Taking the Press Photo

The other day I was searching the web to find a good resource on how to take a good press photo. I found surprisingly little. So I thought I'd share a few of our learnings on marketing images and archival images-- and since it's a visual media, I've included many of ours from the past four productions. There's a difference between the press and the archival, which I discuss in the video, though I've used both the Vlog. The points I do my best to adhere to?
1. Shoot in color with at 300 dpi in the final image
2. Submit photos with strong contrasts
3. Play with angles and height
4. Place your subjects close together
5. Chose a moment that is dynamic and tells part of your story
6. A strong press photo should ask a question

Just 3 more performances of The Woman in Black! Grab your tickets now for the show Albert Goodwyn calls "taut, gripping suspense."

http://www.secondwindtheatre.com/

Stage Picture vs. Blocking

Today's post is about the difference between stage pictures and blocking, and how they work together. It took a bit longer than anticipated to put together, so I'm not going to write much-- just post. But! the defining characteristics I'm trying to get at are their strengths-- stage pictures' ability to provide focus, perspective, and relationship; while blocking is about action. As I wrote in a Tweet last night (and you're all invited to follow the enhanced/abbreviated discussion on Twitter), blocking is dialogue. Dialogue is action. Action becomes present through specificity, intention, and responsiveness. You should be able to tell the story in blocking, without use of words.

A Woman: First Read Thru

Welcome back and welcome in the first read-thru for The Woman in Black. For this series of video blogs we're aiming to be even more interactive than ever, pulling the veil back on the nuts and bolts of producing small theatre. This series will combine video and traditional blog entries in an effort to examine crucial elements of running a company.

For our first entry in The Woman in Black series we have a peek behind the scenes of our first read-thru of the play. Enjoy.

From Meadowland to The Woman In Black

As of 8:54 on Tuesday, September 8th, Second Wind's behind the scenes video blog is back! As a courtesy-- and because we decided that this new installment of our blog would focus more on skill-building tools for small theatres-- we've included all of the old posts from our January 2009 production of Meadowland. We haven't been dark all that time. We co-produced a one-act play called Marked ably directed by Richard Enriquez and written by up-and-coming SF playwright Cassandra Lewis as a part of the Bay One Acts Festival. We also presented the staged reading of my new play, The Tender King, and redesigned the 2nd Wind website to make it more interactive-- a project we're still building upon. And we've been in pre-production for our Fall show.

On October 23rd, Second Wind will open its production of The Woman in Black at The Phoenix Theatre in San Francisco. From now until then we'll be posting a behind-the-scenes look at the production process, along with some of the "how to's" of production. The Woman in Black is an autumn spine-tingler, the perfect Halloween night out-- and one of the most famous theatrical ghost stories in history. It's also a wonderful celebration of the art of theatre and story-telling. Tickets are on sale now, so snatch them up while you can at www.secondwindtheatre.com