Stills Assistant.com

Welcome to the blog of Gideon Marshall, Assistant Photographer and Digital Operator.

Stills Assistant.com

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About me

London (UK) based Freelance Assistant Photographer and Digital Operator with over 12 years industry experience, happy to travel anywhere.

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Welcome one and all to my shiny new blog, I know its April already (where does time go?), but as an introduction I thought it might be nice to start off with a round up of some of my favourite shoots from 2012.  

Yes there is a fair amount of glitz and glamour involved in a lot of them and not everyday at the office is quite as crazy, but they were all lovely to work on with great teams involved. This should give you some idea of the type of shoots I have worked on and some of the photographers I work with.

Next week I’ll be bringing things up to date, with my adventures so far in 2013. After that I shall start doing more regular updates including features on suppliers and studios. I’ll also be adding more pages dealing with things like Assisting and Digital Operating Kit lists, and other useful stuff like that.

You can also follow me on twitter if you want a more day to day glimpse into what I am doing. Also don’t forget to check out the many behind the scenes and wig shots on their own pages (just don’t be drinking a cup of tea when you do in case you spit it over your keyboard with laughter)

As they say, drag up a chair, sit back and enjoy….

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It would be the height of rudeness, not to start off with what was definitely the highlight of the year (and possibly of my career so far). I was honored when asked by photographer Barry Jeffery to help him out on an ultra secret shoot way back in April that I was only really able to talk about at the end of October.

I’ve worked closely with Barry for a few years now, but it was still quite unexpected when he said to me “Fancy coming to Buckingham Palace to help me shoot the Queen?”. Not being a total idiot I of course jumped at the opportunity and said yes.

Which kicked off an incredible adventure starting with being security vetted by Mi6 (you will be glad to know that I am apparently not a security risk). A tech reccie of various possible locations followed, with the Throne Room being the preferred and final choice. Barry decided that he didn’t want to take a big team in, so it was just the two of us, with me on lighting and digital.

Barry was asked to shoot Her Majesty for a very specific reason (that I can’t share with you, sorry folks) and this meant we had some definite lighting challenges to work out, not least of which was the sheer scale of the Throne Room. However by the time the date of the shoot came around we both felt comfortable that we had ironed out any potential problems.

I’m not allowed to go into much detail about the ins and outs of what followed but suffice to say it was pretty awesome and still feels a little like it was all a dream. I really wish I could show you our final lighting set-up as it looked amazing. To make the whole experience even more surreal, the day before we shot, as we were getting the kit in and doing a bit of a pre-light, was when the James Bond sequence for the Olympic games was being filmed and we got to see some of that happening (Here’s a link to that for you http://youtu.be/xW5abat5NEU ).

A massive shout out must go to the amazing Chris Cowan at Direct Photographic (http://www.directphotographic.co.uk) he really stepped up to the plate for this one. Especially as I couldn’t tell him what we were actually shooting when we discussed our equipment needs. In spite of this he was able to give us an amazing level of support, including spares of everything and the shiniest newest kit in the world. Thanks again mate!!

As well as The Queen I worked doing lighting and Digital on a load of other shoots with Barry last year, a lot of which were for various hairdressers he collaborates with for The British Hairdressing Awards. Here are some of my favorite shoots from...
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As well as The Queen I worked doing lighting and Digital on a load of other shoots with Barry last year, a lot of which were for various hairdressers he collaborates with for The British Hairdressing Awards. Here are some of my favorite shoots from the 2012 competition including Craig Chapman’s winning entry in the Afro category.

 Images ©Barry Jeffery http://barryjeffery.com

The final set of images I’ve included from doing lighting and Digital for Barry are from a Bridal shoot we did down in Cornwall for Wed Mag. Bridal! I hear you say, yes Bridal, just stick with me on this… We were going down to shoot and stay in an...
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The final set of images I’ve included from doing lighting and Digital for Barry are from a Bridal shoot we did down in Cornwall for Wed Mag. Bridal! I hear you say, yes Bridal, just stick with me on this…

 We were going down to shoot and stay in an amazing location house in St Mawes, which looks out across the bay to Falmouth and is renowned for having one of the best views in Cornwall. However when we got down there we discovered a thick sea fog blanketing everything, which lasted almost exactly until we got into the car to leave….

 After a bit of creative thinking, the shoot turned from a light bright lifestyle one into a sort of dark fairytale which I really enjoyed lighting. Its nice when a bit of adversity throws you in a totally different direction.

