Studio project step by step

During this month I focused on the development of my studio project.

Over the last few weeks I attended the rehearsals of "Black Comedy", it has been fundamental for me to take part to the preparation of the play since I wanted to know my subjects and the story before shooting. Through my project I wanted to explore the relationship between the character and the actor, in particular, I want to show how a character is just like an "empty container" before someone plays its role and brings it to life.

During the rehearsals I did many sketches and wrote down many notes that helped me to understand the solutions to take for my final project.

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My idea has always been to present two shots side by side, one portraying only "the appearance" of the character and the other showing the real personality, so I have sketched all the key scenes of the play and I made a list of adjectives that best represent each role. Originally, I intended to shoot in the studio, but the first time I went to the Playhouse I found a little stage with a red carpet and black curtains in the background which I immediately considered an ideal location since I could have my subject in context. The last (but not least) problem was the lighting. I already had an idea in my mind about how I wanted my subjects to be lit, but now that I would not have used the studio anymore I had to consider how to get the same results with a portable kit.

I had the opportunity to practice outdoor on the applicant day and then I tried again myself shooting indoor in Hardwick. I have tried few setups and I decided to use a traditional one light setting, positioning the light on the side, slightly over the height of my subject and using an umbrella as a diffuser.

On the shooting day (last Sunday) replicating the lighting on location was a little bit more difficult and I took a while to get a satisfying result. One of the problems was the light spots that appeared on the left sides of my pictures, and even if I managed to reduce them I haven't been able to completely get rid of them.

While it has been fairly easy to get good results of the actors playing the character, it was much more challenging to get the pictures in which they had to show no emotions. Wherever I asked them to look (at the camera or elsewhere) they were still communicating many emotions and they were still playing a role, posing in front of the camera. So I have tried to ask them to close their eyes.

I really enjoyed to work on this project and I am happy with the final outcome. I have never been confident with studio photography and I really have a lot to learn, but while I was shooting I discovered a confidence giving directions to my subjects that I was absolutely unaware to have and I think I have improved a lot in this sense.

Shooting these pictures made me think a lot about the concept of "portrait", I took photographs of "characters", imaginary people invented by their author, but I strongly believe ones cannot play a role without adding its own personality.

I want this projects to raise questions to the viewers about our identity and to show the abilities of an actor to bring a character to life.