SPEAKER_02 0:00

Acting with Asher is sponsored by Actopreneur Book. Visit www.actopreneurbook.com. Hello, welcome back to another episode of Acting with Asher. I am your host, Jade Asher. Today we have some guests who are a little bit different actually. It all started with, as you know or may not know, I have started hosting in-person events monthly or so. And it's through my production company, London Independent Pictures, and I wanted to get people together, get actors, filmmakers, everyone in a room again. We used to do it a lot, you know, a few years ago and not so much now. And it's had the most amazing response. And one of the great things about it is I make sure that we have photographers there. So I've started working a lot with Kat Morley and Mario Mitzis, who are so talented and so lovely. They are the most lovely people ever. And we had a group podcast interview, which I've never had two guests before, and it actually worked really well, so that was really cool. But they come to our events and they've been obviously taking photos with us and sending it out for press, which is really cool. And I think that's something that you have to think about as an actor because as much as it's not about being famous, it is part of the industry, is having people that like your work and know who you are, and to communicate who you are, use pictures to do that. So the photography side of it is quite important knowing how to take pictures and just staying busy. And I feel like it's it's a part of our industry that is so important on you get to a certain level, but we don't really think about it when we're breaking through. So I thought it could be really interesting to find out more about the ins and outs of what it's like for these celebrity photographers who do big events like premiers, and what is it that makes them want to take photos of people? Also, I love a bit of gossip if you hadn't noticed, and they are all up for the gossip. There is indeed some names dropped in there, and some names you can probably figure out, but it's a really, really fun interview, and do give them a follow. They have a company called Sidetrack London, they talk all about it, and I think that you are really gonna enjoy this. So give them a follow, let me know what you think, and here it is. Good morning, Kat and Mario. You are my very first photographers on acting with Asher. Did you have a late night taking photos?

SPEAKER_00 2:57

Not last night, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:59

Not last night, night before, and pretty much every night for the last two months. Luckily.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

What's been the biggest job of the week so far?

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Biggest job.

SPEAKER_03 3:11

Oh, you did a premiere?

SPEAKER_00 3:12

Yeah, I did a premiere.

SPEAKER_03 3:13

Oh, wait, no, the did you do the serpent?

SPEAKER_00 3:18

Oh you mean cleft. That was on such a big job.

SPEAKER_03 3:24

The last big thing we did was the Odyssey premiere.

SPEAKER_02 3:27

Wow, that you don't get much, you don't get much bigger than that.

SPEAKER_03 3:31

No, it was almost every big sliver you could think of. It was like Robert Patterson, Charlie Saron, Matt Damon, Zendiah, Zendiah, Tom Holland.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Yeah, it's quite a few.

SPEAKER_02 3:42

Yeah. Wow. Okay, so we'll get into all that because I have so many questions. I have so many questions. Okay, but let's start off with how did you both get into photography?

SPEAKER_03 3:54

Do you want to start, Mario? No, you go.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

No, no, you you started earlier than me, so okay, so basically as a kid, I used to have a box brownie, and I used to like taking pictures. And um it wasn't until I got to I used to work in a company called Rolls Royce Aircraft Company when I was uh an apprentice, a teenager, and I went into a department called subsidiary services. Weird story. Uh, you're not allowed to take cameras into Rolls Royce because it's an MOD secret, blah blah national security risk. National security risk. But the office uh one of the offices I was working in was a drawing office, a design design drawing office. All the guys there were all photographer freaks. Complete, you know, they all had cameras in their drawers, and um it was to take pictures of the airplanes as they flew past the window. So one of the airplanes I we it was uh tried to get it in the right frame was a Harrier jump jet, which floats along very, very slowly past our window. And so I wanted to get in on this, and so I bought a Zenith camera from one of these guys, and then I started. And that's how it began. I was learning how to use a camera, a proper camera, not a box brownie, and um and it that's where it began, the actual trying to get things right in frame because it was film in those days. Yeah, that's the beginning. Um obviously later on I got into doing news, but that was a long time later.

SPEAKER_02 5:49

How do you mean by news? Is that like press?

