Moonlit in New Orleans, Hoxton

Late last year, I shoot a new key art commission with actress Joanna Vanderham (@joannavanderhamofficial ) for A Streetcar Named Desire at Sheffield Theatres, which involved a real lighting challenge.

Moonlit in Manhattan, Hoxton

Joanna (The Runaway, Warrior, The Boy with the Topknot) will be playing Blanche Dubois in the Tennessee Williams classic, and ace art director Rebecca Pitt‘s concept envisioned a long view on Blanche, gazing out of a New Orleans window in moonlit reverie with the city sleeping beyond.

As we couldn’t travel to the States for the perfect clear night, some creativity was needed!

Window of Opportunity

I began by constructing a rough window frame, through which gauzy curtains could blow, carefully isolating the foreground from the background, so we could create a sense of warm, soft interiority and a cooler nighttime exterior, with harder ‘moonlight’. Plenty of gels, and a lovely Profoto Fresnel spot did the job perfectly.

Then with appropriate costuming by the theatre and ace period hair & makeup by Rebecca Lymbourides, it was over to Joanna to inhabit the ‘scene’, bringing us lots of subtle variations that gave the theatre an agony of choice for the poster

Getting the right balance of wind and light to match the thought and energy was the challenge, but Joanna was patient as well as super charismatic on camera, so we got there.

Rebecca then finessed the imagery we captured into the scene, and it was, if I do say so myself, a pretty seamless match.

Check out the BTS video above for a full flavour of how we did it. and the full range of imagery below

Actually there, sort of.

When you can’t actually go to the place, making the studio as much like the actual place as possible is what makes this sort of work so enjoyable.

The Team

Shot on fujifilmuk gfx 100 ii and profoto lighting.

Assistant: Betty Oxlade Martin

Art Director: Rebecca Pitt

Hair & Makup: Becca Lymbourides

Edit: Rebecca and I.