Category Archives: christian movie

Shifting Sands

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 Tracks in the sand - Sea Palling, Norfolk, UK

I’m currently going through a phase of wanting to get ready for my Norfolk trip, even though I’m not doing it this year. Last year I made the decision to give Norfolk a break, the project would have a creative interlude for 2010, and come back fresh and reinvigorated for 2011. I will miss it though, which is not surprising considering that I’ve been doing it for five years on the trot. Time for a break me thinks. Last year, I got the feeling that I was becoming… er… too familiar with the place. Although it was hugely tempting to return this year, I’m going to stick by my decision of 2009 and do something else this year…. something very different - I’ll be helping film a vampire movie  in Whitby.

My Norfolk  project came about in 2004, influenced mainly by a photographic book called Northumberland by John Tordai. The book was part of a series, although I only recall ever seeing two books, where a photographer would pick a county they knew and photograph it. Tordai had been raised on Tyneside, so naturally, he chose the beautiful county of Northumberland. Sadly I can’t remember the name of the other photographer, or the exact county that the book was shot in. I do remember though that it was a county located in the south of England. I thought it a fantastic idea to do a long-term photographic project and that made me decide to shoot a project of my own.

My Norfolk project differs in one major respect to the books. I have no links to the county. I like the idea of coming to a subject fresh, just once a year for (and at) a certain period of time. I could do a similar type of project here in my home county of North Yorkshire, but for the moment I’ll stick to photographing the delights of Norfolk. How long will this project last? Initially when I started I thought ten years but I’ve decided to remove any time restrictions. It’s ongoing and ends when it ends. I’ll miss visiting this year but the break is needed.

Moving Pictures

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 Winter in the fields – North Yorkshire, UK

I have so many ideas abot my new podcast that it’s hard to work out where to go with it. The first one will be audio but i’m really tempted to alternate between audio and video making six of each. Although i could do these video episodes using a phone, i think my life would be made far easier by investing in a small camcorder. The one i have my eye on is around £95 and would be perfect for recording video podcasts, after all i’m not making Gone with the Wind.

Speaking of video, very soon i may be returning to an old college of mine. The college has a certain technical suite that we would like to use to complete the vampire film ‘Christian’. To say that technology has moved on from when myself and the film’s director Matt were there would be an massive understatement. Just the ability to distribute work onto the internet is a massive leap forward. Back in our day, distribution relied on how many VHS tape copies you could produce.  It involved a lot of hard work, time and the visual quality was questionable at best. VHS video and reel-to-reel audio tape seem so last century now. I think it’s going to be a strange experience going back.

I envy what students have to work with now. If anything, technology has only helped to increase creativity. It’ll be interesting to see what they do produce.

Whitby Light

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christian_03

A sunset portrait in Whitby, North Yorkshire, UK

It’s not often that i post about my day to day work. The vast majority of my pro photographic work, the stuff that earns me a living, usually stays out of the blogs. My recent shoot for a film is different though. Promotional photographs are usually the first thing a film needs to get the idea and story across. Interest can create financial investment into a project, so even though we are six months away from shooting the film, photos need to be taken to get the ball rolling. The person in the photo above is actually the film’s director, Matt Bland, who stood in to portray the Christian character. The role of Christian isn’t due to be cast until early 2010.

I rather like the idea of making portraits of the film characters. You can let your creativity run free and really try and capture what makes the hero or villain tick. I realise i’m lucky to have such a great backdrop as Whitby to use. If the movie has six main stars, the seventh must be the town of Whitby itself. Somehow you understand why Bram Stoker, who stayed in the town in 1890,  used Whitby in his book Dracula. The place has an attractive and yet…. dark undercurrent about it. Maybe it’s the abbey or the churchyard on the clifftop. Bleak is the wrong word to use. Atmospheric is probably far more apt. Whatever it is, Whitby certainly makes a great location for a film.

This week will see the local paper, The Whitby Gazette,  write about the film, and hopefully, use one of the promo images.  I don’t know which one yet, some are a bit scary, so it’ll be interesting to see which one is deemed OK to publish. I might be surprised!