5 Dec 2013 - The 'Mandela : Long Walk To Freedom' Royal Premiere

December 5th, 2013.

Just one day after the rant-filled diatribe against my execrable privatised Rail Company coincided with a premiere for "the new Colin Firth movie"  I was back in Leicester Square yet again! (Quick update on my Rail Company : the same swine ticket collector who has checked the same carriage on the same train at the same time for the last three days was back again for a FOURTH day. I don't understand what on earth the intention is there, and asked to pick between rank incompetence and harrassment I'm kind of torn).

Anyway, there was another premiere in London : this one a ROYAL premiere, for the Nelson Mandela biopic "Nelson Mandela : Long Walk to Freedom". Here's how it went down:

The Collective noun (?) for the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge is "TRH" - Their Royal Hignesses. I'm still working on one for me, my Pentax and Nikon. I suppose if i added my iPod we could be BINP. (I'd better go see if that website is still available).

A red carpet is unrolled and one of the largest conclaves of Paparazzi I've ever seen begins to assemble. The fact of it being a Royal Premiere meant that along with the usual film-related press, a lot more freelance AND royal photographers all descended. In contrast to the usual, I had a front-row position at this one, right opposite them!

This being a royal premiere, security was much tighter than usual - police, high-viz security, discreet-tuxedoed security, actual agents, plus the royals' own retinue AND a sniffer dog. It's not like you can even attempt to get close to Johnny Depp or Tom Cruise at a regular premiere, but at a Royal premiere I guess it's probably best to avoid even making casual eye-contact with VIPs.

Our host for tonight is Alex Zane, who in contrast to me is taking off rather than ADDING layers.

It's finally getting close to starting - so close that security and organisers are running surplus fabric to the waiting truck to clear the Red Carpet so that the experts can make last minute carpet adjustments and proceedings can begin.

Naomie Harris storms up the red carpet to pose for Paparazzi before returning to interview duties and autograph signings. She was most recently Miss Moneypenny in the latest Bond film "Skyfall" whose premiere remains one of my favourites, even though it got many fewer views than any event Tom Hiddleston has ever been in.

Along with Miss Moneypenny in 'Skyfall', Naomie Harris (and her impenetrable character-specific accent) was in two Pirates of the Caribbean films as the character Tia Dalma.

Idris Elba plays Nelson Mandela in the film, and is a pretty great actor. It's not everyone who can make the line "Today we are canceling the apocalypse" sound plausible and inspiring (as said by director Guillermo Del Toro of his performance in "Pacific Rim". Sadly, I can't listen to the Australian accents in the movie without shuddering, so I tend to watch the film dubbed into German. And German Idris Elba doesn't sound as good as Real Idris Elba) (yes... First World Problem)

Justin Chadwick directed the movie, as well as The Other Boleyn Girl (starring Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman). That movie hangs like a cloud over me as I didn't know about premieres back then when I was in London, and it took me four years to finally photograph Scarlett Johansson at the premiere of "The Avengers" and another year an a half after THAT to finally photograph Natalie Portman at the premiere of "Thor The Dark World" a few weeks ago.

Tony Kgoroge was also in "Invictus" (2009), Blood Diamond (2006) and Hotel Rwanda (2004). I've watched only one of these films, but he seems okay with that. I'll try to get onto one of the other two at some point, but at the moment my Pile of Unwatched DVDs is over 10 in height again, and I kind of promised myself I'd get it down to zero by the end of the year...

"And despite hating the first film, I bought 'Conan the Destroyer' to add to the pile which already contains movies like 'Elf', 'Laura (1944)', 'Finding Neverland', 'The Machinist' and a weird French live-action movie adaptation of the comic 'Lucky Luke' ". Wow. That sounds exactly like a problem I'm dealing with myself.

I had originally written that sadly Nelson Mandela is far too ill to travel these days -- but he sadly died age 95 just hours after this premiere began. His daughter Zindzi Mandela attended the premiere, saying that her father was impressed at the resemblance between him and Idris Elba. Well..  if pushed to having to choose somebody to play me in MY biopic, and I had the option of Idris Elba I would ALSO claim he bears an uncanny resemblance to me. Yes, I might just be a skinny balding white guy... but don't tell me Idris Elba can't portray me in my biopic, people!

"The series had nothing to do with it, but yes, if asked if I wanted to be Lex Luthor in the next Man of Steel film, I'd totally say yes" It'd probably be the first casting decision for that sequel I'd overwhelmingly support. (In contrast to the woman on the right)

Idris Elba and Naomie Harris play Nelson and Winnie Mandela in the film - the screenwriter and producer actually said that they were casting for 'character' more than look for the film, actors who'd portray the characters not merely look like them. I think that's a fantastic philosophy, and that's why I think First Capital Connect is an abysmal rail company. Just because they have a soothing corporate pink and purple logo/design that makes them look competent, doesn't mean they are.

