Design Photography Myth
- Thread startertyler.martin
- Start date
shiben
Well-Known Member
Well, for one, its rude, and could be a creative property issue. As for safety, i feel its a bigger issue in dance, where the performer wont likely be blinded as much, and needs to see fairly well. Also, the low angle usually is a problem IMO, because its right where they will be looking. Basically, I consider people who use flash photos during shows to be dicks, but thats just me.
Not a myth at all.
-It can be dangerous especially for Dancers, or people in situations where they are near an edge and could fall. Why? Because properly positioned stage lights are not shining directly into your line of site. They are coming down from above (at about a 45 degree angle). But the flash on the other hand is directly in your line of site. Try it! You'll be amazed at how shocking and bright a flash appears to be even with full stage lights on.
-It's really rude and distracting to other people in the audience. Try sitting next to the idiot taking pictures. Your vision is constantly getting screwed up.
-It's distracting to the actors... especially in educational theater where young actors are struggling to just remember their lines.
-The flash isn't going to do the camera any good unless you have professional gear. The typical flash that Mom and Dad are using to take pictures of their kids, only has a range of around 20 feet (maybe less).
-Finally, depending on the show, there may be contractual issues that make it illegal to take still photos.
I give them three choices: turn off the flash, give me the camera, or leave my theater.
-It can be dangerous especially for Dancers, or people in situations where they are near an edge and could fall. Why? Because properly positioned stage lights are not shining directly into your line of site. They are coming down from above (at about a 45 degree angle). But the flash on the other hand is directly in your line of site. Try it! You'll be amazed at how shocking and bright a flash appears to be even with full stage lights on.
-It's really rude and distracting to other people in the audience. Try sitting next to the idiot taking pictures. Your vision is constantly getting screwed up.
-It's distracting to the actors... especially in educational theater where young actors are struggling to just remember their lines.
-The flash isn't going to do the camera any good unless you have professional gear. The typical flash that Mom and Dad are using to take pictures of their kids, only has a range of around 20 feet (maybe less).
-Finally, depending on the show, there may be contractual issues that make it illegal to take still photos.
I give them three choices: turn off the flash, give me the camera, or leave my theater.
DuckJordan
Touring IATSE Member
it is illegal for any shows you pay rights for, any shakespear plays are all right free so photography is perfectly legal, as long as you have permission from the CD, TD, SD, and Head Director, as well as any of the other designers. As far as dangerous yes it is very dangerous. I have had my stage so bright that a flash doesn't show up on the stage so our friendly little yearbook people thought they could do it durring a very acrobatic scene. almost made the acrobat fall off a 10' platform. I preceded to show just how dangerous it could be i took the camera told the person to stand on a platform and on my cue had them tell me how many fingers i was holding up. the first time... No flash got it right, the second time. even 4 seconds after the flash they couldn't tell.
tyler.martin
Active Member
How crazy are you will cell phones? There is one theatre up here where if you take your cellphone out during a performance, the ushers or FOH manager will ask you to leave and not come back. Especially now that some phones like Blackberry have a crazy bright LED flash, I think its just as bad as using a camera.
In school, we watched a video of a show where everytime someone took a picture with flash, the console op fired some strobes that were pointed at the audience
In school, we watched a video of a show where everytime someone took a picture with flash, the console op fired some strobes that were pointed at the audience
edmedmoped
Active Member
Find it now!In school, we watched a video of a show where everytime someone took a picture with flash, the console op fired some strobes that were pointed at the audience
Our school and my local theatre doesn't allow flash photography (come to think of it, my school doesn't allow any photography). We try to rephrase the pre-show announcement so that people will actually listen to them, because you find people get too used to "no flash photography" and will only respond to "due to copyright restrictions, the use of all photography is prohibited" or something along those lines... Seems to work.
That also applies with mobiles - everyone is so accustomed to hearing "please turn mobile phones off" and they just end up ignoring it.
DuckJordan
Touring IATSE Member
How crazy are you will cell phones? There is one theatre up here where if you take your cellphone out during a performance, the ushers or FOH manager will ask you to leave and not come back. Especially now that some phones like Blackberry have a crazy bright LED flash, I think its just as bad as using a camera.
