Its Hard to be the Bard
“I make it look easy but honey believe me
It's hard,
It's hard,
It's hard,
It's hard,
It's so incredibly hard.
So inconceivably, unbelievably hard.
It's hard to be the bard.”
---Will “Of The People” Shakespeare
Man its awesome being around live theater again!!
Last weekend I shot the dress rehearsal of “Something Rotten” at Clark State’s Kuss Auditorium, and I feel like things are starting to get back to normal again. Knock on wood, right?
First things first, the show was, in a word, AWESOME. Great cast, crew, directing, music, and set. Really. If this was our toe-dip back into the deep end of the “getting back to normal” pool, then throw me in. I’m ready.
I’ve lost count of how many musicals I’ve shot now, but over the last 5-6 years of doing it I’ve really started to hit my stride and feel like this is a niche that I want to pursue. Don’t get me wrong, I love volunteering to help out local theater and always will – but maybe one day working with some larger production groups, and making a little money at it as well, would be icing on the cake for me. (So if you know anyone that you can hook me up with to make that dream happen, please contact me :) ).
All that said, over the last 2 weeks I’ve heard a few comments talking about how easy shooting theater is, and I’ve got to think that’s coming from inexperience and lack of knowledge on the subject.
The first comment came in a YouTube video from a well-known photographer that I follow and watch. He was commenting about the various types of photography, and when he got to theatrical photography, he essentially shrugged it off and said (I’m paraphrasing here) that “Anyone can show up and get great images. The lighting, costumes, actors, and stage are all already there and set up for you, so all you have to do is point and shoot. You can’t help but get great images.”
Huh?
That hasn’t been my experience. It took a lot of work to get to where I’m at.
The second one came in the form of a comment on one of my Instagram images from the Something Rotten show, where someone said “What a cushy assignment.” I know it wasn’t meant to be rude - but again, another comment insinuating that its easy.
To be honest, if it was easy I wouldn’t do it. I love the challenge. I’ve shot weddings in the past and I’d go so far as to argue that theater and musicals are more difficult.
First, you just can’t show up and think you are going to nail it. There’s pre-work to do in the form of reading the script, if you can get your hands on one. And watching prior performances by different theater groups. YouTube is a great resource for this one. For “Rotten” I had nearly 10 hours invested before I showed up at the theater – watching two recorded performances twice and reading the script.
This is the second half of one of the two online versions I watched. This was a high school production from March 22nd of this year. Holy crap, look at that stage. What kind of theater budget does that high school have?
Then the night before the dress rehearsal I went to watch the performance, take notes, and shoot a few shots to test lighting and settings. That’s another 4 hours including drive time.
Finally the dress rehearsal performance – this is where the rubber meets the road, as they say. They aren’t going to stop the performance so you can get the shot, so that means you have to be on your toes and know what to expect, and when and where to expect it. This also means having your cameras set to capture everything while ensuring the images don’t look like a grainy mess, or blown out, or like they were shot from somewhere out in the 10th row.
When I shoot weddings, it is scripted to a point for certain, and you know what shots to get – I mean, its nearly the same shot list for every wedding. And everything else is just being good at capturing moments. I usually have Renee there with me to herd people for family and group photos, which helps a lot. This is WAY different than theater photography – the wedding guests aren’t leaping, singing, and jumping about. And the lighting isn’t constantly changing.
Also, during dress rehearsal I’m taking the time to get images of every cast member if possible. The leads are going to be in plenty of images – it’s the ensemble that often goes unsung, and I do my best to grab their moments too.
Total time for the dress rehearsal night was 6 hours, plus staying up late enough after I get home to get my back-ups running to a secondary hard-drive and the cloud. Then awake early the next morning to spend an hour or two editing some early images, for the PR folks to use on social media to promote the show.
Editing was another 15 hours. That sounds like a lot but that involves sorting the 5000+ images total from both cameras into chronological order, first round picks, second round picks, and then final editing to cull it down to 300 images for delivery.
So that all adds up to about 35 hours. That’s the total investment of my time in just this one show.
And to get there, its taken years of figuring out camera settings, anticipating action, learning cues, and developing my style. I’ve made a few mistakes along the way.
If the end result is images that the cast, crew, and directors love – and I’ve made it look easy – then I’ve done my job.
Like I said it’s a challenge. One that I love.
If it was easy, everyone would do it.
Jeremy
Thanks so much to you, the entire cast and crew of Clark State’s Something Rotten for inviting me into your world to capture this special performance. You all are a shining beacon of hope that things are getting back to normal, and that great theater is once again here to stay.
