Watergate Productions: ‘Arsenic & Old Lace’ Poster

The poster for the latest Watergate Production; Joseph Kesselring’s ‘Arsenic & Old Lace’ directed by Mary Cradock.

Shot on 18-135mm on the Watergate stage using; a theatre spot-light overhead with my SB800 at 1/32 positioned on the ground behind Colette Browne (left) and Claire Gibbs (right) and my SB900 at 1/8 positioned on a tripod to the high left of the camera.

I’m not sure who did the design work on the poster but you can see the photograph without text here on the Oss237.com Homepage.

Bridal & Vintage Fashion Photo Shoot

A few weeks ago I answered a casting call looking for a photographer interested in doing a Bridal fashion photo shoot in Kilkenny.

Shortly after that, I met up with Make Up Artist Dawn Ryan and Hair Stylist Deirdre Esmonde Walsh to chat about the shoot. We set a date for it and over the next few weeks, four models were organised along with a selection of bridal wear, vintage dresses & headpieces supplied by Cameo Bridal Wear and Rebekah Patterson.

The Sunday before last, we all met up in the Hair Court to prepare for the shoot, we were joined by Cork photographer Ger Leahy. Our models; Grace Baker, Shelly Baker, Joanna Szendera and Mairead Moran tried on various outfits before Dawn and Deirdre set to work on hair & make up. Myself and Ger killed the time, shooting some behind the scenes shots and worrying about the blinding sun outside.

Once the girls were good to go, we moved to our first shoot location, the old TeaRooms Bridal Shop beside the river across from Dunnes car park. It was about 29 degrees at this stage and the sun proved to be a huge problem to shoot in, leaving us with the only option of shooting in the small shaded doorway area.

Unfortunately, despite having checked my kit the night before and everything was fine, I couldn’t get one of my wireless triggers to work properly, meaning I could only shoot with one wireless flash, my SB800. I kept it simple for the start, with the SB800 positioned on the ground in front of the girls at 1/4 power shooting on my 18-135mm. With the limited shoot space, we didn’t stay long in the location, moving to the shaded canal area beside the castle.

The second location was a lot better for shooting, plenty of shade and room to move around. The only small problems being the amount of attention the girls were getting, featuring of course the obligatory Kilkenny chav’s throwing some abuse, but the girls paid no attention and I had a lot of fun playing with settings and different strength flash bursts.

Unfortunately, my one working wireless trigger started acting up at this stage so I had to resort to using my SB800 on camera for a while. I swapped around between my 18-135mm and 50mm for various shots but just couldn’t find the right settings to stop the sky burning out in the background whilst keeping the girls lit.

Post-wise I did some selective desaturation on the background of some of these shots. My trigger had started working again so I tried some more strobist stuff against the wall of the castle, with the SB800 positioned to the left of the camera at either 1/4 or 1/2 power. I also did some sign replacements, removing the writing and graffiti off the Water Depth sign and adding a silhouette of the model.

Finally, we moved to our third location, just inside the grounds of the Castle Park. We found a nice spot in the woods with the sun coming through the trees providing a nice back light, we shot a mixture of group and individual shots with SB800 at 1/2 power. Then called it a day.

You can check out my favourite shots from the shoot here on the Oss237.com Homepage with links to over 70 photos on my Flickr. As always any comments or feedback are appreciated.

Finally, I’d like to say thanks to Dawn, Deirdre, Grace, Shelly, Joanna and Mairead for all their time and hard work, I really enjoyed the shoot, I hope you like the photographs and I look forward to hopefully working with you all again in the future.

Behind The Scenes on BLACK (Photos Part2)

I’ve just uploaded my second batch of photos from behind the scenes on SAW Films first production BLACK.

The short film was shot on a RED One camera last December in the grounds of Shankill Castle, with a crew gathered using the ArtLinks Forum.

A recent email from BLACK director Kevin Hughes confirms that the film is finished and he’s currently working on the colour grading for Bitches Coven, a second short film (directed by Pat Kenny) that was shot by the same crew a week later.

