Projections play a large role in recreating the world of 1970’s Philadelphia—such as running under the El tracks—in translating Rocky the film to Rocky the musical, currently knocking out audiences at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway.
Dan Scully—a featured speaker at the 2014 Broadway Projection Master Classes—was brought onto the project for the Broadway transfer, sharing design credit with Pablo N. Molina, who did the German version in Hamburg, where the musical premiered in October 2012 at the Operettenhaus. The Broadway production opened in March 2014.
“A lot of the bones of the show are the same from the German production to Broadway,” Scully points out. “The structure and story points are the same, and reflect some of Pablo’s ideas, I contributed the video in some of the scenes, retouched and rebuilt the files—some from scratch, some renovated—and reinvigorated the imagery. I also did the camera shots for the final fight scene, creating multiple versions of storyboards for each camera shot.”
In conversation with director Alex Timbers, Scully notes there wee three main thrusts: 1) Use elements to build the idea of media and what it means to become someone in that part of Philadelphia… to first meet Apollo on video, like a star coming to town, then Rocky gets on TV; 2) Secondly, integrated live action sequences like running through the streets to help build the story; 3) The final fight graphics feel more like ESPN or Fox Sports today than any period graphics from 70s boxing era… that would have been simple text on a black background… we wanted to dial that up and give the audience a perspective with live cameras on stage, see a live fight from a new angle… so many things going on in that fight you don’t consciously know what’s happening.
“There are two fantastic actor/camera operators—James Brown III and Adrian Aguilar—who hadn’t done camera before but really made it happen,” notes Scully. “You have to cut the event to make it exciting for the audience, making it feel authentic. Each of the boxing rounds is on time code since we have the benefit of knowing where the boxers are going to be. But the stage manager calls cues for the camera shots that are not on time code.”
One Christie Roadster HD20K-J projector is on the FOH balcony rail, and used for rain, snow at the ice skating rink, the scrim projections, and on the walls during "Eye of The Tiger." For the final fight, a faux scenically conceived Jumbotron flies in, built with two rectangles of truss inside each other. “The inner one lowers with projection screens are on three sides, with one Christie Roadster 14K and two Christie Roadster 10K projectors,” explains Scully.
Four Panasonic PT-DX 10010Ks do all the projection upstage of the scrim when its in; these hang on a flying batten just upstage of the flying catwalk. “It was challenging,” says Scully. “There is not one free cubic foot of space on stage, so those projectors can only come in when the boxing ring is flown out and upstage. So the movement of the projectors is choreographed as well. One more Panasonic projector in the pit runs the Apollo highlight reel, projected up onto a mirror and reflected onto the boxing ring turns flat to the audience to serve as a screen,” Scully points out.
The d3technologies d3 playback system runs live data from the scenic automation computers. “So even if the timing of the walls or boxing ring moving we’d still be projecting onto it correctly,” says Scully. “Even with the show curtain in, we could see the scenery moving upstage, the d3 live tracking is amazing, it knows where the scenery is and where the projections are, you can lock them together… that tight integration of all the systems is what make Rocky possible like it is technically… sound, lighting, projection and scenic automation have multiple paths of communication between each system.”
Challenges? “What I’m most proud of is not how much we had to do, but how fast we had to do it,” admits Scully. “The tools we chose and the staff we had made it possible to move very quickly… we can now move almost at the speed of the lighting designer. This is important in terms of being part of the collaborative process… pixels are slower than lights, but we were able to work at the speed of the room, which had a lot to do with the d3 playback system…and Ben Keightley as programmer, and d3 sent help to solve problems which was very supportive. The projectors, matrix, monitors, flying screens, power and contrast levels, tames a wild beast for us. But this is what got me interested in projection design,” reflects Scully, “how can I make the world of the musical or play more expressive, put more story onto the set rather than add screens.”
Join Scully and an incredible faculty of projection designers and technical experts at the 2014 Broadway Projection Master Classes … or register for all three Broadway Master Classes and make it a winning trifecta:
BLMC: May 30-June 1 (includes a ticket to Rocky)
BPMC: June 2-3 (includes a ticket to Here Lies Love)
BSMC: June 4-6 (includes a ticket to Bullets Over Broadway)
Rocky: Selected projection gear
1 d3 Technologies d3 playback system
1 Panasonic av-hs410 switcher
1 Christie Roadster HD20K-J: 20,000-lumen projector
4 Panasonic PT-DX100: 10,000-lumen DLP projector
2 Christie HD18K: 18,000-lumen projector
26 Samsung UE46C 46” monitors (includes 2 spares)
1 Christie Roadster S+14K-M: 14,000-lumen projector
2 Christie Roadster S+10K-M: 10,000-lumen projector
3 Sony PMw-200 cameras
4 Ponca H11SDIC cameras
1 Buttonhole SDI “spy” camera