John Wyver, University of Westminster
Transparency has been the dominant concern for multi-camera screen performance since the BBC’s 30-line transmissions in the mid-1930s. Multi-camera presentations of theatre, dance and music have almost exclusively been concerned to offer a direct and apparently unmediated window onto the performance with framings, shot-changes and camera movement aspiring to anonymity. ‘The show’s the thing’ is the implicit imperative, and while a multi-camera team is there to identify the best wides, select appropriate details and subtly enhance the experience, it is not in the business of imposing an obvious style or interpretation.
While acknowledging the value of this approach, and its longevity, this paper draws on historical examples and the experience of its presenter with the Royal Shakespeare Company to argue for an embrace of ‘hypermediacy’ in screening performance.
In their book Remediation Jay Bolter and David Grusin introduce the idea of ‘hypermediacy’ to designate a style of visual representation that reminds the viewer of the medium itself, rather than aiming for transparent immediacy. Techniques for this in screen performance can include split-screening, multiple images within the frame, eccentricity in shot choice, a wide variety of camera formats, overlaid graphics and more. The paper suggests that a hypermedial style can be more exciting, more appropriate for certain works, and perhaps even, more honest than persisting with transparency.
Examples will include the late Barrie Gavin’s work collaborations with Pierre Boulez and the presenter’s production (with Todd Macdonald, Blanche McIntyre and Hayley Pepler) of the RSC’s 2023 production of All’s Well That Ends Well.
Biography: John Wyler is a writer and producer with Illuminations, and Professor of the Arts on Screen, University of Westminster. His numerous arts documentaries and screen adaptations of theatre and dance have been honoured with a BAFTA, an International Emmy and a Peabody. From 2012 to 2023 he was Director, Screen Productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company, and was responsible for 37 live and recorded RSC screen adaptations for event cinema and television. He has also collaborated on productions with Donmar Warehouse, the Almeida, New Adventures, Hofesh Shechter Company, Studio Wayne McGregor and Gecko. His publications include The Royal Shakespeare Company on Screen: A Critical History (2019) and the forthcoming Magic Rays of Light: The Early Years of Television in Britain (2026).