Trettmann

Prototyping

Studio performance capture & custom lighting study

What if the camera feed on stage isn't live, but designed? For Trettmann's show, we shot a series of performance videos with him ahead of the tour to replace classic IMAG. On stage, the footage merged with our content and typographic animations into one visual layer. The same approach let us bring the show's many guest features onto the stage, so every collaborator could appear as part of the same visual language.

Research

Year

2023

Category

Prototyping

Black-and-white portrait of Trettmann in sunglasses under the ring light

Trettmann in silhouette beside the glowing one-metre ring light

Lighting desk and crew in the dark studio during the Trettmann shoot

Performer on the turntable lit by the ring light while the crew films

Performer under the ring light on the studio turntable

Crew and camera set-up around the ring light in the studio

Black-and-white portrait of Trettmann in sunglasses with a second face in the foreground

Black-and-white portrait of a woman in a hooded jacket in hard studio light

Trettmann and a woman posing in black and white

Black-and-white close-up portrait of a young woman from the Trettmann shoot

Studio set-up with lighting console, backdrop and stands for the Trettmann shoot

Crew at the lighting console during the Trettmann performance shoot

German lyrics projected as typography on the studio wall

Trettmann on set in front of projected text with a bright light behind him

For the shoot, we built a range of lighting scenarios in the studio and treated each setup as its own experiment. At the centre was a custom-built ring light, one metre in diameter and controlled via DMX from a grandMA console, so it could be programmed and cued like show lighting. We projected onto and behind the performers with a video projector and placed them on a motorised turntable, layering light, image and movement directly in camera. The result was footage that felt performed rather than recorded, made to live inside the show from the start.

Curved wooden frame of the one-metre ring light under construction in the workshop

Workshop detail of the ring light's curved wooden frame

LED strip fitted inside the ring light frame, next to a window

Finished one-metre ring light standing in the studio

DMX-controlled ring light in the studio, side view

Ring light prototype standing by the window

Research