Frightfest 2011

Film 4 Frightfest 2011

August Bank holiday weekend and whilst many of my colleagues were at Reading and Leeds festivals, I was official photographer at another, altogether different festival: Frightfest. It’s my 3rd year photographing this festival and my 2nd year as the official photographer.

Doing PR.

The weekend started on the Thursday evening with a premiere of “Don’t be afraid of the dark” and run through to Monday evening with the time being filled with over 35 films (many of them premieres),  Signings, Question and Answer sessions and Media interviews.

Director Robin Hardy signing.

Pollyanna McIntosh signing after the UK Premiere of the controversial film "The Woman"

As the photographer I needed to make sure I was at every media photo-call (media wall) , capture as many introductions and Q&A sessions as well as general atmosphere. This involves long hard (over 12 hour days) but with the clients, guests and attendees all being both fun and interesting, it’s not arduous at all.

Checking the programme (which featured a number of my images form last year)

Pollyanna McIntosh

As I said, many intresting characters. This years “icon” was American producer, writer, director, and actor Larry Fessenden:

Larry Fessenden

As with last year, I am preparing a photo-book which should be ready in a day or two. (Last years available here). You may see a set of photos from this year here…

Today I am preparing for a reportage style wedding shoot on Saturday. More on that next week.

 

Recently used online….

A busy week this week; Monday was David Gray at The Roundhouse and last night was “The Magic Numbers” in Brighton. Tonight I am taking an evening off before tackling “The Tower Music Festival” tomorrow night and then a few days at “The Goodwood Revival” (off to Brighton in a moment to find an outfit as if I want trackside access, I need to be in period dress).


I will post images from this week over the weekend but just thought I would link to a couple of sites that have used my images in recent weeks (a reciprical link is always a friendly thing to do)..

First, there was frightfest,using my image on thier home page. (The dailymail published a few frightfest images).

Finally, on the homefront, I photographed Prof. Glyn Edwards and Punch and Judy 200M from home.

Jim Sturgess

Frightfest was a really busy 5 day period for me. Another hilight was photographing Jim Sturgess not only during his performance at the World Premiere of Heartless, but also as he rehearsed that morning. I did the shoot in Black and White as it seemed to suit the mood of the music and the look of the band.


I have held on to the photos until now, just to make sure he is happy with me publishing them. He is, so here are a couple;



John Landis; A real “Thriller”

How to put yourself under pressure.. you ask one of the great directors to pose in front of the screen at a special screening of one of his films when you know you don’t really have the kit with you nor the turn around time to set the shot up properly…..

On Saturday, John Landis presented a special screening of the “Thriller” video (I am sure no explanation of what that is needed) on the 50ft screen of The Empire in Leicester square. As I knew the technical guys had to check the tape was ok and John had been such an approachable guy all weekend, I asked for this special shot – and he agreed – as long as he had full editing control.

The shot was to take place between the screenings of two films at the Frightfest giving me about 5 or at the most 10 minutes to set-up, then shoot. Considering I wanted a particular image from the film, the film visible and John looking good, this was going to be no mean feat.

Balancing the exposure was relatively easy, allowing for Johns spectacles was not; especially as I did not have the kit to enable me to get the flash way off axis to cut the flare.

After less than 10 minutes with John and Empire One, here is the image that both he and I were happy with;