The British Independent Film Awards are held on a roadside outside a London Hotel each year. Last year, it was so poor (weather- and light- wise) I never bothered to post the journal, even though Ralph Fienness and several other notables attended. This year… fine, I’ll document the madness.

We start with…. I don’t know who this is. The lack of streetlighting means the Nikon (which I’m using instead of the Pentax for High-ISO reasons) whitebalance doesn’t really know what to do.

“No, dear boy. I have no idea what kind of wand would choose you” John Hurt indulgently signs for fans.

Billy Connolly arrives, looking well-kempt but confused about the lack of security, red carpet, and a disproportionate number of Members Of The Public hanging out i…

The movie is ‘Hitchcok’. And, one day, they will make a film called ‘Lucas’. And it will be interesting. But Scarlett Johansson won’t be required to get naked in it, so there will be limits to just exactly how interesting.

I arrived late, but my spot was not without merit. That said, despite my efforts, there is not a frikkin’ single BIRD in this shot (I was going for profound….). Unbelievable. Still… Mirren and Hopkins pose. That’s something.

"I"m not even going to answer that question, I’m just going to stand here and look awesome." Well played, Sir. (I call this photo A.H. )

“…. everyone keeps asking me about Tom Hiddleson these days. It’s quite distracting. I mean, I’m trying to film a n…

Just two days after the Tom Hiddleston dominated Life of Pi premiere, which due to him had 10x more views in the first day than my Twilight premiere journal, it was time for a world premiere in Leicester Square, that of “Les Miserables”. My position proved to be rather odd, but not unworthy.

Here’s how it went down.

It’s Les Miz – it’s a musical, but fairly popular. I’m surprised they didn’t get Baz Luhrman to direct it, but for now I’m just happy that they’re not playing the trailer noisily every few minutes for two hours. I’m listening to The Dark Knight Rises soundtrack. It doesn’t fit.

The host on the left apparently played the character of ‘Marius’ in the original stage version of the show 27 years ag…

Life of Pi was a pretty major book release selling some 7million copies and winning the Man Booker Prize in the UK. It’s meant to have been considered un-filmable, but I suspect that’s more a marketing thing. I have read the book, remember it fondly, and the trailer looks amazing. Oh, and there was a premiere. Here’s how that went down.

Blue carpet. Flames. Low temperatures. If they’re walking a tiger down the carpet for the publicity, I think it’s going to be cranky.

Access All Areas red carpet photographer. I should hate him more than life itself, but I have to concede he is pretty awesome. He even rocks baldness! I have a ways to go before I can make that claim.

The Metro advertised a 5pm start but it was 6pm. Fortunately, “Monsters Ate My Condo̶…

When I last posted one of these journals, I’d had difficulty hiding my disdain for the premiere of Rise of the Guardians and longing for the good old days of Twilight Premieres which is something I never thought I’d say. So now it’s time for a movie with the difficult name and weighty theme of “The Impossible”. Here’s how it went down:

It was a premiere held at the BFI Imax, last used for What to Expect When You’re Expecting and Wrath of the Titans Of course, when it’s for a Tom Cruise film like Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol they use the full circular road around the cinema. Here? Not quite so much.

“Dear Jared. Had enough of your vogue-style posing. Am breaking this off”
Moments later.
“Damnit, girl. My phone’s vib…

It’s the third premiere in three days, and I’m less interested in posting this one on Merit than I am in doing it for completeness’ sake; and even less about Completeness than I am about Research. After yesterday’s Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2 premiere and the day before that’s Nativity2 premiere I’m trying to figure out whether being one of a thousand people at a premiere (all taking photos) is better than being one of just a couple of people at a much smaller premiere is a good thing. ie. It’s all about science. And to a greater extent balloon artistry, also. Here’s how “Rise of the Guardians” went down…

So I guess Dreamworks are going to try to Register and Trademark Santa Claus, The Easter Bunny and The Tooth Fairy lik…

If it seems like only yesterday that I was at a premiere at Leciester Square that’s because it was. And if it seems like I, a fully grown male human biped, has already been to a Twilight Breaking Dawn premiere that’s because about a year ago I was

And though some people had been camping out since Sunday, and the 400 First Entry wristbands went to people who’d been camping out since at latest Tuesday evening, and I had nothing but a full day of work to get through, I headed down to Leicester Square with a a sense of optimism, as I’d already decided that if it was all retardedly stupid, I’d turn around and go home and clean my apartment for an inspection tomorrow.

Here’s how it went down (and why my apartment is still somewhat of a pigsty)

Three hours to …

Leicester Square is currently in the grip of three premieres in three days – the inside is some kind of weird Christmas Park for Rise of the Guardians on Thursday, outside on three of the four edges there are sleeping bags and mattresses for fans camping out for tomorrow’s Twilight Breaking Dawn part2 premiere, and the final remaining edge is for today’s rather smaller premiere for Nativity2 “Danger in the Manger”.

I’m not making this up.

Here’s how it went down.

I don’t see any Twihards on this vertice, so this must be the place. The TV screens in the background are for Twilight tomorrow, though. (And there is another bank of them ahead and to the right in front of another cinema)

“I’ll trade my wristband for access to this awes…

So when I last posted one of these, London was about to hit The Olympics and I was planning to take more photos in a truncated period than I do on holiday or London Film Festival. A spoiler : IT was really, really big and trying to select just one photo per day wasn’t easy. But it’s called one photo for a day for a reason, no?

Here’s how it went down:

July 27th. It’s on. The default is that Sydney’s were the Best Olympic Games ever…. but I’ve got an open mind. And a hell of a lot of a better camera this time!

July 28th. Mens Cycling Road Race. Kazakhstan Wins! (the dude still has 1500m to cycle AND he gets overtaken once in that time, but goes on to re-overtake and win)

July 29th. Womens Cycling Road Race. It’s the start, and if nothing else…

It was a dark and cold evening, and a greater number of ruder (and culturally nonrepresentative, I’m sure) French tourists seemed to converge on Leicester Square to bask in the world premiere of the movie ‘Gambit’. Either that, or they were one week early for the Twilight premiere and wondered why Taylor Lautner was now an old dude with a porn moustache and Kristen Stewart an older blonde woman. Even so…

Please stop playing country music at premieres. At least not from two hours before. And at least not quite so loudly. Handing out free cowboy hats to the crowd was a nice touch… but you have no idea quite how lunatic people can get at the prospect of Free Hats.

