This video from the dance company ‘Motionhouse’ uses creative projections projected onto a white set (a curved ramp that the performers can get to the top of and slide down.)

What ideas could be ‘stolen’ for your production.

The cloth that the performers swing from is called a ‘silk’ – it’s originally a circus apparatus.

SAMPLE ANSWER – If you wanted your set to be more ‘high tech’ and ambitious than Berkoff’s “minimalistic” original.

EXPLAIN: My set would be a 2 storey box set with Gregor’s bedroom up stairs and the Samsa’s living space down stairs (and down stage). The whole set would be white to enable multiple projectors to project moving and still images onto different parts of the set. All the walls would be made from gauze that can be transparent when lit from behind.

There would be a central door in the backwall for the appearance of the Chief Clerk and Lodgers This is where the family would exit to access the upper level. There would be a trap door/hole with a pole in the upstairs bedroom area to allow Gregor to move between his bedroom and the living space. There would also be circus-style silk in the bedroom (disguised as curtains around a window) to allow Gregor as the ‘bug’ to move in extraordinary ways.

There would be a stair case behind the gauze to allow the family to go up and down to Gregor’s room.

[MUCH OF THAT COULD HAVE BEEN EXPLAINED IN A DIAGRAM WITH NOTES]

Functionality:

Circus style silks that could reach to the downstairs floor (maybe disguised as curtains)  – this allows Gregor to move up and down as a scurrying insect.

Hidden hand hold in white (to blend into the white walls) to allow Gregor to move as an insect and position himself in unusual and gravity defying poses.

Expressionistic:

Projections can be naturalistic – wall paper – shelves etc

or

more expressionistic. For example, when Greta says Gregor has been leaving a slime trail across the walls the audience sees that animated. First in Gregor’s room (more naturalistic) and then the trails/ slime oozes down the walls and into the Living space.

JUSTIFICATION: Symbolic of the idea that the Samsa’s feel that their lives & house is being contaminated. It will support the idea that there is no where in the house that is untainted.

Flash backs:

Projections of the outside world can be projected on the upstairs wall whilst Gregor is describing his life on the road downstage. Busy train platforms – cold, poorly lit streets – snow etc. This all supports the story Gregor tells and makes us feel sympathy for him.

1. If the question is a SET design one then focus on the shape and functionality of the set (maybe one paragraph about it being made up of white flat spaces that can have images projected against.)
2. If it’s a LIGHTING design question then you can say 1) that projections are a form of lighting 2) what your projections would be.

It’s unlikely that there would be a whole question about projections BUT you can combine them with the other type of lighting effects you know about.