Meeting Martin Parr (Day 1 filming)
Monday morning was the start of the 3 day filming in Brighton for 'How to take stunning pictures'. The meeting point was a cafe called I Gigi on Western Road where Susie, myself and Martin Parr would be filmed. It was a typical yummy-mummy Hove cafe and shop for kitchen and interior design.
My first impressions of Martin Parr were that he could have doubled as a strict headmaster having a very distinctive and assertive voice. The director/cameraman, Toby (or Tony as Martin called him for the rest of the day) set up the scene that we'd met Martin to show our favourite travel photo and one that we were disappointed with. We had no idea of which would be chosen as we'd submitted 3 of each. Here's an exclusive: Favourite shown and the one I was disappointed with.
I'm not sure if it was favouritism or the difference in mine and Susie's photos but I got a bit more criticism than I expected. He said that my missus, in the background of the NZ mushroom field had an 'odd shape' and even after some further banter from myself, Martin couldn't quite convince me of what he was trying to get at i.e. playing down his comments of my wife's shape!
Martin's main mantra for travel photography was to capture your own relationship with the country/city/place. We, his students had to take this principle in the next two days and NOT as I was quickly corrected by Martin, a technique masterclass which I had expected.
Be a fly
After some dead time waiting around for transport we headed down to the seafront (avoiding the This Morning shoot with Christopher Biggins doing a swimsuit competition!) where we would do a warm-up exercise of pretending to be a fly. He felt we needed to loosen up and just click away at anything that a fly would be interested in like food, bins and dog turds (but no one dare say that on camera). Bit bizarre but I could see his point. Martin disappeared at this point to go to his hotel and get his camera.
The camera crew followed Susie then myself doing this fly exercise. At one point I headed for a souvenir shop, landed on a captain's hat saying Ancient Mariner and suggested on camera that it would suit Martin. After quite a few shots including some normal framed pictures just to get used to the Panasonic Lumix provided, Martin reviewed my results. I said maybe I was pretending to be a bee instead, interested in strong colours but when he noticed the more rigid, straight photos he complained on film that I wasn't getting it. I had to swallow my pride knowing that I had actually done exactly as he said since he didn't go back far enough through the previews - git! At lunch, off camera, I couldn't let it go and showed him some photos of sauces that flies would really be interested in. Didn't actually get an apology but at least my point had been made.
The sun was really beating down and I could feel myself burning. It was annoying that I'd brought my own camera with lens in my backpack but the crew wouldn't let me use it and had to carry it throughout the day. I also had to wear the same clothes as Friday (tight jeans) and wasn't allowed to wear sunglasses!
Listening to your pier
I wasn't the only person getting annoyed with Martin. I sensed that Toby (still known as Tony) was being dictated by Martin's direction having to change his plans before the next scene. Before we set foot on the pier, Martin set up the lessons we had to learn which involved portrait photography. He instantly spotted some old ladies eating ice-creams and cast his 'magic' he's so well know for. He did this a few times just going off without us, sharing only a few scraps of genuine expertise such as using a 'kiss' of flash where light is poor or in shadow. Another tip was to never have the lens cap on and prepare the lens to around 30mm for optimum results. However, the main point recorded on film was to ask the subject not to smile.
We headed into the arcade section and as we exited being filmed, pier security swooped in to stop the filming. The management objected to the fruit machines and gamblers being on film so it had to be deleted instantly, another headache for the director. Susie and I both tried portraits having to overcome our nervousness and approach our subjects direct, something we'd admitted earlier we never do in our own photography. A teenage couple wouldn't agree to my advances but I found a cool dad with son posing on a coin-op ride.
Stealth photography
Towards the end of the pier where the main rides were, Martin taught us the subtle art of body positioning taking photos of people concentrating on something else and recording their expression. People were starting to get wise of us and it all felt too chaotic getting no good results. This lasted for around an hour though I would guess when edited will be about 30 seconds.
Lesson over
The filming was almost done for the day with only a summary from both of us to reflect the day's events. Before this, a Channel 5 photographer took some PR shots for the show. He positioned us behind the seaside photo wall where both of us put our heads through the holes in front of Martin Parr.
My end of day report was a waffling, uncertain affair. I hope the editing process will make it look better! The director simply asks you to summarise how the day went and its not easy to just spout off sound-bites especially with people either staring at you or just walking right in front on purpose. After the filming, I was bit miffed and slightly stressed at the thought of where to shoot especially as Martin jokingly said before leaving, 'Don't f*ck it up'.
