European Premiere of Dark Shadows

So, at last! Its back to Leicester Square – the newly refurbished square (well its not quite finished). The event seemed to far far more room than before and it felt really good to be back.

It was a case of quality not quantity with this event with a few stars turning up, but those that did were….

Actress Eva Green

As you can see, I was on the carpet, with VIP access.

Actress Michelle Pfeiffer signing

The atmosphere was great, with many fans having arrived at ^AM and waited in the pouring rain.

Actress Helena Bonham Carter

Of course, the film is another collaboration between Tim Burton and Johhny Depp

Actor Johnny Depp

A complete set of my images of European Premiere of Dark Shadows can be licensed from PhotoShot here and here (they are split in 2 sets).

May 10, 2012 | Posted in: Celebrities | Comments Closed

Real Steel, with Hugh Jackman

You may have noticed that this blog has been devoid of any Film Premiere entries for quite a while (if you ignore last months FrightFest). 

The reason? Westminster Council have been refurbishing Leicester Square ready for next years Olympics. Most people would assume that this would be done in stages, maybe a section at a time, minimising the impact on the use of the square and the business within it. When you think of the amount of trade the cinemas bring into the square and its surrounds you would have thought the council would have worked with them, ensuring that the square was able to continue hosting premieres. No. For the past approximately 9 months the square has been in such a state of upheaval that hosting a premiere has been almost impossible. There has not been enough room. In fact for much of the time it has been a struggle even for pedestrians a tourists to navigate the area without having to avoid diggers, dumpers and other plant.

Boxer Amir Khan

During this time the film industry had no choice but to seek alternative venues with the prime benefactor being The Vue inside Westfield Shopping Centre.  I'm sorry but a shopping centre just does not cut it. Even Tom Hanks seemed somewhat bemused at the location.

Titan the robot meets the fans

We I'm glad to say that is changing again. Today the barriers were moved back away from the front of The Empire and the square was once again able to host a major premiere - "Real Steel", a Disney film featuring boxing robots and Hugh Jackman.

Hugh Jackman meets fans

It felt good to be back in the square, there was a great atmosphere and Hugh was obviously enjoying himself at what he referred to on stage as his "family screening" with over 30 members of the Jackman clan in the cinema.

Hugh Jackman with robot Titan

Hugh was joined on the carpet not only by the director, Shawn Levy but also a robot called Titan.

Director Shawn Levy

Lets hope the contractors get their fingers out and complete the works so the square can return to its rightful place as the premiere location.

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.

 

13 Hrs at Frightfest

Actually this is day 3 so closer to 48 hours. What a difference a week makes; 7 days ago I was standing in a damp field, today I am working with 2 lovely actresses (Isabella Calthorpe, Gemma Atkinson) and a werewolf for the launch of their new horror movie 13 Hrs. 

We managed a few set up shots inside before heading out in to leicester square for a few more. It was at this point I was reminded how rude some of the press photographers are.. I know we all have to get our shots but to barge into an what is obviously a set-up shoot, pushing the photographer (me) aside is just plain rude… especially when the culprit was a well known “veteran” in London. Manners cost nothing and he would have still got his shot…. oh well…

This is one of the set up ones. There are more in my frightfest event gallery which will be published later…

Angelina Jolie



Angelina attended last nights UK premiere of SALT. News images available for licensing here… 

For film premieres to be worthwhile, stars from the film are needed. Sometimes it is the director, producer and one or two. Sometimes it is the whole (major) cast.

In this case, as the guy from Sony said.. “When the star is Angelina Jolie, you only need one star…”

She looked great…



New Book available

To be honest, it’s a bit late but it is the first time I have used Blurb and I wanted to go through a proof copy before I released it.

The book contains a record of the major events that took place at The Empire, Leicester Square where I had the pleasure of being the house photographer for the year. For each event, there is a short description, the principal cast and a couple of photographs from the event, many of which will not have been seen before.

The book is available in 2 sizes;
- 10in x 8in softcover at £21.99
- 13in x 11in hardcover at £49.89

Please take a look.

2 Premieres, 4 Concerts and Eros….

It’s been a very long week, starting about a week and a half ago.


First though I am going to mention the last of this weeks work and the movie that everybody is talking about; “AVATAR”. I worked the premiere from the press pen and got shots of most of the cast and guests..

The following night (Friday) I was very lucky to attend (with my son) the media showing at The Empire. I was very sceptical about this film before I saw it and could not imagine watching a 3D film for 2 and 3 quarter hours with 3D glasses. It’s interesting to note that everybody that does comment negatively on it has not seen it, I have yet to chat with any of the 4000 or so viewers over the 2 days that did not enjoy it; it got a standing ovation in the premiere and a huge round of applause in the media show. My feeling is Cameron has achieved something phenomenal, it is visually stunning and without doubt the most believable alien environment and aliens.

For me as a photographer, the technical is also interesting, even down to the fact that in The Empire, 4 projectors were used to project the film – it looked amazing (the first time a feature has been shown on 4 projectors).

One of the stars of the film, Zoe Saldana …

The day before this though was the premiere of “St Trinian’s 2 – The Legend of Fritton’s Gold”. For this I was house photographer and grabbed some really nice images. Hopefully some of these should be up on the film’s website shortly. Sarah Harding looked fabulous..

On Tuesday it was James Morrison in Brighton, sounding and looking really good. The lighting was some of the best I have worked with in a concert and I grabbed some great colour and black-and-white images;


Before that, on Monday I was at “Eros” which has been turned into a “Snow Dome” for Christmas and Sunday was Will Young in Brighton. On Saturday it was Alice Cooper in Brighton. Again; great lighting but also great theatre and performance.


Before that; Madness. Suggs the performer…

Now I need a rest..

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;

World Premiere of Duplicity.

Gosh, what a day! I must admit, I was looking forward to this premiere; I had never seen Julia Roberts before and was keen to get some nice images of her. I think she has a classic face – in the 1960′s / 50 vain.


It was not a good day though – one hour before the doors were due to open, my laptop failed giving me no processing and uploading route. It required a kind laptop loan and some frantic software loading; but we got there. Like everybody there, I was disapointed that there was no stunning frock but the suit was very elegant. My modern take on the old black and white portrait;