Mapping a backdrop for a fashion Show in Tokyo

[Hfour]

I did my first large scale projection mapping show at a fashion show in Tokyo in February. 17m wide by 9m high! I helped design the stage backdrop, so as to perfectly fit the video to it; made the content and managed the media during the show. Unfortunately the lighting guy wasn't fully aware of what was going to be happening on the back wall, so a lot of the scenes were washed out, but the most important part of the show (the models and the clothes) ended up looking amazing.

https://vimeo.com/44431939

[deepvisual]

ah yes, the old lighting ambush.
best option is to have your own LD
otherwise lean real hard on the event management before the lighting system is designed and get them to force lighting to behave.

[Hfour]

Thanks for the advice!

[MJ]

the washingout is because of the white reflective floor.
probably caused by the followspots located somewhere above foh.

blame the stage designer not the LD.

[sleepytom]

You've nobody to blame but yourself.

seriously the attitudes in this thread are quite incredible. They are like school kids pointing fingers and saying "It's not my fault, the dog ate it".

Fashion is ALWAYS brightly lit - it HAS to be, the point of a catwalk show is to sell clothes - the buyers in the audience need to be able to see the clothes and the photographers need to be able to shoot without flash at a consistent exposure. Thus the lighting must be strong and consistent from the start to the end of the catwalk.

The color of the runway is the choice of the designer, but it has serious implications to the viability of the clothes, white / light cream vinyl is the covering of choice as it provides the most neutral background to showcase the looks.

If your projecting onto the backdrop then you need to take these things into account. Looking at your video it wasn't too bad but you could of done with more / brighter projectors.

It's important to get the balance right between lighting and video, but when doing fashion you cannot reduce the lighting to make the video look brighter. (TBH i thought the lighting levels were a bit low for the catwalks in your video)

[deepvisual]

yes tom, but you can ask the LD to light the show with projection in mind.
sure they need to see the rags, but any reasonable LD can do that without nuking the projections.

[Hfour]

Fortunately, the reflection from the floor was reduced after the plastic cover was removed for the actual show instead of the rehearsal, but I was unable to film the actual show, and I don't have the footage from the other cameras at the moment.

The projectors were supplied by a sponsor, whose strongest projector is 10K. They ended up stacking 4 projectors instead of 3 at my insistence, but based on my brightness calculation requirements, they were still about 20k lumens short of what I'd initially recommended. Renting 20k projectors in Japan is expensive.

I'm not trying to pass blame around, rather suggesting that a lack of communication between the LD, the director and myself led to insufficient information flow. Doing the work remotely and not meeting the lighting director until the day before the show (when his designs had already been finished I'm sure) meant a lack of proper intercommunication, which I'd expected (assumed) mistakenly would be handled by the director. I agree with you, Tom, that the lighting in a fashion show needs to be bright, but there were also lights pointed at the backdrop to colourcast the backdrop. I should have told the director to speak with the LD about minimizing direct light onto the back wall, but didn't think of it because, again, assumptions.

In the end this all meant that the projections were used as segues and introductory scene settings before the bright lights came on, washing out the image. The client was happy with the show, and the sponsor was interested in hiring me for more work.

[vjair]

forgetting the brightness issue... i quite like that. nice work