There has been quite a flurry of filming activity on the streets of Oxford recently and I’ve photographed some of it. The scorching temperatures have slowed down the amount of photography I’ve been doing lately but I braved the heat when a certain crew rolled into town to film the next instalments of Oxford’s best loved detective. No spoilers.
[Tech info]: Rolleiflex 2.8F, Fuji 400H (expired), Fuji Frontier scans.
Here are some portraits I made at a WWII re-enactment event at Mapledurham recently. The weather was overcast which was perfect for the colour palette and colour negative film I was using. After much deliberation on which gear to take I settled on two 6×6 medium format cameras – Rolleiflex 2.8F and Pentacon Six TL – because I mostly wanted to concentrate on portraits and I like the balance of the 6×6 format. Shots from the Pentacon will follow.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex 2.8F, Fuji Pro 400H film (expired).
For the past few years I’ve have had a lens sitting around that I wanted to make use of but never quite got around to it, until now. The lens originally came off of the Polaroid 110B Land Camera that I had modified to a 5×4 large format camera and I didn’t see much point in mounting it to a lens board to use on a different 5×4 camera so it’s been sitting around doing nothing. I wanted to adapt it to work on my Rolleiflex SL66 but the only place I knew of that made an adapter was asking around $80 which is more than I wanted to pay but fortunately a friend mentioned RAF Camera where an adapter cost just under half the price.
After modifying the adapter slightly (two small holes need to be drilled so that small screws on the back of the lens can stop it from twisting) it was ready for testing. Below are some test shots from the first roll. A few things to mention are firstly the focal length is a surprise if you’re mostly used to using the 80mm standard lens as I am and I frequently found myself taking a few steps back from where I thought I would need to stand to a given composition. Secondly, the depth of focus is extremely shallow even at f8 and because the image through the viewfinder gets darker as you stop down it’s difficult to get precise focus without a bright focussing screen in your camera – something that affected my hit rate of sharp shots on this roll. I’ll use a tripod for the next roll I use with this setup to see the difference. All shots made during my lunch break.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex SL66, Enna Werk München 127mm f4.7 lens, Ilford Delta 100 (expired), developed in Tetenal Ultrafin T-Plus.
Behind the scenes during filming of Endeavour 5, FILM 5 in Brasenose college, Oxford. These shots are all from the same roll of film through my Rolleiflex. The scenes filmed on this day take place before the scenes filmed on the previous day in Radcliffe Square but it all matched up well in the final edit. Whenever I get the chance I try to photograph SA’s (supporting artiste’s) because I like the outfits from the 1960’s. You may recognise the college don below from various different Endeavour episodes and maybe even some other tv shows and movies.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex 2.8F Zeiss Planar, Ilford HP5 developed in Kodak HC-110 1+31.
Behind the scenes photography from the filming of Endeavour series 5, FILM 4 in Oxford. It was mid-August when the picnic scene was filmed in Oxford’s Botanic Gardens and what was meant to be a nice summer’s evening ended up looking more like drizzly October. That’s when the magic of a large light ended up transforming the scene to look like the sun had broken through the heavy overcast sky – I shot some wider shots to show how dark the sky was. The last frame is from the next setup which was a nice scene that didn’t make the final edit. This was the last frame on this roll, more from that scene will follow in a future blog post.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex 2.8F, Zeiss planar, Ilford HP5 film @ ISO 1600, developed in Kodak HC-110.
In this instalment of behind the scenes Endeavour photography you get a look at scenes that were filmed outside and inside the Oxford Union debating chamber. These shots are all from the same roll and the last frame was at the unit base on the last day of filming a couple of weeks later. I’ve photographed quite a lot of events at the Oxford Union so I’m familiar with the interior of the debating chamber and I really enjoyed seeing it completely transformed with lighting and haze lingering in the air. The scene outside where the flour bomb was thrown took a lot of planning and rehearsing. The shots below were with a stunt woman. One of my favourite b&w films to use is Ilford HP5 but to mix things up a bit I decided to use Kodak Tri-X for these shots.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex 2.8F Zeiss Planar, Kodak Tri-X film @ ISO 800, developed in Kodak HC-110 1+31.
These portraits were made on the last day of filming of Endeavour series 5. Towards the end of a very busy day I managed to find a place in the corridor of the CID interior set where there was a nice pool of soft light that was perfect for some portraits so I took full advantage of it. In all of the years I have been photographing behind the scenes on Endeavour this was only the third occasion that I had seen Anton Lesser on set so I was especially pleased to have a chance to make his portrait just before a take. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to photograph more of the cast and crew on this occasion.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex 2.8F, Zeiss Planar, Ilford HP5 @ ISO 1600, developed in Kodak XTOL 1+1 18mins.
Whenever I photograph Q&A events at the Oxford Union I try to use both 35mm and medium format film cameras for a bit of variety. These shots were made with my Rolleiflex TLR during Baz Luhrmann’s visit to the Oxford Union. I had the opportunity to make a quick portrait of Baz before the start of the event and quickly positioned him next to a floor standing lamp that was in the Gladstone room where the drinks reception had taken place. I only had time to shoot one frame but sometimes that’s all you need.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex 2.8F Zeiss Planar, Ilford HP5 @ ISO 1600, developed in Kodak HC110 1+15.
These pictures were made with my medium format Rolleiflex camera during Sir Ian McKellen’s visit to the Oxford Union for a Q&A event. Whenever possible I try to photograph the Oxford Union events I attend with both 35mm and medium format film but the 35mm pictures always get posted to this blog first because they are faster to scan.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex 2.8F Zeiss Planar, Ilford HP5 @ ISO 1600 developed in Kodak HC110 1+15 (using the ISO 3200 dev time).
This set of pictures is from my first visit to the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley. It’s a great place to visit, especially for photography and as the entrance ticket is valid for return visits for a whole year I’m already looking forward to going back there. For sale in the gift shop was a filming locations map for a tv show called Peaky Blinders which is partly filmed there and although I haven’t watched it I can see how the living museum could easily be transformed into a film set.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex 2.8F Zeiss Planar, Ilford HP5 @ ISO 800, developed in Kodak HC110 1+31.
These pictures are from the first day of filming in Oxford for Endeavour series 5 episode 2 in June 2017. The day started off nice and sunny as I recall and by mid-morning the streets were full of tourists which made filming quite difficult. There was a returning director on this episode – Andy Wilson – who I remember photographing briefly in 2014 when he was directing the episode titled Sway. The shots here are from half the roll of film, the other half contains episode spoilers so I’ll post those at a later date after the episode has been broadcast.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex 2.8F Zeiss Planar, Fuji 400H film developed in a Fuji Xpress C41 kit.
The Endeavour crew were back in Oxford for a few days of filming for episode 4 of series 5 and I did some behind the scenes photography. Here are some shots from Exeter college where they were mostly doing interior scenes. I’ll share some of the interior pictures after the episode has been broadcast – no spoilers! For these shots I was trying out a film I don’t often use – Ilford Delta 100. The day was sunny and bright but most of the action was in the shade and I struggled with sufficient depth of field on some of these shots. Next time I’ll stick with Hp5. The last shot on this roll is from Radcliffe Square where a short scene was filmed. The big light on the scaffolding provided a little rim light.
[Tech info:] Rolleiflex 2.8F, Ilford Delta 100, developed in Tetenal Ultrafin 1+20.
