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06/24/2007 10:24:40 AM · #1 |
Well, I have now placed the pics for Tres Sombreros de Copa HERE.
Tres Sombreros de Copa is something of a period piece, a Spanish Classic. It tells the story of a professional temptress (Paula), her 'partner in crime' (Buby), and how her life intersects with that of a wealthy fool (Dionysio - aka Antonini) on the night before his wedding. He is staying at a hotel with a kind and savvy hotelier who is keeping his eye out for the welfare of his friend.
Dionysio  Paula  Hotelier  Buby 
The story begins with the Hotelier showing Dionysio around his room, quite modern for the time - even including a telephone! Before long, he quickly makes use of the telephone and we get our first glimpse of the personality of his fiancee... she is demanding, self-absorbed and simply beastly.
 
Around the same time, another one of the guests enters the room in the midst of what appears to be a lover's quarrel. Enter Paula. At this point, it starts to become clear that the room that Dionysio is staying in is something of an ante-room to the rest of the hotel, perhaps the rest of the hotel is full and the hotelier is doing his best to accommodate a friend. Paula's argument is with Buby, a black man (naturally played by a Taiwanese girl) and is a pretense to acquaint herself with the young bachelor.
   
She quickly makes her presence known and delivers some monologue with feeling to keep his attention and capture his pity. After asking a few questions, she manages to draw young Dionysio out so he can explain a bit about his 'skills'. He's quite the showman. Able to juggle a hat or three without even catching them! As impressive as that sounds, he works it the best he can with his 'showmanship' and his audience is thrilled.
    
In order to make a play for the mark though, Paula knows that she must wait until he is alone, so she and Buby leave. Shortly thereafter, the hotelier tucks Dionysio in. After he leaves another guest shows up to make her move.
      
However there are other guests who want to be heard too, so a rather inebriated group of individuals starts to wander into this little room, some to speak with the new girl, others to see if they can play the Dionysio card for themselves... a nice friendly bunch... In fact, they are so friendly that they spontaneously launch a major dance number... it was really impressive, but it has one terrible flaw... they turned out the lights, and left nothing to photograph. dangit. I don't use flash for performances, so I had to sit that one out with a grand total of no pictures from the big dance number... After this though they all start doing a bit of partner dancing and the lights came back up...
Grand...
    
Paula returns and has a dance with her new found friend. Dancing and drinking can be dangerous.
    
After chasing everyone out, Paula and Dionysio get a bit of time to themselves to talk...
Dionysio gets called away though and Buby comes back to let her know that she's not making any money this way... She has indeed started to fall for the young man. Buby urges her to work another customer, a nasty old man (also played by a Taiwanese girl, this time wearing a hat). She seems to have lost her taste for this line of work though... Money and trinkets can't buy her love anymore. Oh well. She manages to break free, calling for Buby to come help her.
  
She seems to have lost her taste for this line of work though... Money and trinkets can't buy her love anymore. Oh well. She manages to break free, calling for Buby to come help her.
     
     
  
Buby isn't close enough though and Dionysio comes to her rescue instead, probably a good thing as he's got money, so can more easily shoo another wealthy man away. He takes a moment to comfort her and shows how attentive and caring he is.
 
The young lady from earlier shows up and announces that she is going to run away with her young officer... then makes a show of how well she controls him. Perhaps she isn't so much of a 'working girl' as she is just another girl looking for security in the only way she knows how. Seems to work for her, so Paula starts thinking and suggests something similar to Dionysio. It seems that trinkets can buy his love.
   
While he is comforting her though, Buby makes and entrance and is not impressed to see that she is back to her non-profit effort. He shows her how he really feels about her by giving her a good old-fashioned club on the head... to the horror of Dionysio.
At that moment though, a knock on the door reveals the FATHER OF THE BRIDE, no doubt come to check on Dionysio to make sure he isn't getting in any trouble. Dionysio hastily slides the bed over the stricken young lady and attends to his guest... A few close calls ensue as the older man starts to criticize the accommodations and snoops around all over looking for signs of trouble and naughtiness. He overstays his welcome and everyone is glad to see him leave.
Paula revives, little the worse for wear, but now she truly has her eye set on this young man as a true knight in shining armor.
  
After a cozy and intimate conversation on the 'veranda', the pair are interrupted by revelers who charge through the room on their way to view the sunrise. With that, Dionysio is reminded of his next day's plans... His wedding.
He quickly dresses himself, just in time to get summoned by the hotelier who kindly but firmly pries the young man away from the temptress, unaware of her change of heart, sending him off to the awaiting coach - and his future with the woman we only know through the telephone conversation earlier.
  
Paula, having earlier lost her 'working partner' and now the man who has entered her heart is devastated. She must now return to her former lifestyle and will likely have to beg to get it back.
 
Quite the story!
I enjoyed shooting it and watching it. I helped a bit with some consulting for acting for Paula and contributed a tiny bit to the stage direction and recommendations for the dance scene.
A great deal more work went into the play from the other parties involved and outside of the Spanish teacher who oversaw the event and made sure that the students were saying the right things, the play was exclusively managed by the students, from costumes and makeup to music and lighting. Note that these were not theater students but simply Spanish Language students.
The lighting was a LOT better than the Performance Competition.
Additional photos from after the show:
     
   
Feel free to post comments on the show or my pics!
Message edited by author 2007-06-24 12:29:05. |
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06/24/2007 12:19:23 PM · #2 |
| so many great photos to view...the play looked like a lot of fun. I love the expressions of the actors! You did a great job capturing these moments. |
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06/24/2007 12:28:18 PM · #3 |
thank you. You may also feel free to post criticisms... Please note of course though that the pictures have not been significantly edited for DPC beyond a straight resize (and all portrait orientation photos got resized again by DPC as my batch action isn't very sophisticated) and a gentle touch of sharpening applied unattended, so issues about softness and oversharpening probably don't apply too much. Likewise, the images look a LOT sharper when they have been resized so small, so many shots that are actually a bit off look much better than they really are.
Generally, shots with a 3_ prefix are actually sharp sharp, where prefix 2_ are generally pretty good, but not necessarily perfect. |
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06/24/2007 02:38:51 PM · #4 |
| Nice set of photos, Keiran. They document the event very well. I'm sure everyone is pleased you took the time to shoot the play. It's good to be in inspiring company, isn't it. I always liked that about Taiwan: an inspiring place with creative minds and pretty faces too. I like to live in such circumstances. (NYC is nowhere near as inspiring, quite the contrary in fact). What lens and flash set up were you using, BTW? |
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06/24/2007 10:40:34 PM · #5 |
Shot during the show with the 80-200 f/2.8L.
Shot the 'veranda' scene with the 17-50 f/2.8
Shot after the show shots with the same.
Did not use flash at all. I don't use flash for performances. Shot ISO 1600 instead. |
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