To get to the Press Association office for 7.30am I had to wake up at 6am! Something I had not done for a very long time. Excitement is what dressed me that morning, and it was anxiety that made me rush out the door.
I met Daniele (Production Assistant) and was told we were to travel to South Wimbledon which was where the Nescafe photo shoot was taking place.
We were filming behind-the-scenes footage for the Nescafe 75th anniversary photo shoot. The photo shoot was to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Nescafe by incorporating the red Nescafe mugs into iconic events in history.
The first day was the shooting of the London Olympics and the Spice Girl’s at the BRIT awards scenes. The shoot took place on a fake street where The Bill had previously been filmed, in a fake sweet shop.
The weather was bitingly cold that day and it crept in from the outside. The model had to wear a vest and bicycle shorts and all the while holding a Nescafe mug up in his outstretched arm, and all I kept on thinking was poor bloke. How people suffer for their art!
A small disused, and somewhat dull room was transformed into the Spice Girls locker room for the 1996 BRIT awards. It looked amazing! Complete with the outfits they wore that night (we can reflect now and gauge that they were hideous), make up mirrors, stalls, a huge range of cosmetics and of course the Nescafe mugs.
What I had been oblivious to before my first day is that the photographer, along with the stylist, the model and those that are paying for the services will spend relentless time and hundreds of photos to obtain that perfect picture. I was watching perfectionists at work!
The second day was even colder and it didn’t help that the whole shoot was to take place outside on that fake street. It was the recreation of the Queens coronation which took place in 1953. A street party complete with twenty patriots were to have their picture taken, which including people from all ages. That meant children! And party meant sweets and sugar. Combining these factors with the bitter cold the word hectic sprang to mind.
However I was very surprised by how professional everybody was, including the children, and to manage everybody and get the shots needed before attention spans started to fizzle out and hands started wandering toward the cakes.
The final day of shooting on location was the Swinging Sixties recreation. Two young female models were to pose in a bedroom, (again in that fake sweet shop) complete with complete sixties styles. There was an infusion of colour, fashion and smoke. Pictures were moved, colour palettes were swapped around to create the perfect teenagers bedroom from the 1960’s.
Everyone spent hours setting up scenes, tweaking bits and pieces here and there, making sandwiches for a tea party, coordinating people into place, getting people dressed and in make up, hauling all the equipment needed and it was all to obtain that one perfect shot for each scene to celebrate Nescafe’s 75th birthday.
Post by Nathan Tansley, Production Intern @ TNR Communications
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