Aleister Crowley’s The Rite of Saturn
In previous posts I have written about how we create a narrative around the poetic content of The Rites of Eleusis, in order to make them more accessible to the audience.
Those who saw The Rite of Saturn may recall how we employed this technique in the opening Overture to The Rite of Saturn, Kronos the Titan.
In case you were unable to attend, you are in for a treat!
This is a rough cut of what will appear on the streaming video and DVD, but it captures the way the entire premise of our presentation of The Rite of Saturn was set, with themes of mind altering sacrament and brutal oppression before a single line of dialog is spoken. There is still some color correction and final audio mixing that will be taking place in the coming months, but as you can see, it is already pretty great.
The architect of this scene is Melissa Holm, who used the opening musical interlude to set a tone of mystery and peace, of a social harmony and a sacred ritual space that is entirely disrupted and overthrown in the final moments of the opening. Working with the cast (most notably Richard Cardone, Ryan Holsather, and Shawna Jacques) to craft a swift, violent and decisive overthrow by an outside force, the stage is set for the interactions that will ensue.
The featured dancers, Sony Hinojosa and Tara McMillen, add to the sense of other-worldliness that precedes the disruption, while the lighting and fire effects created by Touran De Anda and Marcos Duran, respectively complete the setting. The set itself was constructed on the platform used for the carousel in The Rite of Jupiter in the garage of Daniel and Ana Christensen with the assistance of Posh Eckert, Julie McCoy, Dana Gasbarri, Joshua Hanson and Melissa Holm.
And I would be remiss if I failed to mention Bob Jones and Nicole Plastino, who shot and edited the footage of several performances into this presentations, and Christian Ballard with Dead Albatross Studios, who will be providing the final audio mix. You can see both of their amazing handiwork on The Rite of Jupiter.
There are a great many people to thank, really, and I am certain I will be reminded of more in the coming hours!
By the way, since now would be the best time for a shameless plug, you can purchase or rent The Rite of Saturn in advance for streaming and download via our Vimeo site!
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/ritesofeleusis
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/ritesofeleusis