Live Vs. Taped

The planetarium/star theater community, like any other professional community, has its standard practices and controversies about them. They don’t rise to the level of scorched-earth politics (usually, unless you happen to bring up “global warming” or “Pluto is/is not a planet” in a discussion group) but there are a few topics that are guaranteed to stir up some strong emotions. One of them used to be “live vs. taped” shows.

Back in the early days, before automated projector banks, planetarium lecturers had to rely on pushing buttons as they lectured for images to come up, and do this while they were talking. This could get complex if a planetarian had a lot of images to bring up in just the right sequence. If somebody was good at it, they were smokin’. If they weren’t… well, think about how it feels nowadays to watch people do PowerPoint presentations… trying to mouse and talk at the same time.

In the 1970s, automati0n started coming into the planetarium, and that meant the lucky planetarian could program a show to happen without having to push buttons live. Add in a soundtrack and you had a nice presentation that was the same for everybody who came to the theater (barring a slide projector jamming or a power outage, or something like that). That practice grew, and so did the discussions about whether a live or a taped presentation was better.

Nowadays, with fulldome digital video theaters on the rise, the ability to simply push a button and play a movie to deliver significant, good, entertaining content is a good one to have. It doesn’t preclude live presentations, but it does allow greater flexibility for planetarians who want, above all, to deliver a message about astronomy in the best, most efficient, and hopefully entertaining and educational way possible.

So, I said up there that there USED to be a controvery about live vs. taped. Actually, there still is. But, now it seems to center around whether or not we should have live star talks or taped star talks. My answer: whatever works for YOU (in your theater).

You see, I’ve done both. And, I can definitely see the need for both types of shows. There are times when a planetarian want to have interactivity with your audience (say, a teacher with students doing an interactive session in a small dome, for example). But, there are facilities that see much larger crowds, or don’t have enough trained staff to do star talks, or for many other reasons wish to show a taped star talk. What to do?

A few years ago, at the request of a colleague who wanted to experiment with taped star talks because he couldn’t give all the star talks at his facility and he didn’t have access to trained staffers to help out, I scripted a set of taped star talks. He was happy and we decided to take that kernal of an idea and turn them into fulldome video presentations (you can read about them here).

Once we (Mark and I at Loch Ness Productions) publicized them, we came in for praise AND criticism. That was to be expected, given the passions that such things ignite among our colleagues. I’m happy with the way they turned out, and those who have gotten them (or seen them) are impressed, too. So, I conclude that there’s room for both and I don’t suggest that one replaces the other. Each has its place.

So, what ties this to yesterday’s commentary is what goes in a star show (whether live or taped)? As I mentioned yesterday, I prefer not to go hot and heavy into the star legends in my live (or taped) talks. It’s a matter of choice, but one that stems from my own childhood frustration at not being able to see those patterns in the sky that I saw in the elaborate star maps that some of the books had. I remember feeling really dumb because I thought I was the only one not seeing those patterns. Then, when I first visited the planetarium, it dawned on me that there were simpler patterns to see, and easier ways to learn the night sky, without all the confusing mythological patterns.

Oh, don’t get me wrong. I love the star myths. And, there’s a place for them in certain types of star presentations. But, I still think that a good beginning star talk should simply show people around the sky, minus the street theater.

Astronomy is a fun science, but like anything else with levels of complexity, it can seem daunting at first. Sometimes you have to start simple and work your way over to the complex stuff (like the star legends or the science topics) once you’ve made sure that the audience members have a good feel for finding their way around the sky.