I’ve just started work on the Hullywood Shorts the work features pupils from Priory Primary School and students from Five Senses and Psypher. Here is the first one from Priory Primary School Super Man.
Hull 2017
Borat
Here we have a laugh out loud homage to Borat from Andrew Williams with a particularly Hull vibe shot in late December during a short lunch break with his newly acquired Secret Santa gift from the office party Andrew stepped up to the mark to make this image. He is a very brave man!
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (or simply Borat) is a 2006 British-American mockumentary comedy film. The film was written and produced by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen who also plays the title character, Borat Sagdiyev, a fictitious Kazakh journalist travelling through the United States recording real-life interactions with Americans.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Well at last I have succumbed after much cajoling to create my own Hullywood Icon. The temptation to do a selfie in the bell tower of Holy Trinity was great but after researching the 1939 version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame starring Charles Laughton I realised that the mise-en-scene was everything as the film had one of the largest and most extravagant sets ever constructed. Following a serendipitous meeting with Reverend Neal whilst shooting Cosette from Les Miserables in Trinity Square on a cold December morning I approached Holy Trinity Church to recreate a classic moment from the film.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Liz dees asked if she could be the White Witch from the Chronicles of Narnia played by Tilda Swinton and that she had a ‘brown haired boy’ lined up for the shoot imagine my amazement when I arrived at the shoot to find Charles Huckvale dressed as Edmund Pevensie played by Skandar Keynes in the film. You may recall Charles starred in ‘The Wild One’ shoot with Bandanarama,
The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of fantasy films from Walden Media, based on The Chronicles of Narnia, a series of novels by C. S. Lewis. From the seven novels, there have been three film adaptations so far—The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), Prince Caspian (2008) and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010)—which have grossed over $1.5 billion worldwide among them.
The series revolves around the adventures of children in the world of Narnia, guided by Aslan, a wise and powerful lion that can speak and is the true king of Narnia. The children heavily featured in the films are the Pevensie siblings, and a prominent antagonist is the White Witch (also known as Jadis).
Star Wars 1977
Here’s Rick Gilroy talking about the shoot for Star Wars 1977 which we shot at The Hull University Library with his friend and Snow Trooper Paul Rogers
I got in touch with Quentin to see if I could recreate some scenes from Star Wars, I had seen some of his earlier pictures of Jean Todd as Princess Leia and thought we could hopefully complement those photographs, I have always loved the science fiction genre and this would be a great opportunity to be photographed in what I consider to be an iconic costume from the film, a Storm trooper.
The film is very nostalgic for me as I remember going to see it at the Dorchester cinema down George Street in 1977 with my Dad and watching the film today takes me back to that time.
I choose the Brynmor Jones library at Hull University as a location as I felt it had a very futuristic look and the architecture of the building both internally and externally would provide an excellent backdrop to match certain scenes from the film. I also have to give credit to my mate Paul Rogers another super fan for joining me in the photo-shoot as a Snow trooper.
The timing of this project is perfect as the new Star Wars film comes out this week called Rouge One and is actually a prequel to the original 1977 film featuring again the white Storm troopers. The film follows the story of how the rebels acquired the plans for the Death Star which are then passed on to Princess Leia.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Quentin, Liz Heaney from Hull University and Les Drake, film maker for their help and assistance.
The Wizard of Oz – take 2
Jane Green, Grant Davison and Rachael Hindle got in touch about recreating a scene from The Wizard of Oz, Pearson Park seemed like a good place to recreate the scene in which Dorothy, the Lion and the Tin Man meet the mighty Oz. You may recall Emma Palmer was pictured earlier in the series pictured as Dorothy outside the city of culture offices with a real yellow brick road you can see the post here.
Brave (young Merida)
Aoife Garland is a big fan of the animated film Brave here she is in Pearson Park as the young Merida.
Les Miserables
Freddie Garland who you may remember did the Breakfast at Tiffany’s shoot mentioned that her daughter Erin Garland would make a fantastic Cosette played by Amanda Seyfried from Les Miserables. Here she is photographed under the oldest archway in Hull just off Trinity Square.
Les Misérables is a 2012 British-American musical drama film directed by Tom Hooper and scripted by William Nicholson, Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schönberg, and Herbert Kretzmer, based on the musical of the same name by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg which is in turn based on the 1862 French novel by Victor Hugo. The film is a British and American venture produced by Relativity Media, Working Title Films and Cameron Mackintosh Ltd. and distributed by Universal Pictures. The film stars an ensemble cast led by Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, and Amanda Seyfried.
Apocalypse Now
When Sean McAllister nominated his friend Phil Rhodes to play Kurtz in Apocalypse Now I thought that’s a bold choice. Phil nailed it!
Apocalypse Now is a 1979 American epic war film directed, produced and co-written by Francis Ford Coppola and co-written by John Milius with narration by Michael Herr. It stars Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Frederic Forrest, Albert Hall, Sam Bottoms, Larry Fishburne and Dennis Hopper. The screenplay written by Milius updates the setting of Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness to that of the Vietnam War and draws from Herr’s Dispatches and Werner Herzog’s Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972). The film revolves around Captain Benjamin L. Willard (Sheen) on a secret mission to assassinate Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, a renegade who is presumed insane.
The film has been noted for the problems encountered while making it, chronicled in the documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (1991). These problems included Brando arriving on the set overweight and completely unprepared, expensive sets being destroyed by severe weather, and its lead actor (Sheen) having a breakdown and suffering a near-fatal heart attack while on location. Problems continued after production as the release was postponed several times while Coppola edited thousands of feet of footage.
Apocalypse Now was released to universal acclaim. It was honored with the Palme d’Or at Cannes and nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama. It is considered to be one of the greatest films ever made. The film was also ranked No. 14 in the British Film Institute’s Sight and Sound greatest films poll in 2012. The film ranks #7 on Empire magazine’s 2008 list of the 500 greatest movies of all time. In 2000, the film was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant”.
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