Making of Tattoo - update at January 15th 2003

Why and how 

Following the critical success of Cure, a large scale site specific show for the 
mill buildings and underground vaults of Dean Clough in Halifax in 1999, we 
wanted to create another large scale show that could tour and be seen by a 
greater number of people.   Tattoo was born of this desire and was planned for 
the Summer of 2003.   The lead time for developing the show was about 2 years, 
including fundraising, tour booking and artistic development.

We actively sought commissions for the show and contacted Stockton International 
Riverside Festival and Zap Productions in the first instance.   This was because 
both organisations are strategically important in developing a tour that could 
be sustained over a number of years - we want Tattoo to tour for three years. 
Zap Productions runs the Streets of Brighton Festival attended programmers from 
festivals across Europe and beyond, making it a key showcase opportunity.   
Stockton again is attended by promoters and is programmed by Frank Wilson, who 
is well connected with foreign promoters, making this important for the future 
tour too.   Both organisations readily agreed to commission the show for £5,000 
each.   While this is a relatively small amount in relation to the total 
production budget, it was considered an appropriate level to attract key players 
at the right stage in the fundraising process.   Together with a £20,000 
investment from IOU's core funds, it meant that we could include a very good 
level of seed money in subsequent funding applications (£30,000 out of £70,000 
confirmed) and add a stamp of approval to underpin the status and reach of the 
whole project.

IOU's Artistic Director and Executive Producer discussed the brief for the show, 
mapping out what it needed to achieve artistically and strategically.   This 
included who it was for, what the scale would be, the size of the audience, how 
'tourable' it should be and its staging fee level.   At this point, we knew we 
were creating a large scale work for an audience of 2000 to be sold to festivals 
and local authorities across Europe (and beyond in later years) over a three 
year period.  We pinned down the fact that it needed to cost around £12,000 per 
staging and no more in the first year and that the production budget should not 
exceed £70,000 (a figure that was derived by analysing fundraising potential as 
well as production needs.   In fact, fundraisng potential was the driving force.   
If we had felt that it was only possible to raise £60,000, the show would have 
had to be made for that amount and the scale and scope of the project and its 
elements defined from this starting point.

We then put together a development team of artists to look at artistic ideas and 
to create a proposal that could be used for fundraising and tour booking by the 
Executive Producer.   The team comprised Artistic Director David Wheeler, 
Executive Producer Richard Sobey,  IOU deviser maker, and performer Chris 
Squire, IOU performer, composer and musician, Dan Morrison and IOU deviser 
maker, and performer Steve Gumbley.  With more tradition shows, the audience is 
seated facing a stage or performance arena.   We were keen to blur the interface 
between audience and the world created as the show.    It was decided that the 
show should be staged around and through a collected audience of 2000 - rather 
than the audience standing in a ring or semi-circle around a defined performance 
space.   This approach provided a mechanism that would allow IOU to present a 
show with the detail and intimacy for which its work is known while performing 
to a large number of people - we could move our mechanical props and characters 
passed each audience member the we could achieve a richer artistic experience.   
It was also decided that the show would be staged at dusk to utilise the 
changing light and finish the show in darkness.   Sound was also a key element 
in making the show, allowing us to create an experience that would envelop and 
excite without utilising pyrotechnics.   This was important as we knew there 
would be several companies touring shows at the same time with fireworks at the 
core of the delivering scale and spectacle.  The central concern was creating a 
major show that could deliver both scale and the depth of experience that 
characterises IOU shows.    We wanted to approach these issues in an 'IOU' way 
and while we have used fire in the past, we wanted to explore the possibilities 
for intimacy in the context of a large scale festival work.  We decided to use 
deep bass sound to create a soundscape that would surround the audience in an 
ocean of sound out of which could float higher frequencies and more musical 
elements to define the atmosphere of the show and it individual elements.  Dan 
Morrison created a written description of this sound element, together with an 
audio CD of initial thoughts and musical sketches for internal artistic 
development, fundraising and tour booking use.   These were not intended to show 
exactly what the sound would be like, but to define the atmosphere and encompass 
the area in which we would be working. 

The fundraising for and tour booking of the show began in earnest.   
Applications to trusts and foundations were made to cover productions costs.   
This left the statutory sources of funding (including The Arts Council of 
England lottery and touring funds and local authorities) to the promoters who we 
knew would be applying to these funds for staging costs and thus avoided an 
over-reliance on state funding and any double funding issue.   We also set up an 
R&D project with The Sefton Park Preservation Trust in Liverpool, who managed a 
large iron-wrought and glass palm house in the middle of the park.   This 
allowed us to explore the sound element of the show and experiment with using 
deep bass sound inside and out as we started making Tattoo.   It also allowed us 
to collaborate with artists and technicians new to IOU as a way of exploring new 
working relationships and build the pool of artists with whom we work.