Endeavour series 9 is still in production so I’m afraid you won’t find any spoiler photos here. Most of the crew on this series are new to Endeavour but there are some familiar faces too. Here are some pictures from the first day of filming in Oxford on FILM 2 of series 9. The last photo is from the following day in Magdalen College.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, 28-50mm Tri-Elmar lens, Ilford DELTA 400 developed in Ilfosol 3. Pakon scans. Last photo is on HP5 film, 50mm Summicron lens.
Behind the scenes photography during filming of Endeavour 8 | FILM 2 in Oxford, April 2021. This was a night shoot in Wellington Square, the location for Joan Thursday’s flat. In reality it’s a couple of doors down from the exterior of Endeavour’s basement flat in series 3. I used Kodak TMAX P3200 film on this occasion because I like how it handles high contrast during night photography but to get the best out of this film I’ve found you need to use Kodak TMAX film developer and agitate every 30 secs as described in the Kodak film data sheet.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, 50/1.5 Voigtlander Nokton, Kodak TMAX P3200, developed in TMAX developer. Pakon scans.
Behind the scenes during filming of Endeavour 8 episode 2 in Oxford, April 2021. It was all about the taxi’s for this session. I quite like this dead end road the crew were filming on because the buildings funnel the light in while allowing it to bounce around at the same time which works well for contrasty sunny conditions.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, (can’t remember which lens), Eastman Double X film, developed in D96 for 7.30. Pakon scans.
Behind the scenes during filming of Endeavour 8 episode 2 in Oxford, April 2021. The first two images show a character who sadly didn’t make it into the final edit which is a shame because it was an intriguing scene.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, (can’t remember which lens), Eastman Double X film, developed in D96 for 7.30. Pakon scans.
Behind the scenes photography during filming of Endeavour series 8 episode 2 in Wellington Square, Oxford. April 2021, lockdown restrictions had eased enough to allow filming to commence. I limited my photography to the exterior scenes. A nice little detail to look out for is the box of matches inside the taxi with the C. Dexter Matches brand.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, Eastman Double X motion picture film, developed in D96 stock for 7.30, Pakon scans.
Some pictures here from a recent trip to Dorset. There are nice views of Colmers Hill from Symmondsbury and it’s also easily accessible from there if you want to walk to the top. The first and second pictures below were a comparison of how different focal length lenses affect the relative size of distant objects. The first shot was with a 28mm lens and notice how small and far away Colmers Hill looks compared to the second image which was made with a longer focal length (either 50mm or 135mm, I can’t remember which). I tried to keep the size of the gate in the frame the same for each.
[Tech info:] Pentax MX, Ilford HP5, developed in Promicrol 1+14, Pakon scans.
These behind the scenes pictures from Endeavour 8 FILM 1 show scenes which were not used in the final edit. The shots of the Royal Mail postal workers on the picket line was most likely intended for the opening sequence. I’m not sure about the scene with Jack Swift and the Jaguar sports car. Merton Street, Oxford.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, Eastman Double X film, 50/1.4 and 75/1.8 Voigtlander lenses, developed in D96. Pakon scans.
Behind the scenes (socially distanced) photography during filming of Endeavour 8 episode 1 on Merton Street in Oxford. I can’t remember the last time the streets were this empty while the Endeavour crew were here – it was rather nice.
[Tech info]: Leica M6, 50/1.5 Voigtlander Nokton, Eastman Double X film developed in D96. Pakon scans.
I’ve borrowed a Contax T2 point and shoot camera from a kind friend of mine and have been taking it with me on a few walks recently to see if it lives up to its reputation. So far I can’t say it has. Below are some examples from a recent walk and you can see in three of them only the centre of the frame is in focus and the outer edge of the frame looks so distorted I wonder if there’s an alignment problem with the lens. Surely it can’t be down to a shallow depth of field. The strange thing is in the shot of the moss covered branch (second image) the blurry edges aren’t there so maybe it’s more to do with focussing at infinity? Maybe this is normal for this camera but no one has mentioned it in any reviews? Not sure.
[Tech info:] Contax T2, Eastman Double X film, developed in FPP D96 for 7mins 30secs. Pakon scans.
The Sunny 16 photography podcast arranged a photowalk in Oxford back in February and I agreed to show the group of film photographers around my home town. After 9 months I’ve finally managed to develop my films from the day and here’s a selection from the first roll. Part of the delay was because I wanted to wait until I had enough rolls to develop at once before ordering special developer to bring the best out of this motion picture film – Eastman Double-X.
There are different developer options on the market but on this occasion I decided to give FPP D96 a try partly because one packet of powder mixes into 3.8 litres of stock solution which is great value. I’ve been using 1 litre of stock to develop my rolls with 70ml of replenishment from fresh stock per roll. After 8 rolls developed the results still look great.
[Tech info:] Leica M2, 40/1.4 Voigtlander Nokton, Eastman Double-X, developed in FPP D96 stock for 7min 30secs, Pakon scans.
Behind the scenes during filming of Endeavour 7 | FILM 1 in the Goodman Library at the Oxford Union, August 2019. This location is a favourite of mine and one I am very familiar with having photographed quite a few speaking events there over the past few years. Once the artificial sunlight came streaming in through the windows and the library was filled with haze the space was completely transformed.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, 40/1.4 Voigtlander Nokton, Ilford HP5 @ ISO 1600, developed in XTOL stock, Pakon scans.
The last day of filming on Endeavour 7 was mostly interiors but I can’t show any of the action without spoilers so those will have to wait until after UK broadcast. In the meantime here are some non-spoiler shots from the day, mainly the hardworking crew. I had taken along with me some rolls of Kodak TMZ P3200 b&w film because I was expecting low light levels inside and so far I’ve been very impressed with the results since using Kodak TMAX film developer (1+4 dilution, one shot). More to come.
[Tech info:] Leica M6, 35/1.2 Voigtlander Nokton, Kodak TMZ P3200 @ ISO 1600, developed in TMAX developer 1+4, Pakon scans.