See Day 2 of filming when Spyke saves the day
My first impressions of Martin Parr were that he could have doubled as a strict headmaster having a very distinctive and assertive voice. The director/cameraman, Toby (or Tony as Martin called him for the rest of the day) set up the scene that we'd met Martin to show our favourite travel photo and one that we were disappointed with. We had no idea of which would be chosen as we'd submitted 3 of each. Here's an exclusive: Favourite shown and the one I was disappointed with.
I'm not sure if it was favouritism or the difference in mine and Susie's photos but I got a bit more criticism than I expected. He said that my missus, in the background of the NZ mushroom field had an 'odd shape' and even after some further banter from myself, Martin couldn't quite convince me of what he was trying to get at i.e. playing down his comments of my wife's shape!
Martin's main mantra for travel photography was to capture your own relationship with the country/city/place. We, his students had to take this principle in the next two days and NOT as I was quickly corrected by Martin, a technique masterclass which I had expected.
Be a fly
After some dead time waiting around for transport we headed down to the seafront (avoiding the This Morning shoot with Christopher Biggins doing a swimsuit competition!) where we would do a warm-up exercise of pretending to be a fly. He felt we needed to loosen up and just click away at anything that a fly would be interested in like food, bins and dog turds (but no one dare say that on camera). Bit bizarre but I could see his point. Martin disappeared at this point to go to his hotel and get his camera.
The camera crew followed Susie then myself doing this fly exercise. At one point I headed for a souvenir shop, landed on a captain's hat saying Ancient Mariner and suggested on camera that it would suit Martin. After quite a few shots including some normal framed pictures just to get used to the Panasonic Lumix provided, Martin reviewed my results. I said maybe I was pretending to be a bee instead, interested in strong colours but when he noticed the more rigid, straight photos he complained on film that I wasn't getting it. I had to swallow my pride knowing that I had actually done exactly as he said since he didn't go back far enough through the previews - git! At lunch, off camera, I couldn't let it go and showed him some photos of sauces that flies would really be interested in. Didn't actually get an apology but at least my point had been made.
The sun was really beating down and I could feel myself burning. It was annoying that I'd brought my own camera with lens in my backpack but the crew wouldn't let me use it and had to carry it throughout the day. I also had to wear the same clothes as Friday (tight jeans) and wasn't allowed to wear sunglasses!
Listening to your pier
I wasn't the only person getting annoyed with Martin. I sensed that Toby (still known as Tony) was being dictated by Martin's direction having to change his plans before the next scene. Before we set foot on the pier, Martin set up the lessons we had to learn which involved portrait photography. He instantly spotted some old ladies eating ice-creams and cast his 'magic' he's so well know for. He did this a few times just going off without us, sharing only a few scraps of genuine expertise such as using a 'kiss' of flash where light is poor or in shadow. Another tip was to never have the lens cap on and prepare the lens to around 30mm for optimum results. However, the main point recorded on film was to ask the subject not to smile.
We headed into the arcade section and as we exited being filmed, pier security swooped in to stop the filming. The management objected to the fruit machines and gamblers being on film so it had to be deleted instantly, another headache for the director. Susie and I both tried portraits having to overcome our nervousness and approach our subjects direct, something we'd admitted earlier we never do in our own photography. A teenage couple wouldn't agree to my advances but I found a cool dad with son posing on a coin-op ride.
Stealth photography
Towards the end of the pier where the main rides were, Martin taught us the subtle art of body positioning taking photos of people concentrating on something else and recording their expression. People were starting to get wise of us and it all felt too chaotic getting no good results. This lasted for around an hour though I would guess when edited will be about 30 seconds.
Lesson over
The filming was almost done for the day with only a summary from both of us to reflect the day's events. Before this, a Channel 5 photographer took some PR shots for the show. He positioned us behind the seaside photo wall where both of us put our heads through the holes in front of Martin Parr.
My end of day report was a waffling, uncertain affair. I hope the editing process will make it look better! The director simply asks you to summarise how the day went and its not easy to just spout off sound-bites especially with people either staring at you or just walking right in front on purpose. After the filming, I was bit miffed and slightly stressed at the thought of where to shoot especially as Martin jokingly said before leaving, 'Don't f*ck it up'.
See Day 2 of filming when Spyke saves the day
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