BREGENZER FESTSPIELE, AUSTRIA

2009-2012

Back in 2009 we were asked to help designer David Fielding and director Keith Warner realise their vision for this year’s spectactular Bregenz floating opera in Austria - one of the world’s biggest stages of its kind, with seating for 7,000. The opera is performed every summer in the waters of Lake Constance.


Over several months we worked very closely with David and Keith to literally flesh out their idea of basing the set on the famous “Death of Marat” painting. Working quickly in 3ds max and zbrush we were able to preview different ideas for the staging and try to capture the essence of the painting at the same time, eventually ending up with a full virtual model that was very close to the final built set.

We also travelled to Austria to work closely with the engineers and technical people in Bregenz to come up with a happy compromise between form and function.

The final torso is over 23m high and weighs 60 tons. No wonder the reviewers seem to have been very impressed (click for reviews)

N.B. Near the end of the process the rest of the technicalities of the design and some of the details of the form were ironed out by Simon Wimmer and others at Bregenz. Also the stage photos are taken from their website.

New reel for 2010…

Showreel 2010

(Requires Flash)
(Music by School of Seven Bells)

TOUR VISUALS / SET 2010

We’ve been working with Nick Knight and Rapido3d on various things for the tour visuals and set sculptures for Gaga’s upcoming world tour. More soon…

3D statue of Gaga using scanned data and CNC machined out of polystyrene (at extremely short notice!) for the Brit Awards 2010.

3D SCAN CLEANING AND TEXTURING

Again working using scan data from Rapido 3d we retopologised and textured a head scan of Wayne Rooney for Powerade’s latest TV commercial.

Working closely with photographer Nick Knight and Kev Stenning at Rapido3d we created 3d rendered elements for the new Mercedes-Benz poster campaign. (photo and retouching by Nick Knight/Showstudio)

NEW OPERA HERO

Royal Opera Liege, Belgium, May 2009

BURST TV and NEW OPERA HERO in collaboration with Timeless Network and the Royal Opera de Wallonie premiered their first perforamce at NEO 2009 (Nuit d’Electronique et d’Opera) at the Royal Opera in Liege.

click here for more info: NEW OPERA HERO

Theatre du Pif, Jan Willem Van Den Bosch & Liam Hurley

City Hall Theatre, HONG KONG, November 2008

“Construction Scene” Video

(Quicktime)

“Intro Scene” Video

(Quicktime)

Burst and New Opera Hero collaborated with the bilingual theatre company Theatre du Pif on this innovative verbatim piece that explores Hong Kong’s history in a script based on interviews with its residents, from rich to poor.

South China Morning Post (Hong Kong’s main English language paper) said “The stunning production design made a strong visual statement”, “The interaction between theatre and multimedia art created interesting effects…and there were also scenes in which spoken text, movement and audio-visuals were thoughtfully integrated.”

Hector Berlioz

Sächsische Semperoper, DRESDEN April 2007

We finished our collaboration with director Keith Warner and designer David Fielding for Berlioz’s opera, which premiered in April 2007 in Dresden’s renowned Semperoper.

ASIAN DUB FOUNDATION / ENGLISH NATIONAL OPERA

LONDON COLISEUM Sept 2006

More Images (Press N to advance through slideshow)
Live Video (Requires latest Quicktime - download Quicktime here), 320×240)

Burst produced and edited the extensive visuals of this frenetic and original piece by Asian Dub Foundation in collaboration with the ENO. Reviews were mixed but the staging, which strongly relied on our video, was often singled out as a very positive aspect - Time Out said “it certainly works as a spectacle…it features fantastic back projections” (13/9/2006), The Times called it an “eye-popping spectacle” (8/9/2006), and The Observer said “the designs…are lavish and innovative”.

World Tour 2006

We made full-length videos for 7 songs in their set, which were projected onto an ingenious ever-changing magic cube. The tour’s been really well received both in Europe and in the USA, with many reviews commenting on the visual appeal of the show.

Video clip #1: We don’t have a lot of video filmed live, but if you can stand looking at shaky distorted footage there’s some we shot from the audience at Bestival 2006. (quicktime, 280×212)
Video clip #2: The original animations from the songs in the above clips. (Clips require latest Quicktime - download Quicktime here)