Publicity stills shot for last year’s production of Shakespeare’s King John at the Union Theatre.
Thanks to the whole cast and production team, all of whom mucked in as assistants at various points.
Category Archives: Posters
The Pitchfork Disney poster
One of several poster images prepared to advertise the revival of Philip Ridley’s play The Pitchfork Disney at the Arcola Theatre.
Shooting actor (and all-round good egg) Nathan Stewart-Jarrett in nothing but a thin, open jacket under a wind-tunnel bridge on a midwinter’s evening presented a number of challenges, not least of which was trying not to freeze him to death. The resulting image is actually a composite with elements from seven different photos (the fluffy clouds of Te Anau, New Zealand give a star turn) and a tiny bit of CGI, making this one of the most technically-complicated shots I’ve ever produced.
Based on an original concept by photographer Annabel Vere.
Insert cockney rhyming slang here
Some more from the revival of Lionel Bart’s Fings Aint Wot They Used T’Be earlier this year at the Union Theatre. The pictures speak for themselves, although I took the liberty of expunging the girls-on-their-knees number (use your imagination) to protect more innocent audiences…
Particular thanks to Chris Hornby and Oliver Townsend for their assistance on the publicity shoot.
It’s also only fair to namecheck the unsung heroes (beyond the cast and everyone else involved, of course) who make a key difference to the visuals when photographing the production itself, so here goes: for sumptuous lighting design, Jason Meininger, for sumptuous design of everything else, Oliver Townsend (again), and, as associate designer, Emma Tompkins.
Doing a poster on a microbudget
You will need:
- One Myra Hindley expression
- One table mat
- One chopped-up legal folder
- One Director’s Extremely Cooperative Boyfriend
- Imaginative directions and innuendo (batch)
- Not-especially-straight lines (batch)
- One Producer
- Producer’s exquisite bow-shaped lips (pair)
- One stick of vivid red glittery lipstick
- One piece of torn white card
- Glue
- One Talented Graphic Designer Called Richard Dobbs
- One Photographer
Serves: 1,000
Preparation time: Overnight
Stand Photographer upright, garnish with table mat or chopped-up legal folder (to suit preference). Marinade in Myra Hindley expression. Illuminate to taste.
Simmer Photographer gently, being careful not to bring to the boil, leave to cool and freeze overnight.
Stand Director’s Extremely Cooperative Boyfriend upright, garnish with table mat. Marinade with imaginative directions and innuendo. Illuminate as before and refrigerate in a large fridge.
Remove Director’s Extremely Cooperative Boyfriend from fridge and decorate temporarily for cockney spelling test. Fail test.
Remove decorations, then skewer Director’s Extremely Cooperative Boyfriend while still cold on not-especially-straight lines.
Apply stick of vivid red glittery lipstick to Producer. Remove Producer’s exquisite bow-shaped lips and glue to piece of torn white card (illustrated above). Sprinkle Director’s Extremely Cooperative Boyfriend skewered on not-especially-straight lines with Producer’s exquisite bow-shaped lips glued to piece of torn white card.
Taking care not to damage Producer’s exquisite bow-shaped lips glued to piece of torn white card attached to Director’s Extremely Cooperative Boyfriend, detach Director’s Extremely Cooperative Boyfriend’s head above the nostrils. Dust with Talented Graphic Designer Called Richard Dobbs and serve.
Where were we…?
How, exactly, does one resume a blog after writing nothing for a year?
There are, I suppose, a couple of choices:
- I could explain everything that’s actually happened over the last 12 months in great detail. That’d be quite dull.
- I could fake it, and turn the last year into 10,000 words of confessional melodrama, complete with passion, pain, joy, dramatic volte-faces and satisfying character arcs. First of all, though, none of it would be true. And second, this isn’t a confessional blog (unless you count “I saw a peacock in the park and went to New Zealand” as confessional); I’m not out to write Bridget Jones’s Diary.
- I could pretend that I’d actually been blogging all this time and that my efforts were lost to the vagaries of the internet, in much the same way that hamsters used to be fond of maths homework. That would not only be a lie, but would also suggest that I attach such importance to vomiting my thoughts onto the internet that I tweet my breakfast. I don’t.
So I settled on this: sorry for the gap, I allowed my attention to wander to other things, I’m back now, and if you’re reading this, then I thank you very much.
One of the things to which my attention wandered was, of course, taking pictures. And over the next few posts that’s probably all I’ll be writing about. So steel yourselves: first up are a few highlights from the wonderful, colourful, creative world of London theatre.
Starting with DoubleFalsehood, the play that was controversially admitted to the accepted canon of Shakespeare works in 2010 and carries just a hint of darkness.
Falsehood’s (excellent) first professional production in over 200 years presented a bit of a challenge for the publicity photos. We needed to get across the idea of a rape without (a) showing too much, (b) producing something too literal and just plain unattractive and (c) making it look too campy.
Other images we shot that never made it to press (revealed here in a shock world exclusive) included a suicide attempt and more than a little blood on the dance floor.
A highly successful and entertaining run at the Union Theatre and the New Players Theatre followed, from which some production photos below.
Director Andrew Keates’ Conjugal Rites, at the Courtyard Theatre in Hoxton, starring Alexandra Boyd and Gary Heron, was a very different kind of play: a very funny battle of the sexes set in a couple’s bedroom, I had the privilege of taking the production photos.
And finally, at a top secret gothic location bursting with all things valuable far from central London (ooooh…!), amid health and safety requirements and disclaimers aplenty, I spent a highly entertaining evening shooting for Courtesans, soprano Lizzie Byrne’s three-man extravaganza with actor Paul Hegarty and pianist Stefano Curina that explores the lives of three historical ladies of ill-repute. We left behind not a scratch and the venue’s owners – I can only assume – breathed a sigh of relief as the security gates dropped down behind us.
