Documentary - The Making Of "Crescent City" a "hyper-opera" with voice, multimedia and sculpture!

"Crescent City" a "hyper-opera" with voice, multimedia and sculpture!

This is the start of a commission to document in still photos and video, the development and emergence of an opera. It's not ordinary enterprise that's being created by Youval Sharon, picked by Los Angeles Times Music Critic, Mark Swed as someone to watch in 2012 It's a brave evolution of classical opera set in a giant empty space that will be converted to an opera house as never experienced before.

In the period of the Operas performances, May 10-27 2012, the giant indoor set will be will be an art exhibit by day and a vibrant lit up opera by night, with the audience at 4 sides of the giant arena, surrounding the streets and islands of sculpture before them. Each viewer will have a slightly different experience according to which side of the space they sit as revelers, characters from this world, (and the Zombie god folk people turn to for hope, will take over the senses of the audience surrounding the space on 4 sides. Here's the info for Tickets.

So for filming, there are at least 4 points of view and of course myriads more.

During the day, art lovers will explore the gigantic sculptures of Crescent city, a place conjured up with the memories of the devastation of hurricane Katrina. They will walk along street roads and visits 6 islands representing seared memories we have of the aftermath.

The Sculptures being built:

• The Hospital: Nurses gather on a hospital roof, torn between their own chances of survival, escapism and the needs of the patients trapped below by the waters. The roof is actually torn off the building and set up on its edge symbolizing this disruption.
  
  
• The Good Man Shack: A "good man" remains steadfast in his ramshackle home of discarded planks and scraps of plywood.
  
  
• The Cemetery: still partly underwater, with stone white columns, washed pristine by the rains, stands deserted. But what lies within?
  
  
• The Dive Bar: Folk gather at a dive bar, named, awkwardly for some, no doubt, "The $hit Bar, as people hang loose, let it all out and hopefully feel better afterwards. Yes, it's just one of those facts of life we all have to deal with. Some people are born "arses", others achieve that quality and the rest of us have to put up with them, (to misquote Shakespeare very inaccurately). The artist says she's been dealing with "arses" all her life, so the metaphor is not foreign to her! In a time of strife and disaster, it's not just the facts one has to deal with but those who don't offer solutions and just stand by or in the way of those who do.
  
  
• The Junk Heap: Up high, we see a smashed car above the remnants of homes carried thrown and jammed by raging waters to a giant junk heap
  
  
• The Swamp: In Louisiana, the boggy water soaked home of birds, fallen trees, alligators and miscreants, is part of the facts of life, culture and birthplace of much legend and folk music. The foreboding area which is precariously navigated in boats of hollowed tree trunks between trees , perhaps inhabited by the denizen, hidden in the branches.

.

I'm learning of each as I travel to the artist's studios and interview them about their projects.

Today, they mark out the roadways. My job is to document what they are doing and thinking and how the various artists have to come together. What's especially interesting is the freedom the energetic young director Yuval Sharon gives to each artist. in most other productions, one designer has the director's vision and executes it. Here, however, the artists actually create based on their own creative take of story and characters and then give Yuval the continuing and evolving challenge of responding to their independent creations. Sometimes what is at first, "Wrong!" opens up new avenues for dramatic expression that moves the project forward in a way not imagined heretofore.

So, I'll be documenting all this and as I proceed in this new path for myself, I'll share with you some of my pictures.

Meanwhile here's a video introducing, the new opera company, "The Industry" a creative company headed by Yuval Sharon, with the theme best described as "The art forms of the unexpected" with music, visual arts, poetry, a 21s century experience!

Asher

I'll start posting pictures shortly. First will be of one special woman, thinking and singing about her lost son, alone in a bus driving though the rain with TV playing of the news: the next approaching killer hurricane is barreling towards them. Right now I have to leave to catch them laying out the roads on the bare ground in the empty space.

Asher

We drove out in a rented bus, headed for the desert. I thought we were going to be shooting on a section of highway closed off by the highway patrol for this shoot. I was terribly wrong! Instead the shoot was inside the bus as it bumped along the poorly maintained desert road. With the director Yuval Sharon, cinematographer Jason Thompson, Laura Kay Swanson, Producer, Associate Producer Rachel Scandling and more clustered around the star of the movie, Lillian Sengpiehl, playing the "Homesick Woman" there was little room to get my own camera in without disrupting the real shoot taking place! So I'd wedge myself behind them, getting above them by standing on a seat and wedging myself against the roof of the bumpy bus. The videos I'll link here once they are edited and online.

