Second Wind's behind-the-scenes diary: JERUSALEM by Jez Butterworth ~
www.secondwind.8m.com
Monday, September 30, 2019
And in the meantime: Hurricane Images Inc.
Recently, I watched a video essay on what made Robin Williams great as an actor, and they boiled it down to one thing: how he moved. Or more accurately, how he physicalized his characters. His approach brought emotion, history, and personality into motion... and made him a truly visual storyteller. Watch any clip, and you'll see that he's chosen a physical activity for the scene, and through that conveys his internal life. Unlike many other screen actors, you don't see his internal workings in the eyes, but rather the body.
This idea of visual storytelling informs Second Wind's current endeavor, which is actually through Hurricane Images Inc. It's an Oakland video production company we started seven years ago, and have been building ever since. We've been working in commercial film, creating for startups and major corporations like Bitdefenders and Hilton. And we do music videos and photography as well. In 2016, we were named one of the best wedding photographers in Oakland by Expertise.com. Until we're back onstage, come check us out.
This, mate, might be more of a question than an answer. We've just released a new video for our production of Jerusalemat the Phoenix. It's both an innovative way to market the show, and a practical tool for helping audiences understand the thick British slang that pervades the play and sets the mood. We wanted something light, fun, engaging, and informal-- that would get you inside not the world of the play so much as the world of the actors. With the help of Hurricane Images Inc., heere's what we did:
In comparison to other theatre companies, I'd say Second Wind operates on a shoe string. We make amazing things happen on almost nothing. Theatre is, after all, primarily an exercise of imagination. The audience knows the action is a fiction, but suspend their disbelief to to allow their imaginations to journey on a rollercoaster of emotion and thought.
Over the past two decades, we've let our imagination explore a whole range of innovative, inexpensive marketing adventures. Guerilla marketing, by another name. How to get butts in seats tends to be one of those guarded secrets in the theatre world (like marketing budgets). So let's let the cat out of the bag.
Most of the time it's hard to say whether a marketing technique is effective. The metrics aren't there for a good evaluation, and there are typically complex variables. I could talk for a long time about what worked and didn't work about each of these, but instead I'm going to give it a simple "grade" for effectiveness. If you want me to explain why I gave a specific tool a certain grade, leave me a post.
Post Show Discussions. I've included this because it's something you can promote and advertise beyond the show. We've done a number-- critic from the SF Chronicle for our production of Ghost in the Light about art forgeries; Israeli Consultate/MoveOn.org/Jewish Voice for Peace for our production of Murder; GMO activist Pamm Larry for Lullaby Tree. The effective score varies, largely based on how controversial the play topic; the more controversial the better. The score is a range: D-B
Wallet Drop. For A Beautiful Home for the Incurable will bought five used wallets, filled them with the fake I.D. of one of the play characters, and a message informing the "finder" that they had just won a free ticket to the show if they return the wallet. We dropped five in various locations, one "returned." Score: C+ Played 3 Card Monty at the Tix Booth. Almost got kicked out of the square on this one, but we set up a 3-Card Monty game in front of the SF Tix Booth for our production of Top Dog/Underdog. The game is played in the show. Dressed as the character (a black-faced Lincoln) we challenged people waiting in line to play; winner received a free concessions voucher. Score B-.
Art Contest. For Ghost in the Light we conducted a "forgery" contest at the three major art schools in SF. Winner received tickets to the show, their work displayed in the lobby, and they joined the panel discussion with the SF Chronicle critic. Score C+
Behind the Scenes Video. We do this constantly. We photograph rehearsals and put them into video, and film special activities related to the video. Wander around this blog and you'll see what I mean. Score B Post on Related Forums. There are forums for everything. For The Tender King we engaged in conversations on World War II history forums (the play dealt with Truman's decision to drop the bomb). Score D Elite Pass. For two of our productions we created an Elite Pass that would give members special privileges: frree drinks, free returns, half-price youth ticket, and a workshop. Score (B-) Dress Up a Car. For several shows I've gotten a big magnet sticker for the side of my car. Costs about $25. But for The Woman in Black I went all out. The sticker featured a hand coming out of a grave; a severed hand appeared in the window as a continuation. It was October, and the show is a ghost story. Got some looks. Score C+
For comparison, I'll give my scores on some traditional marketing tools: Twitter (C-), Facebook (B), Youtube (B), Google Adwords (C-), Facebook ads (C), Posters (C+)
You'll notice nothing scored higher than a "B". That's because none of them beat word of mouth, building an audience base, email, and postcards. Part of the "genius" of the Jerusalem video is that its designed to get the cast and crew-- who are a part of that word-of-mouth system-- excited about the show. And it can be "re-used" on multiple platforms.
But these are just some of the things we've done around untraditional marketing. What have you done? Share an idea. Join the conversation.
We went into the studio this weekend to shoot about 3 minutes worth of footage for the production. We scheduled six hours over two days to get it done. To say I'm proud would be ridiculously arrogant, because the real work, the real creativity and beauty, the real accomplishment was by others: the filming, costumes, choreography, and acting was the result of other people's inspiration. Many thanks to Colin Day, our Director of Photography who also made it possible to work in a real studio, and Richard Enriquez, film director for the sequences. This one is worth watching....
We're entering a more frenetic time, production-wise. The flurry of activity and tension is due to the fact we're scheduled to film the video segments of the play this weekend-- and thus need costumes, lines, and scene work to be spot on-- and also because we're about two rehearsal days behind where I'd like to be. It's unusual for me; most of the time I'm able to pace the process more closely, but so many elements (and as I've said before, so much physical movement) have made it more difficult. Yesterday was the first formal "off book" day. It was rough, but in general they did pretty well. There are glimmers of beauty, but a lot of mud to clean up. So I thought I'd talk about my approach to directing, particularly as it relates to the strengths and weaknesses of being the playwright.
This time it's an inside look at rehearsals in moving images. I've shied away from taking footage of scene work because I think it's too intrusive. It's too easy to start acting for the camera (for both the actor and the director). But Thursday's rehearsal was focused on integrating movement and fight choreography into the scene-work, giving an opportunity to shoot a little more tape. We've slipped about a day behind in the rehearsal process; there's just too much physical work to cover, and it always takes longer than one expects. Where we'll make it up, nobody knows. It's particularly frightening, because we'll take a 11 day break for the holidays, and if we're not solid before then, the show could slip dramatically. On the bright side, Arthur Keng returned from NY after 2 weeks out of rehearsals very much ready to go. When a moment catches fire for the first time in rehearsal is a blessed thing.
Okay, it's two in the morning, I've spent 10 hours of my Sunday in either production meetings or rehearsals (I ended up bookending a 4 hour rehearsal with design meetings), the light in this shot is beyond awful, and I'm having trouble forming sentences. Not my sharpest entry. Maybe it's the whiskey. But if you jump about a third of the way in there's some nice footage of our fight choreography excersizes, and some face casting for masks. We also worked the "romantic" scenes, but you won't see any of that. Thanks to Richard Enriquez for his camera work (and everybody else for their commitment).
Rather than have me describe our first read-thru, I'm going to rely on pictures being worth more than my words. At Second Wind we like our first rehearsal to be casual; too often, the cast doesn't get to know each other until after the show opens. Photography by Richard Enriquez (all the good shots) and myself.
