Poster designed and photographed by Kyle Cassidy
(Post written Aug. 6, 2013, but published Jan 6, 2015)
Here’s a change of pace from the comedy plays. ambient forest prettiness and community community work.
Actor Josh Hitchens excels at one-man performances; his one-man Dracula is, by all accounts, astounding. In 2013 he worked up a piece from the court statements of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Ryan Walters (whom you can see in action as Toby Belch in Twelfth Night) directed the performance, which occurred in the basement space of Kyle Cassidy and Jennifer Summerfield as part of the 4th Annual SoLow Festival (June 20-30, 2013).
Everyone involved wanted a video record of the performance. There was also the possibility that the video might be used as a commercial product or, at the very least, something to sell the play to others who may wish to perform it. So after the run of the play, I met up with Josh and Ryan in Kyle’s basement, and Josh performed the play for the camera.
I shot the play with my GH2, and since it was lit with a single light bulb– the utility light Josh uses throughout the performance– using Kyle’s fast 20mm lens was a big help. Going in, I wasn’t sure what kind of coverage would work. We set up three cameras, only one of which would follow Josh during the play, and I wound up using that take and pretty much not using the rest.
Although we wanted to give the video coverage a better sense of cinema, I didn’t want to add a lot of cleverness, like video effects or slow motion or anything like that. And we certainly didn’t want to use any of those things you see in movies about serial killers: jittery shots of journals, close-ups of animal parts, that algae-green palette David Fincher likes. The point was Josh’s performance. He really didn’t need any enhancements. But the thing was filmed in a basement, and it was lit by a single light bulb, so it wound up having “that look” without any post-production trickery.
So we gathered to shoot some inserts a few days later. Ryan and Josh and I settled on inserts of Josh’s hands, which we could cut away to if it’d enhance his monologue. There were murders that Josh performs in a very physical manner, under very different lighting conditions, and we needed to capture those in a striking and unique way. But the overall video takes a very direct approach of simply following Josh Hitchens as he inhabits Jeffrey Dahmer for an hour and twenty minutes. The final video’s shaping up to have some editing flair, maybe a smidge of slow motion and some camera movements added in post…
Kyle chose the music: Victoria Voronyansky, “Andante from Sonata for Violin Solo No. 2,” from her album Anabasis Red Viola.
As of August 6th, 2013, I’m still editing the video of the full performance. But we did develop this short trailer for the play. Warning: although there is no actual violence depicted in this trailer, the subject matter is deeply disturbing (it’s Jeffrey Dahmer, fer Gosh sakes), so this may not be suitable for all viewers.