Last night, after the opening performance of Chicago (an awesome show, by the way!), Rochester Civic Theatre announced their next season which begins this September. With the new shows unveiled, I can finally show you the show posters I’ve been working on!
I was just looking at the files on my computer. I began working on RCT posters for the 2006-2007 season. I’ve had some posters I’m quite proud of, but my skills in lighting and taking the photos that form the basis as well as my Photoshop chops have improved a ton. Learning is part of being an artist, and I hope I am always able to look back and say, yes, I’m better today.
I thought I’d present the posters in order of the coming season which starts with Kill Me Deadly. This is, in fact, my favorite. The idea – Greg Miller, artistic director at RCT, again developed the basic concepts – was to model this after a film noir poster from the movies. We used Bogart’s Maltese Falcon as our model. Greg and I collaborate from the outset, and I send proofs to Greg during the process. Is this what you were thinking? Thoughts? Greg sends back his ideas, notes my misspellings(!), etc. For this, it was, can it be more painterly? More graphic, less photographic. Okay. Let’s try this.
An interesting turn was the background. I had a nice black to transparent gradient behind the models, not unlike what you see here. But at some point, I decided to use one of the newer painting brushes in Photoshop CS5 and just draw in a background by hand. I loved it right away. Added some layer effects to our hero to set him off from the background, and we were down to just tweaking. I think I’d enjoy having this one printed up big and hung up like a movie poster.
Next up is Flowers for Algernon. I don’t know this show in detail, but I’ve heard it compared to an old film, Charlie, which I saw years ago when it was in theaters. This was fairly straightforward, trying a few different concepts for the mouse – how it looks, where it sits. One of my final changes was to intertwine its tail slightly with the “w” to make it feel more connected. I began with a plain background and Greg suggested finding “smart things” to put there. That worked pretty well. I had some different color variations but ended up with a pretty monochromatic palette, which I think works.
Photographically, the poster for The Neverending Storywas the most interesting. I needed to light the boy’s face as though the light emanated from the book itself. He was a trooper, letting me shoot several shots with small adjustments, getting things right, while being blasted in the face by a gel’d flash.
The December show tends to be something with wide family appeal for the holidays, so this show should fit the bill. It will have it’s technical challenges, too, I’m assuming. Dragons and all.
Part of what I love about the posters for this season is the variety. We go from a very photographic image to a pair that are quite graphic and non-photographic. The family of three in this image was one I showed a while back in an earlier preview post. Since I use photos as the core of the posters, I made sure I shot this from the proper angle. It works so much easier and better than trying to morph the angle and perspective in post processing. I stood on a ladder to take this shot.
The long shadow deserves a second look as the effect there – as it was in Greg’s original sketch – shows subtly the theme of this show. It’s amazing how adding the background texture to this image makes it whole. It somehow connects the elements producing a very different look than a plain background.
The 2013 spring musical will be The Marvelous Wonderettes with a lot of classic 50s and 60s music. The logo for this show was provided to the theatre, so it became the central element. We shot this photo with our four female models and, as you might guess, I basically traced their forms. When I was a kid, we had an artist in the neighborhood who taught art classes in his home on Saturday mornings. Mom knew I loved to draw, so she signed me up. I took his classes for several years. I’d never claim to be much of a painter, but I did learn a lot which helps me in my photography somewhat, and certainly helps when I have tasks like this. I think I did a reasonable job with things like the necklaces and other elements. He’s no longer with us, but I think of Joe Saling whenever I do something like this.
Kayley was blowing a big bubble for our photos, but I ended up creating a bubble from scratch to work a bit better. She also had a short wig that didn’t come across very “girly,” so Greg asked if I could add a pony tail. That helped a lot. I pulled colors from the logo except for the hair, and added a bunch of stars to the background based on those in the logo.
As it turned out, the last show for next season, Rounding Third, was the first poster I did. We had a couple ideas for this poster and ended up with this one. No human models, so I was able to begin working on it right away. I borrowed a baseball from a fellow at work who provided several from which to choose. This one had enough dirt and character to be interesting. I began with a black background. Greg suggested a ball field. Well, I just happened to have some shots I took years ago that worked. I gave this a hint of the sports magazine cover look that I used last season for Home Games. But just a hint.
That’s it – six shows that look like the makings of a great season. Season tickets and RCT memberships are on sale now. If you’re in Rochester, I highly recommend becoming both a member and a season ticket holder. If you don’t know much about RCT and the quality of their productions, buy a ticket to Chicago and see for yourself. The talent on- and off-stage is remarkable. It’s a bargain, and you’ll be helping keep the arts active in Rochester. There’s really nothing like live theatre. And, by the way, you’ll be able to see much bigger versions of my posters!
