A Clockwork Orange

TASK

The raw violence in "A Clockwork Orange" was to be staged on the stage of the DNT Weimar through a composition of video, light and music.

Hasko Weber directed the play "A Clockwork Orange" after Anthony Burgess at the Deutsches Nationaltheater in 2018.

The protagonist Alex is the leader of a gang. Together they roam the streets violently. But then Alex is betrayed to the police by the rest of the group. In prison, he is selected for an experiment in which he is supposed to overcome his violent tendencies.

The representation of violence on stage was to be expressed musically with songs by the band "Rammstein". Video and light were to be added as further stylistic devices so that the spectacle, together with the live musical performance, could appear all the more excessive.

SOLUTION

Video artist Bahadir Hamdemir used StageDesigner FX and FXServer to create an impressive stage set with live cameras, live audio-reactive videos and LEDs.

Bahadir Hamdemir, who was hired by the German National Theater in Weimar, conceptualized the show content for the media-based component of the production. In StageDesigner, he was able to transfer the many video, audio and lighting cues into the tabulated playlist in a clear and comprehensible way.

A central medial stylistic device were live videos, which were recorded with different cameras. The selfie stick in particular became an important element. With its actual function of harmlessly taking vacation photos, it stood in stark contrast to the action. The live camera was connected wirelessly via NDI and was mapped onto the large-scale stage back wall with the help of StageDesigner.

Multiple video layers can be triggered from the playlist. In this way, Hamdemir created a modular show built with layers. This toolset allowed the video artist to flexibly revise the media over and over again, changing the show content and flow separately.

Hamdemir edited the videos live by coupling the recorded videos in the StageDesigner "Live Editor" with the expressions to the audio and playing them back automatically in the playlist. The sound control room provided him with the live music in the form of a stereo sum, which he fed into the FXServer via an RME audio interface. With the StageDesigner's audio analyzer, he could then control various parameters, such as scaling, opacity or effect parameters, audio-reactively. Thus, the live audio information of the excessive "Rammstein" music was reflected as a visual effect in the projected live videos.

For a production like "A Clockwork Orange", where many output devices, inputs and media were used, a computer system specifically designed for such use cases - like the FXServer - is essential. The FXServer with StageDesigner-FX software provided controlled and robust control and playout. The flexible media server system bundled the multitude of devices and tools to ensure a high-performance, trouble-free production and live performance.

Applications

FXServer
NDI
ASIO-supported Audio-Channels

StageDesigner-FX
Keystone
Playlist
Live-Editor
Layer Manager

Credits

Hasko Weber (Director)
Philip Rubner (Stage)
Sarah Antonia Rung (Costume)
Tom Götze (Musical Lead)
Shuten Inada (Choreography)
Bahadir Hamdemir (Video)
Eva Bormann (Dramaturgy)