We are often asked if our performances can be filmed. So that the video can later be used to show to the absent, or in the future as material in internal trainings.
To this we invariably say no. It would detract from our own performance afterwards, and it could also possibly be a kind of bread robbery for professional videographers. We do, by the way, make videos in collaboration with directors. So you can see us regularly appearing at Mediv training courses, in the Aanstokerij's game Rouwkost, or in online internal training materials of some government agencies, banks, hospitals,...
There are several reasons why it is not evident to make a full-fledged video of an integral improv performance for meaningful use afterwards .
Already some:
- The acoustics: it would take a lot of technical ingenuity to turn a performance into a video that is pleasant to listen to.
- Visually: in a studio shoot you make different lighting choices than during a performance. You would also need quite a few cameras to make a decent edit of something like that.
- Improvisation itself: our way of working is based on interaction and working with what presents itself in the moment. That falls away completely afterwards so a video can only be disappointing: you had to be there!
In video work, by the way, we use scripts.
What certainly can be done, of course, is filming to use snippets of the performance in an atmospheric report of the event.
>> On our video page you can see some of them like this. Very nice if you haven't seen us at work yet, to get an idea of what that thematic improv theater at events is like!
>> Still on media: you can go to December 25 at 5 p.m. listen or watch Marc Breban on Inspinazie and improvisational theater.
He is a guest on Hallo Cox, a program hosted by Maarten Cox on RTV/TV plus (also viewable via Telenet or Proximus).