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Massive Robert Lepage projection show tells 400 year story of Quebec City |
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Written by Andy Blatchford, THE CANADIAN PRESS
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Wednesday, 09 July 2008 |
The Image Mill, by Robert Lepage, which depicts the 400-year history of Quebec City, is projected onto 81 grain silos during a showing in the old port of Quebec City. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot
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QUEBEC - The gritty, industrial Port of Quebec is the backdrop, its collection of towering grain silos, the backbone.
The curtain goes up shortly after darkness falls. Every night, sights from Quebec City's 400-year past are projected onto a viewing surface that stretches 600 metres wide and rises 30 metres above the port's Louise Basin.
To celebrate the provincial capital's 400th anniversary, the 40-minute multimedia exhibition, designed by Robert Lepage, Quebec City's own international theatre giant, is beamed onto the side of the immense Bunge grain warehouse.
With a surface area the size of 25 IMAX screens, Lepage's visual and audio display - known as the Image Mill - has been deemed, by its creators, as the world's largest projection show.
From illustrations of French explorer Samuel de Champlain establishing his early settlement, to photos of the dark days under former premier Maurice Duplessis, Lepage broadcasts major events from the city's history books.
Organizers say the free exhibition, which opened June 20 and runs until Aug. 24, has been regularly drawing near-capacity crowds of 5,000 to the harbourfront.
Hundreds more have gathered each night to watch from several vantage points at higher elevations in the historic city.
Three years ago, the city asked Lepage to help commemorate its 400th birthday festivities.
"He immediately thought about this idea. . . projections on those large grain silos in the harbour," Image Mill producer Michel Bernatchez told The Canadian Press.
"What Robert told them was rather simple as a starting point: 400 years, 40 minutes.....It would simply, ideally be about the city's identity."
For the project, Lepage, the first North American to direct a Shakespeare play at the Royal National Theatre in London, assembled a large team of historians, archive specialists and technicians.
Bernatchez says Lepage's group built a 17-metre-high model of the silos, set up video projectors and pulled up chairs for the lengthy image-selection process.
"That's what they did for months, literally watching thousands of images," he says.
The show's imagery, borrowed from museums, television stations and even the NHL, evolves through the film. From engravings to depict the early years, to paintings, photos, video and computer graphics.
More than 25 massive projectors, housed in towers along the waterfront, cast the show onto the side of the concrete building.
The soundtrack, with its almost Pink Floyd-like presence, is pumped out across the harbour - and up the slopes to the Old City - by more than 300 carefully positioned speakers.
Standing in the right spot near the port, one can hear the audio come through in surround sound.
Some 50 subwoofers installed beneath the docks shake the boards at key scenes in the film, including one that features a rumbling train.
Production director Mario Brien, who manages 15 light and sound technicians during each show, says it was a challenge adjusting the acoustics of the large, open-air theatre.
He says the sound is sent two seconds before the projection so they converge on the first waves of the audience about 600 metres away.
After years of work, Brien says he couldn't wait for opening night.
"I'm feeling a kind of freedom now, because we were so involved, so busy with the project," he says.
"Now everything is going fine and we are very happy about it.
"This building here in Quebec City is like a big wall, so now with the projection there's another life passing through (it)."
Bernatchez, meanwhile, says the company that rented the projectors to Quebec City claims the Image Mill is the world's largest projection show.
He says he's been told Lepage's creation has eclipsed the previous record set by a 300-metre-wide projection on the Egyptian pyramids.
"We believe them," Bernatchez says. "We'll see if some Guinness record guy comes over."
Meanwhile, he says he's been amazed by the attention spans of the Image Mill's crowds.
"The odd thing is contrary to a rock show, people don't show up with their six-packs of beer and all that," he says. "It's very quiet.
"People are extremely silent on the site. They listen very carefully. It reminds something like going to church."
Ed Slattery stood on a pier under intermittent rain to watch the Image Mill.
The resident of Beauport, Que., says it was worth it.
"I think it was fantastic," Slattery says.
"I thought it was a good representation of the history of Quebec and Canada. I'm amazed that they could put an image on those round towers."
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 07 September 2008 )
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