DORETTE - A MO CAP MUSICAL
LEO & HYDE / HARRIS MUSEUM / LANCASHIRE ENCOUNTER FESTIVAL, 2021
Pop-up, mini-musical, performed for Lancashire Encounter Festival.
The music was inspired by a painting held in the Harris Museum’s collection - Dorette, which was chosen after a series of workshops and a public vote.
A virtual Dorette character was then created which became our motion capture ‘puppet’ for the performance.
The technology that allows humans to manipulate digital puppets is called motion capture, used in many high end movies. One of the most famous Mo-Cap characters is Gollum from Lord of the Rings. However, it’s only fairly recently that computers have the processing power to render motion capture footage live. In the past, it would have taken days for the computer to process the data and produce the images. Now it can do it instantaneously, which was what allowed us to create this live Motion Capture Musical.
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Lyrics by Leo Mercer
Music by Stephen Hyde
Directed by Joe Gilmour
Video Design and Motion Capture by Unlimited Motion
Arranged by Daniel Mawson
Performer Jas Nisic
This was a turning point for me as a director. I had recently seen a quote from one of my artistic heroes. director Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot, The Inheritance, Stranger Things) that when he’s directing he always starts with the question ‘What Is It?’
For this project, it was definitely the first time most audience members would be seeing motion capture in person. So I needed to make sure that my concept left space for them to enjoy seeing this technology. I therefore started very simply - audience could look up at the screen at the same time as seeing the live performer in front of them. Our virtual Dorette started in her picture frame, just like in the gallery. But she then started to move, walk beyond the frame and explore the modern world.
As you can see from the video, it was a really unique audience experience, and as a director interested in finding inventive ways to tell stories, I was really proud of this project.