I’m really looking forward to seeing both the shorts and until I get some news on when and where people will be able to see them, you can check out the new photos featuring more behind the scenes shots of the cast and crew at work here on the Oss237.com homepage.

There’s still some more photos to come including some character portraits, but to avoid spoilers I’ll wait until people get a chance to see the short first. Updates soon!

Selfish Bass – Behind The Scenes (Photos)

Here’s the first batch of behind the scenes photos from ThanklessFilms music video shoot for Diarmaid O Meara’s ‘Selfish Bass‘.

Taken in my apartment on the first night of the shoot, where we slowly got our heads around the equipment, assembling the mannequins, dressing them, laughing at their weird mounds and trying not to drop them.

We shot a variety of stop-motion and puppetry sequences involving the main character as he prepares for his night out. We also shot two green screen shots, a leg-crossing shot and a TV screen replacement.

The leg cross was improvised and rushed so it never really worked out in post and was scraped. There’s a slight camera movement in the TV screen replacement shot (featuring Dave running me over in Turn Around!), I tracked the shot for the mask but couldn’t manage to get the colour/shine right on the screen before the television turns on.

Other random trivia:

• For some reason the gels kept melting on the lights all night.
• Mannequins can take a good slap when dropped on their faces.
• One of the mannequins had a very strange hole in a very strange place… before we took him out of the box!?
• One of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen is Dave & Der showering a mannequin!?

You can check out my favourite photos from the bunch here on the Oss237.com Homepage with links to the rest on Flickr and if you haven’t watched the music video yet then click here.

More photos coming soon!

Lancelot Link – Studio Promo Shoot

I’ve just uploaded a bunch of new promo shots for rock three-piece Lancelot Link, taken in the HotShotz Studio in Callan last week (thanks Benny).

I can’t find any sort of web-presence for the band yet but it features two former members of Mata Hari who I did a shoot with last year.

The new band are currently working on their debut E.P which will be released this Summer and they needed some clean promo shots for the artwork.

Shot on my 18-135mm at F8 160 with a four light setup in the studio. The lads got clean images but I’ve added some vignettes to mine.

You can check out my favourites here on the Oss237.com homepage with links to the rest of the shots. I’ll post some links to the band when they discover the internet!

Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay? Forgot to Pay! (Photos)

Following Devious Theatre’s production of ‘Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay!’ in the Set Theatre last month, I’ve spent the past few weeks quietly battling a severe case of what is commonly known as “post-show blues”.

I’ve had withdrawal symptoms for everything from wearing orange dungarees to Angela’s obsessive manners!?

My memories of the week of the show (and the weeks before it) are a crazy blur of colour, sweat patches, laughter, sessions, swanky surroundings, shenanigans, hilarious moments and madcap farce!

The production definitely goes on my list of favourites for so many reasons, going into them further would probably just make me sad all over again.

Today, I realised that I had completely forgotten to upload the only photos I took during the production, a collection of shots taken during Act One of the dress rehearsal before I made my entrance as Luigi… god I miss Luigi!

You can check out my favourite photos here on the Oss237.com Homepage with links to the rest on my Flickr.

You can also check out all sorts of behind the scenes bloggery, reviews and info from the show over on DeviousTheatre.com.

Behind The Scenes on BLACK (Photos Part1)

I’ve just uploaded my first batch of photos from behind the scenes of SAW Films first short film production BLACK.

The group was set up late last year by local film makers Kevin Hughes, Pat Kenny and Damien Donnelly; to establish a network of local film makers with a view to enhancing film production in the South East.

They used the ArtLinks forum to organise weekly meetings and assembled a crew varying from first-timers to industry professionals, to work on two short film productions (BLACK and Bitche’s Coven) shot on a RED camera.

BLACK was my second opportunity to work as a Data Downloader with a RED and despite the technical nightmare it turned into and the fact that the crew spent a long cold day shooting in a muddy graveyard in the grounds of Shankill Castle in early December, it was a lot of fun.