Meanwhile here's a sense of the shoot.

It's a humbling experience trying to take video and still shots of a really serious shoot that cannot be intruded on, having to find a stable gap between the huddle of the crew. I concentrated on video documentation so for sure that would be done right. They were making a video of the bus journey of the "Homesick Woman" singing a wonderful aria about her concerns for her loved ones. That video of her journey through a storm, (with the new even more deadly hurricane approaching), will be projected on to giant screens during the opera's actual performances.
At the end of the short video being made, The Homesick Woman will get of the bus here and walk past these mail boxes and turn left, vanishing into the darkness. I'll add the link here to my video of this when it's online.

Next I'll show you the 6 giant sculptures that local LA artists have conceived of and created just for this opera. They will be placed in a giant indoor arena, with roads made to go from one to anther.

Asher

Well, I ought to give you a sense of the scale of the work going into this project. First the Good Man's Shack being built in the stage builders workshop. This is done by precise computer drawn plans with every section defined by the artist and following a table top miniature he made first.





Here's the Good Man's Shack as it has been reassembled in the performance space on it's own territory.




The walls will be covered with found wood and the roof is made of a wonderful texture material of curved surfaces in something like the cells of a hive.

Asher

I am not really sure what this is about yet, but please keep the pictures coming. It seems to be an interesting adventure.

I especially enjoyed pictures 1, 4 and 6.

Jerome Marot said:

I am not really sure what this is about yet, but please keep the pictures coming. It seems to be an interesting adventure.

I especially enjoyed pictures 1, 4 and 6.

Click to expand...

Jerome,


Thanks for visiting and keeping an eye on the saga. The opera is novel in that no classical hall is used. There's no regular stage. There are no expensive seats. Everyone is equal and close to the performers. The set is made up of 6 giant sculptures by modern Los Angeles Artists, so it's exciting for me to expand my horizons.

Here the artists work together to reposition the Good Man's Hut. As the reality comes to the developing tool art of the arena, with roads to be poured, thousands of meters of electrical cable to be strung, communication lines, audio and video feeds, the gigantian nature of this set becomes apparent. Positions of a sculpture on paper might not work for the staging and drama and has to be modified on the spot.

So this the Artist Mason Cooley had his work moved around until it worked for the director and the audience who will be there in a months time.



Note the rough verticals. These are temporary as the roof structure will be supported by cables from above.

Asher

Also, see the portraits of the Master Set Builder here. Scroll down to post #227.

Enjoy!

Asher

Asher, you are a brave soul to undertake this responsibility.

Do you have aesthetic/artistic liberty in your shoots or are you constrained by a straight jacket documentary script?

Take for example the Shack. Can you get inside and shoot out? Why are you not within the hurricane
and seeing the ' outsiders '.?

Why photograph the cinematographic director ( Jason ) with this lens...why not give it a dramatic feel using wa and closing in. Lillian should be much more dramatic.

I know it is easy for me to say, but if this is not an ' ordinary ' opera, shouldn't its documentation also have some non-ordinary feel?

Best wishes.

p.s do a WB bracketing. You might be surprised at what turns up!

fahim mohammed said:

Asher, you are a brave soul to undertake this responsibility.

Do you have aesthetic/artistic liberty in your shoots or are you constrained by a straight jacket documentary script?

Take for example the Shack. Can you get inside and shoot out? Why are you not within the hurricane
and seeing the ' outsiders '.?

Why photograph the cinematographic director ( Jason ) with this lens...why not give it a dramatic feel using wa and closing in. Lillian should be much more dramatic.

I know it is easy for me to say, but if this is not an ' ordinary ' opera, shouldn't its documentation also have some non-ordinary feel?

Best wishes.

p.s do a WB bracketing. You might be surprised at what turns up!

Click to expand...

Fahim,

These are good questions. In the bus, there was only room to wedge myself in a seat several rows back and find a gap in the bodies and film what I could see. The video I took is better than the stills of Lillian.

I have to be a fly on the wall, any wall I wish but cannot ask the crew or players to alter what they happen to be doing at the time.

And yes, I have free artistic license as long as I don't disturb what's going on: building, discussing, moving, rigging lights, rehearsing music or dramatic staging and so forth.

So yes, it would be a great idea, indeed, to take pictures from inside the hut. I just have to make sure that doing is does not intrude on what's going on.

