Work in Progress

I just wanted to share the behind-the-scenes process for this shot. The photo shoot was pretty quick at the end of a rehearsal, about a week and a half before the show opened. The set for Yankee Tavern wasn’t built yet, so we pushed together some bars and threw some black curtains over a couple of room dividers. The main light came from a full-blast remote Speedlight SB 600 that was handheld on a stepladder. In post, I changed the color of Katie’s shirt to match the woman’s dress in Hopper’s painting. Also adjusted the color on the bar and the back wall, filled in the dark background, and adjusted the lighting. A printout of the original “Nighthawks” by Edward Hopper is visible on the right edge of the bar in the unedited photo.

Yankee Tavern from David Mandel on Vimeo.

PURE Theatre is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization in Charleston, South Carolina. We’re in rehearsal for Yankee Tavern, a play by Steven Dietz. This clip features interviews with the cast: Will Hodges, Katie Huard, Randy Neale & Mark Poremba. The show is directed by Sharon Graci, PURE’s artistic director.

I’m associate artistic director for PURE, and I filmed this clip on a Nikon D300S.