Today I did a morning photo shoot with Will Bishop, Oli MacFarlane, Heather Fantham, Sam Knights and Riss Obolensky for the play Racing Demon. The play centres around three vicars in London, and their struggle to come to terms with the modern world, where god is no longer is spelt with a capital G. We met up outside the ADC Theatre to wander the streets and do some publicity shots for the play.
We did several shots on Portugal Street. Here Oli in the foreground, and Sam and Heather in the background. As we were shooting the snow started to fall. Here I am photographing from a slightly lower angle to get a cleaner background behind Oli.Selfie time for the cast and crew. Sam Knights, Heather Fantham, Oli MacFarlane, Will Bishop and Riss ObolenskyThe director Will liked the look of the parking lot, so we decided to drive in there. One thing I like about photographing actors is that they do not mind silly suggestions. They were quite happy in their air car, but then a real car showed up behind them and they all scattered.A line-up in the parking lot. Here we are taking advantage of the lamp to light up Oli’s face.mSam Knights, Oli MacFarlane and Heather Fantham.Just some random action shots. Sam and Heather are lit by lamps in front of them, but for Oli we needed to wait for a car to drive in with its headlights on, which might explain the urgency in their jumps.We saw the no smoking sign and staged this. There is something about the lines and the light and darkness in this photo that appeals to me.Trying out another potential poster photo. I probably used too big an aperture here, since it might have been nice to have Sam and Heather sharp.There were still some snow left on the roof of the parking lot. I asked the actors to imagine that they had been indoors for a month, and finally got to see the sky. Good fun! They were skipping about. There is even a video clip…On our way down we did a few quick shots in the staircase. The trick as always is to make sure there is a window or other light source near each face to illuminate them.Back at the ADC Theatre were we started. Sam Knights, Heather Fantham and Oli MacFarlane.
Racing Demon plays at the Corpus Playroom February 3-7. Not sure if you can get your tickets already, but keep an eye out for the coming ad. Update: Added the poster designed by Hannah Grace Taylor below.
After this photo shoot I stayed at the ADC Theatre to photograph another Evolution rehearsal. Photos from that will come later.
Johannes
The final result…
The final poster designed by the talented Hannah Grace Taylor. The white vertical stripes makes the photo more three dimensional with Oli almost walking out of the picture.
Cast
Frances Parnell – Bea Svistunenko
The Rev Tony Ferris – Oli MacFarlane
The Rev Donna ‘Streaky’ Bacon – Heather Fantham
The Rev Harry Henderson – Sam Knights
Heather Espy – Bethan Davidson
Ewan Gilmour/The Bishop of Kingston – Ian Johnston
The Bishop of Southwark/Tommy Adair – Ed Limb
The Rev Lionel Espy – Silas Lee
Stella Marr – Amy Malone
Production Team
Director – Will Bishop
Producer – Miranda Venables
Assistant Director – Riss Obolensky
Photographer – Johannes Hjorth
Publicity Designer – Hannah Taylor
Stage Manager – Ronit Wineman
Lighting Designer – Kathryn Dodds
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