OUTDOOR
PROJECTION
Ah
yes, we have been doing a lot of outdoor projection
over recent years, getting
bigger and brighter.
Our
suggestions for VJs interested in doing outdoor projection
(aka street projection, guerrilla projection):
- High
contrast content - especially if you only have
lower-lumens projectors. We make "inverted
silhouette"
content as it shows up very well, even with quite
a bit of ambient light.
- Simple,
bold content - big, bright designs
will show up best. Subtle work (eg photography
and detailed illustration) can be lost
on a wall, unless it's a VERY plain,
single-coloured
wall.
- Black
background - break up the edge of your
frame with an irregular black background
to get away from the usual 4:3 or 16:9
rectangular shape. This makes it seem less
like "crappy
screen"
and more like "content interacting with wall
surface". Black does not project, so
black areas will be the colour of the wall.
- DLP
projectors are more suitable than LCD - more bang
for your buck, higher contrast, brighter colours
and you won't really notice the "rainbow effect"
like
you
do on
a screen.
- Ambient
light - try to get nearby lights turned off or
mask them (safely) with cardboard. Peripheral light
is your biggest obstacle.
- Play
safe - don't play fast-moving or otherwise
distracting content near traffic.
- Clean
power - mains-power is best if you can get it.
That's always our first choice. If you need to use
a generator,
make sure it's a "Sine Wave" generator,
or else use a Sine Wave inverter and normal generator,
deep-cycle
battery or car battery (with the car running). Hot/spiked
power and/or low/browned-out power can destroy a
projector instantly.
- Test
test test. The only way you can really tell
how projection will look on a particular wall is
to try it. Especially
on surfaces like windows, it's difficult to
predict what will show up. So give it a go!
We
often get asked "How many lumens will I need?" and
really the answer is as big as you can afford within
your
budget - but test whatever you can get. We have often been
able to use a 4k projector despite ambient light as
we've made
content especially for outdoor projection.
Projector
Central has calculators which can help you work out
what projector will work in what space. eg BenQ
MX812ST Short-throw 3500 lumens
Nearly
all of the projects below were done with small 4,000 lumens
projectors. We now own 12,000 lumens projectors so we can
go bigger and use more colour - but don't be put off
taking to the streets with whatever you've got. You can
always find a dark corner to project into :)
SOFTWARE:
- For
live-drawing, we
like SketchBook
Pro on the iPad, it's cheap and easy
to use.
- If
you are using a Windows or Linux tablet, artists
we work with like MyPaint -
which is free. It's especially good for pressure-sensitive
tablets.
- For
pre-made content, we run video in Resolume Avenue
and use Mapio to
map/mask/warp/keystone (Resolume Arena
does a similar job).
We
also often get asked if it's legal and if you need
permission. Our understanding for Australian sites
is that as
long as you are not projecting advertising (which would
need local council permission), or blocking a right
of way or footpath (which again could need local council
permission) or causing a nuisance (eg projecing into
peoples windows at night, projecting inappropriate
images etc - which could get the police involved) or
a safety risk (eg distracting traffic) and that you
are legally allowed where you are projecting from (ie
public space or private property with permission),
then it's not illegal.
Which
isn't necessarily the same
as saying
it's 100% legal, and we're not lawyers... but we've
always found that if you're courteous and think about
the
situation, usually people are happy for you to project
onto their walls. |
POTENTIAL
CLIENTS:
If
you're interested in booking us, see our Services page
for rates and booking info.
If
you want to just project logos, advertisements etc
then we are not the people to hire.
We
suggest Impact
Communications if you're in Perth, or TDC
(Technical Direction Company) or The
Electric
Canvas if you're in the Eastern States. Or
pretty much any AV or marketing company will
do it these days.
We would rather distance ourselves from turning outdoor
projection into "wall spam".
If
you want to incorporate creative or community-based
content in an event or campaign though, we might be
a good fit. Check out our previous work below. Some
of our corporate clients include:
- Art
Gallery of Western Australia
- WA
Museum
- West
Australian Ballet
- WA
Symphony Orchestra
- Live
@ Woodside
- City
of Perth
- City
of Fremantle
- City
of Stirling
- City
of Subiaco
- City
of Joondalup
We
own large projectors, generators, deep cycle batteries
and other equipment needed for reasonably large scale
outdoor projection.
We
have Public Liability and Professional Indemnity
insurance, and are GST registered.
In
December 2011 we ran Projections
on High in Fremantle
involving 20 sites and over 100,000 lumens of total
projection, with a great deal of community consultation
and involvement. This
was the first projection festival in Western Australia
and received great feedback from
local residents and traders.
In
December 2012 we ran Leadlight
Nights in Subiaco.
If
you want 'projection mapping' we recommend TDC
(Technical Direction Company) - we can work with
them for projects that are too big for our own projectors
and tech - we can still make the content though :)
We
also recommend Cindi
Drennan from Illuminart.
They are based in SA but will travel. They are very
experienced and do large-scale projection without
losing the "art" factor.
Projection-mapping.org is a very useful resource too. |
