Photographing Charlotte’s Web the Musical
This spring I, yet again, had the pleasure of working with Four Seasons Musical Theatre, this time photographing Charlotte's Web the Musical. I really enjoy working with the people at Four Seasons because of the positive and creative energy that generates off of them.
I can roughly divide what I did in three parts: Promotional shots, headshots and then photographing the dress rehearsal.
We took a very different approach to the promos and the headshots than for Narnia last fall. There, the headshots had a darker feel to them and the promos were done inside.
For the promo shots, producer Marie-Andrée Rowsell and I scouted Langford and Metchosin for a nice, red barn. We saw some red buildings, even some red barns, but nothing that would suit our purpose. We were about to give up when we found our barn, almost hidden from view behind houses. In fact, we almost missed it. We knocked on the owner's door and got permission to do the shoot the following Saturday morning.
Cati Landry (Charlotte) and Márus Gunnarsson (Wilbur) graced the cover of the program.
The shoot went well, and a few weeks later it was time for the head shots. I shot them in the gym at Belmont Secondary School, where I felt I had all the space in the world (if I had a studio even quarter that size, I'd be a happy photographer). The setup was clean and simple, and with Marie writing down names and file numbers, I managed to photograph 36 members of the cast and crew in 43 minutes. It was fast, but I was really happy with the results.
Molly Lydon.
Jeremy Sprague.
The two Wilburs. Márus Gunnarsson (left) and Daniel Hunwick split the part during the show as Wilbur grew from a runt to a full grown pig.
Avery Paul.
Finally it was time for dress rehearsal. I was able to see one full rehearsal before the dress rehearsal, and had to make do with that. There was an enormous difference in photographing Charlotte's Web as opposed to Narnia because of the faster pace of Charlotte's Web. I only wish I could have had two dress rehearsals to shoot.
The show was lively, and even though there are scenes that cause the audience to shed a tear or two it is first and foremost a fun show, which leaves you with a good feeling. And on a personal level, it sure didn't ruin things for me to have my son taking on the role of older Wilbur.
For those of you who missed it, you missed a great show. Those who didn't miss it can attest to that.
Charlotte (Cati Landry) puts here finishing touch on her first words in the web: Some pig.
Goose (Jo Barnes) and Gander (Terry Rowsell) watch farmer Zuckerman (Brian Thibodeau) shovel dirt.
Charlotte (Cati Landry) reassures Wilbur (Márus Gunnarsson), with the help of Goose (Jo Barnes), Gander (Terry Rowsell) and Lamb (Megan Day).
Gander (Terry Rowsell) announces that goslings are on the way.Summer, summer...
The judges (Heather Senkler and Jeremy Sprague) at the county fair measure Wilbur (Márus Gunnarsson).
Wilbur is a crowd favourite.
Wilbur (Márus Gunnarsson) ponders life.
Wilbur (Daniel Hunwick) doesn't expect Goose (Jo Barnes) and Gander (Terry Rowsell) to sneak up on him.
John Arable (Stan Davis) and Sadie (Ashleigh Martens).
Sadie (Ashleigh Martens) breaks up a fight between two boys (Austin Black and Daniel Hunwick) at the county fair.
People wait excitedly by the pig pen to see what special award Wilbur is getting.
Abby Schmidt and Avery Paul sing at the county fair.
Charlotte (Cati Landry) and Wilbur (Márus Gunnarsson) say their last goodbyes.
Narnia: Taking photos inside a wardrobe
Near the end of October, Langford, BC's, communtiy theatre, Four Seasons Musical Theatre, opened their latest show; Narnia: The lion, the witch and the wardrobe.
They had gotten me to take promotional photos and headshots for them, and as it turned out I ended up shooting a fair bit during rehearsals as well (one of the reasons for that was that my son was in the play, so I was driving him there and picking him up anyway).
For the promo shots I brought in a white seamless backdrop and two strobes. I set up in the hallway of the middle school housing the theatre, and that gave my quite enough room to work in. The kids who played the siblings Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy were a treat to work with (as were, in fact, all the members of the cast and crew), and the assistant director, Heather Senkler, made sure the kids' poses and facial expressions were according to what the production team had envisioned.
The Narnia logo as used on an insert for the show's program.
The siblings: Edmund (David Underhill), Peter (Harrison Kwantes), Susan (Veronique Beaudet) and Lucy (Lily Cave).
When it came to the headshots, there was one thing I knew I did not want to do: traditional school portrait style photos. Not for this production. Instead I went for a slightly darker approach. Or maybe a bit more than 'slightly'. I lit up one side of a person's face while the other half remained in the shade. And I had them turn the shadow side towards the camera. The producers liked the idea right from the start, Narnia being a bit of a dark story and all. Some people were a bit taken aback when they saw their photo on the back of my camera, but when all was said done, and the photos had been printed in black and white and put on display in the lobby before each performance, I think they liked them (at least most of them did).
Brian Thibodeau played the part of Father Christmas.
Erika Pryer was one of the trees. The part of a tree may not seem like a glorious role, but these were no ordinary trees.
Deanna Callander choreographed the show.
