Kyle Vegter Reveals The Magic Of Making Movies In Real Time for Manual Cinema

"Overhead projector shadow puppetry isn't something we invented," Kyle Vegter explains over the phone from his native Chicago. That may well be, but as far as shadow puppetry goes, the work of Vegter's company, Manual Cinema, is in a league of its own. Audiences at this year's Adelaide Festival will get to witness two of the company's unique creations - Magic City and Lula Del Ray.

Vegter is one of five co-directors of Manual Cinema. For the past six years, the company has been making full-length movies, using nothing more than some slides, some puppets, three overhead projectors, and their bodies. If that doesn't sound impressive enough, here's the clincher: they do it all live in real-time. The company isn't shy about revealing its tricks, going against the conventional wisdom of magicians and theatre-makers. All of their puppeteers and projectors are visible to the audience at all times. Perhaps most remarkable is that, in spite of this (or perhaps because of it), the company get the same feedback every time — their audiences "can't believe" it's all being made before their very eyes.

The tradition of shadow puppetry dates back millennia and has been practiced all over the world, most notably in South East Asia. When thinking of this tradition, we might imagine black silhouettes on a white background, lit by candle light with intricately cut facial details and ornamental garments. Rather than these intricate black-and-white figures, Manual Cinema work primarily with simpler silhouettes. The craft of what they do is in creating incredibly rich, multi-layered, manually animated environments for their figures to play in and explore.

Ideally, Vegter says, their full-length shows take about a year to put together. The production process, we're surprised to discover, bears many similarities to that of a conventional feature film. The company writes the full screenplay, and storyboard every shot before they touch a single puppet. Picking the right story, and telling it right, is key to the success of this form. "The medium moves a little slower than film," says Vegter, due to the silhouetted visual style, as well as the physical limitations of making the show live. "Single protagonist narratives work really well." Once the script and storyboard are complete, the team splits into image and sound departments - Vegter works on the sound - and they don't come together to rehearse as a full team until the last three or four weeks of the process.

From a sound design perspective, Vegter says the medium offers unique challenges. "I'd say it's both really exciting and really terrifying. We don't have dialogue to fall back on, so the sound design and music have to be hyper-expressive."

For those who have seen Manual Cinema in the Adelaide Festival guide and picked up a children's theatre vibe, don't be deterred - the company have fallen into that marketing niche by accident, and have (almost) never set out to make children's theatre. Magic City is a commission for Chicago Children's Theatre, but all of their work is made with an adult audience in mind. "Our work isn't really created for kids at all. I think puppetry in general gets lumped in - if you think 'puppets' you think 'kids'."

Manual Cinema presents Magic City 11 — 13 Mar and Luna Del Ray 14 — 16 Mar, at Her Majesty's Theatre, part of the Adelaide Festival.