Possible Plans

Initial Settings

Front Cover

For the front cover, I knew that I wanted to have a dust sheet over a plain black hardcover. But when designing it, I was unsure of the layout. The simple idea was to

Page Layouts

Structure

After looking at other photo books for inspiration on how to layout my own, the one that stood out the most for me was ‘The Epilogue’ by Laia Abril. This followed a very personal story of a young girl who died after battling with mental health issues and eating disorders. Firstly, it made me realise the importance of a title. On its own ‘The Epilogue’ has no relevance but it is very poetic when put into the context of what is inside the book as it establishes this idea of what comes after the story and reflecting back on the past. Therefore I knew that I couldn’t a simple title like ‘my theatre’ or ‘the theatre’. I knew that I wanted to establish a clear way of describing the content of my book but in a way that it seems both artistic and documentary, coming up with ‘From Studio to Stage’.

Abril also uses medical documents and inserts, alongside quotes from interviews with the girls family and friends. It was this specific idea of using quotes to develop a story that intrigued me and I knew that each section of this narrative needed some kind of title, which I found in quotes. In planning each section has an obvious title but that is embedded in each quote within the final outcome.

Front Cover

Blank Page 1

Section 1: Rehearsals

• Quote

“It takes a lot of rehearsal to become yourself.”

~ Jennifer Stone

• Images

Section 2: Pro-shots

• Quote

“Every artist is a walking business. Your marketing tools are your headshots and your reel. That’s what people see, that’s what you’re there pushing, trying to get a rep and that isn’t easy.”

~ Jay Ellis

• Images

Section 3: Get-in and Final Notes

• Quote

“Tech week is always a train wreck of missed cues, forgotten lines, malfunctioning set pieces and short tempers.”

~ S.M. Stevens

• Images

Section 4: Performance

• Quote

“You have had good equipment to work with. You’ve had a theatre with everything you’ve needed, and you are involved with the play; but all the way through you have been handicapped. One essential has been denied you. Tonight the audience is there; now they are sitting in front of you; you have everything you need.”

~ Hallie Flanagan

• Images

ENDING?: Must conclude the book and be as strong as the beginning

• Quote?

“Theatre is alive and it is now, and then it’s gone”

• Image?

The ending was the most difficult aspect as I was unsure of how to conclude the book. Should I use a single image that summed everything up or perhaps two or three? I ultimately decided to create a collage of images as shown in the final outcome of a mix of both monochrome and coloured photos. When designing the book, this idea made me realise how my own memory of shows is scattered and this is probably quite universal. Some memories seem more faded and harder to make whereas others are the complete opposite and vivid in your mind. It was this idea of using odd dashes of colour within the collage to represent the fewer but more vivid memories of my past performance experience.