Just about 150 years ago, at a performance of Charles Dickens’ The Haunted Man, audiences were astonished when they witnessed a remarkable visual effect — one in which ghostly images appeared on stage, side-by-side with real actors. The magical illusion was created in 1862 by an inventor named Henry Dircks. But because the illusion required an almost complete reconstruction of a theatre, the concept garnered little attention — until a young chemist name John Henry Pepper witnessed the illusion and modified it for easy incorporation into existing theatres.
Today, the term “Pepper’s Ghost” is attributed to the effect, and it works quite nicely based on principles of light reflection and cameo lighting. Essentially, it’s a low-resolution, low brightness (and highly un-portable) effect that relies on a heavy glass plate or a half-silvered mirror mounted at a 45° angle. The glass reflects the hidden “ghosts” that are positioned off stage (or under the stage) into the viewer’s line of sight.
The illusion continues to be used to this day, particularly in theme park installations such as Disney’s Haunted Mansion. Pepper’s basic technology hasn’t changed a bit — until now.
I spoke at length with James Rock, one of three directors of London-based Musion Systems Ltd., a company that’s bringing Pepper’s Ghost into the 21st century — with a mix of high-definition projection, modern video production techniques, and some very advanced thin-film technology. The wizards at Musion have improved its visual clarity to the point where it’s been called a holographic projection system.
“We use the analogy of the telephone,” said Rock. “Pepper’s Ghost and the phone were both invented about the same time, and the telephone remained constant for about 100 years. But as soon as cellular technology came along, phones in general had a renaissance. Pepper’s Ghost also stayed constant for years, based on the limiting factors of glass and video projection at the time. In fact, its patent lapsed. But in effect, Musion is the renaissance of Pepper’s Ghost,” noted Rock. “Instead of creating ghostly effects, we’re using thin film, bright projection and HD sources, and creating images that look real. We think that it’s potentially a new media.”
Together with co-directors Ian O’Connell and Uwe Maass (the inventor of the Musion system), the company’s technology has recently been making waves throughout the events marketplace. Musion’s system, trademarked as the Eyeliner 3D Projection System, has the ability to show live performers side-by-side with projected images, and the ability for both live and “virtual” performers to interact.
When Musion was founded in the mid 1990s, the team looked closely at the limiting factors of Pepper’s Ghost, and analyzed key points where major advances could be made. “The global patent that Uwe received was to produce Pepper’s Ghost using a Mylar screen instead of glass,” explained Rock.
This immediately solved three key problems inherent in the Pepper’s Ghost system — the weight of the glass, the double imaging that occurs when images are reflected in thick glass, and perhaps most important, portability. “The Mylar foil comes in two standard sizes,” continued Rock, “either four or eight meters tall, and when placed on a 45° angle, you have lots of latitude in terms of vertical height. The foil is also high strength, and inherently invisible. It comes on a roll, like shrink wrap, which means that you can roll out a foil as long as needed, and get it into venues easily. And since it is microns thin, there are no drop shadows or fuzziness as you get with thick glass.”
The next key problem was solved by the projection industry itself. “The patent was granted just as HD was starting to rear its head,” said Rock, “and just as the projection companies were starting to get very good with bright projection sources.”
So, with the “ghostly” edges and shadow reflections eliminated, the weight and transparency issues eliminated, the brightness, resolution, and portability problems solved, Pepper’s Ghost went hi-def. “We’ve honed the art of making the screen invisible,” said Rock.
As the company got rolling, projects were sold by word of mouth to select clients, and gradually, the word spread. In parallel, the team was diligent about trademarking Eyeliner and establishing Musion as a brand. And very soon, things caught fire. “One of the seminal moments was Madonna’s opening for the 2006 Grammys,” noted Rock, “in the segment in which she sang with the Gorillaz, the cartoon band. And from that moment, the phone started ringing, with people saying, ‘How on earth have you done that?’
Today, the list of clients for Musion’s technology is impressive, and I’d highly recommend a visit to their website (www.musion.co.uk). Among the highlights, you’ll see a remarkable Cisco “TelePresence” experience, Madonna and the Gorillaz, new car launches, corporate and industrial presentations, and a clip of a special Target fashion show which was presented live in New York’s Grand Central Terminal last November.
The Cisco job embodies the direction in which Rock sees Musion’s technology heading. “The ability to use the Internet to send what is akin to a high definition signal, and have a virtual presenter walk on to the stage, two continents away, and talk to a live moderator — that opens up so much scope,” explained Rock. “We use the term ‘virtuality’ to best describe it.”
Take a roll of thin Mylar film, an HD projector, the proper stage lighting and the right amount of video pre-production, and you’ve got a presentation system that’s greater than the sum of its parts. “There’s a learning curve getting there,” said Rock, “and quite a big investment in time to understand it. But one of the beauties of the system —it’s very simple once you understand it. Yes, it’s two dimensional video that you’re projecting, but it looks 3D.”
Most remarkable to me, is the fact that all of these various components have converged at this place and time, to create a fantastic new media out of an idea originally sparked 150 years ago — Pepper’s Ghost.
