Inner Space 2019

Inner Space Race
Logo by Darren Wilson Summary Performance Date Thursday 28th of January 2019 Performance Time 1:30pm - 7:45pm Venue New Athenaeum Course BA Production Technology and Management Production Team Production Manager Ewan Sullivan Deputy Production Manager Hannah Henderson Designer Louise Chan Stage Supervisor Darren Wilson Assistant Stage Supervisor Erin Johnstone Head of Flys Noah Dates Stage Manager Lea Meloee Deputy Stage Manager Nina Madriz Assistant Stage Manager Zeni Bollok Assistant Stage Manager Julia Daniczek Assistant Stage Manager Rhiannon Mitchell Sound Designer Corey Jackson Production Sound Engineer Conor Brown Sound nr.2 Stuart Henderson Lighting Designer Mark Sillett Production Electrician Louisa Craig LX Programmer Nicholas Ruebenacker LX Team Ross Hunter Head of AV Ryan Worrell Head of Marketing Hayley Grogan Photography Ruby Noble

About

Inner Space Race was the PTM1 class of 2021's (RCS Graduate 21) response to the annual Inner Space Project allotted to first year students at RCS. The project took form as an immersive experience of a virtual video game. Most akin to PacMan, Inner Space Race had players competitively collect a variety of coins around a maze whilst also avoiding ghosts that would penalize players if caught. The game took place within the span of 1 minute, and was accented with the use of light, sound, AV, setting, and set dressing. The project was executed in the New Athenaeum Theatre from the 29th of January to the 1st of February, with performances on the Thursday of that week. Planning and prep for Inner Space Race began on the 10th of December, 2018.

Design and concept

The design and concept was created by Louise Chan with help from Lea Meloee and Darren Wilson. We decided to alter the original PacMan game to suit our needs and venue specifications, evolving into a race between 2 separate players collecting coins within 1 minute. It was decided that we would have 3 different methods of earning points. The first being basic coins worth 10 point, second being stars worth 50 points and a third being mystery planets that would have different values. The total sum would be calculated at the end of the race.

We adapted a space theme early on in the process and decided on centering a lot of the colours and design around UV paint, which would help to bring out each of the elements within the maze.

The shape of the maze went through numerous configurations before the final shape was adopted. This shape made use of the black hard masking we had in stock as the frame of the maze. The use of hard masking meant we needed to figure out a way to keep them upright and covering the other side whilst maintaining a texture that would allow Velcro to stick to it. As a result, it was decided that the hard masking structure that the technical stage department had made a plan for (see the TSM section below) would be covered with legs and tabs. The material allowed us to attach our coins with Velcro which meant resetting was easier as well as making it quick and easy for players to collect. Furthermore, the use of soft masking meant that we did not have to deface the tabs and legs by pinning or gluing the other side of the coin onto the maze wall.

A total of 210 coins were made and spread between the 2 teams. These were made out of 10mm EVA foam that were cut into 90mm octagonal shapes that served as the basic coins that the players would collect. They were first primed with white paint then sprayed with UV paint and finally distinguished with a stencil design that separated the 2 colours for access to colourblind participants. Lastly, Velcro was hot glued to the back of the coins and then ready to be used. The stars and planets were created in a similar manner but were made out of mounting board.

The ghosts were played by 2 members of the crew. It was decided that the main shape of the ghosts was to be clear umbrellas, accentuated with glow tape in order to create the ghosts face and cover the umbrellas spokes. This allowed crew members to navigate and 'wear' the ghost easily throughout the maze whilst also maintaining visibility.

After collaboration with the Stage Management department, an idea of how players would collect the coins was decided. Simple tote bags were purchased and altered so that they would be able to clip around players waist and tightened or loosened based on the players preference. A total of 4 were made which meant players could have 1 on either hip allowing them to collect coins in a more ergonomic fashion. A ghost along with the octagonal motif was stencilled onto each bag as a simple design.

Production Management

The Production Management team consisted of Production Manager Ewan Sullivan, and Deputy Production Manager Hannah Henderson.

Production Management was in charge of inter-departmental health and communication, establishing and leading meetings, creating team positions, enforcing correct codes of practice and deadlines, scheduling, budgetary decision making, and staff communication.

Schedule

Technical Stage Management

The Technical Stage Management team consisted of Stage Supervisor Darren Wilson, Deputy Stage Supervisor Erin Johnstone and Head of Fly's Noah Dates.

The Technical Stage Management team was responsible for creating the structure of the maze layout. To do this the team looked into different ways of rigging the hard masking flats on their vertical side to create the walls of the maze. In the end, we came up with a method that utilised Kee Clamp base plates and vertical pieces of scaff pipe to hold the hard maskers upright. Barrel clamps were then used to fasten the maskers to the scaff pipe.

In preparation for the fit up week, the TSM Team were required to create various documents (as seen below).

- 1:25 scale ground plan of the maze
- Equipment list
- Risk assessments File:Innerspace production manual.xlsx
- TSM schedule
- Fly plot

Stage Management

The Stage Management team consisted of Stage Manager Lea Meloee, Deputy Stage Manager Nina Madriz and Assistant Stage Managers on Book Zeni Bollok, Julia Daniczek and Rhiannon Mitchell.

