Digital Media, Projection Design & Technology for Theatre

Book

Anticipated Second Edition, Focal Press an imprint of Routledge, 2024

About:

The first how-to book for integrating digital media into live performance, published by Focal Press, an imprint of Routledge, in March of 2018.

In a relatively short amount of time, the book has become a foundational text within the creative, professional and academic community and is a required text for a number of courses at the University level. According to the publisher it was “the first book focused on projection and media design ever to publish and is the foundation of [their] publishing portfolio in this subject area.”

Now in its fourth printing, the book has sold over 1,800 copies worldwide, including within the US, UK, India, China, Singapore, Poland, Czech Republic, and the Netherlands. It is currently under contract for a second edition to be released in 2024.

For a few months during it's original release, it was the number one selling book in Amazon's new release in Theatre category and currently has a 4.7 out of 5 star rating on Amazon.

Digital Media, Projection Design, and Technology for Theatre covers the foundational skills, best practices, and real-world considerations of integrating digital media and projections into theatre. The authors, professional designers and university professors of digital media in live performance, provide readers with a narrative overview of the professional field, including current industry standards and expectations for digital media/projection design, its related technologies and techniques. The book offers a practical taxonomy of what digital media is and how we create meaning through its use on the theatrical stage.

The book outlines the digital media/projection designer’s workflow into nine unique phases. From the very first steps of landing the job, to reading and analyzing the script and creating content, all the way through to opening night and archiving a design. Detailed analysis, tips, case studies, and best practices for crafting a practical schedule and budget, to rehearsing with digital media, working with actors and directors, to creating a unified design for the stage with lighting, set, sound, costumes, and props is discussed.

The fundamentals of content creation, detailing the basic building blocks of creating and executing digital content within a design is offered in context of the most commonly used content creation methods, including: photography and still images, video, animation, real-time effects, generative art, data, and interactive digital media. Standard professional industry equipment, including media servers, projectors, projection surfaces, emissive displays, cameras, sensors, etc. is detailed. The book also offers a breakdown of all key related technical tasks, such as converging, warping, and blending projectors, to calculating surface brightness/luminance, screen size and throw distance, to using masks, warping content and projection mapping, making this a complete guide to digital media and projection design today.

An eResource page offers sample assets and interviews that link to current and relevant work of leading projection designers.

Quotes:

"This is the bible for anyone interested in projection or media design for live performance. It is an absolutely indispensable handbook which I wish existed at the start of my career." - Montgomery Martin, Interactive Designer

"Another great book for this field." - Director, VYV Corporation

"It’s a great resource, its very up to date, and is especially useful as there are so few books discussing this topic in the field!" - Tessa Rixon, Associate Lecturer, Queensland University of Technology