I recently had the opportunity to work with the cast of Scranton Fringe’s upcoming presentation of The Glass Menagerie, where we took fresh actor headshots and then staged a promotional session. I’ve not yet seen the show, but as it was explained to me it focuses on family dynamics largely through the lens of memory. The resulting visual identity for this session relied on heavier processing than I generally use, to emphasize a feeling of half-formed-memory-twilight-dreamstate.
The setup used two lights: an octobox key high to camera right, and an umbrella fill from the side at camera left. Our set was a simple backdrop and a bench, where we arranged the small case in combinations, and the whole feeling was reminiscent of JC Penny family photos from the 1990s.
A treatment of cross-processing to skew the colors, combined with a darkened exposure and heavy vignetting gave the producers the look they had imagined, which to me feels oddly similar to old Victorian-era portraits, but with a jarring modern dissonance. Memory is a funny thing, and some details come through while others are lost in a haze. It can feel poorly-lighted and difficult to recall, with a veneer of drama that maybe wasn’t really there – and I think this session captured that mood.