Little Shop of Horrors - Changing things up a bit
Last week I shot the Dress Rehearsal for the John Legend Theater’s production of Little Shop of Horrors. This was the first time for me shooting this musical, and I was very much looking forward to it. As usual, I spent time watching several performances of it on YouTube and refreshed my memory of the plot, characters, and songs.
For this production, I did a few things different this time.
First, the JLT wanted some early images to start getting them out there to the public several days before the show, to help drive ticket sales. This meant that Troy the director had to get a few scenes completely ready in terms of wardrobe and lighting so that I could shoot them on Tuesday instead of my normal Thursday final DR shoot. Tuesday went well, with several good opportunities for images. I completed the edits early the next morning, and JLT started using them to promote the show for advance ticket sales. Here are a few of my favorites from that night. Click on the first image to open in a new window and scroll through.
Because I was coming back on Thursday to shoot the entire DR with knowledge of blocking and where the action was happening, the second new thing I did was to bring my 14-24mm f/2.8 wide angle lens with me for that night. I don’t bring that with me to musical/theater shoots because it is often just too wide and I can’t justify it over my other two lenses - the 24-70mm f/2.8 and the 70-200mm f/2.8. But during the Summer Arts Festival earlier this summer, I added connection points and Peak Design anchors so that I could carry a third camera on my harness with the 14-24mm lens. It worked great for those times when I was on stage and near the band. Knowing that there were parts of the Little Shop performance that took place right at the edge of the stage, I thought having it would be a great idea.
It turns out that it was the right way to go, as it added a new perspective to some of the scenes, and also allowed me to get some big wide shots of the stage and set. Below are several of my favorite images shot on all three of the lenses I had with me. Click on the first image to open in a new window and scroll through.
Carrying 3 cameras with heavy lenses on a Black Rapid harness certainly get tiring after a few hours, but it really is a great way to have all of the bases covered in regard to focal length. Would I do this for every performance in the future from now on? Probably not, but its nice to have the option.
In a perfect world, I’d be able to watch an early dress rehearsal for every show, and then show up for the final one knowing where and when all of the action would be on the stage. Where I can I’ll try to work this more into future shows, but it does add a lot of extra time onto an already long and time-consuming process. Time (no pun intended) will tell as I continue to shoot more and more shows over the coming years.
As always, thanks for reading!
Jeremy