Tucked away in the corner of a busy tech room, Jim Chu focuses on his computer panel, expertly tapping on it with his electronic pen. On the enormous flat-screen monitor mounted on the wall in front of him, a mythical paradise rises out of the clouds, complete with golden colonnades and marble steps. He taps once, and the clouds at the foot of the screen begin rolling across the scene; once more and a shining light appears, slowly descending from a corner of the sky.
You might think that Chu is animating a scene for the next Hollywood fantasy epic, but he is actually a digital design expert for New Tang Dynasty Television, a non-profit Chinese television network based in Manhattan. Chu is a four-year veteran of the network's annual Chinese New Year performances, having worked on the digital backgrounds for the show every year since its inception.
These beautiful backdrops are a unique part of NTDTV's performances, and are especially eye-catching on the gigantic LED screen at Radio City Music Hall, site of the 2007 Chinese New Year Spectacular.
Using the uncluttered set space like a huge canvas, "Every year," says Chu, "we try to make it more detailed, more realistic."
The end result is breathtaking, but the complex creation of one of these backgrounds is even more amazing. According to Chu, the process starts with the artistic director's concept seven or eight months before the show. Then the meticulous research begins. The digital designers go through stacks of books, researching paintings from the period and gathering whatever sources they can find, in order to make it as authentic and believable for the audience as possible.
Even for a small detail, such as a Tang-style monastery on some distant mountain, they carefully research Tang Dynasty architecture. Chu jokes, "We couldn't have a Ming Dynasty window or a Qing Dynasty door in a Tang building. Some expert in the audience would probably catch it!"
But even though many backgrounds are based on traditional images and paintings, there is still plenty of room for innovation. In last year's performance, the background for the dance "Fairies' Flutes" was from a classical painting of a Han Dynasty-style palace. The color of the painting, however, had dimmed with age. The designers decided to restore color to the image, creating the soft, radiant feel of a watercolor. In addition, says Chu, some of the classic paintings have a limited scope, whereas the digital artists need to create a much bigger space.
The ultimate goal of these backgrounds is to use modern technology as a tool to bring forth the true spirit of traditional Chinese culture. Watching the performance, one feels like the dancer is truly inside of that digital setting. Chu says it is more than just an image. It is an opening of the entire stage, the expansion of a space beyond its boundaries. In short, it is the creation of a world.
Such a world can only be created through an immense amount of collaboration.
When the work gets intense, Chu and the 10 or so other designers may only sleep in their own beds once every three or four days. While he jokes about his starving-artist ways ("No money, no wife, but it's still good"), he also waxes enthusiastically about his work, "Where else could I do something so wonderful? As an artist, I can reflect the best traditional art through the best modern technology."
"I never knew before that traditional art was so beautiful. I want to tell people: You should really take a good look, because you've never seen this kind of beauty before."
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