Asher

any more on this asher? Its a beautiful project!

Mark Hampton said:

any more on this asher? Its a beautiful project!

Click to expand...

Tons more, of course. Just need to post! Will do so shortly.

Thanks for the prod.

Asher

I'll leapfrog over the great labor that's gone on by the 6 LA artists. I plan to go back and spend time on each work to show how it was made and completed.

Here I must get to the point where you can imagine the space. Here as a circular pano with the two ends, L and R, being actually joined behind us.




The opera opens May 1o the for just 11 performances. If you are in LA, make sure to go. $25 for walk around rights. No seats but wander around the periphery of the set on a special walkway to see the opera from as many positions as you wish. Need soft shoes!

For seats go to Crescent City Website. Let me know and we can have drink together. You buy, LOL!!! OK, we'll both buy!

Asher

From West Los Angeles, just follow Sunset Boulevard through Hollywood, past Western, the Church of Scientology, Kaiser Permanente and Children's Hospital to to Fountain and turn left. 6 minutes later you will be in Atwater village.

Wow! Last night was the world premier and I'm totally bashed and have tons of video, audio and image to file and make sure they are in order. Most of my effort is video so that there's a complete record of the performance on, in and around 6 sculpture stages by local LA artists where visualization has to be sometimes via giant screens all around the massive warehouse space.

A wonderful review by Mark Swed "The fantastical layerings in Anne LeBaron's offbeat new opera 'Crescent City' at Atwater Crossing signal interesting things to come from Yuval Sharon's The Industry."

See photographer Lawrence K. Ho, LA Times poictures here.

Read Mark Swed's review here.

My pictures will follow!

Asher

Asher Kelman said:

Wow! Last night was the world premier and I'm totally bashed and have tons of video, audio and image to file and make sure they are in order. Most of my effort is video so that there's a complete record of the performance on, in and around 6 sculpture stages by local LA artists where visualization has to be sometimes via giant screens all around the massive warehouse space.

A wonderful review by Mark Swed "The fantastical layerings in Anne LeBaron's offbeat new opera 'Crescent City' at Atwater Crossing signal interesting things to come from Yuval Sharon's The Industry."

See photographer Lawrence K. Ho, LA Times poictures here.

Read Mark Swed's review here.

My pictures will follow!

Asher

Click to expand...

Asher, post those images at once !

Mark Hampton said:

Asher, post those images at once !

Click to expand...

Mark,

This is like a rabbits hole I fell into. As the project has matured, I've transitioned from documenting the making of the opera to "filming" it with the idea of making a movie version of the opera. As I cannot tell anyone what to do, the cameras must somehow reach into the opera and pull out a cinematographically balanced view. After all, unlike being in the hyper opera space, in the film, one cannot just turn one's head to another stage or screen so see what else is going on!

Tonight I shot continuous video with a Canon XF 305 3 CCD videocamera and assistants shooting many separate 5-10 minute takes from different angles using a 5DII and a T3i. Each evening I get different coverage. Also the performance improved tenfold from the final dress rehearsal to the opening night and tonight the text titles on the giant screens were readable and the audio was much cleaner and more refined. So the show was double as good tonight and folk really understood and the reception was great applause!

Just cataloging sound tracks and video for each day takes a huge amount of time. I'll hopefully take a rest for mother's day and then there's a break until next thursday, so I can catch up with the stills.

I am in awe of all the talented actors, troubadours, musicians, singers and crew working so well of the sake of the art alone. It's thrilling and seductive to be associated with it.

So tomorrow is for getting back to still photography!

Asher

Since I have filmed orchestras and jazz bands and recorded the associated performance, don't hesitate to ask if you have questions, in particular on the audio part.

Jerome Marot said:

Since I have filmed orchestras and jazz bands and recorded the associated performance, don't hesitate to ask if you have questions, in particular on the audio part.

Click to expand...

Jerome,

I'd love to have you here! Romain Claris too! So far, i'm recording sound in separate micro recorders as well as in the video cameras. down the road, hopefully, we'll have splitters to get direct feed from the orchestra makes, each of the opera singers and the space on discrete tracks. I plan to record with cardioid stereo microphones too, with good preamps before the micro recorder. However it's all a great challenge. I'm sure that we'll be choosing individual arias from different days that for some reason are better.

Asher

If I understand correctly, the singers have each their own microphone? If it is so, get yourself a multitrack recorder. I use an Alesis ADAT 24 myself.

