Big Fork Theatre have a reputation for producing amazing improv and sketch comedy; they have performances and run workshops all year round, and are a staple at Brisbane theatre and comedy festivals. The first iteration of Around the Campfire won a precious Anywhere Award from the 2017 Anywhere Festival. As they were prepping the show for the 2018 the Brisbane Comedy Festival, they needed new imagery to capture potential ticket-buyers, and explain the story and the vibe of the show.
How did it go? Achievement Unlocked! The entire run of 2018 Comedy Festival shows was sold out, ensuring an invitation back for similarly-successful 2019 and 2020 runs.
Initial consultation
We have a solid relationship with Big Fork Theatre, with a high level of mutual trust, which enabled us to throw around ideas via email for a few days before the shoot. The Big Forkians (as I like to call them) had solid ideas for how the show could look, and just needed to coax it in to life.
The chats identified a particularly challenging aspect of this project – the smoke shapes over the people’s heads. They needed to be recognisable, and playful, and avoid use of words (to remain compliant with advertising requirements from several festivals). I’d experimented with some smoke painting before, inspired by NZ artist Kelly Gerdes, and we were confident we could make this happen.
We debated using a stock image of a campfire and compositing the figures in, then settled on an on-location shoot at a scout hall.
Required images
- One hero ensemble shot, primarily for poster use; the image should be suitable for a poster with a dark background and copy text.
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The shoot
The Big Forkians had access to a Scout Hall that was perfect – well-managed fire pit, no houses or lights in the background.
We timed the session so the evening light would come in through the trees at the back just a touch, to give a little extra texture.
Shooting on-location with a campfire has its own challenges, most importantly fire safety and safety of the talent – we had the Scout Hall’s scoutmaster tending the fire and keeping everything under control.
During the shoot, we went for maximum variety – rotating the potential storytellers around, and varying the emotions and engagement from all participants.
We finished the session smelling completely of campfire smoke, and packing lots of excellent images.
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Post Production
The smoke painting was the trickiest part of the post-production – a secondary shoot to capture hundreds of smoke images, then the long process of hunting for components to make items on Big Fork’s want list for smokey shapes. Lots of work, and a good fun result.
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Delivery
The file delivery consisted of:
- Online proof gallery for image selection
- Web- and high-resolution image of the hero shot, in multiple orientations
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