Elton John's
filmed for Warner Bros (theatre ventures) by Hourglass studios
Maybe jealous perhaps of Disney corp's series of successful film-to-show transfers, Warner Bros applied a $10m + cheque book to an Elton John and Bernie Taupin-scored broadway musical based on Anne Rice's 'Lestat' and Dave McKean was asked to design key story sequences to be projected at scripted intervals in the show using state-of-the-art projection and mist-screening techniques. Dave designed and subsequently filmed a series of sequences involving both CG and live action, using what was at the time the first commercial application of the (then) prototype
Additional photography, chiefly blue-screen set/costumed actor aquisition was made with a more ordinary Sony 750 HD camera, also used for flame effects, (by Artem SFX) among other sundry CG 'assets'
Although these insert sequences were apparently almost universally adored, it's perhaps a shame the rest of the show didn't quite 'meet expectations', and despite a major re-write and revision following poor San Francisco previews the show closed at the Palace theatre on Broadway after just 32 public performances..... (bollocks)
detail
ARRI D-20 full-height cmos
camera,
SRW-1 field recorder,
Clairmont shift & tilt lenses,
lighting by panavision west
Directed by Robert Jess Roth with musical staging by Matt West, Lestat starred Hugh Panaro in the title role, Carolee Carmello as Gabrielle,
Jack Noseworthy as Armand, Jim Stanek as Louis, Roderick Hill as Nicolas, Michael Genet as Marius and Allison Fischer as Claudia