Photoshoot

As the weekend arrives (hooray) the Copenhagen team announce a new advertising campaign. The show is well under way in rehearsal (first act blocked, actors learning lines, set materials on order) so now we can turn to the important matters – selling tickets! All available from the Guild website, which is incredibly easy to use.

The first poster was an illustration used to advertise the workshops in January and February. The logo was designed to incorporate Bohr’s atomic model, with the elliptical orbit of the electron spilling over onto the drawing linking the two elements together. Being a movie fan, I love the use of taglines to sum up a film on a cinema poster. Some of the best have become part of our language ("A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..." Star Wars 1977; "Who you gonna call?" Ghostbusters 1984). Others thankfully have been forgotten (“Titans. Will. Clash.” Clash of the Titans 2010) “Catalyst Reaction Change” isn’t great but is my attempt to get some of that style into the artwork. The phrase also reflects how Bohr and Heisenberg approach the problem of the play.

I knew that when it came to the main poster, I wanted to use photographic images of the cast. As the drawing represented a generic Margrethe, Bohr and Heisenberg, I wanted to sell the show as real people discussing real questions.

So, with a willing cast we had two options. Either shoot at the Guild and build an environment in the computer to place them into exactly as the workshop poster presents them, or find a new location that has some of the elements needed. Whilst out for a walk with my family, I went past Ingress Abbey, Greenhithe. Now I’d known of it for years, but I’d never looked at it as a photoshoot venue. And I’d never considered finding out whom and what went on inside…

Pandora International area a Post Production Company primarily dealing with telecine, colour grading and ingestion of film stock, and conversion to digital material. For a better explanation of what they do see their website http://www.pandora-int.com/.

After emails and telephone calls to David Nuttall of Pandora, we were granted access to a couple of rooms inside the Abbey at 11 o’clock on Saturday 26^th March. We gathered on the driveway at the back, Mikey and Detta in costume, soon joined by Barry (costume couriered over with Angela) and me with the digital camera borrowed from work. David brought us through the building and into the orangery. It was perfect. Lots of light, cream walls, potted trees for texture.

And so we started. I’d promised not to take too long, an hour tops. We were all a little self-conscious. My cast aren’t models and I’m certainly no photographer, but after a few giggles and some cumbersome direction from me, we finished the room. I’d got coverage of all the cast, singly, paired up and in a variety of trios. The plan was always to use a base shot then have alternative reflections and mirrored images around the cast, as demonstrated in the workshop poster.

Now we came to the big one: a dark wood panelled room, with a flagstone staircase, banisters adorned with gothic carving, leading up to a vaulted gallery. Too cool. Again we set to work, everyone more comfortable in their role here. Now we had height as well as depth to play with.

As we were leaving, David asked if we wanted to use the courtyard. Not wanting to say no to anything free, we spent ten minutes working outside, taking some of the best shots of the day.

We left David to lock up, incredibly excited by the morning’s work. This was new, inspiring. Pushing out, finding a venue, getting it all together. Brilliant.

But I knew I wasn’t finished yet. The photos had to be formed into a new poster. Out of the 370 shots taken in just over an hour, I needed to find something to move the ideas from the workshop poster forward, reflect the themes and mystery of the play and show off my hard working cast in a fabulous way.

So did it work? Have a look at the poster, come and see the show in May and judge for yourself. Keep an eye out, too, for the character banners that will be appearing around the Guild soon….