Like a ninja, the director managed to zip past me and get interviewed facing the wrong way and then…

So I decided to print some photography-themed business cards so that on rare occasions that I meet people in a photographic context I don’t have to hand them a corporate “Senior Benchmark Analyst” business card. Because even I’m kind of hazy on what that means. So off I went and discovered the wonderful world of MOO.com and immediately decided that every one of their templates stunk and I’d design my own business card, thanks.
.
I thought to myself : it needed to be artistic and discreet and classy and …. basically as close to NOT having a business card as it’s possible to have while still having one. But once I selected my cover image, I was struck with how horrifically commercialised having my name and contact details in bright white lettering loo…

Now, you (perhaps) know me. One Photo Per Day means that if there’s a chance of an envelope being opened anywhere I can take a photo, and I’m bored, I’ll go.

Hence, the Pride of Britain Awards. I’m not even British! And it was raining!

Here’s how it (implausibly) went down.

The evening comes to an interesting start : Jane Torvill. Who, together with Christopher Dean won Gold for GB at the Winter Olympics in 1984. So… these awards are clearly not necessarily limited to recent achievements?

As this is not a movie premiere, I’m back in unfamiliar territory where many of the arrivals are concerned -if indeed they even face our (crowd) direction. This? Who knows. I include it because the mysterious face at right gives it something.

I’m sure this …

Amazingly, the good folk at International Life Magazine have given me my THIRD two-page spread of premiere photos in their latest issue! (The key ads to bear in mind for what kind of magazine it is, are still for civilian space travel and private submarine purchase, but I like their Bentley and Quinting watches ads!).

None of these photos are actually on Redbubble at this stage (not even The Hoff… I can’t believe my oversight), but they were from the premieres of The Expendables2 , The Sweeney , Now is Good and, Improbably, The Keith Lemon Movie (101 views and no comments – and that’s how I want it to stay!)

I’m still very excited at getting to see my photos in print, meaning it joins:

and

as magazines I’ll be mailing home to Mum and Dad!

And I’m d…

When I last posted one of these, I can barely remember. And I’m falling further behind. For example, according to this journal the London Olympics are still almost three weeks away. (Gosh… I wonder if London will do a good job?). Anyway, here’s how the next little bit went down:

July 8th. The Olympic Torch makes it to St Albans. Coca-Cola, Samsung and Lloyds TSB let me photograph it. Aw, thanks guys.

July 9th. It’s not every day you get a DMCA takedown notice from Redbubble for a photo of Lady Gaga at V Festival taken four years ago AND get a second two-page spread in International Life Magazine. Yin and Yang.

July 10th. It was either Matthew McConaughey or Channing Tatum for the not-quite-premiere of ‘Magic Mike’ Premiere in London. I’m so ashame…

Well… it was a big one. Skyfall had its Royal World Premiere at the Royal Albert Hall, a site that last hosted The Premiere of Titanic in 3D . I took something like 3000 shots and ended the night with ten (10) shots left in the space on my memory card. And it’s a large memory card.

Then I got home and grabbed the first forty I could to represent the night as best I could before the requirements of sleep took over. Here’s how (some of) it went down:

Discreet. Understated. One of those art-house films from the director of American Beauty (1999) (nb. this is the BACK of the premiere. All the action is on the other side, and includes fans who have camped overnight)

And it’s a Royal Premiere. That means they bring the dogs, who have disarmingly cute smiles and friendly …

So, after 12 days and as many premieres (some of which – including ones featuring Marion Cotillard, Helen Hunt and Bill Murray I didn’t and won’t get around to posting), it’s time for the Closing Gala of the event, which is with the premiere for a remake of Charles Dickens’ lengthy “Great Expectations” (I say ‘lengthy’ rather than ‘classic’ because I read it in High School, and it was definitely lengthy).

Would it involve a cavalcade of stars from all throughout the movies featured in the festival, would it rain almost incessantly, and would I (just one last time) get to sleep around midnigh with a full work day to look forward to mere 5 hours after going to sleep? I think we all know the answer to several of those question…

So, it’s a Rolling Stones premiere. The crowd was big(ish) and younger than you’d guess, but not that young (obviously – the kids are all into Bieber and Britney and rap music and stuff). And I had a spot next to a man with a Stones badge collection all over his coat, wearing a hat with Stones badges and LED lights, and who ran a Rolling Stones Museum in Luchow, Germany.

And thought I’m not even somebody who’d class myself a fan of their music, here’s how it went down

T-Minus 2 hours. Security on the balcony overlooking the Odeon Leicester Square probably have a combined age less than any one of the Rolling Stones. I’m sure they’re thrilled.

T-Minus 1 hour. …better than calling the film “Raised by a Toothless Bearded Hag”, …

London Film Festival continues apace with its near-one-or-two-per-day schedule almost but not quite failing to wrap around my actual job, which is not photographic in nature. And even though facebook has once again nuked the majority of all my journal links meaning I’ll have to reconstruct them again, I might as well enter a new journal so that Zuckerberg can nuke that at a later date.

Ben Affleck!! Woo!!

If I was Ben Affleck, I’d be pretty pi55ed off at the director insisting he grow a ridiculous long-haired bowl cut and grow ludicrously lush beard for this role…

Hee! Who knew the Press Photographers had a sense of humour (and/or shot Sony?). Taken prior to the paparazzi draw for positions – my NSW Drivers License sadly does not entitle me to participate.

“I…

Another day at London Film Festival, another premiere. I’ve even got a bit of a backlog, though my cameras are doing fine (thanks for asking!). Tonight it was the directorial debut of a man whose acting notoriety arguably started in 1967 with a star role in “The Graduate”. Seven Academy Award nominatios for Best Actor (two wins) and clearly it’s time to take up gardening or the harmonica. Or motion picture directing. Whichever.

Day 5. It’s the backs of four people. On the face of it, how hard could it possibly be to photograph that at a premiere?

Ah, The Once And Future Yellow Cap Guy. Only one man is capable of inheriting the Yellow Mantle these days, and he wears Blue Shoes. But I tend not to photograph him. He got me Charlize Theron’s autograph more …

If it seems like mere hours since I was at the Elle Fanning Premiere of Ginger and Rosa , it’s because that’s actually the case. It’s London Film Festival and that basically means a premiere every day for nearly a fortnight. So, we move on from one double-barrel movie title to yet another – “Rust and Bone”. Here’s how THAT went down.

