Super Night Shot

Overview

Ten years ago director Mike Figgis made Timecode. This experimental film was shot on four digital cameras simultaneously in a series of single ninety-three minute takes. It took him fifteen attempts to get it right. He even experimented with mixing the soundtrack live in front of an audience, drawing attention with sound from one image in the corner to the next, to the next. In Super Night Shot, Anglo-German company Gob Squad have taken this technique to the stage.

Super Night Shot's publicity looks like a music-video for the Flaming Lips. Animal costumes and their inhabitants bother the population of ordinary city streets. Over the course of the show the actors film an hour-long story about showbiz types types on four digital cameras, starting an hour before the curtain goes up. The shots are unedited, except for a few brief moments where they are put into sync to be screened on in front of you. They have to get it right every night. Or so they hope. Get a ticket, but if you can't — and you're around the Opera House forecourt around a quarter-to-nine one night of their week-long season — look out for four stray actors desperate for a kiss.

Image by Gob Squad.