Shooting Theatre Productions
A few weeks ago I shot the production of Titanic the Musical at Baldwin-Wallace. While I was there, I ran into my former photography professor, Paul Jacklitch. Paul just won a guru award at the photoshop world expo a few months ago and it was well deserved. See his submission here: http://photoshopworld.com/guru-awards-winners/. We were talking about shooting theatre and both came to the conclusion that it’s one of the best ways to learn your camera inside and out. Lighting constantly changes from very bright to very dark, subjects are constantly moving, and there can be many different things going on at once. So as a photographer, you worry about:
- your ISO, because it’s so dark at one moment that you are forced to crank it up, and then 3 minutes later suddenly the scene is way too bright and you have to adjust again
- keeping your shutter speed fast enough to freeze motion but slow enough to let in enough light because theatrical productions are notoriously dark to the camera’s sensor
- What metering you use, because sometimes one part of the scene is lit by a spotlight, while other things aren’t nearly as bright.
With these things in mind, I have started shooting in shutter priority mode, using spot-metering, and leaving my ISO in auto. When I owned a lesser camera (rebel xsi), I shot in full manual all the time but since moving to the 5d mkii I’ve started trusting the camera a little more to understand the scene. A scary thing to do, especially in a theatrical environment.
Here’s the most important thing though: you have to move all these technical worries to the back of your mind. Let those things become like riding a bike, just do them. What you need to focus on is the interactions between actors, the “decisive-moments” where you catch the emotions the actor is trying to elicit to the audience or the interaction and subsequent illustration of the human condition between two actors on stage. Not only do you have to focus on those moments, you have to anticipate them.
How do you anticipate those things? I do a few things to prepare for a production shoot. If it’s a musical, I listen to a cast recording if possible. I’ll read plot summaries, or the entire work if I can get my hands on it. If I can, I’ll go to a few rehearsals and examine blocking and interactions. Understanding how the director wants the show to be presented to the audience, as well as remembering what blocking happens when and where is one of the best things you can do to prepare yourself to capture those moments.
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