‘Rust and Bone’ and ‘Ginger and Rosa’ on the same day? Well, call me “Excited and Right Here”

“Tom, we’re here, it’s cold, and there are grimy troglodytes calling themselves ‘dealers’ massed behind the red carpet sweating over the possibility of getting Marion Cotillard’s autograph. I’ll see you back in the studio. After I’ve showered.…

It’s London Film Festival 2012, and that means more premieres than usual. I’ve already done Frankenweenie and Blood . The downside this time of year is a slightly greater chance of rain and low light. Today, both those things happend BUT to compensate there were TWO (two and a half, really) premieres, same location, an hour apart. Good times.

The first was for a movie about two teenage girls living in London in the 1960s, and something about the Cuban Missile Crisis. Here’s how that went down:

Thanks for the multiple premieres, BFI!!

It started raining with an hour and a half to go, so I left my spot to get an umbrella just in case this thing got all Biblical. It didn’t, but then I also didn’t lose my spot in line. To celebrate, here’s some Art. By whic…

So after a two month period featuring just three premieres, it’s London Film Festival so there are premieres almost every day! Yesterday it was the Opening Gala premiere of Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie and today there’s a smaller one. But I’m not choosy. Here’s how it went down:

London Film Festival Day 2. Today’s premiere (there are actually several, but this is the one I chose) is for a film called ‘Blood’, and I am oddly surprised and pleased that it appears to not be a frikkin’ vampire film!!!

A semi-legendary Blast From The Past – the guy on the left is the former Yellow Cap Guy, absolute mainstay of premieres up until a couple of years ago. He doesn’t do them anymore. Others have taken up the mantle of obsession he typi…

Incredibly, it’s been A MONTH since my last premiere – Now is Good and even longer since the last premiere in Leicester Square – The Sweeney. But now, to coincide with London’s cold / dark / wet season, it’s London Film Festival Time!!

To open the festival, it was Tim Burton’s latest – Frankenweenie. Here’s how it went down:

Hee! ‘Weenie’. That is all.

If your plan was to get Helena Bonham Carter’s attention (even if she’s not on The List to attend) this is a worthy strategy. Might be enough to get her to come, actually.

We start proceedings with a fashion show in monochrome. And… damnit, somebody stole one of my ideas again.

“I’m just going to do the thing with the guy in the place over there. But I…

When I last posted one of these , I’d just come back from Estonia, discovered the joys of “Yeah, it’s that Bad” podcasts and the weather was fine.

June 18th. Emma Stone isn’t photo for the day. I don’t know why. I should probably address that. Still… Andrew Garfield is Sony’s new Amazing Spiderman

June 19th. Ubercool Beatles Bandito street mural. Late identified as being the precursor to a month-plus-long exhibit by Mr Brainwash.

June 20th. Just around the corner of the Beatles mural, ANOTHER cool mural. Thanks, Mr Brainwash….

June 21st. Tube interior. Central Line, at a guess.

June 22nd. Not a view you see every day – Euston Tower level 20-something. I guess I should have asked for permission… (?) but there was barely enou…

I’d never photographed Dakota Fanning before. Kind of handy, because she was more or less ALL I photographed at the premiere of “Now Is Good”. Sadly, it wasn’t all that well organised. For one thing, having a lane of active traffic running through a premiere because you didn’t think to close down the street is uncool (unless it’s a Fast and Furious premiere, in which case : kudos). Anyway, here’s how it went down:

It sounds grammatically dubious. But it’s a premiere, so I’m here.

“I hear Bieber is in town!”
“Really? Where are you?”
“Right next to you” Security busily doing something. Research, perhaps.

No, dude. That’s not creepy at all. Just stay on your side of the road and I’ll stay on m…

At last year’s 2011 GQ Awards the planets aligned, I had a great position, Charlize Theron showed up and smiled, angels sang, birds tweeted and all was good with the world. So naturally, this year, faced with the choice of a Jude Law / Keira Knightley premiere or This Year’s GQ Awards, I went for the Awards.

I got there about 3pm. My spot was a mirror image of last year. And then things went downhill.

It was with merely THIS many Paparazzi in attendance that the organisers spontaneously decided to increase the size of their pens by FIFTY PERCENT from last year, forcing all people back and out of direct view. There was no reason for this – in fact, unlike last year, there was a Keira Knightley premiere on at the same time in another part of London… there were, if an…

People throw the word “ICONIC” around a lot. And I don’t like it. It’s even harder when it’s a premiere for a 1970s British TV show mainly starring British actors I haven’t seen in a lot of movies. But…. I’ve got a camera and an open mind, and imdb and wireimage can always cover for any lack of knowledge I bring to an event!

“Act like a criminal to catch a criminal” Yeah. I tried saying that to the judge. Didn’t work.

It was like that when I got there. I swear!

If this guy gets away with this, I’m taking scaffolding to premieres from now on

Somebody said something about “Gary Oldman’s Sister”. No idea if that’s true, and it’s a good enough story that I don’t want to spoil it through…

When I Last Posted One Of These I’d photographed Kristen Stewart, Will Smith, Cameron Diaz, Johnny Depp and His Excellency Aladeen of Wadiya. And myself. Could I top that? Not without leaving the country….

28th May. Alert. Not alarmed.

29th May. Large mural, Thames. A compelling enough morning photo that I felt disinclined to go to the Glamour Women of the Year Awards. And when I went anyway, disinclined to stay.

30th May. Rapper Plan B (aka ‘Ben Drew’) had a premiere for his directorial debut Ill Manors . But I’ll be honest, I’m much more amped for tomorrow’s World Premiere of ‘Prometheus’.

31st May. Prometheus Premiere To quote my own Facebook profile update: “Charlize Signed the photo, Ridley signed the journal, Mo is a genius…

When I last posted one of these the Olympics in London were way off and I had no idea of the existence of Estonian Rhubarb vodka. I’m actually so far behind in posting these that those two things are still some time off. Still, bear with me : interesting stuff is still coming up!

