Traditionally, on low budget films, you always have trouble getting certain crew members. Stills photographers and sound recordists are usually toughest. We were very lucky as we had Ro Heap record the sound excellently, and Mark Reeve took the stills.
I only just took delivery of Marks pictures and I am blown away. Not only has he taken the time and trouble to sort the pictures so there are no duff shots, but he also categorised them too. Mark is not a very experienced films still photographer, his professional experience encompasses photography from around the world, so this was a challenge for him – and he grabbed it with both hands extremely enthusiastically. Mark told me he learned loads on the shoot, mostly that in the stage he needed faster lenses with the image stabilisation built in. This is because film lighting is usually lower in intensity than stills lighting. These are the lenses that cost several thousand of course, but I think Mark would invest in one before his next film shoot now.
Even with those considerations, Marks shots are top notch and I have never been so lucky as I have with this film with regard to stills.
As the crew were working for free, I also asked Mark to take lots of crew shots of them in action, as so often they don’t have anything to document their work, or even use in a CV or webpage. Mark captured this part of the film brilliantly. I can’t wait for the crew to see these images.
Check out Marks page at http://www.markreeve.com
Today we will be working on the budget, to see just exactly where we landed, and also prepping for tonights test screening at my flat on my big cinema projector! Ye-har! Will report on these tow over the weekend.
Chris Jones, Film Maker and Author
www.livingspirit.com
[email protected]