SPEAKER_00 5:53

Press, yeah. Um, yeah, centuries later I started doing protests. I mean, I think uh one of the big first protests I tried to shoot was the uh an Iraq war one. And then it went on from there to political stuff. Um just dabbled really initially until I fell into celebrity photography. But it all started off with um you know hanging around outside what they call it doorstepping uh when something happened in the news and you want to get a picture of a certain person coming out of a door. Like a politician, like a politician or something, or or then it was protests, and then it was uh Downing Street or visiting uh luminaries like Donald Trump type people coming to Downing Street, so everybody goes down to Downing Street, takes pictures of them arriving, shaking hands with the Prime Minister, that sort of thing. And then I fell into uh celebrity stuff, and that was a complete coincidence.

SPEAKER_02 7:07

Wow, okay, I have so many questions. Okay, I'm gonna go to Kat and then I'm gonna get get into it. So, Kat, what was your journey into photography?

SPEAKER_03 7:16

Um I'd always loved photography when I was little, but um my parents were like worried about the price of film, so like I really only got to do it with a compact camera when I was on holiday. But then when digital came out, I got my first digital cameras and I'd take pictures of well, probably lots of animals and silly things. Um, and then when I started my craft community cut-out and keep, I had to then start photographing craft projects, recipes that became um like a magazine on the side, and I got into like doing gig photography, so I was doing that. Um, and then the way it fell into celebrity was I was like doing things around Edinburgh because I lived there, so I did the Edinburgh Film Festival and I photographed like a few of the big premiers there, and then um by the time I moved to London, I was like, oh, I wonder if they've got a good film festival, and I wonder if there's any chance I could photograph that. So I did the London Film Festival, and after doing that for a couple of years, um people started to like my pictures, and I got picked up by an agency, and then it became like a full-time thing for a while, yeah. And then um COVID happened, uh, but so that kind of stopped. But I'd met Mario and um I thought, let's bring back in my previous life, like um doing restaurants and other things, so we'll start a magazine about London, which is Sidetrack London. Um, and yeah, COVID wasn't the best time to start, but it definitely gave us the space from celebrity to actually work on that.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

That's amazing. Um, and I want to hear more about Sidetracked a little bit later. Yeah, no worries. Can you tell me um so how someone wants to go from just having this as a hobby, hobby? And it actually sounds like you were both invested more than just, oh, I take a few good pictures. It sounds like you were really invested in photography in like a different way to anyone that I've ever spoken to about before. Um, so how long did it take from you just kind of you know to start monetizing it?

SPEAKER_03 9:30

Uh the monetizing is hard, like it's still hard. There is no money really in press photography unless you're very, very good and fast, and it's very competitive, so we're always trying to be the fastest. Um, but yeah, I mean, like there was no not really a plan to make money out of photography, it just everything just kind of happened. What were you? What do you think?

SPEAKER_00 9:55

Um, yeah, it's true. I mean, digital made it faster.

SPEAKER_03 9:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:59

Um, originally, if you see if you talk to some of the old press guys, they used to have to take reels of films and then call up uh bikers who would then bike the film to um some developing place and then have the contact sheets sent to newspapers. It was a slow process, but when it exploded, um photography exploded with lots of things happening at once. I mean, digital photography came out, the iPhone came out, everybody everybody suddenly decided they were a photographer. Uh everybody thinks that they can do this. So the problem is um can't people that buy pictures then start buying them for cheaper because there's so many people doing it. I mean, an average protest, if you go to a protest, you'll see maybe a hundred guys running around with cameras, and nowadays they live stream video and all sorts of crazy stuff, and there's so much information being sent up onto the internet, it's hard to see the wood food trees.

SPEAKER_03 11:16

And that also kind of transfers into the red carpet thing. Like, um, at one point it was just gonna be a small select group of photographers that have been doing it for years. Um but these days it's like people on iPhones, people videoing it. Um yeah, I remember Mario told me something really funny at the start, is like they're the dinosaurs, and that's the meteor that's coming to hit them. But if he could embrace like the new thing too, like I was doing, that would be like a way around it. So that's what we've been doing. It's like we as much as other photographers take the change and stuff, the only way to like survive is to go with it and embrace it, and yeah, now we do that too.