May 9th. It wasn’t easy getting photos of Johnny Depp without paparazzi elbows, peoples hands / mobile phones / cameras / posters getting in the way at the premiere of Dark Shadows . Though apparently he did later sign for pretty much everybody after doing his media interviews and introducing the film inside the cinema. I was long home by then…

10th May. One day later, and it’s Sacha Baron Cohen in character as The Dictator Aladeen of Wadiya. He brought along a wheelclamped orange lambor…

So the deal is : I grew up in Australia. So I’ve missed whatever vital cultural context is necessary to tolerate, let alone watch (let alone find in anyway amusing) Keith Lemon. Broadly I find the man and the character hateful, and I barely even watch TV. As for why there is a Keith Lemon movie, I can only assume some kind of government tax incentive is at work.

So why go to the premiere, you might ask? Well, like all mountaineers will tell you:

Because it’s there.

But this one was a chore. A noisy, soul-draining chore. And here’s how it went down!!

I hate Keith Lemon / Leigh Francis to a degree that is irrational but nonetheless sincere (see also : Matthew Broderick). So I don’t want to be here, but I am. And my intention is to avoid photographing him if I can. Ye…

So back in 1990, Arnold Schwarzenneger and Sharon Stone starred in violent Paul Voerhoven film “Total Recall”. It’s 2012 now, and if wild and reckless misinterpretations of Mayan prophecies are nonetheless somehow correct, next year might be too late to remake the film.

Hence, the unlikely trio of Colin Farrel, Kate Beckinsale, Jessica Biel, Director Len Wiseman and the tireless Bill Nighy made their way to Leicester Square for a white-carpet premiere of that film.

Was I there, standing behind the world’s two tallest non-basketballers? Of course I was!

White carpet. Live twitter feed. Constantly shifting barriers. London can do it – we’ve shown the world we can host major events in London with style and class!

“Foxtrot Unicorn Charlie Kilo!!! I d…

A mere one (1) day after the end of 16 days on more or less non-stop photography I embarked on during the London 2012 Olympics …. guess what? London had its first premiere for over two weeks!

And it some pretty big stars I hadn’t previously photographed were in attendance. Here’s how it went down:

No matter how much ‘Teh Awesome’ the cast of this film is, I can not believe that NOBODY at the studio went “No women on the poster? Or presumably in the film? Not even ONE?”. I mean, where is Scarlett Johansson or Kate Beckinsale when you need them?

“Jeff, this is not an outside broadcast. It’s an intervention with military backing and its reason is this: stop wearing those stupid checked shirts”

Scott Adkins was apparently in The Bour…

In 2000, my home town of Sydney hosted the Olympic Games. I went to four ticketed events and went to none of the road events, and took maybe three rolls of APS (!) film and two of 35mm film.

Twelve years later, in defiance of the belief that the Olympics are a ‘once in a lifetime experience’ my hometown is now London. I came too late to join the ticket ballot in the UK, and left Australia too soon to apply for tickets there once I knew where I’d be, but via friends and desperation and a determination to see ANYTHING, especially if it was free, I did okay.

For sixteen days I’ve managed to make it in to London, seen 4 ticketed events and NINE free events, and spent all other days wandering the streets and photographing everything. FIFTEEN THOUSAND photos later……

It was only a week ago that I and thousands assembled for the behemoth that was the European Premiere of The Dark Knight Rises which was pretty awesome. I’ve since watched the movie and… eh. Maybe I’ll save the critique for a more alcohol-filled rant.

Anyway, to come down from a MEGA premiere is always difficult, but it has to be done. Hence my unaccountable presence at the small premiere for a ?boxing? movie called “The Man Inside”.

Here’s how it went down…

A nondescript but certainly not unpretty TV presenter prior to the premiere gets this journal underway (and with my skillz at complimenting The Ladiez (as well as my insistence on calling them The Ladiez), it’s hard to believe I’m still single, no?)

This lady, on the other hand, is…

Note : because Facebook are a bunch of SHITS and sometimes move urls around, thus causing mayhem to some 150 of my journals, the photos in this journal might be missing. If that’s the case, feel free to be a friend AND CLICK HERE TO MY ORIGINAL FACEBOOK JOURNAL

Did you know that it’s been A MONTH since I last did a premiere? (Other than the “Magic Mike” one which I don’t want to talk about?). It’s true. It was Sony’s presentation of a Sony Pictures Production of Sony’s The Amazing Spiderman . And while that was fun, it was really only a placeholder til THIS premiere – that of the third Chris Nolan Batman film. I might have mentioned previously that ever since I crossed “Scarlett Johansson” and “Ridley Scott” off…

Three months ago, I had the fantastic fortune of being able to say I’ve been published, when quarterly high-wealth-high-aspiration magazine Internationallife Featured several of my premiere shots in their magazine:

Fortunately, lightning has struck twice and I’m really happy to say that I was given yet another two page spread in their magazine’s current issue, one quarter later:

The three photos featured this time were from:
Scarlett Johansson at The Avengers
Kristen Stewart at Snow White & The Huntsman
and Will Smith at Men in Black 3

Which is pretty awesome! The Redbubble equivalent works to those published are:

I guess I’d better hope for some good premieres in the next months so that I can provide a case for more….!

Hello! When I last posted one of these it was April and I’d been to Cornwall and Redbubble hadn’t changed yet and the world was a more primitive place. It’s now July, same year, and I’ll be honest I don’t really remember that much of what went on, but fortunately I keep detailed notes. Here’s what appeared to happen.

April 19th. Scarlett Johansson, at the Avengers Assemble European Premiere . Day taken off. Record for most photos taken at a single premiere broken. Hours waited : 11. Worth it : yes. Next question…? (Here’s mine : why is facebook asking me to tag the lady in the background but NOT Scarlett Johansson? What are you playing at, Zuckerberg?) I call this photo Scarlett (as opposed to Johansson )

April 20th. I photographed Scarlett …

So. Spider-Man. There were of course three Spider-Man movies starring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst in 2002, 2004 and 2007. They made billions of dollars at the box office. And here we are again, in 2012 and there’s a new Spider-Man movie. I’m so… what’s the word I’m looking for…?

Near as I can tell, Sony owns the rights to this Marvel Franchise, while Disney owns the rights to pretty much everything else that’s Marvel. That’s why Spider-Man wasn’t in The Avengers, and that’s why there’s a new Spider-Man movie: Sony has to keep releasing them, or the rights will (somehow) revert to Marvel. And who wants that?

