217 ☼ Sometimes you just need a silly shoot
actors, wigs, cliques, and why fun, fast shoots are good for your creative health
Dear friends,
This week: wigs, cliques, and a reminder that not every photo needs a deep meaning and how refreshing it can be to stop overthinking and just play.
Let me take you behind-the-scenes at a recent promotional shoot with the cast of Don’t You Forget About Me: The Improvised 80s Teen Movie Play, which I am actually part of myself as well!
No Thinking, Just Snapping Away
Sometimes you need a shoot that’s just fun. No overthinking. Just quick setups, fast ideas, and lots of laughter.
My setup was as simple as it gets: Canon R5, 24-70mm lens, Godox on-camera flash. The plan was to not have a plan and shoot fast and loose in our rehearsal space. All cast members were told to show up “in costume”, to help recreate the vibe of 1980s teen movies like Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Breakfast Club, and Say Anything. We had two hours to shoot individual portraits of each actor in character, plus a few clique-y group shots, and shoot a 60 second trailer video for the play. I love limitations and ambitious shoots.
Everyone brought their A-game and their best thrift shop finds. Madeline showed up in full valedictorian mode with a robe, cap, and all. Irum nailed the mysterious cool-girl energy with a leather jacket and sunglasses. Garrett committed fully to his jock persona, skateboard and puffer vest included. Here’s everyone:
We split off into cliques for group shots: the moody goths, the preppy kids, the theater nerds. Everyone leaned into their characters, no one held back. Actors are usually the easiest folks to photograph because they know how to turn it on in front of a camera.
The fact that the building we have our rehearsal space in is also a former school was incredibly helpful to create some believable “spontaneous” moments.
I had such a great time. It was a perfect mashup of my two creative lives: photography by day, improv comedy at night. After the photo session, we shot a trailer video for the show. I wrote and directed it, with my friend and collaborator Harry Orange shooting and editing. It’s one of my favorite video collaborations yet. I think we got pretty close to capturing that silly 1980’s teen movie vibe, and someone even took a few basketball shots to the nether regions until we got an era-appropriate editing moment.
Watch the trailer below, or here on Instagram. Do you recognize the iconic Dutch band we used for the era-appropriate soundtrack?
If you’re in or near Amsterdam and want to come see the show:
Don’t You Forget About Me: The Improvised 80s Teen Movie Play
Nov 6–7–8 at Mike’s Badhuistheater, Amsterdam
Tickets can be bought here.
Featuring Angela Bartorillo, Cene Hale, Irum Javed, Djamali Jones, Simon Lukacs, Katie Nixon, Maddie Schalet, Lorena Smienk, Chris Spence, Emil Struijker-Boudier, Garrett Vanderwielen, Nathania Velasquez and Wesley Verhoeve.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Silly one-off shoots can reset your creative energy
Collaborating with performers brings out spontaneous magic and allows for a looser plan
Fast and loose doesn’t mean low quality, just fewer barriers to fun
Have you done a shoot just for fun lately? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.
Thanks for reading. Can you believe it’s November already and there’s only 2 months left in the year. Time to revisit my 2025 goal list and see where I need to make some last minute efforts!
Talk soon,
Wesley
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This Week’s Camera + Tools
Camera: Canon EOS R5 + Canon RF 24-70 mm f/2.8 L IS USM
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Girls (and guys) just want to have fun~!
This is sooooOOooOoo flippin' amazing! What a dynamite idea. Good luck with the show.