I decided
that I'd get straight into the swing of things by jumping back into
my English life with two feet. This meant that I was up and raring
to go today at 7.30am (ok, I was awake...mostly). I took my little
brother to school this morning, then headed over to my dad's
photography gallery, Steve Oatway Photography, to assist on a photo-shoot. The client is Adele Carrington, an author who needs images to use for the book cover and
as marketing material. To be honest, the thought of getting to meet
an actual author who was publishing an actual book is the only thing
that dragged me out of bed this morning!
We were told
that the book is about a female vampire, and the image that Adele
wanted involved a lot of fake blood and a white background. She
would provide the vampire and the blood if we could provide the set.
Mum and I
went to Tesco last night to buy a cheap king-size mattress sheet
(background) and a kid's paddling pool (to catch the blood...).
Fairly innocuous purchases, put to a slightly disturbing task!
After a few
false starts, we were able to hang the background onto the crumbling
brick wall (picture hooks – a photographer's best friend!). Our
photography assistant, Lana, seemed to have a lot of fun decorating
the set, though she complained that the blood was sticky and cold!
Just as we
were finishing up, in walked Adele with her vampire, who was looking
remarkably normal in jeans and a black top. No fangs or gothic
dresses to be seen anywhere. Adele later explained that she didn't
want to pander to stereotypes, and she had purposefully created a
“Romany gypsy vampire” to escape the Hollywood clichés.
We all had a
lot of fun on the set, especially giggling over the faces the vampire
(Tina, a friend of Adele's) made as she was gradually covered in more and
more fake blood. Apparently some of it was peanut butter, and she
was quite put out that it was crunchy. I guess smooth peanut butter
would have been more acceptable?!
There were
several costume changes, liberal amounts of fake blood and a whole
lot of laughs. Tina was a great sport and agreed to try almost all
suggestions, most of which involved spreading blood across her face
and hands! She drew the line at getting any in her hair (thus
rejecting the idea of “let's just pour the jar over her head”)
since she had a “very important, serious meeting to go to after
this!”.
I was sent
to the shop to buy some baby wipes (what better way to clean up
blood?!) while everyone else had a coffee break.
On my way
back, I paused outside our gate to see what it must look like to a
passer-by. It was looked amusingly strange, but I suppose it could
be worse, right? Somehow...? Though to be honest, I'm more
concerned by what the black bin bag full of bloodied sheets and a
paddling pool will look like to the bin men...!
In between
shots I amused myself by taking some photos of the detail, such as of
the vampire's blood-spattered diary and the mason jars full of blood!
All in all,
this was a highly entertaining re-introduction into life in England
as a photographer's daughter and some time gallery manager. If
anyone reading this decides they need photos of vampires, please get
in touch – we'd love to repeat this bizarre experience! Any
challenge is welcome here.
I can't wait
to see what will be thrown my way next, especially if all my upcoming
projects involve this much fun.
All the
best,
Charlotte
No comments:
Post a Comment