On a completely different note : a martial arts subplot? I’m intrigued…

It’s Page1 of The List o…

When I last posted one of these, my hatred for the morons who did the ending of Mass Effect 3 was like a critical mass about to go nuclear. Oh, and I was Published in a Magazine, photographed Danny DeVito at the Empire Movie Awards and James Cameron at the Titanic 3D premiere, and a leaping piegon.

The next couple of weeks were no less random and strange…

March 29th. I could go with a photo of Liam Neeson from the Wrath of the Titans premiere, but for now..? We can’t help but wonder….

30th March. I’m in Bristol to photograph a wedding. Yes, a wedding.That’s happening tomorrow. I’m nervous because I don’t do weddings – I do candids at premieres. And street art. This, for example, is a Banksy.

31st March. I took 3,900 photos on a single batter…

Note : If this journal is missing its pictures, THEY CAN ALSO BE FOUND HERE ON FACEBOOK

Twas the night before the Prometheus world premiere, and I had other things I could have been doing. Specifically preparing for TOMORROW’S PROMETHEUS WORLD PREMIERE . But, in the end, as I usually do, I decided that premieres require photographing. Even premieres for films I have little interest in watching (which theoretically also applies to What to Expect When You’re Expecting but that had significantly more high-profile actresses).

The movie is “Ill Manors” and it’s written and directed by Ben Drew. If you haven’t heard of him, he’s also a musician called Plan B. And if you haven’t heard of HIM then… yeah. Kind of turn away now, I guess.

But bef…

So with thanks to Zuckerberg and his freewheelingly retarded programmers, apparently these journals apparently sometimes lose all their links when something in FB changes. If that is the case, and you really want to see the journal, it’s HERE. IRONICALLY LOCATED ON FACEBOOK. FEEL FREE

After photographing Charlize Theron at my first ever premiere, and Scarlett Johansson at The Avengers a few months ago, the new #1 and #2 on my List Of People I’d Really Like To Photograph has been occupied by Directors Ridley Scott and Chris Nolan, both of whom have movies out this year.

This was Ridley Scott’s.

So I hear Sir Ridley is finally returning to his roots and making that Romantic Comedy he’s been promising for a few decades?It’s totally my date movie for 2012.

That a…

So with thanks to Zuckerberg and his freewheelingly retarded programmers, apparently these journals apparently sometimes lose all their links when something in FB changes. If that is the case, and you really want to see the journal, it’s HERE. IRONICALLY LOCATED ON FACEBOOK. FEEL FREE

After photographing Charlize Theron at my first ever premiere, and Scarlett Johansson at The Avengers a few months ago, the new #1 and #2 on my List Of People I’d Really Like To Photograph has been occupied by Directors Ridley Scott and Chris Nolan, both of whom have movies out this year.

This was Ridley Scott’s.

So I hear Sir Ridley is finally returning to his roots and making that Romantic Comedy he’s been promising for a few decades?It’s totally my date movie for 2012.

That a…

When I last posted one of these I was still in Germany, skiing and apres-skiing with my rockstar friends and their glamorous groupies (I may be making a couple of things up there, but not the German and skiing bits), and that’s where we take things up.

March 9th. It kept snowing overnight and then the wind stopped for hours, meaning that the views of snow on branches were extra-awesome today. We celebrated in Austria.

March 10th. Sadly, skiing is over. But that doesn’t mean I’m coming home empty handed. No, sir. I’ve got 5 DVDs, 6 blocks of Marzipan Milka chocolate, some leftover Mozart dark chocolate alcohol… and about 1,500 photos to edit before I get my hands on the game Mass Effect 3 on Monday.

March 11th. Sometimes One Photo Per Day means breathtaking mo…

Okay, so I’m a guy and this movie is not exactly on the short-list of films I’m desperate to go and see. Not while I still have to watch ‘Inception’ five or six more times…. and each of the two Chris Nolan Batman films three or four times to prepare myself for the third film, out in July…. Hell, I might even be convinced to watch Piranha 3DD, or Snow White and the Huntsman or Men in Black III

Where was I?

Oh, yeah. A movie I have no intention of watching. Still… that by no means implies that I wasn’t very much looking forward to the premiere! I was… and here’s how it went down.

So I hear Cameron Diaz is now bringing her own security to these kinds of events. The premiere was at the BFI Imax, which means uniquely you can have your…

pssst! if this journal is ever missing, it can be found here on facebook as well

Luck can be a funny thing. I got to the premiere and was marched into a position in a public pen so bad that I decided to bail and stand by the road. Then I attempted to find a space in a pen that looked fantastic, but was kicked out because they were keeping it one deep… until they later made it FOUR deep and filled it with people who arrived after I did. So I found my spot, side on the Entry Plinth, facing the media where stars stand with their back to the crowd, and perpendicular to the giant stage. In other words, with about 3 hours to go before the start, I was already screwed and there were people in pubs and cinema doorways who had better spots.

Life sucked.

And then…. weirdly…. it en…

Maybe it’s a story about a larger than usual spider in the Dwarves’ house. I don’t know. All I do know is that it’s got Charlize Theron in it.

What kind of world do we live in where Charlize Theron is cast as an evil witch? Serial killer or Monkey psychologist, sure. But a witch?

A top line to warm the heart. It was a world Premiere, and I had a decision to make : photograph or autograph? It doesn’t usually happen, but I actually DO have a photo of Charlize Theron I’ve taken that I REALLY want signed… it’s 18×12 in black’n’white and I call it Starlet and I HAD IT WITH ME.

I think this is me most days. Metaphorically speaking. I’m a guy and I wear a beanie, and work in IT Benchmarking and Modelling. But otherwise. (I el…

When I last posted one of these , I’d photographed Brad Pitt at the BAFTAs and Judi Dench at a premiere it had snowed in St Albans (twice!) and in an attempt at “Art” photographed the same view of the same building twice with different cameras.

How could the next couple of instalment possibly be any better, I hear you ask?

Meatloaf. That’s how 8)

Feb 19th. Low Tide at… someplace we drove by. (Wells-next-the-Sea, I’ve since been reminded)

Feb20th. One day later, different hemisphere, the question I asked one day earlier was also asked by the Sydney Morning Herald: “Whatever Happened to Agyness Deyn?”. This, weirdly, is Agyness Deyn.