 Images ©Barry Jeffery http://barryjeffery.com

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It was an absolute joy to be asked by the wonderful Søren Solkær Starbird to help him out with lighting and production at the GQ Men of The Year Awards 2012. I’ve worked extensively with him, but he has been shooting a lot in the USA or on home soil in Denmark recently so it was great to catch up again.

 Due to work commitments Søren was only going to be able to see the venue (The Royal Opera House in Covent Garden) the day before the awards so he asked me to Liaise with GQ, the event organizer’s, rental companies and do a location scout and Technical Recce for him. This Allowed us time to select the correct equipment for the shoot and meant he could walk into the shoot focused and calm as a cucumber, with a handle on what to expect, totally prepared for possible issues.

 This was such a fun but challenging job as the only vaguely suitable area was next to the dance floor in the VIP after party area!! Also with the way the schedule worked it meant that on finishing shooting we had less than 20 minutes to clear our kit before the awards finished and the party started. Suffice to say that bar some minor scheduling hiccups all went smoothly and we were soon enjoying Gin and Tonics served in glasses so huge you kept looking for the goldfish swimming around in there.

I’d again liaised loads with Chris Cowan at Direct Photographic (http://www.directphotographic.co.uk) and another big shout out has to go to him and the great team there. This job had unbelievably tight delivery and collection challenges amongst others, but they again stepped up to the plate and came through for us!!

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I also work as just a Digital Operator (as well as doing lighting, or both) and have been doing that for Photographer Julia Fullerton-Batten for around 18 months. Her work is Amazing and so beautiful (if you’ve not seen it use one of the links below right now!!) I’d almost liken it to scenes from a David Lynch film that hasn’t been made yet. Its very cinematic, beautifully lit and always leaves you asking questions about what is going on.

 Julia shoots her own personal Fine Art projects as well as Jobs for Advertising and Editorial clients. It’s always great fun to working with her as she is so nice and has a great team of people she uses. Hence I am featuring a few of her shoots here (see below for images).

 Her shoots are always full of technical challenges and interesting ideas, I’m normally kept very busy and barely get the chance to leave the computer(s) apart to help out with lighting if needed. But absolutely love jobs with her I really enjoy being pushed hard and being involved with the creation of such beautiful images, it really allows you to walk away at the end of the job with a feeling of satisfaction.

 The Unadorned project below was so much fun from start to finish, It involved a road trip to the most amazing but totally run down stately home I have ever been to. Where we literally had to hack our way down the main drive to the front doors through thick undergrowth, before embarking on the wonderful photographic odyssey shown. Julia’s latest personal project “Blind” is shaping up to be just as striking and took the whole team involved with it on a totally different kind of journey, keep an eye out for it.

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Another stand out shoot from 2012 has to be this one I worked on doing lighting with Colin Hutton. I’ve worked with him for nearly 3 years now and his shoots are always great fun (and yes Colin, I still do look back fondly on that first one with Kelly Brook…).

 I’m a massive fan of the BBC’s Sherlock and worked with Colin doing the feature stills for the first series. When he phoned me to say he had been asked to do the same for the second series and wanted me on board again I was to say the least, super excited!!

 A road trip down to sunny Cardiff where the main filming is done ensued and we did a mixture of onset pictures and the more setup ones below. It was lovely shoot to be involved in and the guys down at Hartswood Films (who produce it for the BBC) were very welcoming. Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman and Mark Gatiss were all lovely. I especially enjoyed chatting with Mark about Horror movies as he hung out with us all day.

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I’ve also known Photographer and Film-Maker Dean Chalkley since I started out and he is without a doubt one of the most creative people around. I’d liken him to the great Angus McBean in some ways, as shoots are always meticulously planned and there is without fail an interesting often-quirky theatrical concept behind it all. He also spins a mean record and has an outstanding collection of music.

 You can never afford to take your eye off the ball on a shoot with Dean, almost every one I have ever worked on with him has been lit totally differently and thrown up interesting challenges, which means you always have to be on your toes!

 Dean has shot for the NME for over 10 years and two of my favorite’s of his shoots for them that I helped him out with lighting on last year were: - A crazy road trip to France to do a cover and feature on Alt-J and the NME awards show 2012. I’ve worked quite a few of these awards with him and they are always amazing fun and absolutely mental (roll on the 2013 ones!!).

 Again thanks go out to the great team at Direct Photographic (http://www.directphotographic.co.uk) all their help and support as well as ridiculously late out of hours collection (thanks Mark) really helped this run smoothly.

Also here’s a link to one of the behind the scenes videos shot in our photo room at the NME Awards 2012. I totally didn’t realise i would be so visible in the background when they were doing these….

http://bcove.me/lnkjxdht