Last week I shot the dress rehearsal of the co-production of Macbeth by Clark State University and Youth Arts Ambassadors. It was fitting for such a scary tale that I shot it on Halloween Night - October 31st. For those of you who were not forced required to read Macbeth and other Shakespeare works in school, a synopsis can be found here.

This shoot was especially challenging, because instead of the performance taking place in the main theater of the Kuss Theater, it was in the much smaller “black box” area called The Turner Studio. I’ve shot performances in there before in the past — for example: Clybourne Park and The Crucible. What makes this venue challenging is just how tight the space is. This means I am basically right on top of the actors at their level, versus shooting a regular stage where I am effectively just below them with my camera slightly pointing up.

Given the small space and other commitments, I shot this one solo. To be fair, a second shooter here, while maybe getting an angle that I could not get, mostly can be a burden as we are often on top of each other, or worse, I have to keep editing them out of my shots.

Lens choice here is always a struggle for me. My common set up is my 24-70mm f/2.8 on one D850, and a 70-200mm f/2.8 on a second D850. I use a Black Rapid “Double Breathe” camera harness to carry both rigs, and this has been a godsend for saving both my neck and back. It evenly distributes the weight without strangling me to death, while keeping both cameras down at my sides ready to go when needed. The struggle in this small venue is whether to carry my usual set-up, or go with just one camera and lens combo, like for example a D850 paired with my 24-120mm f/4 lens. It has excellent VR just like my 2.8 lenses, and gives me a more flexible range. I just give up a little on the long side. Once again, however, for this production I errored on the side of (heavy) safety and brought my two camera/lens set-up with me instead. There were times I wish I had something a little wider like my 14-24mm f/2.8. Maybe next time I’ll bring that and also the 24-120mm and see how it goes.

Lighting was difficult as usual, with a lot of scenes so dark that I was pushing some seriously high ISO’s, but nothing that a little post-production couldn’t handle.

Below are some of my favorite images from the shoot. Click on the first one to scroll thru them in a pop-up window.

As you can see, I like to mix it up between a wide scene like the audience often sees, and more intimate details that really show the drama and what’s going on in the show. My usual MO is to move around a lot during a production to capture scenes from different angles, versus just shooting dead-on from the middle of the stage.

I have another production to shoot in a few weeks - Sweeney Todd. This should be a lot of fun, as its one of my favorite plays and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it every time I have seen it. I’ve never shot it before so I am looking forward to it. Stay tuned!

If you have a theatrical event or performance and are interested in professional service and images, please feel free to reach out to me!

As always, thanks for reading.

Jeremy