Feb 21st. It’s London Fashion week, and if you carry a DSLR with some degree of competence, nobody rega…

By way of background, I liked Ali G and thought Borat was excellent. However, Bruno left me somewhat cold (and that not because I’m Austrian!). The Bruno premiere was fun, though

But according to paid advertisements festooned on the front and back page of today’s Metro, this film is meant to be funny. Well, if nothing else I had hopes for the premiere…

I’m reasonably sure there’s almost no chance of any religious or geopolitical groups finding this movie offensive… and more than that I’m sure it’s perfectly safe to go to the premiere : nobody’s seen the film yet? Right?

If nothing else, this premiere was smaller than yesterday’s Johnny Depp / Tim Burton Dark Shadows premiere, which Depp and Burton both attended. Which is weird, …

So it’s another Tim Burton / Johnny Depp premiere. I’ve had limited luck photographing them separately OR together at the same event prior to this. And of course they’re not exactly unpopular And it’s at Leicester Square, which means it’s big. And then it started raining.

“What if my skin isn’t pale enough and Johnny Depp says something about it? I’ll DIE!” This is the kind of hypothetical game you can play to while away the hours waiting for a premiere to start. I think this was at about 4 hours to go…

… and then it rained for about an hour and a half! (I had an umbrella. It was better than this)

So… this was the QUIET, uncarpeted part of the premiere that only Tim Burton signed in. The majority of the crowd, the pre…

Back when Trey Parker and Matt Stone made “Team America World Police” they claimed that Alec Baldwin was the greatest actor In The World. Now, that served a comedic purpose, sure, but had they thought about it, they would almost certainly have felt very silly having forgotten about one man.

Jason Statham.

Aw. Yeah.

But I hadn’t forgotten. And, sure, I might have said that after finally photographing Scarlett Johansson about two weeks ago, it was now Directors Ridley Scott and Chris Nolan who were next most highest on my hit list… but that was only because I knew of the cosmic inevitability of my photographing Statham at the ‘Safe’ premiere.

Here’s how it went down:

“It’s like it’s in 3D or something….” I actually need…

Somewhere between photographing Scarlett Johansson and The Cast of Marvel’s Avengers ….; and Kate Middleton the Duchess of Cambridge and the African Cats premiere there was another premiere. Not a major one, and not the enticingly-titled “Strippers vs Werewolves” (which would have been a sight to see…), but another premiere, a Comedy called “Outside Bet” about which I knew nothing except that Bob Hoskins (from “Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1989)” was in it, and, I learned, he wasn’t coming to the premiere.

Well…. I was in the area. Here’s how it went down:

I will confess one thing – had the ‘other’ premiere scheduled for today (“Strippers vs Werewolves”) taken place, I would have gone to tha…

Hello, and it seems that I’m now almost a quarter of a year behind posting these, and last time I did it was just after new year and the journal involved Steven Spielberg, Lana Del Rey, Batman (!), Space Invaders and even Me . How could the next three weeks ever compare (and how can I rack my memory enough to make comments on any of them?)

Jan 28th. So the British DO have some kind of patriotism. I meanwhile, baked a bananapeachraspberrybreadslicecake. Like…for science.

Jan 29th. A brief respite of coffee and photography before heading back to save the universe in Mass Effect 2.

Jan 30th. Actor Tom Hardy (‘Bane’ in the upcoming third Batman film) battled a chest infection but still elected to show up to the This Means War premiere also featuring Reese Witherspoon …

It’s been one (1) day since my last premiere, and less than a week since the behemoth that was The Avengers but today’s was a bit more unusual. A documentary getting a premiere.

Sure, a documentary narrated by Samuel L Jackson but he wasn’t expected to attend (and didn’t). And yet, it wasn’t wasted by any means (more on that when I finally upload yesterday’s much less interesting premiere).

Anyway, here’s how things went down:

Disney Documentaries don’t generally get red carpet premieres. Still… there’s a carpet. I have a camera. Match made.

Fortunately, I wasn’t out in the rain – I was Under The Bridge, dry, , with only that damn Red Hot Chili Peppers song repeating in my brain as punishment.

Hats off to the two almo…

NOTE : If this journal is blank, then once again I’ve been 5crewed by my photo-hoster-of-convenience Facebook. However, should you feel the need, the photos are ALSO LOCATED HERE FOR YOU TO ENJOY

Ah… the Avengers. I’m not a fan of comic books generically (my geeky nature never swung that way), but as a fan of hype and spectacle I am…not unaware of the fact that movies to Iron Man, The Hulk, Thor, etc exist, with the end aim of setting up a hypergiant film combining the various marvel properties. Some of them were good, some of them were bad, but this one? Looks pretty epic.

How epic? Let’s just say I took a day off work for this one, got up at 4am and was on the first tube. Obsessed? Not so much.. though the fact that Scarlett Johansson was meant to attend mi…

Ah… American Pie. Released in 1999 and quickly followed by an opportunistic sequel two years later, then a third instalment (“American Wedding”) in 2003 (thank you, IMDB). It’s been nine years since then, and, well… let’s just say Jason Biggs, Sean William Scott and most of the cast have been cruelly snubbed by The Academy in many of their film exploits since. Still… each film (even the last one) made $200million or so worldwide and the lack of fame of the stars outside the franchise means you can (presumably) make them fairly cheaply…

So…. cue 2012 and a fourth instalment of the franchise, “American Reunion”. Would anybody show up, though? (counter-question : how many of them have anyplace BETTER to be, though?)

No red car…

Firstly, if the photos in this journal have once again been moved by Facebook, the original album plus comments may also be viewable by clicking here Otherwise, read on:

Fans of the word ‘Wrath’ have waited 30 long years since the second Star Trek film to see it in a movie title. Well… good news!

And, merely two days after the mega-(re)premiere of Titanic London’s latest premiere as for “Wrath of the Titans”, the sequel to the wildly successful and equally wildly derided movie “Clash of the Titans”. Well… if it makes money at least they’ll keep having premieres….

