Rochester Civic Theatre’s latest production was The Neverending Story. The cast was mostly young people, but there were a few adult actors including Lynne. The story is the same, at a high level, as in the 1980s film of the same name, but it’s actually more complex and more interesting.
There were lots of colorful costumes and a pretty terrific set. It was a fairly technical production including a few flying scenes. With all that, the young actors conquered the challenges.
From a photography point of view, the big challenge was the lighting as it was often pretty dark. There were also a few scenes with spotlights which add to the contrast. If you only want to capture the main subject – the one standing in the spot – it’s fine. In fact, it can be great because it’s plenty bright. But often, you also want to show other characters on stage to some degree, and that can be tough.
Here, there was The Nothing which was represented by, well, I’m not sure what it was. It involved actors inside a flexible black fabric that could move and undulate. I’m not sure I did it complete justice although I have a few shots that show it a bit better. But along with spots, it wanted to just disappear. Maybe that’s okay – it was The Nothing!
Other scenes were simpler to capture using my normal camera settings for shows. I’ve been shooting so many, that I have dedicated one of the three custom setups on the 5DMkIII to theatre. I just select C1, and I’m ready to start shooting. I do still have to adjust exposure from there, but it starts me close to where I need to be, and ISO and other settings are ready to go.
My favorite scenes to shoot were those with the turtle, Morla. It was a fun set piece, the head thrusts out of the body before the audience realizes what it is. Then, the lighting is this mix of green and blue and looked great. It was very dark, though, but the color of the gels ends up nice and saturated. It’s one of the joys of digital: when I made my first image and checked the LCD, I could see already how great it looked. It’s sort of “a moment” for a photographer, knowing you have captured something special. Makes me smile.
Sadly, the show ran only two weekends, although they had Saturday matinees and a weekday show for local school children. Many of the young actors were making their main stage debut at RCT, and they did great. Watch RCT in the next month or so as they have some special events and performances dedicated to diversity in what’s become a yearly tradition.
Meanwhile, I’ve had a couple other shoots recently I may try to blog about. But for now, I need to get back to editing! Have a great, and creative, 2013!
