Large-scale projection around the year 2000

Between 1997 and 2003, a certain number of experiments and innovations in the field of monumental projection seem to herald the arrival of video mapping. First, there is the development of the DDRA — Double Défilant Rotatif Automatisé (automated rotary double scrolling) — projector by the company ETC, in 1998. However, two films may scroll in opposite directions on a large-scale image projector. In parallel (since 1997), ETC experiments with the video projection of large-scale images — with 5000-lumen video projectors, to begin with. According to Marie-Jeanne Gauthé, the arrival of video constitutes the most important technological breakthrough she has experienced throughout her long career in the large-scale projection sector (i.e. more important than mapping). In this sphere, Laurent Langlois creates Peinture-Lumière [Ndlt: Light-Painting] for the Festival of Lights in Lyon, (a spectacle projected onto the façade of the Théâtre des Célestins), finally opting for Beta SP video rather than 70 mm film. Editing is carried out using Media 100 software.

Two years earlier, the Festival of Lights saw the first illuminations of façades through the ‘Chromolithe’, developed by Patrice Warrener. This process enables the projection of highly contrasting colours, perfectly tailored to the details of the monument. The illumination is entirely fixed, but the effect obtained garnered much attention at the time. The late 90s also see the increasing success of the shows created by Skertzò, starting with the illumination of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Amiens in 1999: ‘Amiens, la cathédrale en couleurs’ [Ndlt: the coloured cathedral]. The show entails the projection of large-scale, multicoloured scrolling images, emphasising the sculpted details of the three portals of the building’s main façade. For staging reasons, the projectors are not installed opposite the portals, but at 45°: the image is thus anamorphic depending on their position. In general, around the 2000s, the scenographies created by Skertzò vie to exhibit the greatest technical prowess. Although we cannot yet talk of video mapping in the strictest sense, the show Reflections, designed for Place des Terreaux in Lyon in 2002 comes very close through the impression it produces.

Around the year 2000, innovations regarding increasingly fluid and more complex movement and more precise adjustment to the depths and volumes of the buildings abound in the field of monumental projection. These are a reflection of the ambition that video mapping would finally satisfy. This large-scale projection sector will therefore embrace this technology over the following years. Easyweb.fr will become one of the first creative studios specialising in monumental projection to try it in France. After several trials conducted from 2003 onwards, it projects its first creation onto Dijon town hall on 17 December 2005: video footage, projected onto the façade, is developed in 3D, according to the volumes and shapes of the building.