10:00:00 Stills
of Roman Amphitheatre
Stills
of Roman wall paintings
Graphics
showing lines of perspective on wall paintings
Same
picture showing 3D representation of stage
Second
sequence showing wall painting, 3D model and stage
representation.
Guide voice: The ancient
Romans were famous for their passion for theatre - they were so
passionate about it that they even decorated their villas with
elaborate wall paintings depicting theatre scenes. But these
paintings were more than just depictions of stage sets - they were
actually an early form of perspective painting. An early Roman
version of virtual reality!
Now, by using 3-D digital models,
researchers at the University of Warwick are transforming ancient
Pompeiian wall paintings back into virtual reality representations
of Roman theatres.
00:36 (SOT) Prof. Richard Beacham,
School of Theatre Studies at the University of Warwick -
"It's an interesting process because the ancients used a
perspective technique which was similar to, but not exactly the
same, as what we understand since the Renaissance, as perspective.
And that meant that part of the project's tasks, one of the
challenges of the project, has been to decode in fact ancient
perspective technology and realise it and understand it and explore
it by using modern perspective technology of the sort that we find
in computer graphics."
01:07 Prof.
Beacham and Drew Baker, Multimedia Designer with e-lab, at
computer
C.U.
Images on computer
C.U.
Prof. Beacham
C.U.
3D image mapping on screen
Hand
on computer mouse
View
over Drew Baker's shoulder
C.U.
Image on screen
Technician's
face
3D
model of theatre on screen
Guide Voice: The project is
being carried out by The University of Warwick's e-lab in
conjunction with Professor Richard Beacham and Dr Hugh Denard from
the University's School of Theatre Studies and its aim is to
combine Roman wall paintings and state-of-the-art computer
modelling to transform our understanding of ancient stages.
01:27 (SOT) Prof. Richard Beacham
- "In recent years there's been a very big
emphasis on reconstructing not simply playing places, but the
performances which took place. One thinks of the Globe Theatre in
London for example and, and the wealth of information that has
given to us about understanding Shakespeare's plays. Well the same
is true of any lost period of theatre history. So, for example, my
primary area of interest is ancient theatre. And by reconstructing
the spaces in which, quite literally, these plays took place and
for which they were written, we can understand a great deal about
those plays, and we can understand a great deal about how to
produce them most effectively today."
02:02 Animation
taking wall painting through from flat image to 3D model.
Guide voice: By
revisiting these wall paintings with computer modelling it is
possible to pull out the real architecture and then work out what
the actual theatres would have looked like, separating the real
stage image from the fantastic painted architecture embellishing
it.
02:17 (SOT) Prof. Richard Beacham
- "One of the interesting things about, about
theatre is that we're constantly putting old wine into new skins.
We're taking old plays and putting them into theatres for which
they weren't originally created. And in order to do that
sensitively and without doing damage to the work of art, the play
itself, you have to - it's not being able to create exactly the
same conditions, after all, for example, ancient theatres were
enormous. We're unlikely to be able to create theatres that seat
twenty thousand people - But we have to be able to take some of
those conditions into account and find other ways, perhaps using
modern technologies, to create the same kinds of effects which the
original playwright drew upon in, in those original spaces and
under those original performance conditions."
03:02 Drew
Baker at computer C.U. Wire image on computer screen Exterior,
Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford on Avon
Guide voice: This is not
just an academic exercise. The research has much practical value
for modern theatres and E-Lab were recently commissioned by the
Royal Shakespeare Company to help them in planning the future of
their theatre in Stratford on Avon.
03:15 (SOT) Prof. Richard
Beacham - "It's possible, for example, to take
modern buildings, the RSC Shakespearian theatre in Stratford for
example, buildings there and elsewhere which have gone through
many, many transformations over, many decades, and the building
itself is a kind of living textbook, has a living history. Using
virtual reality we can strip back the later layers that have
accumulated and see what that or other buildings might have been
like earlier in their history."
03:42 End
