And, for sure, video allows all kind of animations.
“First of all, you must forget everything you know about video. Forget that video is used to project movies. And most, learn how to integrate yourself in an artistic project and become a sponge.”
“My job is to create movies which will be projected onstage for ballets, operas or concerts with, of course, a close collaboration with the artistic team – choreographers, producers and set designers. According to the production, I can use different kind of footage – 3D pictures made from computers or movies that I made with real elements or, of course, live caption.”
“Even if most of the time I use huge powerful projectors and for sure HD…it’s the way that I use the software (Final Cut, Motion, etc.) which is different. What I like most of all is to start from scratch and mix that with all these high-tech tools to come up with an original product. I say all the time it is not the tools that makes you talented and successful. With all the progress made in software, for $1,600 we can all have great tools, compose music or make a movie. I never have been able to write a book even if I had all times the tools to do it.”
That’s because Papain’s artistic inspiration is visual, not written. He says, “It comes most of the time, and maybe seems paradoxical, from static works such as sculpture and painting, and how the graphics expert approaches the typography. I’m fascinated by photography, every time surprised how just a simple picture can give so much information, retranscribe so much life and feeling.”
So what does he add to a production? Take, for example, “Il Trovatore,” an opera in which Papain envisioned a simple candle as the symbolic thread for such things as a witch burned at the stake, a source of light for a castle dungeon, even the fire of unrequited love. Rather than project a still photo on a static scrim or use a candelabra as a prop, imagine the impact of a bank of flickering candles filling the stage.
Whether an upcoming production’s story is familiar to him or not, Papain never plans ahead. He lets the producer or choreographer lead the way. He says, “I had an appointment with a choreographer for a first meeting. While getting there, I was thinking…if I had a strategy or not. But each creator is totally different. I can hardly imagine arriving and knowing ahead already what to do, what to say. Most of the time I am really surprised that what they are looking for is really simple and that finally I must assure them about what all video is about, show them what exactly it can give them in each specific case, let them simply know that they can start looking and using video in a different matter (way), that video is not only just an extra layer at their choreographic speech, but more than that, an over copy starting from this point of view full of new ideas comes out. Then it is up to me to keep my promises.”
Keep his promises he does and it’s why he’s booked well in advance for such upcoming projects as Ballets de Monte Carlo’s “Faust;” Charleston, South Carolina’s “Cenerentola” at the Spoleto Festival; Cedar Lake, New York’s “Installation;” and “World of Color” at Disneyland in Los Angeles. If you want the entire stage to live and breathe, if you want artistry and emotion radiating from every corner of the theater, then Gilles Papain is a name to know.
For more of his work, visit www.gillespapain.com. Although the web site is in French, if you would like to contact him about a future project, he will respond in English.
“First of all, you must forget everything you know about video.”