Today started with a rude awakening, the cat wanting to be fed at 5:15. I thought about giving chase but remembered I had photo assistant work today starting at 7:30, so the cat got breakfast and a cuddle.
Today was a location shoot for a housing construction company. Every couple of months, they have photographs taken of a recently finished house for their promotion. Today was very local. Only a 20 minute drive to the outskirts of Nagoya.
After loading the van with the 3 cameras, various stands, generators, lights, blankets etc, we set off for the wilds of Odaka.
The house was one of only 3 houses in a massive 'soon to be developed' area. If you searched for it on the internet by address it wouldn't show. The only other things in the area were a huge red and white electricity pilon, the tracks for the Shinkansen (bullet train) in the background, and a HUGE HUGE spaghetti junction linking 2 toll roads and a very busy rounte 23. Just by the side of this were 3 love hotels, side by side. While scoping out the area for the first shot, we saw a couple enjoying breakfast on the veranda of one.
The shoot was divided into 3 cuts (how convenient! one for each camera). The outside , the owners and their poodle, and the inside. I had remembered the routine well enough to get the job done, but I'm no Tokyo assistant. My cameraman tells me that assistants in Tokyo don't run, they fly. I have seen one at work too. Ah well. "We must keep jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down" (something I saw written on a T-Shirt on the train home).
After the location shoot it was back to the studio for two hours of cleaning and throwing stuff away. The cameraman has been working in Nagoya for 30 years doing all types of commercial photography. He will be moving to a new and bigger studio at the end of this month. He intends to use it himself, rent it out, and provide classes for photographers and models alike. And lucky me, he wants me to be involved! Do I see an end to this 'teaching' gig afterall?
Last time we did cleaning he threw away almost 30 years of negatives. I protested, saying that he could scan some at least, but they all went in the end... apart from the ones that I kept. Like I say, 30 years photographing people for commercials in Nagoya. It's a hell of a history to throw away.
Today it was the turn of the posters and pamphlets from various add campaigns. The above is a snap of one such campaign from 1992, a 72 by 47 cm print on a foam backing. I brought it and a few others home. Mitz will have a good laugh when she gets back.
2 comments:
terrible to throw it all a way...much better donate it to some archive or institution. I'm sure someone would have been interested.....sad.
jsh
Years and years of studio negs in the funen gomi. The ones I kept I will use to make something for his new studio.
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