Sure it's great, but the problem with technology (Part 1)

INTRODUCTION

So let's start with how the idea for this was sparked. I was recently sent a questionnaire about design, and one of the questions was along the lines of what technology has influenced your art the most in the last few years. It made me really sit down and think about the question, in fact I have yet to respond to it.

I want to begin by saying, I have nothing against technology. I am not some old man who is afraid to touch technology, in fact I'd rather not even share my age since I am younger than most people think I am. Further, my next planned post is going to be a very pro technology post. I want to be clear about that fact, because technology allows us as designers to do what some people years ago thought was impossible. We can hang 2 systems of back light and get 32 colors worth instead of 2 and whatever we can mix with them. We can hang LED strips and have near infinite options of color on a cyc. We can have 24 dimmers, hang color faders and never have to worry about turning off a system because we can get such clean fades between colors. The list goes on, and on, and on. So in that regard, technology has influenced our art. We can do way more with WAY less.

But that's the problem, we can do way more. I will go into this further in a later post, but it seems like less attention is being paid to the smaller details, not to mention some are beginning to forget our origins. I was in a theatre not too long ago where I surprised a person by mixing red and green on a cyc to get a yellow / amber we were looking for. It's becoming easier to put off designing a show until we are in tech, and as a result some of the thought is starting to leave our designs. We are starting to do more shows entirely on our computer, and less work by hand (and again I am a young whipper snapper by some standards so I am NOT anti computers).

Where is all that going? I think we are starting to lose touch with the fact that we are there to serve the production. Not do something that looks cool. Think of it like when movies first discovered green screen and CGI. Remember how sick we all got of watching movies that were all very clearly done on a green screen? By Star Wars episode III we were all ready to just see something based in reality. What took CGI to the next level was integrating it into film in such a way that way that we forgot it was even there. Such as Gollum in Lord of The Rings, look at the roaring success of the effects in Avatar or even watch the designing the movie special on Angels and Demons, it will blow your mind to see how much of that movie is CGI and how much is real. This is what we should be doing, going back to our roots as designers BUT using technology to then further our designs, and mask from the audience how we do it instead of flaunting it. There is a happy marriage here.

So I think the answer to my question on that questionnaire will simply be "Pencil and Paper", in fact in the last 9 months that's how all of my plots now begin. It's the reason I even got those questions to begin with.

Stay tuned for more thoughts. Hopefully tomorrow will bring us the "Pro" side of technology. If not, stay tuned and it will be here by the end of the week.