Glasgow Film Festival '13

Kudos! Another brilliant year for Glasgow Film Festival. Building, as ever, on their previous years, 2013 saw Glasgow implode under a hefty programme of over 350 events. The festival stretched its reach across international cinematic boundaries as well as venues in the city, from a western dancehall to an obscure underground subway.

I was invited in again this year to provide coverage on the events from the red carpet to the afterparty mayhem. Here are some of the highlights below!

Lorenza Izzo and Eli Roth at the UK Premiere of Aftershock

Nicolas Lopez works the red carpet for the UK premiere of Aftershock

Festival Co-Director Alan Hunter introduces a special screening of Carl Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc at Glasgow Cathedral 

Gemma Arterton at the Q&A of Neil Jordan's UK Premiere of Byzantium

Saoirse Ronan on the red carpet for Neil Jordan's Byzantium

Citadel director, Ciaron Foy on the red carpet

Jake Wilson, the youngest member of the Q&A panel for Citadel

Robert Emms in conversation at the Q&A of Rufus Norris's Broken 

Actor Emun Elliot and casting agent Kahleen Crawford in conversation  as part of a BAFTA event

Guests at the afterparty of We Are Northern Lights

 First Minister Alex Salmond  has his comic knowledge challenged by Mark Millar at GEEK night

Audience at the Frightfest Friday marthon

Festival Co-director Allison Gardner with the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce

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Lesley

In this new world of ours, It is so rare that we exchange things for payment.

So last week I swapped a haircut, for a portrait.

Thanks Lesley, I'm as handsome!

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Found at Sea

Spring-time, and I am still sharing images from Winter!

The first production of the year from the Traverse Theatre will be opening this week as a work in progress.

Me and the Traverse worked together on the poster before Christmas to tease Andy Greig's visually rich and euphonic poetry into a working image. I always work off a script for visuals, but this time I had to measure my reading. Written as a poem, the prose crashes like waves, heavy and atmospheric of Orkney. Each line was so nuanced and connotative I kept finding myself re-reading passages just for pleasure.
We took the shoot to my own local The King's Wark, in Edinburgh's traditional Shore, for a genuine seafarer's vintage. No strangers to Leith, Tam and Lewis knew the venue and charmed coffee out of the staff for us to warm up with.

Since the temperature hasn't changed a great deal since December, I am looking forward to cosying up to the show and seeing how it has developed from two glasses of whisky and some old maps.

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Frightened Rabbit

February at last. Its nice to get back to business as usual but with the lavish illusion of impending spring.

Back last month it was very much business as unusual. Bouncing over Edinburgh cobbles in rush hour, our headlights on a freezing dusk, I found myself very unexpectedly riding shotgun in a hearse. A situation made all the stranger by the company of Frightened Rabbit, riding coffin in the back. The Skinny managed to pluck them from a very intense media day of interviews and photocalls in a local bar, so we could bundle them in the back of Ed's hearse and chauffeur them around to a soundtrack of heavy metal.

We did have a slightly larger agenda though. For their forthcoming release of Pedestrian Verse, we wanted to accompany Darren's feature with images of death. Not the graveyard and lightening bolts type, but death that mirrored the solemn and mature journey of the band's transformation to now - a glowing portrait of expressive and rooted Scottish songwriting on a world stage.

Forboding and dark, especially for January, our shoot was actually very light-hearted by the absurdity of it all. Thanks to the band for laughing off the cold, Ed for the civility of an undertaker and big thanks to Matt for helping out so last minute.

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