The films are currently in post-production, I’m hoping to get a look at the early cuts soon and I’ll talk more about the shoot in the next few weeks.

For now check out the first batch of photos from behind the scenes on BLACK here on the homepage with links to the rest on Flickr. Plenty more photos coming soon.

Vultures Episode 5: Shut down, hand-shandy’s and the final scene (Photos)

I’ve just uploaded my final batch of photos from behind the scenes of Vultures episode 5: ‘The Adventure Of The Hidden Microfilm‘.

Following on from the scene in the underground car park, where Leeson shuts down V.P.I, the detectives return to Tennyson’s house and call their “juvenile sex-pest” lawyer Matt McLoughlin. The scene in the kitchen was shot on Shoot Day 25, with our old house once again used as Tennyson’s house.

This scene was the first in a series of night-shoots but was relatively easy; we had quickly realised that there was no way to make that kitchen look nice, so equipped with two €30 construction lights with 5oo Watt bulbs and two household lamps with 100 Watt bulbs we simply tried to “make it look less shite!”.

The balcony out the back provided a nice opening shot for the scene and once we moved inside, the lighting set-ups remained the same for all the scenes shot in Tennyson’s kitchen. We spent the shoot constantly distracted by fresh pots of tea and chocolate biscuits, barely getting the scene shot before Thompson had to go to work.

The scene cuts back and forth to Matt McLoughlin (Peter McGann) surrounded by “some slutty looking hens” in a crowded bar. We shot the bar scene on Shoot Day 19 on the stage in the back of Cleere’s Theatre, just one of several scenes shot over that hectic snowy weekend, I think we had five location moves that day in particular. The scene was a simple one set-up, two shots; Matt talking on the phone and then looking for “a hand-shandy” from Cynthia (Mairead Kiernan) on the couch, with Rosaleen Johnson & Eadoin Carthy as extras.

We used two four-colour stage lights borrowed from KilkennyMusic to light the scene and despite the nightmare trying to focus under the extreme colour lights, I managed to put together the above character portrait sequence of Matt & Cynthia.

In the final scene of episode 5, McGrain pays a visit to Isabelle Vultour (Liadain Kaminska), the scene was shot way back on Shoot Day 2 with John Morton’s house once again used as Isabelle & Tom Moriarty’s love-nest. Our second day of shooting, our first interior night shoot, we spent quite a bit of time trying to light the scene; there was limited shoot space and several set-ups as Isabelle moves around the kitchen. We wanted it to be warm & cosy but at the same time we didn’t want to have to keep changing lighting set-ups as we moved around.

The 500 Watt construction lights were too strong and the lights in John’s kitchen weren’t strong enough. In the end, we set up one construction light outside the sliding glass door and used the blinds to defuse it, the second construction light was placed high up on top of a kitchen press and bounced off the ceiling. We used the two household lamps and some candles on the table as portable lights, slighting tweaking the set-ups as the characters moved around.

We had rehearsed the scene earlier that evening in the Abbey Business Center and with the exception of a small difference in space everything ran smoothly. As with all indoor shoots we drank way too much tea that night, a fresh brew being made between each set-up, constantly listening to ‘Moonlight Serenade’ and discussing things like bathroom reading and the “word to poo ratio”. As far as I can remember, I shot the photos of Tom & Isabelle (that appear in the scene) that night and then the shot of the photos on the shelf was picked up later.

We didn’t have enough space to shoot the wide shot from inside the kitchen, so we had to move outside and shoot through the open door. John spent most of this set-up having to chase his three-legged cat Pancho away, as she kept trying to steal the scene during takes. It was during the outside set-up/cat chase that we came up with the final shot, mirroring the final shot in episode 1 as the camera slowly moves back in a series of fades, as the music swells and McGrain watches Isabelle dance around the kitchen, the final shots are some of my favourite in episode 5.

You can check out all my shots from behind the scenes on Vultures here and as always any comments or feedback are appreciated. This final batch of episode 5 photos includes a rare shot of me during the shoot, I’m not sure who took it, I think it was David Thompson!?

