Howard Schatz "In Character"

One of my favourite photographers Howard Schatz has recently photographed a spread for Variety Magazine. Here are some of my favorites with descriptions of what the actors were asked to portray:

GEOFFREY RUSH
Left: You’re the cornerman for a winded female boxer, desperately exhorting her: “She’s run away with your boyfriend! She’s kidnapped your kid! Get out there and kill that heifer!” Center: You’re five years into a contented but sedentary married life, protesting to your wife, “I said you’re ‘Rubenesque.’ It doesn’t mean fat. It means … Rubenesque!” Right: You’re a 10-year-old in a high-rise apartment, playing fetch with your fox terrier and a tennis ball—which has just bounced out the window, with your dog in full pursuit.

JULIE BOWEN
Left: You’re a posh shopper in Harrods, fingered by security for putting jars of caviar into your clutch. “I don’t even know how those got in there!” Center: You’re a homemaker peering out a side window, catching sight of your crew-cutted neighbor posing before a mirror in his wife’s panties. Right: You’re the senior woman in your department, storming into your boss’s office to demand why you’re being let go and your job reassigned to a younger, cheaper, male colleague.

JOHN MALKOVICH
Left: You’re an ingénue actress, new to Hollywood. Your agent has just called to say you’ve been chosen for a role in a big movie … as George Clooney’s love interest. Center: You’re a construction worker having lunch with your buddies on the street in front of the job, calling out to a sexy woman passing by, “Hey, hon, wanna see what’s in my lunchbox?” Right: You’re a mid-level drug dealer with a big payment due to a Mob boss, getting the news from one of your street runners that he lost the big coke stash in, “like, a weird gust of wind.”

HUGH LAURIE
Left: You are a dedicated father who, with your wife, has just sat down to dinner with your 15-year-old daughter, who is defiantly announcing that she’s pregnant. Center: You are a fashion designer on the morning of your big runway show, realizing that nothing in the collection is ready or fabulous. Right: You are a blustering, pompous member of the British Parliament, giving a speech that is being broadcast on the BBC, and you’re thrilled at the sound of your own voice.

JANE LYNCH
Left: You’re a child swallowing a spoonful of medicine that your mom promised would taste good, and now she’s telling you that if it didn’t taste awful it wouldn’t work. Center: You’re at a social dinner with your work colleagues and their spouses, desperately trying to signal your partner to stop talking so freely about your shared sex life. Right: You’re a bunny-level skier who has decided to try a black-diamond slope, and now, with no idea how to stop, you’re headed straight for a tree.

Weather

Yesterday setting up for the first shot of the day we were faced with this weather coming at us...

It reminded me of a joke:

A film is being shot in the desert close to Medicine Valley. The director is concerned because in the coming weeks he will need to shoot the finale, a sequence that will take five days to shoot, only problem is they need everything to be in continuity, the lighting conditions need to stay the same.
The weather has not been playing ball; cloudy one day, windy the next then clear skies but nothing constant. The director has been imploring the production team to find a good meteorologist but they have not been able to find anyone yet.
Then one day they are shooting with an Indian family and the extra playing the wise old Indian mentions in passing: "Tomorrow big wind" and sure enough the next day there was a big wind on set. So the director finds the old extra and asks him what the weather will be like for the next day. The old Indian replies: "Tomorrow clear skies" and sure enough the next day there were clear skies. Impressed the director convinces the production team to hire the old indian to be their on set weather man.
Days go by and every day the Old Indian predicts the weather correctly. Then one day the Old Indian does not arrive at work. Concerned the director asks extras casting people to find the old man. But they have no idea where he stays. The next day the old man is not there either. Now the director is becoming concerned his big finale is coming up soon and he needs to know what the weather will be doing.
He calls his location scout and instructs him to drop everything else he is doing and to concentrate on finding the Old Indian. The location scout leaves. Three days later he returns with the news that he has found the Old Indian, but he has refused to come back.
So the director tells the location scout to bring him to the Old Indian. They drive along 4x4 tracks for about three hours before getting to a beaten up old trailer out in the middle of the desert. The director goes and knocks on the door. It is opened by a wrinkled old indian crone who shows him in. The Old Indian Man is sitting on his chair staring out of the window.
The director says: "Look, I know you don't want to come back. I don't know what we have done to offend you but is there any way you can tell me what the weather will do?"
The Old Indian answers: "No!"
"Why?" asks the director.
"Because talking box is not talking any more"
There below the window is a beaten up old radio that has given up the ghost.