Digital Media for the Live Performance Venue
In the next few years, we may find digital video, animation and 3D animation appearing in live performances with the frequency of Power Point presentations at business meetings.
I attended the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular in New York City yesterday evening with my family. The production company was deploying digital video, animation and 3D animation as a backdrop to a live performance. They were using the back wall or back curtain of the stage for display of digital video, animation and 3D animation that merged with the action on the stage, i.e., the digital media backdrop was an extension of the action on the stage.
It was very eye catching and visually pleasing. This type of addition to a live performance does not need to be continuous to enhance the performance. Even a limited amount of this type of presentation as part of a show or performance whether the performance is a musical concert, dance performance or a play adds considerably to the overall experience.
The creation of all of this type of work would be eligible for Louisiana Digital Media tax credits.
Over time, likely measured in years, I suspect that you will see digital video, animation and 3D animation included in almost all live performances probably to the same extent eventually as a Power Point presentation seems almost essential to a business presentation today. I see a great future for animation artists and computer software developers that can create web platform and software packages that allow community and regional theater and live performers (even bands and musical performance artists) and perhaps even ordinary members of the public to deploy simple versions of such digital animation at local events.
Digital video, animation and 3D animation is coming to a concert venue or theater near you in the years ahead. For those trying to take advantage of Louisiana's Digital Media Act to participate in this process, the economic "sweet spot" may be developing software products, web platforms and web applications that simplify the creation of digital animation and thereby make it less expensive to generate a finished product for presentation to the public.
