Back in January 1988, I was
contacted by the head of the World Expo 88 Laser and
Fireworks Department, asking me if I wanted to work as an animator for
them. At that time, I knew only a little about
lasers, but I agreed and I am very glad that I did,
for the next 11 months or so proved to be one of the
most interesting and exciting times of my life.
At that time, the Expo site was in a state of uproar
as it was still very much under construction. I
spent the first few weeks working in The Studio, one section
of the complex of buildings Expo had on Cordelia
Street. This was the time when we were having
a lot of rain and the roof leaked! It
wasn't uncommon to come in, in the morning, and find
the ceiling dripping water into buckets and everything damp to the
touch. It wasn't much of a problem for me, but I
believe the laser technicians found it a nightmare for the
humidity sensitive equipment.
Anyway it was here where I and two other local
animators were introduced to the wonders and dangers
of laser animation. I say dangers, because the lasers were
real industrial-strength lasers - the many scorch
marks on the wall in The Studio and burn holes in the technician's clothes
were proof of that! We were warned to never
look directly into a laser beam, as it could blind
you in an instant, or to stand too long in front
of one, as it could burn you. I will say now that
during the entire Expo period, the laser team were extremely
careful about the safety hazards involved. To my
knowledge, no one, at any time, was in any danger.
Having been given the Lasers 101 lesson, I got to
work. The lasers systems were to be set up at three
sites. The first and foremost was as part of the Laserfire
Spectaculars - the nightly laser and fireworks show
at the Riverstage. There were also to be the nightly
"hands on" Laser Electric experience
and "video clip" shows at the Amphitheatre and a
laser billboard was to continually run at night on the side of
the QPAC (Queensland Performing Arts Complex)
building.
I will admit now that a lot of the
animation sequences had already been done overseas -
particularly the "video clips" shown at the Laser Electric shows at the
Amphitheatre. Our team was to produce
sequences more specific to Expo 88 and of Australian
topics - such as the Expo Oz (the expo's
platypus mascot) sequences and any of the Australian
sports and wildlife stuff. The Animation team consisted of myself, another
animator who ended up doing most of the digitizing,
and a third animator who worked part-time, as he was
a student at the Queensland College
of Art. Actually, myself and the other
animator were both graduates of the QCA's Animation
Department.
The boss wanted me to start with a creating series
of short sequences of Australian birds and animals.
I soon found that animating for
lasers was rather different than animating for
film.
Lasers aren't like film where, basically, a series
of photographs are lit from behind and projected
onto a screen. A laser creates a single point of light on a
screen. When it isn't moving, that is all you
see - a single dot of light shining on a
surface (unless there is something like smoke in the air to
reveal the actual beam - but that is another
story.) Some smart person, in the past, had
cottoned onto the idea of using mirrors to
move the laser beam around, so that the dot, which
is just the end point of the beam, is also moved around. If the laser
beam is made to move fast enough, something called
"persistence of vision" makes the moving dot appear
to turn into a line. (Actually, you can
recreate a simple version of this yourself with a
laser pointer. Shine it on a wall and move it around
quickly and you'll get the idea.)
To make the line form a recognisable pattern, such
as a flower or Expo Oz, the laser beam has to be
directed by a computer, controlling the bank of mirrors, to
a series of points which outline the desired shape.
The computer has to be given the coordinates of these points and the order
in which they are to be approached by the lasers. In
short, the computer-controlled laser creates a "join
the dots" kind of picture. If the
laser is moving quickly between the dots and there
are enough dots, you see a smooth, linear image. All
that effort creates a single, still
picture! If a number of still pictures, all slightly
different, are created by the lasers rapidly one
after another, the images seems to
move. This is animation!
The actual animation images were produced
traditionally - that is, the drawings were done in
pencil on paper on a lightbox. Due to the nature of the final
laser pictures, each image I designed had to have
simple, bold, clean lines. Texture, shading
and fill colour were elements foreign to the laser
environment. Each drawing I did was then taken and
digitized by another of the animation team, who traced out key points along
the drawings using a special digitizing pen and
tablet connected to a computer. This created
the XY co-ordinates needed for the dots of
each single laser image. Early on, I had a few goes
at digitizing. It was a wonderful experience to spend a couple of hours
carefully clicking away and then, finally, have the
technicians turn on the lasers and run the computer
program. I'll never forget the first
time I saw my own work in laser light. I had drawn a
sequence of a cockatoo flying. Suddenly, there,
glowing in red laser light on the wall, was my
cockatoo flapping its wings and flying!
Another thing that I found different in animating
for lasers was that the field I had to draw within
was a perfect square, not a rectangle as is used for film or
television. From an overall design point of
view, I found this a little awkward and limiting at
first, but I eventually got used to it.
Enough of the technical stuff! There is a lot more I
could say, but I won't bore you any more with that.
I said that I began working in The Studio on Cordelia
Street. Some weeks later, I was moved into one of
the Laser Department's two rooms in Media House on
the Expo Site. I had to wear a hard
hat, coming and going, for a while as construction
was still going on at a furious pace. Eventually,
the construction stopped, Expo
opened, and another phase of my Expo 88 experience
began.
