What's Your Damage, Heather? Photography for a Musical

Creating photography for a musical production relies on good clean photography, good costuming, and the actors bringing their characters to life!

Dear Diary, My Teen-Angst BullSh*t now has a body count.

I still remember watching bits and pieces of the original Heathers on vhs. Now, its back as a musical. And, our job was to create photography for the musical promotions!

My friends at The Footlight Club tapped me to put together the poster art and character portraits for this iconic throw back to the 80’s.

Creating Photography for The Icons

Creating cast portraits for a show like this took a little thinking and a lot of collaboration with Eleza Kort, the director, Amanda Bedford and Olivia Sederlund, the producers, and Michael Colford, the Club’s publicity director.

In order to highlight the color schemes of each character, we decided to go minimalist and bright.

The studio shoot took place over two different sessions to accommodate scheduling challenges.

Character Portraits for Social Media

The lighting was fairly simple. It varied between using a large octabank for the poster cover to using a beauty dish for the individuals. The beauty dish is great for creating a hard, fashion-esque light. But, it doesn’t really provide good coverage for groups.

We had each actor stand on a 2 foot tall platform to get a RollingStone feel.

Costumes, Wigs and Characters

With a minimalist set, and only a couple of mallets for props, costume becomes very important for images like this.

Lead costume designer, Sara Tess Neumann, was on hand to tweak her creations and give the actors even more life.