Chris Gravett

I spent much of the last three months of 2012 working on a constructed photography project. It involved creating 'film stills' using studio and/or flash to created the desired lighting effect. I really enjoyed the project so you can imagine my delight when I was invited to be the stills photographer on a film shoot. Aniko Madi the film's producer invited me through a friend. Aniko is one of the founders of Kormorant Pictures   http://kormorantpictures.co.uk   (currently under construction) and here on Facebook

So bright and very early on Saturday morning I headed south of the river to darkest Blackheath. 

The day was to be spent filming the main scene of a short movie called Bloodlust. The scene is a Fight Club run by men who are over 40 so too old to go to war (WW2). They let out their frustrations and pent up emotions at one sided fight clubs. The main character is Albert who watches the fight from the back. I believe there will be a voice over narration of his thoughts.

I arrived hoping the 'drama hall' we were shooting in would have fantastic lighting so the understandable 'no flash' rule in my brief would be of little consequence. Wrong! The fight club would have been in a dark area with bright lights picking out the fighters only, so the set was lit accordingly. Also shooting whilst filming is taking place brings a further challenge, even though Nikon provide a quiet shutter option it can still be picked up when the film set is quiet. So real world film stills were going to be miles away from last years 'constructed photography'.

My brief was to capture some stills, get some images for the actor's portfolios and capture some behind the scenes shots of the crew.

Here is a glimpse of the results..

The cast...

Charles Burns - the victor in the fight scene

Simon Dawkins - the loser in the fight scene

"Albert" centre played by Chris Platz aka Roxy

Paul Stephen Spratt

Billy Loveridge

 

Mark Sweet

Bill Hannan

Brian Stewart

David Bewsher

Sean Hannan

Next some images of the fight scene..

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and finally the loser is knocked out

Well as you can see make up is important.

Above Fiona Alexander does some on set repairs to the fighters face. Meanwhile...

....the director Roozbeth Tavakoli gives instructions to the fighters of exactly how he would like the scene to go. As I assume is a sign of a

good director Rooz went about his business in a calm but positive manner commanding respect from all around him.

Also calm and displaying confidence throughout the day was cameraman Rupert Hopkins

Rooz and assistant director/soundman Joe Watkins calmly discuss progress whilst Simon Dawkins remains out cold on the floor.

Camera Rupert Hopkins, DOP Nik Nemeth and Producer Aniko Madi deal with a technical hitch but quickly things are under way again..

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I was impressed of just how smoothly and efficiently the day, the long day, went exactly to plan. What a professional bunch Kormorant Pictures are! I trust that my images are up to the mark and I look forward to shooting with them again.

I'll finish with just one more image of Fight Club..

 

 

 

 

 

It's been hectic recently so I've been a bit lapse on the photoblog front. What with preparing for this weeks Public Private exhibition - private view 25th October 6pm - 9pm, you are invited, and also with Uni redaing and projects, it's been mad. So today's photos are something different. Six images that I have submitted for a project at Uni. The idea was to shoot six film stills using flash lighting. My six are from a 'film' titled Missing. My aim was to have a narrative in each image and across the series. On the face of it a simple project but there was very little time to complete it and, as a I soon discovered, more than one reshoot was required for each image!

I won't add any text - I'll just allow you to construct your own story. Enjoy.

 

MISSING

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Thanks to my family for being subjects and for their patience.