The main responsibility of the stage management team was to enforce a smooth execution and running of the performance. For this particular production, that meant paying extra attention to audience interaction and the calling of the performance.

This production was an interactive experience, requiring the audience to take an active part in the performance. Due to the nature of the performance the stage management team carefully organized and monitored the audience interaction. Measures were taken to ensure the audiences safety, as can be seen in the risk assessments. Each player was allocated a host to guide them before the game, in between games, and after the game. They would answer any questions and provide further explanation if required.

The cues for the game itself were visual and given by the audience as they picked up stars and planets or were caught by ghosts. There were two players in the maze at once and no two players would navigate the maze the same way. The nature of the game, namely the unpredictability of the players, called for two people to be calling the game, one for each player. The DSM or the ASM on book and the spotter (the second person calling the game) were situated on either flyfloor, allowing them a full view of the maze. The rest of the performance, i.e before the game, in between games and after the game, was called by the DSM or ASM on book. The prompt book was created by DSM Nina Madriz.

During the performance, stage manager Lea Meloee coordinated crew-members involved in the running of the performance. Crew-members were situated in R1, outside R1, in the maze, on both flyfloors and in the wings of stage right and stage left. This was done to further enforce and ensure a smooth execution and running of the performance.

Risk Assessments: File:SM RA InnerSpaceRace.xlsx
Extended SM-team rotations: File:Extended SM-team InnerSpaceRace.xlsx
Performance schedule: File:Performance schedule InnerSpaceRace.pdf

Sound

The biggest challenge for the Sound Team on Inner Space Race was providing sound to every part of the maze. To do this, we chose to hang 6 D&B E3 Speakers overhead on counterweight bars 5 and 28. Our control position was in the up stage left wing. This presented a challenge; however, because the maze was placed in front of our board position, leaving us with no line of sight into the maze. We worked alongside LX and Stage Management to utilise an effective cueing system in order to work around this problem. The sound design of the show was based on the video game PacMan, combined with an outer space twist. Sound effects were played in relation to specific items gathered by players within the maze.

Equipment

6x D&B E3

1x D&B D6 Amp

1x focusrite Scarlett

1x MacBook Pro with QLab

1x Ipad

4x 10M NL2 Speakon

2x 20M NL2 Speakon

3x 10M XLR

1x Shure SM58

Lighting

The Lighting team's responsibility was to ensure that there was an amount of light effectively allowing for visibility within the maze whilst also providing an artistic ambiance to Inner Space Race. The Lighting Design team consisted of a collaboration between Mark Sillett (Lead Lighting Designer), Ryan Worrell (Lighting and Video Design) and Nicholas Rübenacker (Lighting Designer and Programmer). We chose to work together on the Lighting Design in such a way that supported the ethos of collaboration that existed within the project. Our PLX (Production Electrician) was Louisa Craig and our LX Crew was Ross Hunter. Their duties included ensuring that all fixtures were booked, addressed and ready to be operated as well as working within the LX department to ensure that any issues with electrics and lighting were dealt with quickly and efficiently.

Kit Used

10 Altman PAR 64 MFL

10 ETC Source4 Fresnel

20 ETC Source4 PAR MFL

8 Martin RUSH PAR 2 RGBW Zoom

4 Martin MAC TW1

4 ADJ UV COB Cannon

1 GrandMA lite

AV

AV had two important jobs in this production. First, to make the training video and second to make the timer and graphics for the in game display. The creation of these was done in blender, a 3D modelling software. It was then rendered, which had a total render time of 13 days and 15 hours. Once rendered, the videos were edited together with prerecorded audio and music that was made in Mixcraft7. The finished edit was then exported and loaded into QLab to be used during the performance. The finished video can be seen below:

Training Video

The timer and other game graphics were much simpler to make. These were all 2D graphics and were animated inside Adobe After Effects. These animations were projected onto the BP screen from a 6000-lumen projector from the AV store.

Marketing

The Marketing department was headed by Hayley Grogan.

Marketing for Inner Space Race consisted of a facebook events page, posters and fliers, and word of mouth.

Marketing also created the sign up process, a Google Forms document that was publicly released and could be submitted by anyone with its link. The Google Form also automatically collected the data for times and other relevant information of participants on a Google Sheets document, allowing for the easy tracking and access of slot times and amount of people expected.

Marketing signed participants and hosted them in R1 whilst they watched the safety video. They were then escorted into the New Athenaeum Theatre in order to play the game.

Poster

Sign Up-Document

Gallery and video

Inner Space Race video created by Ruby Noble. Click here to see the video.

• 
  PTM1 class of 2021.
• 
  The Maze. Photo by Ruby Noble.
• 
  Countdown. Photo by Ruby Noble.
• 
  Logo and ghost. Photo by Ruby Noble.
• 
  Lighting state for collecting a star. Photo by Ruby Noble.
• 
  The maze seen from above mid game.
• 
  Rigging. Photo by Ruby Noble.