Bonnie and Clyde the Musical

I had to do a bit of research for this show because I was the choreographer and dived deep into the text to make sure I understood the show. During one of the raids that the police had on their safe house, they had found a camera left behind by the Barrow gang and it was the first time they finally got to see what Bonnie and Clyde looked like.

Kids. They were just kids in love.

I wanted to recreate the pictures the police had found, as well making sure there was still elements of the show.

So, there was not a lot of planning on my part for this shoot. My director knew that I took photos and even did the cast’s headshots for the program. She called me and asked if I was free to take a promotional shoot for her because she had found a couple that had the same kind of car that the police would have been driving at the time. Bonnie and Clyde had the same model, just a different color. The couple also had Tommy Guns like in the pictures and she could not pass up the opportunity.

Unfortunately, we were going to be pressed for time. There was going to be a storm and they wanted to get the car back to the garage before that happened.

So, I grabbed my gear and rushed to the theatre where we were all meeting and everyone was getting into costume for the shoot. Now, we might live in Lubbock, Texas but this is a different world than Bonnie and Clyde were running around in. I couldn’t take the car on any backstreets and we needed access to our costume shop.

But, there was a brown building right across the street from the theater with a garage door, and I thought it would work wonders. So, I asked the owner to drive the car over there, and got it situated.

Now, we were double casted, so we needed to take all the photos twice with each cast. Unfortunately people were late and I needed to get in the aesthetic of the photos before the rain so we had to mix and match casts.

We had such a fun time! We had a few costume changes so they were in and out but I also got to photograph the couple who’s car we were borrowing and my director wanted photos in the car as well of course because it is amazing.

Before our last Buck could get there though, the couple had to leave with the car and the Tommy’s so we had to take individual photos with him and our Blanche so he could still have promotional material to send out there.

It was a scary shoot, honestly. Not because of anything we were doing, but because this was an important shoot for me. I had a lot of people that I needed to please. From the people who were loaning us the car, to my director, and the cast and the company. I wanted these to turn out so authentic and genuine.

I couldn’t be happier with how everything turned out. Editing was fun because I got to make these soft black and white edits that went with the time period. But even with the color photos, playing with all the browns and reds in the photos to make it seem timeless and outlawish.

Now, as far as the editing goes, where we parked the cars, there was a big yellow pillar that I had to edit out of every single photo. It was just unavoidable.

This shoot taught me a lot though. It taught me not to dismiss the detail shots because they ended up being my favorites. It taught me to play with the same photo in different editing aspects. How to make it seem authentic and genuine. These actors were here to play and have a good time. I am so thankful for this shoot and I can’t wait for more!