The BFI Imax is in the centre of a giant roundabout in the southbank, with the entranceway sunk below streetlevel. It’s an interesting spot to hold a premier…

So good news if you’re a fan of James Cameron’s Titanic : it’s returning to cinemas in all its romantic, Celine Dion-esque awesomeness. (I kid because I love… what, guys aren’t allowed to like Titanic?? It’s not as good as Aliens, but damn it’s still a fine film, people)

And because James Cameron is really not into subtlety, they had a premiere. No, not a small one. No, not one in Leicester Square or something as mundane as the O2 or Westfield… but the Royal Albert Hall. FARQ.

I was nervous. Not just because he’s basically my favourite director, but because back in the day (2010 I think it was) I decided to combine all my favourite plotholes and opinions on Avatar (which I also think is a fine movie by the way) into a 15minute summary …

OMG. Based on a purely happenstance coincidence …… a few months ago now one of the people I randomly met introduced me to a guy he knows who publishes his own magazine. It’s a 20K(ish)-circulation magazine called Internationallife. That guy and I got to talking…. and two issues later I’ve got a TWO PAGE SPREAD of my works in his magazine!!

Can you believe this? Because I’m having difficulty right now!!

It’s a pretty high-class / high-affluence magazine, and he was quite taken with the idea of a twist on the standard ‘paparazzi-style’ photography that I try to do at premieres.

So all in all, that’s pretty awesome. It’s not a newsstand thing, but you can order it online and I’m told its primary client base is hotel and …

I like Awards Ceremonies. They’re like a ‘best of’ of the past year’s premieres, allowing you to catch up or revisit people from the past. Plus, they occasionally have the odd diverting and/or random guest show up. I’d already done the BAFTAS a bit over a month ago, but now it was warmer and brighter (woo!)

This particular instance, it was the Empire Movie Awards, and I decided to find my spot and see who or what showed up.

Here’s how it went down (and I’ve tried to note who I’ve previously photographed at what premiere(s) in the past):

On the face of it my position outside the Grosvenor Hotel seems sub-optimal. (More so if you consider that I’m deep in Autograph Dealer Territory).. still, we’ll see.

“Yes, your fan ending t…

Howdy!

When I last posted an update , I finished it with me sitting in a plane circling London after coming from Tokyo/Sydney. That’s now about three months ago : good news – I eventually landed!

Here’s how the next three weeks went down:

Jan 8th. Premieres are on again, and I only just got back! This is Steven Spielberg attending the War Horse premiere – and he even signed an autgraph for me! (Thank You Mr Spielberg!!). I’m just calling the b/w version of this The Master (and, yeah, I’m gushing a bit! that almost never happens)

Jan 9th. Premieres are (kind of) still on again. Jeremy Irons takes an ill-lit path from the backstreets of Chinatown to the side-entrance of a cinema for the pseudo-premiere of ‘Margin Call’. It never got its own jo…

Well, after the massive behemoth that was the Hunger Games Premiere last week (or maybe it was just massive because the autograph dealer scum were even more like animals than usual), this week brings a smaller, more intimate, almost civilised premiere for the English movie Wild Bill.

They closed down one lane of traffic on a busy street to give pedestrians a way past and had both the crowd AND the carpet on the one wide footpath, but it wasn’t bad at all. Here’s how it went down:

Hey- I’ve always wanted one of those! (I’ll leave it to you to decide whether I’m referring to (a) a girl in my life who can handle a DSLR with aplomb, or (b) merely one of those LED-lighting-hotshoe thingies)

As little as two premieres ago I was still asking the question Who is Dext…

As previously established, I’m single enough that I can go to premieres. But recently something has intersected that ability. No, not a relationship (are you crazy??) – but a computer game called Mass Effect 3. It’s kind of addictive, and awesomely so. However, fortunately, Premieres trump Playstation so off I went to the O2 to see what would go down at the Hunger Games European Premiere:

“The Hunger Games” may seem to have a creepy Twilight-ness vibe about it, however unlike (or should I say ‘just like’) Twilight, I’ve read the Hunger Games books and UNLIKE Twilight THESE ones were excellent.

Get yo’ Merchandise! (but don’t stick the pin in too far, it’s sharp. We live in an Occupational Health and Safety obsessed world. p…

From what I’ve been able to gather, “John Carter Of Mars” (as it was originally going to be called) is based on a series of Sci Fi Books by Edgar Rice Burroughs back in the depths of literary antiquity (I just checked wikipedia : 1912!). Since being published, it seems to have had key elements lifted by everyone from Dune to Star Wars to Flash Gordon, so it’s been massively influential. Still… 1912? References to America’s Civil War? Aliens?

Quirkier movies have been made, and I’ve seen many. But would you back the concept with a $250million budget and get the dude from Pixar who did Toy Story and Finding Nemo to direct it? Disney did.

Based on merely the name ‘John Carter’ you might assume this to be a mobster flick, or a soft-drama s…

Ever since I last posted one of these about three weeks ago, it would seem I’ve been hovering above Khabarovsk having barely taken shots of Mara Rooney and Daniel Craig at the Girl With The Dragon Tattoo premiere and Tom Cruise at Mission Impossible 4

What wonders would the next three weeks or so hold? Well…. Christmas and New Year!

Dec 17th. Good morning, east Coast of Australia (shot taken pointing west…)

Dec 18th. “What’s that noise? I think Harry’s come home early!”

Dec 19th. I wouldn’t say it’s particularly summer-like in Sydney at this time of year…

Dec 20th. Mail runs and Kensington Pride Mangoes and $8 Schnitzel nights at Picton Hotel. These are a part of some of my favourite things.

21 Dec. It’s the QVB and a prett…

I was at the BAFTAs in 2010, where I took shots of R-Patz and K-Stewz; and Kate Winslet and I shared a moment that made me kind of sad we never ended up hooking up. I’m not laying blame, I’m just saying…

Anyway, I was in Australia this time in 2011, but now it’s 2012 and while I wasn’t game to camp out in MINUS FIVE DEGREE temperatures, I was willing to go to some lengths to secure some shots.

Here’s how it went down:

I got wristband #208 of … I don’t know actually. But a 5:15am arrival meant not camping out and only developing mild chill. So it was three and a bit hours of queueing, then four hours break to have lunch and regain my core body temperature, and then returning once again.