One of my favourite parts was shooting the dress rehearsal. I was able to move freely around the auditorium, stand on the armrests of the seats, roll around in front of the stage, and even stand on the edge of the stage (only on the sides, as not to cause too much of a distraction to either the cast or director Terry Rowsell), without worrying about obstructing anyone's view.
Shooting a live theatre performance like this one is a challenge. The stage is sometimes gloomy and almost dark, while at other times it's ridiculously bright. And I won't even go into the different colours of the lights. I set the white balance to 3500K about two (very orange) minutes into the play, and if I'd pick out a random photo from that night, it was probably shot at ISO 2000, f/2.8, with a shutter speed of maybe 1/125.
I loved every minute of this. Being involved with a group like the one around Narnia is... energizing, for lack of a better word. The cast and crew were about 60 in all, which is a huge production for a community theatre, and they did a fantastic job of entertaining each and everyone who came to wander the woods of Narnia.
Aslan (Dwayne Gordon) and the White Witch (Faith Bergevin-Beilin).
Mrs. and Mr. Beaver (Kathie Hunwick and John Cave).
Lucy (Lily Cave) has some tea and biscuits at Mr. Tumnus' (Jonathan Hunwick) place.
Aslan (Dwayne Gordon) and Edmund (David Underhill) talk things over.
Edmund (David Underhill) is scrutinized by Fenris Ulf (Amy Rose Hamelin).
Father Christmas (Brian Thibodeau) brings Christmas back to Narnia.
The White Witch (Faith Bergevin-Beilin) and Aslan (Dwayne Gordon) engage in a heated discussion about the deep magic of Narnia.
The white stag (Katelyn MacKellen) prances around the forests of Narnia.
I told you the trees of Narnia were no ordinary trees.
Some of the people behind the scenes: Roger Traviss, Marie-Andrée Rowsell and Michelle Buck.
Rocky Horror Saltspring Show
I've long been a fan of The Rocky Horror (Picture) Show. I had only once seen it live on stage until this summer, when virtually by accident I had the chance to see it on Saltspring* Island. Two weeks later I was back on Saltspring, and this time to photograph af full performance of the show at Fulford Hall.
I started by going downstairs to the dressing room, where I photographed the actors getting ready for the show. Even though the performance itself is the main thing, I always enjoy a little behind the scene stuff. After shooting a while in the dressing room I went back up to the main hall and got myself ready for the performance.
Shooting a live performance like this is quite a challenge. The light is constantly changing, and often is quite low. I used my 70-200 lens almost the whole time, with the aperture wide open at f/2.8, and sometimes had to crank the ISO up to 4000 and slow the shutter down to 1/60. To make matters even trickier, I forgot to bring an extra memory card (that better not happen again) - which was bad because intermission doesn't come at the 50% mark, but rather at the 70% mark! That meant I had to shoot some of the images of the first half as JPG instead of RAW, which conjured up some interesting Iceandic swearwords during post processing. At the intermission I emptied my memory card on to my laptop, which allowed me to shoot RAW and no JPG during the second half.
Another challenge during a live stage performance is where I can shoot. I didn't move around a lot - had I done that, I would have been too intrusive to both he audience and the cast. It helped having seen the show two weeks earlier, even though I hadn't watched it as a photographer preparing for a shoot would have.
Oh, and one more thing. I thought that my shutter wouldn't be too loud, as this is a loud show - or so I thought. In general it is loud. But there are quiet parts, and those parts I wanted to photograph too. And every time I fired of a shot, I made sure I didn't look around too much. Instead I just imagined the angry stares I was getting for being so loud.
But all in all I think it went quite well. It would certainly have been better to shoot during rehearsal, thus having the freedom to walk around the auditorum (and even the stage itself), plus using different lenses, such as as a 24-70, but at least this gave me a whiff of theatrical photography, something which interests me.
And since you've so diligentely read the post I think I ought to give you a peek at the end result.
[Edit (August 30th, 2010): For those interested, prints from the performance can now be bought through SmugMug.]
Morgan Donnelly receives his Frank-N-Furter makeup.
Megan Colgan gets ready to go on stage as Magenta.
The Narrator (Eric Booth) didn't miss a beat as members of the audience heckled him during the show.
Jeremy Monkman's Brad tried to maintain his cool while being undressed by Columbia and Magenta.
Jekka Mack's Janet tried her best to be modest while Riff Raff undressed her.
Frank-N-Furter (Morgan Donnelly) kisses Janet's arm, much to the dismay of Brad (Jeremy Monkman) and Janet (Jekka Mack).
Riff Raff (Ross Hughes) wathces as Frankie plays Brad and Janet.
Rocky (Amos Mitchell) and Janet (Jekka Mack) had a hard time controlling their urges.
Janet (Jekka Mack) sings at Frankie's Floor Show.
Morgan Donnelly had Frank-N-Furter pose for the camera during a song.
Frank-N-Furter (Morgan Donnelly) sings about going home, while Brad (Jeremy Monkman) and Janet (Jekka Mack) get more confused by the minute.
Rocky (Amos Mitchell), Magenta (Megan Colgan), Dr. Scott (Sid Filkow) and Columbia (Meaghen Toole) do the Time Warp at the end of the show.