"Lights, Camera....ACTION!"

Cameraman, Ashley King Rigging Up The Fluid Head

My painting bought me an unexpected ‘extra’ over the past weekend in the shape of being offered two days work on a film set for a short film by Stuart Creswell called ‘Broken‘. I was asked to do the stills photography for the film and also camera assist. It was a great deal of fun, intriguing and entertaining to watch a very professional group of film makers at work. In all a total of about 22 hours on the set for an 8 minute ‘short’ film.

My background in photography certainly helped but also my artistic side was useful, I was really able to appreciate what the director was looking for. Being my first time working on such a stage you would think that it would have been a bit foreign, but I felt very comfortable, almost as if it were an extension of my art and I suppose in a sense they are connected. The conditions for the shoot were perfect, with 2 days of stunning late winter light and no wind, we couldn’t have asked for better weather.

One thing I did notice was the utter and constant persistence for quality, this included everything from the acting, lighting, sound and the visual aspects of the medium. Something I learned a long time ago is that you are measured by what you ‘put out’ there in the world and in order to ascertain some sense of credibility, everything you do must be the very best and this was certainly the case over the weekend. The film has to be edited, a sound track added and then it’s off to a film festival in Ireland. I will be quite honoured to have my name at the end of the credits and would certainly love to do it again.