Portraits in Dramatic Time

Commissioned by the 2011 Lincoln Center Festival, “Portraits In Dramatic Time” featured 45 hyper-slow-motion art films. Featuring performances of theater artists and actors from an array of genres and cultural backgrounds both well known and under-recognized. The films premiered on a 100 foot screen on the facade of the New York State Theater, where they screened nightly for the month of July. The film below represents a collaboration with the director in creating a short film for press and portfolio.

The performances:
Some of the scenes were developed in improvised collaboration with the actors, while others harked back to past works of art, or characters from plays, film, history or popular culture. The performers acted out these theatrical scenes and personae using elements of their respective crafts and techniques, all enhanced with costumes, production design, makeup and lighting. Every detail of a scene matters when you’re recording it at several thousand frames per second, as details will play back with sometimes surprising levels of nuance. Each ten-second scene was put together like a Swiss watch, with every beat and detail carefully wrought and placed.