ABOUT

Late in 2015 I was contacted by the fashion brand Paul Smith. I knew they’d liked the film I made for the exhibition at the British Design Museum exhibition “Hello. My Name is Paul Smith”. So it was nice to be asked to make a series of projects for their 2016 Women’s Show, part of London Fashion Week.

The location was the headquarters of the Royal College of Physicians in Regents Park, a beautiful Grade 1 listed building designed by Denis Lasdun and finished in 1964. On my first location recce it was instantly obvious why it had been chosen as the venue for the show. The staircase in the centre of the building is stunning. The gallery around it is majestic, multilayered, and a little bit surreal. It was going to be an amazing spectacle for the audience. But with camera angles everywhere, the prospect of filming in this space was quite daunting.

The list of deliverables was also a challenge. The events company had sold in the idea of a massive screen in the adjacent room showing a looped mini film running the duration of the show. This would need to be shot, edited, graded and tested as late as an hour before the main event. Then there was the first cut of the show which needed to be delivered by the end of the next day. And the legacy cut above. And a series of teasers and bumpers for social and digital.

So with 7 camera operators, 2 editors, a DiT/Grader, 3 camera assistants, a crane operator and and assistant, I figured we had the best possible chance budget and time would allow. We had half a rehearsal and then the show began… And finished a breathless 11 minutes later.

It was a blast from start to finish.