The Process Breakdown

I was brought onto this project by Andrew Patino of Regular Ppl. This show was still being written when I had to pitch and all I had to go off of was an initial conversation about the tone of it with Ashley, a producer at Regular Ppl. I had to make some assumptions as to what the vibe of the marketing materials would look like.  My initial pitch was to make the show feel more intimate, a piano in a smaller theater, a "close evening of friendship with James Taylor and Carol King". This was not what they were looking for, they wanted the show to feel large in scope and they didn't want to allude that James Taylor or Carol King are going to be there. So I went back to the drawing board and found a way to have a bigger band feel without having to get a ton of personnel to fill out a theater.

Another challenge to this shoot was rights. We we're not allowed to use music from Carol King and James Taylor nor their likeness or image. It's a show about them, not their show. So me and my production designer Jenavieve and producer Ashley had to get creative using props, costume, and set decoration to set the look and feel of the Laurel Canyon era where James Taylor and Carol King emerged out of. I also brought on the brilliant Roark McClellan to put together a "Sound alike" for the backing track, playing on the themes of their music. 

Another big thing was connecting the Stage to the "Green Room". We had to utilize two separate locations to achieve the proper looks for the green room and the stage. We made sure the lighting styles between the two locations was distinct enough that when you enter through the curtains we know they are entering the stage space because of the bright oranges and blues on the other side. 

Awesome project to have worked on.
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