"Hell yeah, I think David S Goyer is a screenwriting Hack!!" William Nicholson has two Oscar Nominations for screenwriting Gladiator (2000) and Shadowlands (1994) and also screenwrote Les Miserables (2012). David S Goyer, meanwhile (Man of Steel and all three Nolan Batman films) currently sits at zero Oscar Nominations. So even if I made up that comment, it's got validity.

Now that I have the photo, I just need to get Idris Elba's people to agree to let me use it to associate my anger with the disgraceful incompetence of First Capital Connect.

You might be wondering what's going on, but honestly, when I think of Nelson Mandela I always think of feathers and fashion on red carpet runways. (you don't?)

When I think of Nelson Mandela, my thoughts also invariably turn to shell-design ballgowns...

When I think of Nelson Mandela, I obviously ... wait. No I don't.

For whatever reason, I don't remember the name of this producer and none of the names on the imdb credits page ring a bell. They're all guys, too, so I can't even use deduction to remove the women..

This is producer Anant Singh, waiting for host Alex Zane to run down the list of producers much like I just did and start to eliminate improbables, I guess.

"Check it out! New high score on Fruit Ninja"
"I'm very impressed. Want me to sign anything?"
"Nah, just high-five me for a job well done"

"I can sign it... but i can't write a full review on the back of the DVD..." Naomie Harris. Again.

TWC Studio boss Harvey Weinstein is awash in a sea of commoners (poor guy).

A newly extricated Harvey Weinstein regards The Little People all around him. From where he stands I take it they look much like ants.

Richard E Grant looks incredibly familiar and his filmography is insanely long, but I can't picture him in any of the roles attributed to him. I genuinely believe IMDB when it says he's been in all these films and TV series, though.

Naomie Harris and Idris Elba give this rather detailed interview question a lot of consideration (I believe it was whether First Capital Connect should be stripped of their rail franchise. Frankly, I'm surprised they needed any time to consider it. There are corrupt African regimes who could use hard British currency and could probably do no worse a job running it as a military junta cash cow)

One of the two producers of the film chats to Harvey Weinstein. Hopefully with interest in Kevin Smith's new 'Tusk' movie. It sounds.... strangely awesome.

.... and then everyone waited about ten minutes....

... and then a silver bentley showed up....

THR take a stroll on a carpet cleared of riff-raff, and a crowd that went silent except for the motordrives on a hundred DSLRs in the press area and crowd.

"Hi guys! No, I don't need a loan to buy popcorn - I'm using taxpayer dollars anyway" Yeah, but I think last time somebody calculated, the Royal Family are actually a net-positive benefit to the British taxpayer.

"One decided it was worth paying extra online and securing ones tickets immediately rather than risk being stuck without tickets. Also, one will not be taking the train home. One hears FCC is fairly horrid" I think that's what he said - I'm not as proficient at lip reading as I'd hoped.

Still… that was another one and the year is drawing to a close with perhaps one more to look forward to next week. But for now it's one more for the "Archive of Movie Premieres"

If you ever want to know when I post one of these journals, feel free to follow me on twitter @berndt2_photo, or on facebook at premieresdotco.

... and sadly RIP Nelson Mandela. (Parliament Square, London, next day)

22 Oct 2013 - The 'Thor : The Dark World' World Premiere

October 22nd, 2013.

London Film Festival is barely over, and mere days later a World Premiere hits Leicester Square. And the hordes of Tom Hiddleson fans whose appetites were presumed sated after the premiere of "Only Lovers Left Alive" just days ago, found pretext to return once again. This time to support their hero in a movie sequel still inexplicably named after his brother.

Here's how it went down.

The Metro announced this morning that the five best Loki Lookalike costumes would win tickets to see the film. However, given these people were waiting in line since before 6am and couldn't have known about that competition, it stands to reason that they dressed this way anyway. (I'm going to say that this is extremely cool because I'm very sure otherwise they'd hurt me)

Well, this was inevitable. (As was the outcome : the Lokis in the queue outnumbered Thors about 6 to 1, plus they don't fight fair!)

For the past three days, the forecast for the premiere was heavy rain in a six hour band lasting from about 2pm to 8pm. This was then revised to consistent rain for the remainder of the day, which then met what I like to call 'reality', which is that it drizzled lightly twice in the afternoon, and heavily for about four minutes in the evening. Dear Meteorolgists, stop aligning yourselves with science, and get over _there_ with soothsayers and the designers of fad celebrity diets. (That said? nice umbrella).

