89 Seconds at Alcazar is a new project by 42-year-old film/video artist
Eve Sussman that brings
Diego Velazquez's 1656 painting
"Las Meninas" ("Maids of Honor") to life in High Definition digital video.
The 12-minute video, which premiered at the
2004 Whitney Biennial (March 11 - May 30), is a 360-degree Steadicam recreation of the salon of the Alcazar (the Palace of the Hapsburgs).
"With actors in full costume on a set that reproduces the room in the painting, Sussman imagines the activity -- bristling with the tensions of the royal household, which seem to affect even the long-suffering pet dog -- that might have preceded and followed the split-second arrangement of Velazquez's virtual photograph.
"It's a superb concept, one that reflects our hunger for back story and sequel.
"The little infanta, Margarita, her attendants and the artist himself, busy at his easel, pause to acknowledge her parents, Spain's Philip IV and Queen Mariana, who have just entered the room and are reflected in the mirror on the far wall in the backdrop. But since the king and queen occupy the position we do -- that is, of observer coming upon the scene -- it's as if Margarita and the court are acknowledging us.
"Or maybe not. Perhaps Margarita and company are actually looking in a mirror, and that's what Velazquez is painting, the king and queen being nothing more than an image on the wall. Either way, it's a fabulous conceit."
The video was shot over four days in May 2003 in a garage studio space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in HD24p by d.p. Jeff Blauvelt and Steadicam operator Sergei Franklin, and required a month of set and costume design.
Blauvelt -- an Emmy Award winner and principal of
HD Cinema -- co-produced the HD24p high definition digital video production, editing and exhibition of
89 Seconds at Alcazar with Eve Sussman, Jen Heck and Cheryl Kaplan.
Equipment used for the production was a
Sony HDW-F900 CineAlta HD 24p capable camera, recording1920x1080 pixel images at 24 progressive frames per second, mounted on a Steadicam.
The HDCAM footage was captured uncompressed onto a Mac dual G5 2.0 GHz workstation using a Blackmagic Decklink HD card, and then composited and edited by Eve Sussman and Josh Glaser using Final Cut Pro, Adobe After Effects and Apple Shake software. An identical system was used for uncompressed HD24p playback, with the high def digital video playing off a Medea RTRX disk array via an ATTO UL4D dual Ultra320 SCSI card.
A Panasonic PT-D7600 DLP projects the images onto a 30-foot screen offering a stunning experience for the viewers.
Research for the construction of the set included studying the 1650 architectural plans of the palace with consulting architect Robert Whalley, in order to accurately recreate the scale of the room in the Alcazar. Costume designer, Karen Young's recreation of the Baroque wardrobe for the 11 actors began with research at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute and the
"Manet/Velazquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting" exhibit.
Among the actors featured in Sussman's recreation are
Peter Dinklage (
The Station Agent) in the role of Maribarbola.
The video's score was composed by
Jonathan Bepler, best known for his work on Matthew Barney's
Cremaster film series.
89 Seconds at Alcazar was made possible with major sponsorship from HD Cinema, Smack Mellon Studios -- a non-for-profit organization in New York -- and The New York State Council on the Arts. Additional support was been provided by The University of Hertfordshire in the U.K., Dan Wurtzel Studios, NY Props, Edward Mahoney Wigs and Materials for the Arts.
In addition to the U.S. exhibition at the Whitney Biennial, a tour of venues in Europe starts in the U.K. at the University of Hertfordshire's Margaret Harvey Gallery.
# posted by Steve Gallagher @ 3/16/2004 12:22:00 PM
Comments (0)
