ABSTRACT
When shooting in thrust and in-the-round spaces, quite often you find the best composition of performers is framed against the seating, or worse, against part of the seating and part of the set. You may recall my thoughts on this from Chapter 9. These considerations also apply to other situations, but especially with these types of venues. This is a situation that all designers on the show should accept as part of the cost of doing business in these venues, but you can mitigate the damage done by seeing your nice period costumes against old orange folding theatre seats. Remember the depth-of-field trade-offs, and take advantage of the opportunity to blur the background out. You might need to do some lens math in advance, in order to see how far away you need to be from the subject for various aperture settings. Or, if you have access, go to the venue in advance and try shooting some test shots at different aperture settings, allowing you to get a better sense of your camera’s specific depth-offield capabilities. You also need to keep a close eye out, usually between when the audience files out and when the actors are back from taking a rest break, for leftover programs, hats, coats, and other audience flotsam and jetsam. I also make sure all the seats are in a uniform position if they will be in the shot, either all folded down or all folded up. It’s a small consideration, but the disarray in the background could distract the viewer’s eye from your more important subject matter. Through the call, you need to continue to keep a lookout for other loose objects the performers might bring back in with them and leave lying about, including props and costumes for other shots, and my personal favorite, the lone water bottle that suddenly appears in your frame.