I suppose that there is also an orchestra with acoustical instruments? Do you have a plan of the stage to give me an idea on how the orchestra is arranged?

Run this video through your Hi-Fi system to hear what I do. Or play this mp3 file if connecting the HiFi to the computer is not easy (the recording is designed for speakers, not headphones).

Asher Kelman said:

Mark,

This is like a rabbits hole I fell into. As the project has matured, I've transitioned from documenting the making of the opera to "filming" it with the idea of making a movie version of the opera. As I cannot tell anyone what to do, the cameras must somehow reach into the opera and pull out a cinematographically balanced view. After all, unlike being in the hyper opera space, in the film, one cannot just turn one's head to another stage or screen so see what else is going on!

Tonight I shot continuous video with a Canon XF 305 3 CCD videocamera and assistants shooting many separate 5-10 minute takes from different angles using a 5DII and a T3i. Each evening I get different coverage. Also the performance improved tenfold from the final dress rehearsal to the opening night and tonight the text titles on the giant screens were readable and the audio was much cleaner and more refined. So the show was double as good tonight and folk really understood and the reception was great applause!

Just cataloging sound tracks and video for each day takes a huge amount of time. I'll hopefully take a rest for mother's day and then there's a break until next thursday, so I can catch up with the stills.

I am in awe of all the talented actors, troubadours, musicians, singers and crew working so well of the sake of the art alone. It's thrilling and seductive to be associated with it.

So tomorrow is for getting back to still photography!

Asher

Click to expand...

Asher - it sounds like such a great opportunity to work with these people and document the work .. i hope you get some time to look at the footage and post some stills up..

cheers

Asher, I am waiting for an update!!

Regards.

Here are some stills

The Good Man

The Nurses on the Helipad

Deadly Belle's First Turn


I have sent all the footage of 3 performances with 5 -6 camera per night to the director of the opera. I believe that these are edited from my footage. I'm awaiting for a good mix of the recorded audio tracks to edit the entire performance. However this might give a hint of the work in progress.

The sound here is, I believe, what comes from the 5DII, 7 D or other cameras used. The director is abroad right now so I do not know exactly the provenance of these short videos as there's no credit on the videos I can see.

I'll update this when I know.

Asher

I have checked the hyperlink below these videos and it does say "Documentation by Asher Kelman" so these are the first results of my huge and ambitious filming directorship work. I can't stress how much of a trouble it was to place the cameras where I needed and have lines of sight past so many stage pieces that blocked the view. I'm pleased with the result. There's a massive project ahead to actually put together some5-6 angles on 3 days, each with it's own independent soundtrack, to one coherent movie.

However, somehow, we have to add the names of the camera operators who labored on this project. They should have credit too!!!

That I'll do in the version I am making once I get the best sound mixes delivered.

Asher

Impressive scale with a lot to coordinate, I can't imagine working on something this large.

Asher Kelman said:

Here are some stills

The Good Man

The Nurses on the Helipad

Deadly Belle's First Turn


I have sent all the footage of 3 performances with 5 -6 camera per night to the director of the opera. I believe that these are edited from my footage. I'm awaiting for a good mix of the recorded audio tracks to edit the entire performance. However this might give a hint of the work in progress.

The sound here is, I believe, what comes from the 5DII, 7 D or other cameras used. The director is abroad right now so I do not know exactly the provenance of these short videos as there's no credit on the videos I can see.

I'll update this when I know.

Asher

Click to expand...

Asher me and my son watched the good man - was well good we both enjoyed it !

i left the nurses one till later as he was getting a bit to intreasted in coke, he's only 4 so i wouldn't let him drink the stuff never mind snort it !

looks like this will be great when done.

cheers

Mark Hampton said:

Asher me and my son watched the good man - was well good we both enjoyed it !

i left the nurses one till later as he was getting a bit to intreasted in coke, he's only 4 so i wouldn't let him drink the stuff never mind snort it !

looks like this will be great when done.

cheers

Click to expand...

The nurses are wonderful actors. The oriental lady is married with a young infant. The other one has a boyfriend. They are a scream. In hurricane Katrina the folk on the rooftops were a awe in spiring and frightening sight. Here, the opera shows a decadent side of the city too, as if it "kinda" deserved its fate.

Make sure to click on the link for more info below each piece so as to get the text of the libretto too.