Photos from episode 6 on the way soon.

Vultures Episode 5: The Car Park Scene, Character Portraits & “watching a man take a poo!” (Photos)

My first upload of the new year is another batch of behind the scenes photos from Vultures Episode 5: ‘The Adventure Of The Hidden Microfilm‘; a mixture of shots from the bathroom & car park scenes, a couple of random shots and some character portraits.

First up, there’s some individual portraits of John Morton and Alan Slattery taken in the Mycrofilm’s production office. Given that the premiere for Episode 4: ‘The Case Of The Poisoned Dates‘ took place two weeks into the shoot for episodes 5,6 & 7; it meant we spent most of our nights in the office (if we weren’t shooting). Those nights were a crazy mixture of editing episode 4 and pre-production for upcoming shoot days whilst drinking endless amounts of tea.

The schedule hung across the entire back wall of the office, constantly changing and being re-worked, it had quickly become a foreign language to me and indeed everyone except John. That evening in particular, I had received my wireless-flash-triggers in the post, so I took a break from story-boarding to test them out; I can’t remember the settings at this stage but I was playing with opposing colour pre-sets to get a cool blue effect on John as he stands “master of the schedule” and Sla sitting at his desk editing.

Following the scene in Noah’s car in episode 5, the fugitive V.P.I detectives and Quint Quigley retreat to Niall Tennyson’s house; where they put on some rubber gloves and attempt to retrieve the stolen data from inside the stoner. The scene was shot on Shoot Day 20 and although I didn’t take any photos of that scene I remember it was a lot of fun to shoot. We had spent a couple of days shooting various scenes in Tennyson’s kitchen (our old house was used for most of the interiors in Tennyson’s house) so lighting plans had been worked out in advance and with a basic shot-list for the montage we spent the afternoon doing various nasty things to Quigley (Kevin Mooney); making him drink cod liver oil, shaking him upside-down and saying things like “does it look like three men forcefully jamming their fingers down another mans throat!?”.

The scene eventually moves to Tennyson’s bathroom so Quigley can try force the microfilm or usb stick or possible laptop out his other end. The bathroom scene had actually been shot a few days before the rubber-gloved montage, on Shoot Day 16 in John Morton’s house. It was the only bathroom we could find with enough space to shoot four people in and even then we had a very limited shoot space. We didn’t have room for the lights so we set up a light outside the window (which is actually an interior window) and it created a lovely warm yellow glow to the scene.

Cut to a phone call from Jane Tennyson (Annette O’Shea) sitting in a car with Inspector Leeson (Paul Young), this single set-up was picked up quickly on Shoot Day 34, during a hectic weekend of shooting the scene in the Pinkerton’s lair amongst many others. We took a break from shooting interiors and moved to the car park outside to grab the shot.

Following the phone call, the detectives and Quigley race to buy some weed off Jack Street, a scene that was shot on Shoot Day 31. I have yet to master the art of taking behind the scenes photos of scenes I’m actually in, especially scenes where I get maced (again!), so once again unfortunately I don’t have any shots. On this day in particular, we had nobody to swing the boom so Sla was both the camera & sound crew. But during a quick tea-break in Jack Street’s lane-way, I managed to shoot some character portraits of Quint Quigley.

The fugitives then move to an underground car-park, so Quigley can once again attempt to poo out the microfilm. This scene was also shot on Shoot Day 34 in the car park of MacDonagh Junction shopping center. As I’ve said, we were in the middle of shooting the Pinkerton’s lair scene from episode 7 that weekend, the long scene took two night shoots and two full day & night shoots but on the Sunday morning we had limited access to the car park while it was closed.

The car park was easily one of my favourite shoot locations, I just wish we had more time there so I could have taken more photos. We had a three-hour window to shoot the scene which involved seven characters, tracking shots, interior & exterior car shots, a judo flip and a good bit of dialogue. Despite the time constraints we still managed nearly 20 set-ups; using a wheelchair for the tracking shots and then getting plenty of hand-held coverage of each of the actors outside the car.