The God Of Thunder does not approve of you inviting X-Factor contestants to this event. (Seconded)

"You! Your helmet... it still looks fabulous" This was part of a  'Phwoaaarr Thor' competition, amounting to exploitative ogling at semi-naked males in Norse outfits competition, that I will not dignify by naming the corporate sponsor involved. Because quite honestly I wasn't really paying attention.

The crowd for this film was skewed towards younger females, which I'm sure at least several accountants over at Marvel / Disney studios briefly puzzled over before revising box office estimations further upwards.

"If I can somehow drag it to the nearest tube station, can I keep it?"

A hat can dream, I suppose?

To give you a partial idea of the scale of this event, the giant hammer (shown earlier above) is on the right, and the giant wedge is one of two segments of Leicester Square open to the public, while the thinner bits on the side (one shown, one not) was for the first 500 people in the queue to get in (the earliest arrivals camped overnight. I did not). My position was on the middle/lower left.

My approximate distance from the stage and the number (and arm height) of the people who would be getting between my camera's lens and the main stage. And bearing in mind that these people are recording the trailer with their mobile phones (instead of watching it in better resolution and sound on iTunes or youtube), you can imagine they'll be photographing pretty much everything, all the time, no matter how bad their zooms or how low the light.

still, we're set... let's get down to it:

Kat Dennings is best known for also being in the prior Thor movie, appropriately enough called 'Thor'. She was also in Nick and Norah's infinite playlist, which I'm sure I've watched but just can't remember any of.

Stellan Skarsgard plays Dr Erik Selvig in the film, and yes I know the second 'a' in 'Skarsgard' has a dot above it but it's way past my bedtime and I don't have time to look for it right now. I think I last photographed him at the premiere of "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo"

"A petition for Loki to get his own standalone movie and subsequent follow-on franchise based on fanciful fangirl fanfiction? Hell I've written several myself - where do I sign" Kat Dennings has hit _that_ part of the crowd.

"Ladies, you may remember Tom Hiddleston from such premieres as "Thor", "War Horse", "The Deep Blue Sea", "The Avengers" and "Only Lovers Left Alive". Or perhaps you're stalking him, in which case he'd kindly ask you to stop on behalf of every other guy in Leicester Square who lacks his charisma and bow tie". Damnit, I gotta stop wearing t-shirts and a beanie to premieres.

"Guys, one last chance to join my empire willingly, rather than be forced to at sword, horn, and spear-point later. I mean, yes even when I do take over, things will get pretty awful for anyone who is not me, but other than that things will be pretty good."

"Best Birthday Present Ever"

Outstandingly, I've now photoraphed Natalie Portman, meaning I've now photographed 19 of this year's Empire Magazine Top 20 sexiest movie stars 2013 (only the mighty Ryan Gosling eludes my grasp) (Yes, I do have other hobbies).

"So you are aware that although you're apparently the hero of this movie, 90% of the screaming fans are here for your brother, who's not even the main villain in the movie?"
"Of course"

"And the Red Sox Win!!!" Well, that was random..

"The queue for Maltesers and Popcorn is HOW long?? What if I tell them I've won an Academy Award, might that help?"
"No, ma'am"

"He's my brother, but I'm slowly going to slide my hand down his back and see what the fanfic writers make of that" I fear the internet might be a dangerous place to tread for the next couple of hours.

Thor The Dark World is directed by Alan Taylor who has directed six episodes of the excellent Game Of Thrones, and nine episodes of The Sopranos which I've been told I should (have) watch(ed). And also six episodes of Sex and the City which I don't really have time for in my busy schedule of hair maintenance and home taxidermy.

"No, I will not accept fan spec scripts for Thor The Dark World because I know exactly what kind of fan fiction you girls are writing. Also, you'll notice the movie is finished, so you're kind of late"

Kat Dennings returned to our area to sign more. I'm calling her look Hathaway-esque until I'm told by Anne Hathaway's people to stop.

"Sure I'm still trying to take over the world, I'm just wearing a tux now rather than leather cloak and a horned helmet. I figured it was too much of a giveaway, and plus it was hell to wear on most forms of commuter transport"

Kevin Feige has the impressive sounding title of President of Marvel Studios Development. It's no 'God of Mischief' or 'Lord of the Sith', but I guess it beats Senior Benchmark Analyst. Well... kind of.

At the distance I'm shooting, and with the amount of crowd streaming past, and the number of people grasping for Stellan Skarsgard's autograph nearby, I'm fairly pleased this shot turned out okay.