They let us in, in batches of 10 or so at a time, at aro…

Woo! It’s a premiere in London, and I don’t care how many comments I have to dedicate to variations on “…. and it was SOOoooo COLD”, it was and I went and it was still pretty good. Kind of. The movie was “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” and based on the decor and cast listing I’d say the chances of it featuring gunship battles and lamborgini car chases is negligible. Still, here’s how it went down:

As a movie title, it doesn’t have the punchiness of “Drive” or “Inception”, but “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” is hardly going to be mistaken for a movie with a similar title. Probably won’t have a blaring Hans Zimmer score, either, based on the Indian music they were pumping out of the speak…

When I last posted one of these, it was still November last year and I’d photographed author PD James, actress Kristen Stewart, a squirrel and Basil Fawlty . In an attempt to drag myself into a more ‘current’ period, here’s how the following twenty days or so went down:

November 27th. My fetish for (of all things) TABLES resurfaced at West Hampstead today – my apartment now has six…. in two rooms. (And not counting my innovative ‘cardboard box’ coffee table). In other news, I may also have watched latest Twilight movie, which may or may not have been hilariously awful.

November 28th. Director Martin Scorcese at the Hugo Royal premiere .Neat-o! I call this photo Marty because, yeah, I’m totally on a first name basis…

November 29th…

I did something I’m not 100% sure I should have at this premiere. See, I’ve always had a dream (not a big one or anything) that it would be nice to have some of the photos I take at premieres signed by the stars in them. And this was one of those premieres. But at the same time, I also know that whenever I need to compromise photography for autograph-y, it doesn’t always work out. Still…. I am a fan of both movies AND photography so I can’t always focus on the more important one. I had not one but two items… here’s how it went down…

The movie is ‘This Means War’. The Paps are lining up for The ID Tag Draw for spots, while everyone in the Pen nearby is probably going Online to check on the chest infection of actor Tom Hardy, who p…

It seems that every four weeks or so I post what I’ve been up to over a three or so week period in the past. Mathematically, this inevitably results in me falling further and further behind, thus turning a cutting edge current journal-style thing, into somewhat of a pleasing retrospective. I think.

Anyway, when I last updated, I’d Come back from Italy and photographed Keira Knightley as well as Philip Seymour Hoffman and a Cheer The Hell Up Lightbox . Here’s how the next three weeks following that went down:

November 7th. Crime Author P.D.James turns out to be an older woman with crazy Doc Brown hair! (The chalk outline was digitally inserted by me in tribute)

November 8th. It has been a relatively mild late autumn to date. I guess it makes sense that this tree has lost …

The most recent premieres I’d been at were W.E. – Madonna! and the Gala Screening of Shame , and this one was at a location I’d not previously been – Southbank’s Royal Festival Hall. It was for “The Woman In Black” – Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe’s first full foray into post-Harry Potter acting. Though, looking at what the fans brought to have autographed suggests that the fanbase of The Woman In Black is considerably smaller. For once, I didn’t have a good position (I was three rows back, behind Tall People) so ultimately I decided to take a chance and shift location that provided a better angle as opposed to proximity.

Here’s how it went down.

I got there about two hours early, so I had more than enough time for som…

In a bit of a sobering reality check in the wake of uber-premieres like War Horse and Mission Impossible , the ‘premiere’ for the movie “Margin Call” one day after War Horse proved to involve two of the cast walking through a London cinema’s side entrace after being dropped off in ill-lit backstreets of Chinatown. (It felt more like I was being an evil stalker than at a premiere, regardless of what the websites said, so I’m holding off posting that journal while my conflicted soul sorts itself out).

Anyway, one day after THAT, here’s how the ‘Gala Screening’ of the movie ‘Shame’ went down (I missed the premiere itself last year, as I was out of town)

It’s not a premiere, it’s a “Gala Screening”. What…

Okay, so every year (including 2010 and 2009 and 2008 I look back at the increasingly few movies I have time to watch, and try to see if I can either invent awards that cover how I felt about them, or slot them into ‘award categories’ that a friend and I came up with years back when we were still watching a movie at least every second week (like, back in 2005).

So…. 2011, huh?

I’ll try to rush through them quickly so we can all get out of here in one piece. Here goes.

The Inaugural “Independence Day Award for Worst Effort by an Invading Alien Force”, basically covering the eventuality where you’re a technologically advanced alien species that flew halfway across the galaxy, and somehow LOST TO A BUNCH OF HUMANS. It goes to the aliens in “Bat…

Although I haven’t journalised them; ever since War Horse on Sunday, there mini-premieres on Monday (‘Margin Call’ with Jeremy Irons and Paul Bettany) and Tuesday (‘Shame’ with Steve McQueen and Mark Strong)… and on the FOURTH day in the row I was out again, this time for a (re-) Premiere for the Madonna-directed ‘W.E.’. When it had its first premiere last year, I was across the other side of Leicester Square wondering why Steven Spielberg didn’t turn up to his own premiere at Tintin (he was in France, that’s why!)

Anyway, for whatever reason, W.E. had a second premiere, this time just prior to the general release. Here’s how it went down:

Location : Odeon Kensington, which is a bit out of town. Apparently Leicester Square …

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So to bring you quickly up to speed : after 40 hours either on a plane or transiting through Tokyo, within 24 hours of landing in London, I had my first premiere for the new year. And not just a premiere, but a ROYAL premiere. And not just a ROYAL premeire, but a FREAKING STEVEN SPIELBERG Royal Premiere.

With a Horse.

No pressure at all, then!

Guy next to me says: “Do I want Steven Spielberg to sign this? What, and ruin it? Hell no, I just want him to look at it and say it’s cool. That way I can tell all visitors to my home “Hey, Steven Spi…

Hi there! You know how it’s all ‘2012’ right now? Well, even now I’m still clearing a backlog of One Photo Per Day journals dating back to October last year. Sure, it lends added cool factor to my life to make you wonder what awesomeness it must feature to warrant a three month delay…. or it could be laziness.

When I last updated one of these, I’d just moved offices, photographed Kirsten Dunst and Mr Bean, got a new lens and landed in Italy . Could the next twenty(ish) days possibly compare favourably?

Here’s how it went down:

Oct 17th. The sun rises on San Gimignano, early morning in Tuscany. Now time to go back for one more filling meal at the farmstay before heading on to Lucca and (sadly) the aeorporto.

Oct 18th. Occupy LSX, in front of St Pau…