Ed's Blog

This morning I went to Sainsburys to buy some pritt stick so I could finish my sketchbooks for final hand in on monday. I also picked up my first copy of the financial times as it comes with a rather nice magazine on saturdays. I’m drawing up a list of photo editors to pester. Anyway as I paid for the items the cashier asked me if I was heading down to see the runners bringing in the olympic torch. I replied probably not because I need to finish my sketchbooks. At half 10 I got a call from a friend asking if I was going down to take photos. So I ended up down in amongst the crowd. I met a few friends and we waited. The announcement came the torch was running 30 minutes late. I used the time to take some nice photos of the crowd with their pretty flags. Along came the police in fancy BMWs followed by the many sponsorship coaches. As the Lloyds bus passes a woman cried ‘so this is where our money goes’ referring to the taxpayer bailout of Lloyds bank. Then right at the end sandwiched between two coaches was one of the first olympic runners surrounded by a group of jogging security guards. I just managed to get a few frames. Then after they passed I dashed home took the memory card out from my camera and started uploading them to my computer I then dashed over to woodland campus where I used their super fast internet to upload my images to Rex Features. So I was super happy when mine where the first up on Rex!

Good food always adds to the experience so yesterday we crafted various tapas dishes, bought some beers & then sat down with the crew & friends to watch the film rushes on a projector. It’s looking fantastic. The film has several distinct styles and I can’t wait to see the end result edited together.

A little while ago I went on a week long trip up country to Bromsgrove. The reason, to help out on the set of Nicotine Love - a short film written & directed by my friend Nick Raybould. My role was to be Chef, Driver & Runner. It proved to be a really great experience and provided me the opportunity to observe the many different working roles within a film crew.

‘Satirical in its treatment of patriarchal roles, NICOTINE LOVE takes influence from melodrama to explore the antagonistic relationship between a housewife and her domineering husband.

As Angela quits smoking and becomes less dependent on nicotine patches, Eric loses his grip over her and their marriage when she becomes active and begins a life outside of their home. In an attempt to revert her to her submissive role of housewife he uses nicotine patches on her whilst she sleeps. Can she get away or will nicotine love beat her again?’

consumerbehaviourself:

“No Seconds” - a series by Henry Hargreaves that recreates the last meals that were served to inmates on death row (Source: Dripbook)

At the weekend I cooked for a film crew of 14. The production is a short film called ‘Repossessing Tim’. It’s being directed by my friend Ed Hick. In short Tim gets his life repossessed by the bank and is kicked out of society. I personally can’t wait to see the finished film so I’ll be posting more info soon as it progresses along.

It was pretty fun trying to work out the amounts needed to feed 14 people and how to keep it warm while transporting it for the 30 minute drive from our house to location. In the end we used a duvet to keep it nice and toasty. The other constraint was to keep the food vegan as some of the crew are vegetarians along with a vegan actor. So with that in mind I dished up Chili with Rice on Saturday then on Sunday we had Paella. My housemate Tom baked some epic cookies too which went down a treat. Tom also baked a spiced apple vegan birthday cake to take on set for the directors birthday. All in all a brilliant weekend.

More from Glastonbury Carnival

Here are a few shots from my Hasselblad taken at the Bridgwater Carnival last week. The Somerset Carnivals are highly regarded as the largest illuminated procession in the world! I’m pleasantly surprised at how the images have come out. Especially considering it was so dark and therefore I was guessing the exposure pretty much - but I think all those years shooting gigs really helped me out. Really its just practise. I’m heading back to catch the Glastonbury Carnival tomorrow to add to these images, hopefully I’ll get some wider shots with more depth. I can’t wait for the day someone invents a simple negative scanning system plus all the scanners at uni are covered in dust and oily fingerprints…

Anyway you can see a few more of the images here: http://cargocollective.com/edstonephotography#2279040/The-Somerset-Carnivals