BATTLESHIPS IN THE SQUARE
PET SHOP BOYS PERFORM NEW SOUNDTRACK TO CLASSIC FILM
XL Video supplied video projection equipment for the acclaimed Pet Shop Boys/'Battleship Potemkin' performance last month in Trafalgar Square - an innovative and eclectic mix of art, music and politics, celebrating Sergei Eisenstein's 1925 cinematic classic, and enjoyed by over 6,000 people.
The duo's new soundtrack to the film was commissioned by the Institute of Contemporary Art, and performed live by the Pet Shop Boys and the 26-piece Dresden Sinfoniker string orchestra, orchestrated by Torsten Rasch.
The movie was projected using D5 High Definition SDI Video and beamed on to a 16 metre wide screen located beneath Nelson's Column, via three overlaid Barco R18 projectors with 3.2 - 5.6:1 zoom lenses. The playback was time-code linked to band's on-stage sound system to ensure accurate time synchronisation between the music score and visuals.
XL Video additionally supplied two Catalyst G5 v3 digital media servers and four additional Barco R18s to project specially created pre-show visuals on to the front of the National Gallery. These were produced by the event's art director Simon McBurney, and programmed and co-ordinated by video design specialists Sven Ortel and Dick Straker of Mesmer.
The project was co-ordinated for XL by Malcolm Mellows, whose crew included Alistair MacDiarmid who took care of the Potemkin screen projection, plus Gary Beirne, Andy Bramhill and Marcus Dailey who managed the National Gallery projections.
The un-ticketed show was part of the Trafalgar Square Summer 2004 season of special events being staged in London's most famous square. This event was project managed by John Farquhar-Smith for Flux Events. The screen was supplied by Harkness and the audio company was Britannia Row.