In school, we watched a video of a show where everytime someone took a picture with flash, the console op fired some strobes that were pointed at the audience
On broadway you get a $500 fine if your phone goes off let alone if you instigate texting or a call. so its not so crazy if your paying to see a show why should you have to listen to someone else's sell phone or see the brightness of their dumb texting.
MarshallPope
Well-Known Member
This reminded me of the recorded announcement that was used at a community theatre show I saw a few months back. After the standard (albeit excited, as per the director's norm) no cell phone notice, his phone rang, he made some comment, and then there was a lion's roar and the sounds of him being eaten. It got the point across...
JChenault
Well-Known Member
At my venue we are no pictures, period. Even when we invited parents of cast members to the preview for our children's/family show we did not allow pictures. I take pictures and our GM takes pictures for archival purposes and thats it.
At my wife's venue its a show by show thing. They of course go non-flash but many of the music groups that come in want the audience to take pictures. In fact, I have been asked before by a road guy if we disallowed photography because he did not see flashes going off during a certain song. Many also allow people to take video of the show as well as audio recording. The idea is that they will later go post this stuff on facebook, youtube, and flickr and get a more free publicity. Here is some video shot by an audience member at a show a little over a week ago...
One thing many tour managers are requesting though is that anyone with a DSLR or a camera with interchangeable lenses be pulled from the audience. From the sounds of it they are OK with the fairly crappy quality pictures that you get from most point and shoots but don't want people taking good pictures with wide aperture cameras that they can then turn around and sell.
At my wife's venue its a show by show thing. They of course go non-flash but many of the music groups that come in want the audience to take pictures. In fact, I have been asked before by a road guy if we disallowed photography because he did not see flashes going off during a certain song. Many also allow people to take video of the show as well as audio recording. The idea is that they will later go post this stuff on facebook, youtube, and flickr and get a more free publicity. Here is some video shot by an audience member at a show a little over a week ago...
One thing many tour managers are requesting though is that anyone with a DSLR or a camera with interchangeable lenses be pulled from the audience. From the sounds of it they are OK with the fairly crappy quality pictures that you get from most point and shoots but don't want people taking good pictures with wide aperture cameras that they can then turn around and sell.
shiben
Well-Known Member
We had one show where there was not a single issue of phones going off or cameras being used. Course, it was about a bunch of terrorists taking over a theatre, and they might have implied that the theatre being taken over was ours, and there may or may not have been people getting shot or blown up in pretty much every scene, but no one used a camera, had a cell phone incident, or even went to the bathroom for that matter. We did have a few people go a little loopy when we dumped in the fog and the actors started collapsing, but overall it was good. At any rate, flashes are really poor decisions in theatres IMO because they also happen to illuminate every spec of dust in the air, which in the average theatre, is a lot.
Corbettlight
Active Member
I have never heard or seen this myself, do you have a source for this?
DuckJordan
Touring IATSE Member
this was told to me by the director at our school when we went to the Guthrie, he told us that while the Guthrie may not be that strict that he has heard of it happening on Broadway. I am not sure if its true or if it is how they do it. but he rarely tends to speak about something unless he is sure of it.
shiben
Well-Known Member
That just seems difficult to enforce. I can see them kicking you out, but half the time you dont know who's phone rang, and kicking people out is often a bigger disturbance. People think im crazy (it might be the foil cap), but we should start building Faraday cages around theaters... Then they can read our thoughts either! Only real problem would be that there is no way to turn it off....
DuckJordan
Touring IATSE Member
i had that same thought, although i was going for a mass signal jammer, instead of the copper mesh... mine would take a lot of power to do but it would have a switch 
only problem is i believe the fcc banned such devices. something about no wireless device may interfere with things... yada yada. (i'm still thinking of building one and just not telling anyone) lol
only problem is i believe the fcc banned such devices. something about no wireless device may interfere with things... yada yada. (i'm still thinking of building one and just not telling anyone) lol
