I shoot a lot of plays and images to market plays for Zachary Scott Theatre. My favorite piece of marketing for the shows is the post card. The theatre creates one for nearly every show we've done in the past decade. They go out to season ticket holders and targeted, high income households in certain zip codes. Each one is designed to reflect the feeling of the play and each one has its own logo treatment and design touches. At the same time the look and feel are consistent and professional.
I often make the mistake of believing that all print is dead and that may actually be a result of working in the advertising business, tangentially. We always see the stuff heading to television and the web and sometimes we think of print as the bastard child. The afterthought. But the marketing director tells me time and again that there's a particular appeal of getting something physical and well designed in the mailbox. It's a nice respite from the sea of bills. But most of those are going online as well.
While I enjoy the documentation shots we do at the dress rehearsals my favorite types of assignments are the set up shots done well in advance of the openings. The set up or studio shots all seem to happen about six weeks ahead of a show opening and get sent out to their target markets at least a week in advance of the debut.
I took a fun group of friends to see Fully Committed on Friday evening. We started out at a close by restaurant for drinks and appetizers before the show and then walked over in time to be seated. It's an amazing one man show. My favorite actor, Martin Burke, does all 39 parts in the play. He got yet another well deserved standing ovation. Amazing. Live theater is like nothing else.
6 comments:
Very cool! Do you keep a hard copy of each post card in an album?
Kirk, OK so the wife and I will be going to Fully Committed on the 28th. I know that you show lots of photos that you take during the plays (and rehearsals). Will they let members of the audience bring in "non professional" cameras? We will be in the 1st row, and I was hoping to take my Olympus OM-D E-M5 withe the 45mm f/1.8 lens, but I could back off to the Panasonic Leica 25mm f/1.4 if needed. I suppose I could just call and ask them, but I thought other readers of you blog might be interested in the answer too. Thanks!
Nope. Absolutely no cameras during any of the performances with audiences. No exceptions. Sorry.
Kirk, OK, thanks for the lighting quick response.
No Problem. Maybe I'll get the theater to sponsor a workshop and we'll set up a show to shoot. Could be fun.
Kirk, if that should ever happen, I would love to attend! I would even take a day off of work to be at THAT workshop.
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