Well, things have been busy here since I returned from Grand Canyon! There have been various shoots – including a wonderful session with my grandson to celebrate his first six months. I’ve created a couple posters that will be on stage in Max’s office of Rochester Civic Theatre’s production of The Producers. Looking forward to that – it’s fun having your work up on stage! And, I’ve been preparing prints to be displayed in the RCT lobby during the run of The Producers. What I haven’t been doing is blogging!
I thought I’d post up a few shots from my recent photo shoot of The Philadelphia Story at Riverland Community College in Austin.
I’m actually not familiar with the Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn film. When shooting a show live, I seem to maintain only a slight connection to the actual story. I’m focused on the visual elements and trying to capture the sense of the show in my pictures. What I do see and understand are the expressions of the actors.
Most of the action in the story happens in a box set of this one large room. The wall color add some nice interest, but the lighting plays less of a factor in a show like this than in a, say, a musical or a show with deeper themes such as Shadowlands I recently shot. Working with this lighting, my goal is to capture expressions, interactions between actors, and other compositional elements – leading lines or triangular compositions.
On either side of the box set, we had small set elements used now and then. Those gave me nice dark backgrounds helping to pull the actor or actors out.
And some of the more intimate interactions happened in these small sets.
It’s interesting and fun to shoot a variety of shows. A romantic comedy is different to shoot than a farce which is different from a musical. I begin each shoot looking over the set, thinking about possibilities, and where I should be standing. Or, more correctly, what various places might make good shooting positions.
With a live shoot, sometimes my positioning works out, sometimes not, but thinking about it up front helps. As the players move, I try to see the composition I want and react accordingly. It’s always challenging and always a blast.
This year is shaping up to be an excellent one for local theatre. RCT has already announced their 2013-2014 season which kicks of with Les Misérables this fall. I can’t wait to shoot that show. And, of course, The Producers opens in less than a week. (And, a week from tonight, my photo display will be up in the lobby!) That was the first show we saw on Broadway. The other show we saw on Broadway, Spamalot, will be produced by Summerset Theatre in Austin, MN this summer. Very cool, and it will be fun having Spamalot playing in the city that’s home of its namesake meat. Then the Plainview Community Theater has announced their musical for the fall, Wizard of Oz.
So, folks, you have no excuses – get out of your easy chair an into a theatre!
