The Italian Antoniano Chorus ("An Tuan" for short) is no stranger to many audiences in China. Every New Year, the choir’s New Year concert in Shanghai has become a regular program for many parent-child families, and it is not difficult for parents of all walks of life to "grab tickets". Because every time, the tickets for the New Year concert will be sold out within 1 minute. This record has been maintained for many years.
Since its first performance in China in 2016, the troupe has held a New Year Chorus Concert at Shanghai Children’s Art Theater (SAIC Roewe Children’s Cultural Center) for five consecutive years. When the epidemic struck this year, foreign performing groups could not come to China. The organizer, Shanghai Children’s Art Theater, made a decision to continue to hold the Anzhuan New Year Concert in 2021 and put it on in a "cross-time" way.
This concert tried a brand-new stage technology, using high-definition video and holographic technology to realize the interaction between Italy and China. An Tuan will sing in Italy and interact with the China Sisters from a distance. There will be six concerts from December 31st to January 3rd. The concert on New Year’s Day will be broadcast live through Youku platform.
Liang Xiaoxia, general manager of Shanghai Children’s Art Theater, revealed that this New Year concert "through time and space" is the most difficult concert they have had in the five years since they introduced the troupe. In addition to the great technical difficulties, including the time difference and different ideas between China and Italy. However, because the Italian security corps is located in a high-risk area, it has also overcome various difficulties in rehearsal and filming. Mr. Cavalli Giampaolo, artistic director of ANTuan, said that it was the most difficult but also the warmest New Year concert that ANTuan had completed in the past 57 years.
Liang Xiaoxia said that the reason why we insisted on presenting the New Year’s Concert in this way this year was that we hoped to satisfy the thoughts of the Shanghai audience; Second, I hope that through this concert that spans time and space, there will be a warm connection between China and the international children. Just like the theme of this year’s New Year concert: "2021, More Love".
Affected by the epidemic, the real person did not come to the New Year concert to be put on hold.Every year, New Year’s Eve is celebrated with the songs of the troupe, which has become a fixed project for many China audiences to welcome the new year. This year, an Tuan can’t come to China, and there is no live concert. What should we do?
Finally, after consulting with Shanghai Children’s Art Theater, the troupe decided to present the New Year concert in this special period with high-definition video.
However, can the audience’s expectations be met by playing HD video alone, and how can the audience who go into the theater to listen to the concert have a unique live experience? After discussion, the Chinese and Italian teams finally decided to use holographic technology.
Holographic technology used to be used in concerts and other large-scale activities, but it is the first time in the world to be used in concerts, especially children’s chorus concerts. For this reason, the organizer invited the best professional technical team in China, used the world’s most advanced cable-stayed film projection technology, and equipped the top dance equipment in the industry to achieve the best imaging effect in the industry at present.
It is envisaged that the three tracks of the concert will be presented by holographic projection technology. On the stage, the pre-recorded singing video of the troupe will be presented by holographic technology, while the China Sisters Hydrangea Choir of the troupe will perform live, so the two choirs will present the effect of "singing on the same stage", and there will be an interactive experience of live performance and virtual imaging.
In the past, holographic film technology was mostly in the form of "single person and single film", but this time, the Chinese and Italian teams must solve the problem of presenting dozens of choir children on the same film at the same time. Not only that, but also will interact with the security group at the scene. The number of people, the complexity of design, the difficulty of shooting and the difficulty of the later stage are unprecedented for the technical team.
In order to solve this series of problems, the domestic technical team has produced a shooting guide with dozens of pages for ANTuan, explaining each shot, each angle and each group of protagonists in detail.
Because this is the first time that an Tuan has challenged holographic technology, the effect of the first shooting is not satisfactory. The teams in China and Italy overcame the time difference and communicated remotely all night. Finally, gather all the children in the choir again and shoot again.
Although there are great challenges and difficulties, Liang Xiaoxia said, "The impact of the epidemic has prevented the troupe from coming to the scene to perform, but at the same time, this situation has also made us think, open up more imagination and see if we can use scientific and technological means to make the performance team who can’t come to the scene personally bring a good stage experience to the audience."
Liang Xiaoxia said that the application of holographic technology in the New Year concert is also an attempt by Shanghai Children’s Art Theater to perform on the stage at present and in the post-epidemic era, which can provide reference and inspiration for the future.
Serious risk escalation of epidemic situation, bumpy recording and difficult transmissionFor the Italian Chorus Antoniano, the experience of this New Year concert is unprecedented.
Lombardia, where the choir is located, is listed as a high-risk area of red epidemic by the Italian government, and Italy is one of the countries with the worst epidemic in Europe. This year, almost all performances of the choir were suspended, including the children’s chorus gold medal competition that the choir participates in every year, which was also announced to be postponed until next year.
At the same time, due to the epidemic situation, the Italian national television team, which recorded the concert for ANTuan in previous years, was unable to assist in the filming this year, and the staff of the technical department of ANTuan made up the seats one by one at the first time, which solved the shooting problem.
However, the local government does not allow many people to enter the studio for recording. To this end, the security group specially applied to the Italian government, and after more than two months of examination and approval, it finally obtained special approval. Therefore, during the Italian epidemic, ANTuan became the only organization that was able to carry out multi-person shed recording.
During each rehearsal and recording, the local government will also appoint two health supervisors to be full-time inspectors at the scene.
The problems encountered in shooting are also continuous. Because there are 40 members in the official performance, according to the requirements of Italian epidemic prevention and control, only half of them can now enter the studio for recording. At the same time, when rehearsing and recording, each child should be separated by a safe distance of at least 1 meter. As a result, during the video recording in the studio, the children no longer stood on the chorus table, but stood on 23 little red dot landmarks which had been strictly measured.
In order to present the best visual effect, the troupe shot every song in the concert from multiple positions and angles, and it took a long time to shoot the material of 18 songs. But at the same time, how to "send" the massive materials of the whole New Year concert to China at the fastest speed has become another difficult problem under special conditions this year.
After numerous international discussions and various schemes, there are only one or two days left before the concert starts. Liang Xiaoxia and her team are still making various adjustments across the time difference every day, striving to make the concert present the best effect. In Italy, all the children and the conductor of the troupe are full of expectations for this unprecedented concert.
"So many times, the children didn’t complain, because the children themselves are very curious and looking forward to it. They will ask, can holographic technology really send us to China? What will we look like on China’s screen? "
Liang Xiaoxia said that since she introduced AnTuan five years ago, this children’s choir has been regarded as the most healing and joyful choir. Therefore, I hope that in this special New Year, more audiences can enjoy and share the warmth and healing brought by the concert.
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