Behind the scenes during filming of Endeavour 6 | FILM 4 in Oxford, October 2018. Teddy Hall was the location for this scene on a very chilly and overcast morning. Usually I wouldn’t push my film to ISO 1600 under daylight conditions but I wanted to see how HP5 would handle the contrast as well as having the flexibility to have a deeper depth of field than I would usually.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, 40/1.4 Voigtlander Nokton, Ilford HP5 pushed to ISO 1600 by Ag Photo lab, Pakon scans.
Behind the scenes during filming of Endeavour series 6, FILM 3 in Oxford. I only managed to catch the last few hours of this day’s filming but in order to avoid spoilers I only have a handful of shots to share from this roll at the moment. As usual, I will post more after broadcast.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, 40/1.4 Voigtlander Nokton, Kodak Portra 400, Noritsu scans.
US comedians Dave Chappelle and Jon Stewart came to the Oxford Union for a Q&A event and I went along to photograph. The lighting conditions were quite challenging with so much back light but I increased the exposure to lift the shadows and trusted HP5 to handle the contrast – which it did very well. I thoroughly enjoyed the event but as the usual video crew were not there I don’t think the video will show up on the Oxford Union YouTube channel.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, 40/1.4 Voigtlander Nokton, Ilford HP5 @ ISO 1600, developed by Ag Photo lab, Pakon scans.
Behind the scenes during filming of Endeavour series 6 | FILM 1 in Oxford, August, 2018.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, 40/1.4 Voigtlander Nokton, Fuji Superia 200 film, Noritsu scans.
Behind the scenes during filming of Endeavour 6, FILM 1 in Oxford, August 2018. Magdalen College was the location for the end of the first day of filming in Oxford and the next morning started off in Oriel Square at a very busy intersection with Merton Street. The crew did an excellent job of keeping the scene clear of modern day vehicles throughout the morning.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, 40/1.4 Voigtlander Nokton, Fuji Superia 200 film, Noritsu scans.
Behind the scenes during a day of filming in the grounds of Brasenose College, Oxford for Endeavour series 5, episode 5. Stepping in for Directorial duties for the day was Rob Quinn who directed the previous episode.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, 40/1.4 Voigtlander Nokton, Eastman Double X motion picture film, developed in Kodak D76. Pakon scans.
Behind the scenes during filming of Endeavour series 5, episode 4 in Oxford, August 2017. This set of pictures shows a scene outside the Free School on Holywell Street (which is actually the Holywell Music Room) where Endeavour and Joan Thursday have a conversation in the Black Jag but this scene didn’t make the final edit. After that there was a location move to the Botanic Gardens for a picnic scene which was meant to take place on a sunny summers day but it was now approaching the evening and the sky clouded over -this is where a huge light was brought in to act as the sun.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, 40/1.4 Voigtlander Nokton, Eastman Double X motion picture film developed in Kodak HC110. Pakon scans.
Behind the scenes during filming of Endeavour series 5 FILM 5 in Oxford. It was a sunny Sunday morning when special branch arrived at Brasenose College to take the college porter for a ride. The final scenes from this Endeavour FILM were filmed first thing in the morning and then the rest of the day was spent filming various scenes within the college grounds.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, 40/1.4 Voigtlander Nokton, Fuji Superia 200 film, Pakon scans.
Glenn Close visited the Oxford Union for a Q&A event and here are some of the pictures I made to document what was a fascinating, funny and quite moving talk. The video from the event isn’t on the Oxford Union YouTube page yet but hopefully soon. I highly recommend it. My go to film for Oxford Union events is usually Ilford HP5 but on this occasion I decided to give Delta 400 a try and I do like the results. It feels like there is slightly less grain and a tad more shadow detail than HP5 but I need to do a more controlled comparison to really tell. In any case I’m very pleased with these results.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, 40/1.4 Voigtlander Nokton, Ilford Delta 400 @ ISO 1600, developed in Ilford DDX 1+4. Pakon scans.
The Oxford University Photography Society organised a field trip to visit the Martin Parr Foundation in Bristol a couple of months ago and I went along with a group of society members to have a tour of the place and to see the latest exhibition that had just gone up. Martin was a great host and after making us all tea’s and coffee’s he explained a bit of the back story of the foundation and then showed us around the building including a peek at some beautiful vintage prints and book dummy’s from other photographers that he’s collected over the years. Then after being shown a selection of photo books that are part of the ever growing library – some of which are extremely rare and valuable – we had some time to have a Q&A with Martin before having an opportunity to finish off our visit with a viewing of the current exhibition of street portraits by Niall McDiarmid.
We all thoroughly enjoyed our visit and I certainly came away with appreciating the beauty of photography in a printed form, whether that’s as a print or in a book. If you haven’t been to visit I highly recommend it and I’m very much looking forward to my next visit.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, Voigtlander 40/1.4 Nokton, Ilford HP5 @ ISO1600, developed in Kodak HC110 1+31. Pakon scans.
Sunday morning in Oxford’s University Parks, what a perfect place to film a punting scene for the tv show Endeavour. If only the sun would co-operate. After a very overcast start the sun did peek through the clouds just long enough to light everything up. I have some colour shots that will follow in a future blog post.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, 50/1.5 Voigtlander Nokton, Eastman Double X film developed in D76 1+1. Pakon scans.
Behind the scenes photography during filming of a night scene for Endeavour series 5 FILM 2 in Oxford. The scene of an arsonist setting fire to a house was filmed after the scene that follows it where you see the fire brigade and the distraught family in the morning. The art department did an amazing job with this house to not only make it look fire damaged but to also clean it up as if nothing had happened, all in the same day. This was a tricky scene to film with the flames going up timed with the driver lighting his cigarette while getting the flames to reflect in the driver’s door window without making it obvious that the flames were coming from a gas burner. This was all done on an Oxford street and not on a studio backlot so you can imagine how exciting it was for the local residents to come out and watch. The light level on the street was very low (street lighting in the 1960’s wasn’t what it is now) and that’s where working with a rangefinder camera can make it that much easier to focus than with an SLR.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, 35/1.2 Voigtlander Nokton, Fujicolor Superia 1600 film (expired), developed in Fuji Xpress C41 kit, Pakon scans.
