Don Quixote - Birmingham Royal Ballet
Universal Pixels (UP) was proud to contribute crew, cameras, and a disguise playback system to the Birmingham Royal Ballet’s latest adaptation of Spanish epic novel, Don Quixote.
The Carlos Acosta production, which was originally announced in 2020 and subsequently postponed by the pandemic, is an updated of the version the director originally staged 10 years ago, now with modern additions such a striking upstage projection screen.
Visual specialist Pixel Lux, led by renowned theatre video designer Nina Dunn, identified UP as being a perfect partner for this particular project, citing equipment availability and cost as being two of the major deciding factors.
“We love working with UP,” said Technical Director at Pixel Lux, Harrison Cooke. “They bring such a wealth of knowledge and technical expertise to all of our projects. Their equipment is well prepped, and I never worry about the quality control. They are really reliable and trustworthy, and that is of paramount importance on a production as prestigious as this one.”
“We love working with UP,” said Technical Director at Pixel Lux, Harrison Cooke. “They bring such a wealth of knowledge and technical expertise to all of our projects. Their equipment is well prepped, and I never worry about the quality control. They are really reliable and trustworthy, and that is of paramount importance on a production as prestigious as this one.”
Although the Birmingham Royal Ballet is relatively new to the world of video, Pixel Lux was trusted to deliver something that would suitably ‘wow’ audiences after two years of anticipation.
“The Ballet were blown away by what we managed to achieve,” said Cooke. “Budgets are always a big thing to consider with these kinds of companies, and it was great to show them what’s possible with projection. Typically, this kind of wall would not be attempted with projection, but we made it work really well.”
Act Two of Carlos Acosta’s Don Quixote relies heavily on projections as part of its storytelling, establishing multiple environments and helping the famous windmill to truly come alive. Although the use of projection circumvented some of the problems associated with large scale physical sets, the team overcame any challenges.
“Any minor niggles were sorted out very quickly by the UP team,” stated Cooke.
Specified for the production as facilitated by UP’s theatre expert, Ollie Luff, were 4 x Epson 20k projectors, 2 x Epson 15k projectors, and a disguise playback system to run the visual side of the production.
“The gear was all really clean and in great condition,” said Cooke. “I know that I don’t have to worry about things being set up properly and ready to go when I’m working with UP; they follow my paperwork yet will equally put together a great system without it! We’re certainly extremely happy with our relationship with UP, so long may it continue.”
Photos by Nina Dunn