Much of this time was spent indoors,
working over a lightbox in the corner of a
windowless room in the middle of Media House. I
still remember hearing the regular rumble
of the monorail going past. (The monorail used to
disturb my radio's reception.) The laser shows had begun and this
meant that most of the laser staff now didn't arrive
until late in the afternoon. There is one down side
to working outdoors with lasers - most of the
work can only be done at night! This meant that I
was alone in the office for much of the day, as the
other animator had to work in the
Control Booth at the Amphitheatre, where the
digitizing gear was set up. (She has some
amusing Amphitheatre stories to tell!) The
office I was in actually belonged to the Laser
Department's, I suppose you'd call him secretary,
but he was also responsible for the music
side of the laser/fireworks shows and he was often
off site, working in dubbing studios around town.
My duties soon grew to answering
telephones. I'll always remember the first
international telephone call I took. Our boss
and two of the technicians were from the USA,
so they were in frequent contact with the states
about various things. Early on, one afternoon, I answered the phone and it
was someone calling from the US. I can remember
thinking at the time that these Americans must be awfully slow, as it took the
bloke a few seconds to respond to anything I said.
You can imagine my embarrassment when I mentioned it to
someone later and they, grinning broadly,
explained to me about a little thing called
satellite delay! I sometimes felt a little cut
off from the grand excitement going on outside each
day, so I made it a point, most mornings, to stand
in the boss's office - which had a
window - and watch the mad rush of people entering
at opening time. Being near the Melbourne Street Gate, we had a good view. I
also tried to get out as much as possible to
experience the rest of Expo 88. This was usually
during my half-hour lunch break and after
working hours. Many of my fondest memories
of Expo are of at night.
At times, the excitement came into Media House. I
remember, one day, one of the ladies from another
department rushing in. "He's here! He's here! John
Farnham's here!" Media House had a Green Room
where many of the guest performers came to have a
bite to eat or a cup of
coffee. Unfortunately, I didn't get to meet
John Farnham, as I was busy at the time. I did get
to see Expo Oz a lot, though. He was usually in a
headless state, when the heavily scented performer
was in the building having a break. One day, there was a loud clang and I had
to jump aside as a metal rod had fallen from the
costume and nearly hit my foot. I think the rod
helped
support the headpiece.
Like many other workers, I had a special pass which
allowed me entry to the site at all times of the day
or night. I could even go backstage or up the Riverstage
tower, if I wanted to. One night, a couple of us
decided to watch the Laserfire show from the actual
Riverstage - behind the scenes, of
course. The fireworks people had invited us to do
so. I'm not sure it was such a good idea, but it is an experience I'll
always remember. We were at the back of the
Riverstage, facing one of the firework barges on the
river when the main fireworks part of the show went
off. It was VERY noisy and exciting and hot bits of
exploded firework rained down on us. We were also
engulfed in the smoke. I never did that again
- once was enough! I also, like many other workers,
used the advantage of my pass to be first in line to
see the pavilions. Thus, I had no waiting to see the New Zealand Pavilion,
unlike others who literally had to wait
hours. I got there a few minutes before opening
time and was just about first in the queue.
I did this for a few of the "harder to see"
pavilions.
Speaking of the pavilions, one of my fondest
memories of working at Expo was having to visit each
of the international pavilions to ask how they wrote the
word "welcome" and "goodbye" in their own language.
We needed to have the lasers write the words out as
part of the shows. I remember someone,
a cleaner, I think, from the Greek pavilion
scribbling it on a scrap of paper for us. Most of
the other pavilions were just as informal. The
Russian Pavilion, however, was another thing. At the
time, I was with one of the other animators - the one responsible for
digitizing the images. We approached the entrance to
the Russian Pavilion and were met by a stern-faced guard. After explaining what
we wanted, we were surprised when the man, who was
obviously a Russian, didn't help us himself as most of our first contacts
at the other pavilions had. Instead, we were taken
politely inside and eventually shown around to the
top official's office! The gentleman was
very friendly and actually typed out the words for
us on his typewriter. This way, he explained, we wouldn't have
any trouble with reading handwriting and possibly
making any embarrassing mistakes.
I mentioned before, that working with lasers
outdoors meant that the technicians did most of
their hours at night. Sometimes, I also had to burn the midnight oil
and I remember having some very long days. (8am
to 2am!) Work didn't mean just running the various shows for the audiences,
there was also maintenance of the equipment and the
development of the new shows. These other
duties had to be done after hours - that
is, after Expo had closed its gates for the night.
There was something wonderful about walking
around the Expo site late at night, when the crowds
were gone. There were still people about - cleaners and
security - but at times, you could feel that you
were alone. It was quiet. Peaceful. Even though
some of the major display lights would be
switched off, the Expo site was still a magical
place.
Yes,
after all these years, I am still glad that I took
that job!
Foundation Expo '88 thanks Ms
Ryan for her invaluable contribution to the
Foundation Expo '88 web-site.