On Saturday November the 4th at Theatre Royal Stratford East we captured the last two shows from the Graeae tour of ‘Reasons to be Cheerful’
This has been part of the ‘live to digital’ work we have been doing at the Theatre, and something that I have been leading on over the last year. We have livestreamed work into hospitals, hospices and adult social care homes.
The show is fantastic, and the performers all belt out the songs of Ian Dury and the Blockheads with gusto, verve and infectious energy. It has a punk style and an urgent pace, and has been directed with flair by Jenny Sealey, the AD of Graeae.
We have been supported by The Space to deliver this – and we are aiming to get a release of this on the Cinegi platform in March next year.
It got me thinking, what would Ian Dury have done if he had the technology we have now to do this? I think he would say we need to take a more ‘punk’ approach to this kind of work, and just get on and do it.
We shot the matinee and evening show with 4 cameras on each show. HD cameras that also shoot 4k. They are BlackmagicDesign units and they are tiny. We can capture, cut and deliver work fast, live and in the moment now.
At the moment there are many obstacles in the way for arts organisations to get on board with this. Hurdles of rights, permissions, and legal stuff. All important stuff, but we surely need to find a way to streamline this and push the tech and opportunities forward. Otherwise the default position is always ‘It’s too much like hard work, and it is too difficult’
So if we are to adopt a punk approach, we need to get on with it. To help do this I have put together a ‘how to get started’ with all this, for UK Theatre. This was published on their site this year, and I am now attaching my redrafted version here, which hopefully might be useful.
Let me know if you have any thoughts or ideas about how we might take a more punk approach in the future…
Thanks – here is the guide for you
LivestreamingGuidebyMarcusRomer
Marcus Romer's work & blog 