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The Who’s Tommy – A Photo Manipulation!

This is not the story of Young Tommy, the deaf dumb and blind kid. It’s the story of The Poster for Tommy, with a behind the scenes video.
This is not the story of Young Tommy, the deaf dumb and blind kid. It’s the story of The Poster for Tommy, with a behind the scenes video.

Behind the Scenes Creation of a Poster

Ah, the story of Young Tommy, who witnesses his father’s brutal murder, goes blind, deaf and dumb, discovers pinball, creates a religious cult and then gets thrown out of it. All set to a great rock and roll score.

Actually, I never did much like the movie. However, from what I have seen of the musical being produced right now at the Footlight Club, this is going to be an awesome stage show!

Kristin MacDougall introduced me to the director, Kristi Wivagg and we hashed out the poster concept in an evening. Simple really. Photograph the reflection of young Tommy in a silver sphere.

Ah, but then it gets interesting. We don’t have access to the actor playing Tommy. We don’t have a silver sphere. And, when we do get one (it’s amazing what you can find on ebay, isn’t it?), it’s basically taking a picture of a round mirror. You see everything!

It took a little retouching, but we got it cleaned up and simplified.

Here’s the behind the scenes timelapse for a sneak peak at what happens here in the studio.

Related Stories from the Studio . . .

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To paraphrase Elvis Costello, for this shoot, we are "shooting" the Detectives. Creating poster portraits of the greatest detective, Sherlock Holmes, in the production of Miss Holmes.

Creating the Gothic Horror Poster for Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None" was a team effort.

The poster and character portrait shoot for The Importance of Being Earnest