Behind the scenes during filming of Endeavour 6, FILM 2 on New College Lane in Oxford. This was an extremely hot day and the tourists were out in force but you can’t really tell that from these pictures. I’ve picked out a selection of spoiler-free images, more will follow after broadcast.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, Zeiss 35/2.8 Biogon-C (shots 1-3), Konica Hexar AF (all others), Fuji Superia 200, Fuji Frontier scans.
Behind the scenes during filming of Endeavour 6, FILM 2 in North Oxford. No spoilers here. If you’d like to see the difference between Kodak Gold 200 film and Fuji Superia 200 film compare these shots with the previous blog post which was shot on Gold 200. Same lens used for both films.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, 50/2.0 Summicron lens, Fuji Superia 200, Fuji Frontier scans.
Behind the scenes during filming of FILM 2 of Endeavour series 6 in North Oxford. Mainly crew pictures from this roll, no spoilers! Other pictures will follow after broadcast some time in 2019. For a change I have been using colour film instead of b&w but I may change things up a bit – I’m still undecided about that. On this occasion I dusted off one of my least used lenses – a 50/2.0 Summicron lens which originally came with my M2 but when I tested it with b&w film I found the contrast to be lacking for my taste. It does however produce very nice results on colour film so I decided to use it on this occasion.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, 50/2.0 Summicron lens, Kodak Gold 200, Fuji Frontier 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.
When the 4th FILM of Endeavour series 5 was being filmed I was fortunate enough to visit the interior sets for Cowley CID. Here are some detail shots from around the Police station that I made before filming began in the morning. The attention to detail from the Art department and the props team is nothing short of incredible. It really did feel like travelling back in time.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, 40/1.4 Voigtlander Nokton, Ilford HP5 film @ ISO 1600, developed in Kodak XTOL. 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.
Behind the scenes photography during filming of Endeavour series 5 FILM 4 on Holywell Street in Oxford. The scenes filmed here were cut short in the final edit which was a bit of a shame but it’s often the way when you’re working to a set running time. Back when Inspector Morse was being filmed it was here outside the Holywell Music Room that I first encountered the crew, they were setting up a dolly track for an establishing shot as I recall. I’ve got the pictures in my archive somewhere, on slide film as that’s what I was mostly using back then.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, Voigtlander 40/1.4 Nokton, Agfa APX 100 (expired) developed in Tetenal Ultrafin developer. 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.