"I'm not saying I disapprove of you two standing right next to each other, I'm just saying it'll take the fanfic I'm planning to write in an entirely different direction"

Clearly wants to read that fanfic.

"I know OF Home and Away, what about it?" Chris Hemsworth got his start on the Aussie soap, across 184 episodes. I didn't watch them....

....but I did watch the Australian series Dancing With The Stars back in 2006 which he made it to the Grand Final of and I worked for the company sponsoring the event and used to write weekly recaps of it. Good times. (Wait... did I just admit to that?) (Time for some moody melancholy lighting for my misspent 'youth')

"Prithee, woulds't thou sign?" By sheer coincidence, I watched Joss Whedon's "Much Ado About Nothing" just yesterday. It was good. Cleverly done, though I think its modernisation was fraught with the odd cultural problem that didn't translate well across the centuries. Not that I think I'm going to get a chance to discuss this with anyone who might care.

"Very well. 'I will not condone an action that will lead us to war'. But I'm not wearing the stupid hat"

Natalie Portman exits the stage and I'm prety happy that I prefocussed this shot as more or less every umbrella in the crowd was being being waved back and forth by people holding them in one hand, balancing their posters, photos and autograph book in the other hand, and somehow still taking photos on their mobile phones and ipads.

Every now and then, I don't really feel like thinking overmuch about writing a comment. I'm pleased the Nikon got this shot right at short distance.

Idris Elba arrives, and is cooler than you, me, and... well, probably not Tom Hiddleston I guess. But pretty much everyone else.

"Our organisation is small, but we're undergoing a period of rapid and aggressive expansion. So certainly I'd be interested in seeing your resume if you're as ruthless as you claim"

Christopher Ecclestone, still under the misapprehension that he's the bad guy in this film, signs some autographs. He'll always be Raymond Calitri from Gone in Sixty Seconds to me... but mainly because I don't watch Dr Who.

"Shhhh.... Thor and his guys are listening. Let's pretend we're here just to promote the movie and leave our little insurrection for another time"

Late and unexpected and rather awesome arrival : Joss Whedon, director of The Avengers (and its upcoming sequel). He dismissed claims that he was parachuted in to do emergency script surgery on Thor2 as an exaggeration. I assume that means it was a helicopter, not a parachute, that dropped him onto set.

"I don't care what any of the rest of you have planned,  I just want the guy I'm pointing at to watch this movie" Aww... do I *have* to? I'm still coming off my relative disappointment at Iron Man 3.

"I'm sorry I can't talk about Shakespearean adaptations right now. I'm so busy I haven't even found time to buy the watch that I'd be pointing at to tell you how late I'm running"

So... that rather massive event was a World Premiere. Sorry for the length, I usually go for less than 30 photos per premiere, but I allow myself more for Awards and World Premieres or really, REALLY big premieres like say The Avengers or The Baftas or... Twilight. But now, it's time for me to get some sleep and add one more to "The Archive of Movie Premieres" and try to get enough sleep to plausibly claim that I'm fit to work tomorrow. Those pricing models won't code themselves.

Incidentally, the other Marvel premieres I've been to so far are:

Thor - Hemsworth! Brannagh! Hiddleston! Alexander!
The Avengers - RDJ! Johansson! Hemsworth! Hiddleston! Renner! Ruffalo!
Iron Man 3 - RDJ! Black! Kingsley!

(And no, obviously I'm not including Spider-Man....)

Incidentally, if you ever want to know when I post one of these journals, feel free to follow me on twitter @berndt2_photo, or on facebook at premieresdotco.

Until next time!

4 Jul 2013 - The 'Pacific Rim' European Premiere

July 4th, 2013.

Scant days after the disarmingly befuddling premiere for the movie "Bula Quo!" it was time for a considerably higher budget film ($US180million, apparently). The venue : London's BFI Imax. The cameras : Pentax + Nikon (as usual). The challenge : finish in time to get to another event - one I'd been invited to - at the British Museum, immediately after.

Here's how it went down:

This is one of the poster boards I've most regretted not grabbing one of on my way out of a premiere. (In my defence I had a pretty classy event I had to go to immediately after, and I was already breaking protocol by being in jeans, a t-shirt and sneakers)

Quirky devil horns created by chance. Now if I could only get a copy of The List for this event, because other than the Director and Idris Elba I haven't heard of a single person in this film

Sometimes people get a bit TOO close to my 70-200mm. Like... two or three meters. She was the DSLR camerawoman for a Spanish news channel (it was a European Premiere)

Much more interesting than photographing anybody in the movie whose premiere you're attending, sir? Harsh, but then I'm yet to actually like any movie that Guillermo Del Toro has directed (though I'll give him a pass for "Mimic" (1997).

