Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2008 - 13

The first idea is what I call the popcorn
the audience or player does not actually

test.

share the physical environment of the story action.
for awhile. As recorded experience and live action converge, it is
useful to define three ideas that describe recorded performance.
The first idea is what I call the popcorn test. The audience
or player does not actually share the physical environment of
the story action. While a theater audience might throw popcorn
to pelt an actor or the scenery, a movie or TV audience would
find their popcorn bouncing from a flat screen. Game players
may have to pick un-popped kernels out of their computer key
boards. Second, the story time sequence can be altered by the audience or player. It is possible to fast forward or rewind or repeat
isolated parts of the story. It is possible to view the story multiple
times and see exactly the same performance over and over. And
it can be possible to pause and resume, or in the case of game
play, to enter wait-state animation while the player is otherwise
occupied. And third, the visual or technical aspects or cues are
embedded in the media itself. All the necessary codes and triggers are pre-programmed for broadcast, screening or spooling
in each story situation.
Technology dictates much of the process in recorded performance. All the recorded media require interfaces before the
audience can view the stories: one type of equipment to process
the visual information, such as a camera or a computer, and
another set of equipment to interpret the electronic signals for
its ultimate audience. Design and technical jobs in film, television and gaming are highly specialized resulting in huge teams
working on a single project. The amount of technical structure
affects not only how the story becomes images on screen, but
also the way the stories are told.

BRANDED: STORIES ARE PRODUCTS
"It's commerce. It's not art, or even entertainment" James
Acheson describes his experiences working in film and television. The costume designer for such notable films as Le Liaisons Dangerous, The Last Emperor and Spiderman declares
"I don't practice an art, I practice a craft" (Acheson 2008).
Recently James Acheson addressed the Costume Society of
America and presented video of a conversation he had on this
topic with noted actor Geoffrey Rush. Acheson observed that
in his career, he'd discovered, "For many actors, their identity
is more important than their characters." Rush agreed that in
many cases "you're a brand, and people want to see that brand
in a new interesting project. On the other side, there is the
heritage of chameleon character actors. I'm more interested

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in connecting with that tradition" (Rush 2008). The struggle to
find creative expression within the famously commercial forms
of film and television is often a gripping story in its own right.
Do commercial stories rise above their intent? Many do, and
viewers arrange their lives to watch their favorite shows.
Story telling formats for film and television are now well
established, but did not begin that way. Both media developed
essential formulas geared toward their playback structure. Film
writers still use theatrical terms such as delineating acts and
story arc as the longer running time for film allows a more
leisurely story development than the typical television format.
As much or more of the story is communicated through visual
means, not just dialogue. While it is possible in a live theater
performance, thanks to suspension of disbelief, to craft a compelling performance of a literary script such as Hamlet with
actors wearing only black turtle necks and sitting on stools, it is
the rare film story that could stand up to this minimalism. "Narrative film, what we ordinarily think of as the movies is a combination of literary, theatrical and purely cinematic elements"
film maker John Sayles explains. "The story and dialogue [are]
the literary elements. The acting has its root in theater... the
picture may have some aspects of painting when it is still, but
the minute it moves...we are brought into purely cinematic areas" (Sayles 2003).
No medium is more transparent about its commercial intent than broadcast television: stories sell air time to sponsors.
Therefore, television stories are written in small, precise-to-theminute chunks around commercial breaks. Each chunk must
end with a clear button, preferably with a hook or cliffhanger
to ensure the audience will return after the break in the story.
Episodic story structure carries this idea further in time with
each installment of a story running after a gap of hours or days.
The unifying factor in this form of story telling is branding.
How does the commercial intent translate to visual decisions? Bob Vukasovich, a former art director of the television
series House, points out the function of TV design is to create a
recognizable image that is separate from the competition. "All
shows are about the institution. A pilot is oddly more theatrical than the series itself. It's more exposition-based, to flesh
out characters, establish character types-who is the progressive one, who is the obstacle, who is the romantic lead? Once
a series is going, the world you established over time becomes
a brand." Bob describes the thought process in translating

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Fall 2008