Life on the “other side..”

This week has been a busy / funny week. Some design work, a client (directors) portrait shoot for the in-house magazine, the Barbie UK Premiere then finally, on Thursday, the UK premiere of Oppenheimer which instead of shooting, I attended as a guest.

Originally I had planned to photograph the Oppenheimer event but when I was asked if I minded giving up my accreditation, I secured tickets to the event as I thought it would make a great night out for my (long suffering) partner and I.

Side note: My partner has been working in cinemas his whole life, having started work as a trainee straight from school at the Odeon Leicester Square. He worked “in the square” for around 32 years before moving to work for a major studio. (You can read more about this here…)

We have been together over 15 years and in that time, despite working at many (probably 100’s) of premieres (either both at the same time or separately), this would be only the second time we had attended as guests together - the last one being “Skyfall” (yes we know how to pick them).

I was hoping that we could record the event by sneaking near the photography pen near the entrance & I could ask one photographer to do me the favour of a snap on the carpet (at a distance).

If you follow my social media you will know I work closely and am very good friends with the popular film critic Mark Kermode, who was also attending the premiere. We met up at the pub and walked to the entrance.

Why do I give all this background? Well because of what happened next.

Mark (naturally) walked down the “talent” entrance to the carpet and to the photographers area. We followed, expecting Mark to be photographed and that maybe we could to that single snap at the end as above.

What happened next was a bit of a blur, a bit embarrassing but a lot of fun. I think the line from Mark was something like.

You have dressed up Edwards, it’s all of us or none of us, we are doing this….

I know I will be “ribbed” about this for a while.

So what did I learn?

• Standing in front of 30 photographers (especially if you know them in varying degrees is very intimidating).
• Multiple flashes going of in your eyes is horrible (yes I know they were aimed at Mark not at me).
• Although you can hear one photographer shouting at you (over your shoulder love – thanks Alan!) As soon as multiple photographers call at the same time, it is impossible to tell where the call is coming from.

I now feel safe in the knowledge that I can save my voice when working at these events because the chance of my feeble calls actually being of any use is practically zero.

I am really grateful to Robin (insta here) for the images which are now on our fridge (courtesy of a Kodak 3×3 printer). I am also really grateful that given the past, it will be another 8 years until there is the outside chance of this happening again (it wont!)