Asher

Holy Cow!
Way to go Asher-
Hoping there was lots of good hygiene going on tsk-tsk and winks

Charlotte

Asher,
Wow, quite a piece to travel through. The stage is huge and I can see how it was difficult to get the shots you wanted without disturbing anyone. What a wonderful documentary this will make. The videos give a good idea about the show was really interesting and I can imagine the electricity in the air of being there. Really cool stuff.

A few years back I took part in an original operetta, and always had a small digicam with me. I took pics of everything, rehearsals, building of the sets, behind stage, people putting on make-up and people taking coffee breaks. This brought me right back. I went into my files and looked at images for an hour. Really noisy photos, but such good memories. So, doubly happy I stopped by to read this post.
Maggie

Thanks Maggie, Jerome,Charlotte, Mark, Fahim and George,

There's so much more for me to post. I just had to come up for air. This project was like a black hole for my time, creativity and energy. Everything was sucked in. One needs to work to keep one's eyes out of the force fields in order to keep track of the total story.

Nothing comes easily. They had no concept of the needs of someone filming the entire show. So I was constantly pushing for more. Since there were 6 stage sets in a large space, everyone saw a different version. To get a unified story, then multiple cameras were needed. I used just 5-6 each night. I trained the camera operators to familiarize themselves with the opera several evenings. It was only in the last 3 performances that they borrowed from LA Opera the right sound gear to get independent recordings off each singers mike and the orchestra. So I am only using the video from the last 3 performances. Previous footage will be used for spare "cut to scenes" for coverage. I have not heard the mix to date from the work being done with this sound and I just hope it's really first class because the footage we have made is pretty wonderful, even if I say so myself!

One has to fight for every position staked out and bargain for rights that no one dreamed were needed. This event made me demand what I needed even to the point of walking off! However, there's nothing so good as to finally get on to a wavelength where folk one is working with really understand what's needed and are prepared to accommodate those needs. In the end it all worked out, but if one does not believe in some vision, for sure you cannot achieve anything exceptional. After all, why should an already busy and overwhelmed director put up with requests if the collaborator is not passionate about what they want to achieve. Still, it's tough to be a PIA, but one has to do what is needed. The issue is that one also wants very much to be liked and to get things done one needs other people. So this is a great set of skills to learn fast or else one has no part in a project like this. To end up with everyone happy together at the final result is a great cooperative achievement. To end up as friends is even more miraculous and wonderful. I really treasure this opportunity that Yuval Sharon gave me as it allowed me to be really creative in a entirely new area.

Now, of course, the filming I directed provides the only historical evidence of a major group effort directed by Yuval Sharon and composed by Ann LeBaron. This is what will be used by "The Industry" under young Maestro Yuval Sharon, to write grants to fund the next project. Now, everything, (all the camera operators, "in the way", that one bottle knocked over in the dark, my constant demands for more access and all the other inconveniences), forgotten. The videos seem to be just a normal, expected part of what was done in the production. Actually, this was something new that I did from my own foolhardy enthusiasm, heart, (and pocket), something I'm proud I accomplished.

Asher

Editing the material is going to be a major challenge. I don't know whether you will get help from more knowledgeable people than me, but this roughly how I would do it. I suppose that the audio performance was recorded using a multi-track system.

• first, I would decide what will be going my "main camera" for the major takes and note the position of the actors on screen on these takes
• then, I would mix the audio so that the actors position on that camera is consistent with the mix
• then, I would color correct the footage from all cameras so that they look similar (it is a standard function on most editors). I would also de-noise and correct contrast at that point. You may want to crush the blacks a bit to hide the cameras' noise.
• then I would edit the 3 performances separately (on that part, see below)
• finaly, I would cut from the 3 edited performances

For the actual editing, depending on your editor and computer, you have two choices: you can synchronize all takes to the soundtrack and edit in multicamera mode. This is easier, but you'll need a very powerful computer and hard disks for 5 cameras in HD. You'll also need to choose the right codec: too compressed and your processor won't be able to decompress 5 streams in parallel, easier to decode and the 5 files will be too big to stream from your hard disks. The other choice is to keep the files unsynchronized, but it is much more work.

A caveat: don't forget to mix your audio to 48 KHz. Software makes it appear that other frequencies should work, but they never stay synchronized.

All these being said, I would not edit the full show, but make a digest of it, keeping the best arias for example. This should be far enough work already and my experience has shown that the artists prefer a digest, because the main use for them will be a promo DVD.