July 15, 2006
The Making Of: Saturday in the Park with Friends in Beloit
As you may have seen on the Flickr set, the dog's owner used peanut butter on the ground to get it to "pose" for us.
How it came together...
Becky sent email to the Friends of Riverfront group about 10 days before the event. Our local newspaper ran a story - on the FRONT PAGE - on Wednesday before with color photo version seen on the flyer cpy I posted at Flickr. Becky and I told anyone we met about our plans to stage the photo op. I was more interested in getting photographers to shoot it, Becky was into getting volunteers to pose.
We had a picnic table "marshalling area" (you can see this in some of Jim Simonson's photos of the event) with props and printed copies of the painting. It seemed that about half or more participants had done their home work or already knew Seurat and this painting well. We also had 3 or 4 "positioners" taking people to locations and each of these people had a printed copy of Seurat's painting with them.
We decided on this location over 2 others about a month earlier and noted the location for camera angle and estimated time of day for optimum light/shadow conditions. We figured on a 2-hour window of opportunity that was totally dependent on the sun coming out. (W'e'd have shot without, but it wouldn't have been as good result.) Three days before the event, Becky and I took a print of the painting to the site, we numbered each subject location on the painting and walked it with can of brown spray paint to mark spots on the grass, including the spot to place the camera. We didn't do foreground locations because a lot of line-of-site and perspective issues required more bodies to work with than our 4 eyes, so we figured the foreground characters would get placed on the day of shooting.
On the day of the shoot, about 3 hours before, Becky and I and another volunteer numbered and placed 3 X 5 cards achored by a roofing nail at each position corresponding to the number we used on our print of the painting. As people showed up at the picnic table, we looked them over and decided where they'd make the best fit; gave them a numbered sticker and one of the "positioners" would escort them to the number on the ground. (When the lady with the Seurat bag showed up, I said, "I don't care what anyone says or plans, you are going HERE.")
We then used a bullhorn to fine tune line of sight issues and direct people. We yelled "If you are not told otherwise, you are looking at the river" and "ready" and "pose... pose... pose" We then repositioned or replaced people in the scene with others (see Flickr set) and reshot the scene. We did that 3 times.
The wind was so fierce, we were worried about the boats and umbrellas were tough to work with too. So we stopped shooting after only a 1/2 hour. The boats were pure luck... they couldn't hear us directing and they had to battle wind and current to either stay in picture or stay off rocks along bank.
Thus far, the first photo -- the early one on Flickr -- is considered the best result. The time stamp on it indicates it was the first group's second "pose" after resetting some messed up umbrellas and waiting to get dog and sailboat properly into photo.
We talked about doing this as an annual event, but now I don't know... something tells me to leave well enough alone. Considering the logistics and wind, this was a magical moment in many, many ways.
If I had to do one thing differently, I'd have used strings on the ground from the camera's position to key areas of subjects in the photo to lay out line of sights. With only three of us laying it out before the event, it was very hard to be sure we hadn't missplaced or obscured someone/somthing. I think strings would have helped prevent that.
How it came together...
Becky sent email to the Friends of Riverfront group about 10 days before the event. Our local newspaper ran a story - on the FRONT PAGE - on Wednesday before with color photo version seen on the flyer cpy I posted at Flickr. Becky and I told anyone we met about our plans to stage the photo op. I was more interested in getting photographers to shoot it, Becky was into getting volunteers to pose.
We had a picnic table "marshalling area" (you can see this in some of Jim Simonson's photos of the event) with props and printed copies of the painting. It seemed that about half or more participants had done their home work or already knew Seurat and this painting well. We also had 3 or 4 "positioners" taking people to locations and each of these people had a printed copy of Seurat's painting with them.
We decided on this location over 2 others about a month earlier and noted the location for camera angle and estimated time of day for optimum light/shadow conditions. We figured on a 2-hour window of opportunity that was totally dependent on the sun coming out. (W'e'd have shot without, but it wouldn't have been as good result.) Three days before the event, Becky and I took a print of the painting to the site, we numbered each subject location on the painting and walked it with can of brown spray paint to mark spots on the grass, including the spot to place the camera. We didn't do foreground locations because a lot of line-of-site and perspective issues required more bodies to work with than our 4 eyes, so we figured the foreground characters would get placed on the day of shooting.
On the day of the shoot, about 3 hours before, Becky and I and another volunteer numbered and placed 3 X 5 cards achored by a roofing nail at each position corresponding to the number we used on our print of the painting. As people showed up at the picnic table, we looked them over and decided where they'd make the best fit; gave them a numbered sticker and one of the "positioners" would escort them to the number on the ground. (When the lady with the Seurat bag showed up, I said, "I don't care what anyone says or plans, you are going HERE.")
We then used a bullhorn to fine tune line of sight issues and direct people. We yelled "If you are not told otherwise, you are looking at the river" and "ready" and "pose... pose... pose" We then repositioned or replaced people in the scene with others (see Flickr set) and reshot the scene. We did that 3 times.
The wind was so fierce, we were worried about the boats and umbrellas were tough to work with too. So we stopped shooting after only a 1/2 hour. The boats were pure luck... they couldn't hear us directing and they had to battle wind and current to either stay in picture or stay off rocks along bank.
Thus far, the first photo -- the early one on Flickr -- is considered the best result. The time stamp on it indicates it was the first group's second "pose" after resetting some messed up umbrellas and waiting to get dog and sailboat properly into photo.
We talked about doing this as an annual event, but now I don't know... something tells me to leave well enough alone. Considering the logistics and wind, this was a magical moment in many, many ways.
If I had to do one thing differently, I'd have used strings on the ground from the camera's position to key areas of subjects in the photo to lay out line of sights. With only three of us laying it out before the event, it was very hard to be sure we hadn't missplaced or obscured someone/somthing. I think strings would have helped prevent that.
July 09, 2006
On the FlickrBlog
FlickrBlog: "First Impressionism"
On July 1st, the community of Beloit, Wisconsin came together on the banks of the Rock River to recreate George Seurat's "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of LaGrande Jatte" -- "Saturday in the Park with Friends". The event was covered by the Beloit Daily News: Art is alive along the River. See more photos in this Flickr Set."
On July 1st, the community of Beloit, Wisconsin came together on the banks of the Rock River to recreate George Seurat's "Sunday Afternoon on the Island of LaGrande Jatte" -- "Saturday in the Park with Friends". The event was covered by the Beloit Daily News: Art is alive along the River. See more photos in this Flickr Set."
We made the Flickr Blog yesterday! I'm really happy to see Beloit get noticed like this!
