A.D. Drumm Images, LLC – Landscape, Portrait, and Fine Art Photography in Rochester MN Photography

May 23, 2011

Black Comedy

Filed under: Rochester Civic Theatre — Tony Drumm @ 7:19 pm

We shot the show photos for Black Comedy on Saturday. It was great to see the show a second time – we had attended opening night. It’s a farce, and it has every important element of a farce – most importantly, it’s very very funny!

Black Comedy uses an interesting concept – nearly all of the show takes place in the dark or near dark. To overcome this problem – how do you put on a play in the dark? – the lighting is reversed. When the characters are in the dark, the stage is fully lit. When they have light, the stage is dark. It’s quite a hoot to watch the actors seemingly stumbling in the “dark” when they are fully lit. But the audience also gains a new perspective, seeing facial reactions by characters who know the others can’t see them.

It’s tons of fun and was interesting to photograph. Greg, our esteemed director, once again uses everyone on stage and the entire stage to craft the show. So, there are quite a few longer shots to try to capture all that’s happening. The shot above is one for which I realized my house-center position was just losing its impact. Luckily, I realized this pretty quickly and had Ben and Christina position themselves a second time when I moved audience left to capture the perspective I wanted. Ben’s a trooper. He’s also rather bruised from the show! Did I mention all the physical comedy?

Photographically, this shot was one of my favorites. I did a bit of post work on it in Lightroom. There are a few shots that involved someone lighting a match or a lighter or a candle or a flashlight. In keeping with the mixed-up lighting theme, the lights dim when someone produces some lighting device.

I try to respect the stage by not overworking my shots. I want them to still provide the feel of a stage production, but sometimes I feel I can enhance reality a bit keeping the integrity of the shot while also adding a bit more emotion than what a straight-from-camera image would give. The theatre experience is more than just flat, two-dimensional images.

In this case, I darkened the background leaving highlights approximately where the match light would fall. But I didn’t try to go fully realistic. If I had, the background would have been reduced to black and there are some strong shadows from the overhead stage lights which would need to be addressed. But as it is, I think it looks good and produces the right reaction. And it looks like it might very well have looked like this on stage.

Some shots are just fun. They give us a taste of the show – it’s just wacky and a riot. This scene took place in the upstairs bedroom of the apartment. Time for a long lens and a bit longer exposure due to the reduced light up there. After shooting many shows, you learn that there are places on stage that have pretty hot light and others that tend to have much less, in general. There are exceptions and, of course, there are moodier lighting cues. But certainly center stage and down stage, though not right at the front, have the most light. As you move from there, the light drops off. Shooting manual mode, you need to adjust for this.

This was a shoot with a lot lower intensity than, say Beauty and the Beast. There’s only one box set, there are only a few props moving on and off stage and a minimum of costume changes. It’s a much smaller cast, and they are all very experienced. And they know the drill when Greg is setting up the shots and I’m shooting. The shoot went quickly.

The show runs one more weekend. It’s the sort of show where you leave your concerns and cares at the door and just laugh until it hurts. In short, it’s a great way to spend an evening!

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