Let’s get one thing settled: I am not a conservative nor a Republican. Many of the opinions presented in the following videos do not reflect my own.
I volunteered for this project mainly because it seemed like a good, provocative idea– to offset the generally liberal-left theater community with plays written from a conservative point of view. The plays were to be directed and performed straight, without any kind of sarcasm or snarkiness or jokey winking at the audience. The authors would have a decent chance to reach an audience and, maybe, promote a little across-the-proverbial-aisle understanding. I liked that approach, probably because any attempt to make fun would strike me as very lazy humor. So I volunteered to do some video work on the project.
The first job was to make a better Kickstarter appeal video. So I met festival founder Cara Blouin down at the Plays and Players theater, and shot the following:
I’m especially fond of that prominent, but ambiguous “One Way” sign at the upper left.
A few days later, I visited one of the rehearsal spaces, where one of the authors stopped by while taking his kid for a walk. We started the interview with the kid in a nearby stroller, but his cry for attention was too charming to _not_ work into the final product.
That same day, I also shot a promo where three of the actresses involved offered some of their insights on the project. I could only use one camera, so this video is of a much lower resolution. Also, because the room wasn’t terribly bright, signal-boosting created some digital noise, so I experimented with some noise reduction techniques.
More promos were made by attending a few rehearsals, and using footage from those along with interviews and other sources. The following video, about a playlet titled “501(c) Me,” was shot in the Plays and Players 3rd floor bar, where the light was very, very dim. We decided that a muddy-but-visible video was acceptable, as long as we could circulate some kind of promo video.
While I shot the “501(c) Me” rehearsal, photographer Kyle Cassidy shot the rehearsals for one of the festival’s more notable plays, “Battle Hymn.” We decided that this play required a good promo for several reasons. It was one of the more emotional, and less satiric, plays in the festival, and it was the only one to deal with religious matters. Also, the author lived in the Midwest, and we wanted to show her that we were treating her work with respect.
I did a rough edit, but decided that an interview with director Cara Blouin was needed for a good final draft. (I’m very happy with that interview footage, where we had the opportunity to use good lighting and choose an interesting background.)
During the actual run, I shot some rough coverage of the entire festival from the back of the room. I hope to build a DVD package, which can be given to the participants as a record of the event. That’ll be part of my work during November-January; editing the actual footage, and developing the DVD package of menus, extras, etc.