Guthrie's hybrid 'Christmas Carol' is a ghost story for the streaming era - StarTribune.com

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Theater artist and film producer EG Bailey stated late last week: "This is the fastest feature known to man." "The whole process-from receiving a call to basic delivery (opening on December 19)-approximately It takes 2½ months. The speed from concept to completion is very fast."

If Bailey feels whipped, he doesn't mind. While cooperating with Joseph Haj, the artistic director of Guthrie, to develop new content, he also realized the dream marriage of drama and film.

Haji said: "This is a hybrid car deliberately conceived and built as a movie on a virtual platform." "EG is a very experienced theater artist and filmmaker, very smart in both media. We have the opportunity to squeeze these things into each other, which is fun and interesting."

Bailey's work has been included in the Sundance Festival and has been shooting stage productions for decades, including films for the Pangea World Theater. These shots usually use one or two cameras (usually fixed) to shoot theater performances. His most recent favorite to do things like "holiday classics" is a poetic capture of Zell Miller's "evidence for breaking the silence".

For "Holiday Classics", Chao J, Bailey and their staff turned Guthrie's McGuire Proscenium stage into a film studio. They lowered the lights, set up booms and trolleys, and deployed the entire film production technology library to produce a 75-minute story of "Carol".

The story of Ebenezer Scrooge’s transformation from a crab fan and a grocer to a generous and fulfilling human being has been Guthrie’s main pillar. It has a history of 45 years and introduced several generations of Minnesota people. And attract it to the theater. Just like vacation shows in other places, this is also important to the company's profitability. Last year, 59,000 customers watched the show, and the box office totaled approximately US$3 million.

Haji said that the theater did not try to replicate "Carol" in the film. It provides a new medium that automatically makes viewers have different expectations of what they see.

Haji said: "The theater asks to voluntarily stop doubting, we will automatically give up." "In movies, we usually expect a sense of reality, and hope that things are absolutely true. When they are not facts, it will make us confused.

He gave an example used by a theater director.

Haji said: "Suppose I sit on a chair on the stage, there are 1,100 people in the auditorium, and the lights are shining on me." "If I say,'I'm on a rocket ship flying to the moon,' then the audience in the theater Will say:'Cool, what's next?" They will believe what you say, you are on the moon. "

"If you show a movie, let an actor sit in a chair and say, "Oh, I'm on a spacecraft flying to the moon," we are gone, "what happened to this person? "We want to know if this is in a shelter, and this person is crazy.

"Interestingly, we used a lot of film tools, but combined with some theater structures, which brought the two ideas into conflict."

This structure partly comes from the text. Charles Dickens condensed his five-chapter "Carol" novella into four "staffs" for his public performances in New York and Boston in 1868. Chao J and Bailey were selected with "Carol," each providing cooling stave.

The concept is that these performers are Dickens himself. They are in the little writer’s room, where there are teapots and stoves and other Victorian elements. The general audience of Guthrie's "Carol" will recognize the props and costumes.

Due to the pandemic, actors Ryan Colbert, Nathaniel Fuller, Charity Jones and Meghan Kreidler at Zoom Rehearse separately. Then they were filmed separately in the theater, leaving a deep impression on Hay. Hay has been shooting movies and knows that it can be slow and laborious.

Chao J said, "These actors, guys, are unbelievable." "Your actors have 20 pages of text. If you have to cut every five lines of text because the actors are up or they stumble, we will never be like this. This thing was photographed on a tight schedule. -Cold. We can stop. We can start. We can take things from the context. We can shoot like this, like that-they are 100% ready. I am very Appreciate four of them."

The partners considered the landscape of theater films, from the "Masterpiece Theater" to the National Theater films in London, which were distributed in powered theaters.

Haji said: "If an actor sits in a wing-backed chair and recites for two hours, it would be too bad-something like a'masterpiece theater' would be fatal." "Another stupid way is to watch. Someone is beating around every moment he tries to play each role, changing his voice and hat."

Bailey pointed out that Lars von Trier's 2003 avant-garde crime movie "Dogville" (Dogville), whether in impact or immediacy, is consistent with what he wants to achieve. The goal is closest.

Bailey said: "I want it to have the standard film language of wide, medium and close-up lenses, and have mobile push rods, push-in push rods and boom cameras-including the entire range of cinema composition and activities." "But we can also use it where we like to watch intimate dramas."

As for the audience, he said he imagined a mother and daughter in the kitchen.

Bailey said: "Mother is telling a story on the stove, and she is cooking." "We are bringing the audience into the story and establishing an emotional connection."

Chao J recalled that when Dickens delivered the staff in 1868, it was only two years before the end of the Civil War.

He said: "The United States is torn apart and absolutely destroyed." "Here, he tells the story of a man who understands that he is not only responsible to himself, but also to his neighbors. Now, this story is very important and meaningful because we are reminded. We have more in common with each other and have more responsibility for ourselves. Another."

He stopped.

"Although this product may be in this popular year, our ability to make certain versions of the'Christmas Carol' is very modest. This is a way for us to do something good."

Content: The virtual explanation condenses the "Christmas Carol" into four "staves".

Cost: USD 10 per household.

Tickets: guthrietheater.org

Watch: You will be given a link and password to watch the show, until December 31st, you can watch it as you like.

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