The end of the scene had been re-written just days before, with some extended dialogue in the back of the car being added as we get our first glimpse of Nathalie Blaise (well, her pink glove). After shooting the car scene with Noah, this was a lot easier to shoot; once again putting the Canon XA-H1 on my Slik Pro 4000x photography tripod to shoot the V.P.I detectives in the backseat, a side-angle on Leeson from the passenger seat as the car pulls up and then shooting hand-held close-ups from the backseat for Jane Tennyson & Inspector Leeson’s dialogue in the car.We’d quickly set up the shot, adding or losing cast members depending on the needs of the shot and the space needed for the set-up, then driving in laps around the empty car park, repeat lines until we were sure it was covered and our time eventually ran out.

You can check out all my shots from behind the scenes of Vultures here, as always comments and feedback would be appreciated and there’s plenty more photos on the way soon.

Vultures Episode 5: Shooting the Car Scene (Photos)

Following on from the lane-way chase sequence in Vultures episode 5; we moved location to the Hebron Industrial estate to shoot the end of the scene; where Noah Hennessy shows up to save the V.P.I Detectives and fugitive Quint Quigley.

We had scouted the location a few days before and found a nice wide road with a dead end, meaning not much traffic and plenty of room for us to shoot what we needed. We were planning on using car mounts for the scene but the process of actually renting them had been too much of a nightmare so we scrapped the idea a few days before the shoot, opting to shoot everything from inside the car.

We were still very much against the clock, we hadn’t shot anything like this before so this shoot was going to be very tricky and the weather was due to turn against us, but for the moment we had strong sunshine so we moved quickly. I had been watching a constant flow of films like Hot Fuzz and knew we needed a lot of coverage to keep the cuts quick and keep the pace in the scene, even if we were driving very slowly. We shot in sequence, finishing the chase as the detectives run into a dead end and the Pinkerton goons close in on them. Then Noah comes to the rescue in his little taxi, but because Gus couldn’t actually drive; Sla would set up the shot then drive the car wearing Noah’s jacket.

Then we shot all of Noah’s dialogue in various set-ups inside the car; with Sla sitting back to front in the passenger seat using the bright sunshine to burn out the background for a side-angle on Noah as we pushed the car along, shots from the back seat when Noah looks around or uses the mirror and some quick whips from outside as he pulls up. Then came the tricky parts, the reverse coverage of the detectives and Quigley in the back seat.

Our main shoot tripod was too big to set up inside the car so instead we put the Canon XA-H1 on my Slik Pro 4000x photography tripod and framed the shot on V.P.I & Quigley in the backseat. Sla once again became the driver (wearing Noah’s jacket) and I sat in the passenger seat between the legs of the tripod, with the boom resting between the two front seats. We drove laps around a stretch of quiet roads in the industrial estate, with me shouting Noah’s dialogue and the lads giving their lines.

We had borrowed a field monitor for the shoot but 10 minutes into shooting it had died. As we drove in circles, we had problems with the bright sunshine moving across faces in the car, burning them out, and the tripod would lean on the turns. In the end, we shot one continous take of this scene, driving in circles for about half an hour, holding lines on corners we knew were too sunny and only stopping to reframe for close-ups and then repeat the process until there was no way we couldn’t possibly have enough coverage.

It was one of the most intense days of shooting; a morning of running mayhem followed by a cramped car shoot but it was so much fun. We shot until the schedule would allow and then took a quick lunch break before moving location to Jenkinstown woods to shoot Noah’s montage sequence from episode 6.

I’ve just uploaded some behind the scenes shots from the car scene shoot; it was a hectic day so I didn’t have much time for photos but there’s some shots of our guerrilla style car-shoot set-ups and a glimpse at how much abuse actors can take in one day.

You can check out my behind the scenes shots from the car scene shoot here on my Flickr. More photos on the way soon.

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