by Kristina Feliciano
In November, NBC asked Art Streiber to photograph advertising and publicity images of Golden Globes hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler for the awards show's 71st annual broadcast, which airs on Sunday. The network also asked for Art's input regarding concepts, "which always makes the job that much more challenging and rewarding," he says. Below, Art takes us behind the scenes of his shoot…
Our time with Tina and Amy was limited; we were sharing the morning and the stage with the on-air advertising shoot. On our side of the stage we needed to execute marketing and PR concepts in two different wardrobe changes, so we had to have two sets prelit and ready to go, choreographing the rearrangement of furniture, chandeliers, props, and lighting equipment.
Set designer Peter Gargagliano and his crew built out a beautiful all-white living room set for the advertising photography, complete with both a white AND a black grand piano. Our publicity set had an all-white look, a gray look, and a burgundy curtain option. Fortunately, we had a prelight/prebuild day and the network hired stand-ins for Tina and Amy, which allowed us to test drive all of our lighting and conceptual approaches.
Our shoot day started very early; Amy had limited time because she had to be on the set of Parks and Recreation in the afternoon, and Tina had a midafternoon flight back to New York (she had flown out just for the shoot). While they sat and had their hair and makeup done, I was able to explain what we had planned and get their input, which was invaluable. They fine-tuned our concepts and bantered back and forth about how wearing sunglasses on set reminded them of their days as high-fashion models.
When we finally got them on set, Tina and Amy were hilarious. They found 17 ways to sit or lean on a piano, they mounted and climbed all over an eight-foot globe, they hammed it up with designer sunglasses, and pantomimed with red Sharpies and coffee mugs (for a special, dedicated Entertainment Weekly cover story).
During a break, I asked Amy about their process for writing the script for the Globes. She told me that she anticipated talking to Tina a few times over the winter break, during which they’d agree that “they really should get started” writing, then they’d go back to their kids and their families and call each other this week in a panic and really get down to brass tacks on the Friday before the Globes, procrastinating until the last minute, just like the rest of us.
Special thanks to the team at NBCUniversal
Gerry Logue / SVP, Digital and Print Creative
Michael Hathaway / VP/Creative Director, Print Marketing
Eric Van der Werff / Vice President, Photography
Anissa Koh / Manager, Photography