Actress Sienna Guillory is not in this movie, and breezed past fans only to pose for the Paparazzi. Still, she was good in Resident Evil 2 (and that's not a compliment many actresses would cheerfully accept AS a compliment, but it's nonetheless sincere)

Director Edgar Wright didn't stop to sign or even pose for the Photographers. But he'll be more cheerful next week, when it's HIS movie he'll be seeking to promote ("The End Of The World")

We have our first "Real" arrival : and excitingly, as soon as I saw him I was all "It's that weaselly banker dude from The Dark Knight Rises!!". And I was right. His name is Burn Gorman.

This is actress Rinko Kikuchi, who I've been reliably informed is wearing Chanel. I can only add that it's black, lacy, and has an unusual collar configuration. And the lipstick colour is awesome given the ambient colour of the light at this venue.

The collar on the Chanel Dress of Rinko Kikuchi can stop high-calibre bullets, or so I've heard.
Or may have made up.

*Hand on Right* : "This is the greatest lacy ballistics-calibre collar ever designed by mankind"
*Hand on Left* : "And the arms on those prescription glasses are quite classy, too"

"What banking crisis? Those trades were perfectly legal." Burn Gormanhas also been in the horridly titled L4YER CAK3" and two episodes of Game of Thrones as "Karl".

Actress Rinko Kikuchi was in the Japanese movie "Norwegian Wood", written by Haruki Murakami, which I've actually read. Neat!

I have no idea who these three are. Some inevitably transient and easily disposable reality TV show Girl Band, I expect. (Heartfelt apologies if they're the cinematographer, production designer, and lead compositor of this film...)

"I'm about to lift this barrier with my MIND. And if that doesn't work, it's only because the effects budget went on all the giant robots..." Idris Elba has been in several movies I've watched, including Prometheus, where he slept with Charlize Theron. That is all.

This is director Guillermo Del Toro, a man who will (hopefully) not judge me for saying that the best thing about Hellboy2 is that it made my apartment cleaner .... when I got up and started cleaning my apartment rather than keep watching

"Sir, you may be a lauded director, but you can't just steal some fan's camera." Actually, Guillermo Del Toro was really nice - even stopping to chat with fans while signing.

Guillermo Del Toro has finished signing in the section of the crowd across from us and is now heading over. The former Yellow Cap (now Capless) Guy behind him to the right is no longer as active at premieres as he once was, but it's nice to know he's still around. Guillermo Del Toro,meanwhile, has an Oscar Nomination to his name, and I'm pleased for him also.

I'm not familiar with the works of this man, but he's Charlie Hunnam, and the screaming of the female members of the crowd suggest that maybe I should be. Apparently he's a long time actor in Sons Of Anarchy. Whatever that's about.

"Charlie Hunnam. So hot right now. You should totally be taking more photos of him" >..... no, I'm pretty sure I have my personal priorities set correctly..

"Sign my book! My arm! This pen! You can use my pen to sign my other pen! Sign Anything!!" . And actor Idris Elba, being nice, will probably acquiesce to your request, too.

"Even allowing for scale and perspective, yours is perhaps the largest arm I have ever seen, sir". Well, I'm certainly honoured that it's blocking my view, in that case...

Meanwhile, per imdb, Robert Kazinsky is best known for 254 episodes of Eastenders and being in the George Lucas-produced "Red Tails". Still... he's looking at me and not the photographer. That's something (?)

It seems Robert Kazinsky has just offered me a really good deal on a slightly used Vauxhall Astra.

It seems I might have accepted his initial price a little hastily.

Despite the heartthrob-styled mussed up hair and hybrid BradPitt/ ChrisHemsworth/ MatthewMcConnaughey looks, Charlie Hunnam realises he can't really outcool Idris Elba, who is, after all, competing on home turf and also wearing a suit that's both bluer AND more metallic.

"No, don't look at the guy who's giving away his DVD of "Pan's Labyrinth because he disliked it that much... I'm talking about the reporter. Talk to him". I'm happy to discuss the failings of Pan's Labyrinth at any time with anyone....

"How long can I hold that note? Eighty six seconds. Here goes"

"No. Seriously. You gotta watch the Trailer again. We REALLY blew that monument up. It was actually cheaper from an insurance perspective than building a replica or doing a CG explosion. Actually... Guillermo told me not to tell you about that"

That was actually a rather cool premiere, so naturally it'll go into my "Archive of Movie Premieres".

Until next time!

By the way, if you ever want to know when I post one of these journals, feel free to follow me on twitter @berndt2_photo (or facebook at premieresdotco) (or both!)