Frame Five Media

Set 11 of 24

Fill the BL_NK

A showcase staged on a white cyclorama: a seated room, single performers working a bare wall with a microphone, then an audience that leaves its chairs and finishes the night standing on the set. Shot flat and bright on purpose, a cyc gives you nowhere to hide a bad frame and no ambient colour to lean on, so the pictures live entirely on gesture and timing. The rig, the other cameras and the photographer on the floor are all left in shot, because on this night they were part of the room.

A white wall, a microphone, and a room that would not stay seated.

  1. The room before the show: rows of gold-backed chairs facing a white cyclorama, the venue's mark on the far wall, lighting stands either side.
    01 opener
  2. A performer alone on the white cyclorama, mid-verse into a handheld microphone, a keyboard and lamp on the table behind.
    02 stage
  3. The same performer closer in, arm open mid-line, sunglasses and a printed shirt against the blown-out white.
    03 stage
  4. Two performers side by side on the cyclorama, one in a Kente-print suit, both holding microphones.
    04 stage
  5. Both performers reaching upward on the last beat of a line, arms raised together.
    05 stage
  6. A performer at the equipment table under a large octabox, the light stand and its softbox fully in frame.
    06 detail
  7. The audience surges onto the cyclorama, arms up, phones out, the white floor disappearing under them.
    07 crowd
  8. A performer in a pink head wrap holds a microphone in the middle of the crowd, hands raised around them.
    08 moment
  9. The same performer mid-motion, knees bent and arms wide, ringed by the crowd.
    09 hero
  10. The performer works the room past a camera operator, whose rig fills the foreground.
    10 moment
  11. A photographer lies back on the floor, camera raised overhead, shooting up into the crowd.
    11 detail
  12. A man in a green sweatshirt and gold chain looks toward the camera, the packed room behind him out of focus.
    12 portrait
  13. The full room with arms up, colour everywhere, flags, prints, caps, under the studio's flat white light.
    13 crowd
  14. A performer with locs holds a microphone at chest height, alone again on the white, quiet after the room.
    14 closer