SPEAKER_00 12:01

Yeah, we were sitting in the weather spoons on Leicester Square after uh premiere, and I was talking to Kat when I first met her, and I said, pointed to me, and I said, Dinosaur, pointed to her, asteroid, and this is this is how it's gonna change. It the the the new stuff now. I mean, um PRs love people to live stream stuff, they're posting things on Instagram from uh red carpets, they're giving them promotion. Uh they're not just relying anymore totally on uh traditional press, the the old style. I mean, I remember when I first came to London and I'd get on a tube and you'd sit on the chair, and everybody across from me would all be holding newspapers up to their faces.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:54

Nowadays you get on a tube and everybody's staring at an iPhone.

unknown 12:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

So that's the way the world changed. And and because there are millions of images going up online every day. Um I mean, even some of the national press, they just take stuff from Instagram. They they actually you see stories on people in the Daily Mail or whatever, and it actually has copyright person's name, Instagram.

SPEAKER_03 13:24

Yeah, they're doing a selfie of themselves and selfie of themselves. Yeah, they'll they like to include that too, along with like the actual pressure.

SPEAKER_00 13:32

So yeah, it's changed a lot.

SPEAKER_03 13:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Press uh photography press photography has changed an awful lot since I sort of started doing it.

SPEAKER_02 13:41

So why why for you uh has celebrity uh press uh been like risen to the top for you?

SPEAKER_00 13:50

For me. Um as I said, it started by accident and um I don't know, it's constantly there. There it's something that's a bit of a constant.

SPEAKER_03 14:06

Yeah, there's like a this is London.

SPEAKER_00 14:08

There's like two or three premiers a week, loads of celebrity events, loads of events, loads of awards, pro uh awards things, parties.

SPEAKER_03 14:16

It's not really that um we're enamored with a celebrity photographer side uh celebrity side of things, it's that um it's just the thing that keeps us the busiest. Um, I think people that are really into celebrities probably don't make very good photographers because they would get really starstruck and stuff. I mean, yes, sometimes I still get oh my god, it's Robert Patterson, and like my biggest dream is one day to take a vote of Nigella Lawson because I love her, but I've already sure, yeah. But you can't like if you get really into that, it'd be so distracting. I think it would affect your work.

SPEAKER_02 14:54

So I'm quite interesting, obviously, because this is an acting podcast. But to me, it struck me that it's almost a bit of an ecosystem because you know, the that, you know, of a certain level, obviously not all actors, but some of the ones that are more on the level of celebrity, they need the photographers, and the photographers need them. Um is there?

SPEAKER_00 15:19

It's symbiotic. We need them, they need us.

SPEAKER_02 15:25

And that's what I've I've definitely learned that, and it's great when you kind of work together. How much of it is contrived? Because I think a lot of it, a lot of the time we kind of see press, and you kind of think, Oh, someone's following them around, but set up.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

Yeah, that's actually a thing.

SPEAKER_03 15:43

Yeah, it's very interesting.

SPEAKER_00 15:45

That's actually a thing. There are certain celebrities, um, not naming any names, but there are certain celebrities that may have been a thing once that want to regain some sort of I don't know, get written about. And they would do arrange it with a pap, maybe someone they know, to come along and video them or uh sorry, photograph them while they're like sunbathing, or uh watching a car, or yeah, or planning a stunt of some sort. One funny one I remember was a woman uh uh I can't remember who it was now, but she was putting up the bins and she'd got a pap to actually come and take pictures of her in her kind of day clothes taking the bins out. It was like no, that that couldn't have been coincidental that the guy was there.

SPEAKER_03 16:44

We had a funny request, um, maybe last year. Um, this really big TikTok star called Iami, who we photograph on red carpets a lot. She um wanted us to come down and she was doing like a kind of TikTok stunt with another TikTok.

SPEAKER_00 17:00

It was like it was uh it wasn't a stunt, it was like it was a storyline.

SPEAKER_03 17:05

Yeah, it's like a soap storyline.

SPEAKER_00 17:06

It was like a soap, like a TikTok soap story, yeah. And about this couple, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:11

So they were gonna be meeting at a recording studio, so we were told to go there and then basically just harass them with cameras and do pap shots with the whole like don't photograph me, don't photograph me. And that was so funny, but like that wasn't a serious thing, but I think that definitely happens for real. Um with a lot of people that want to be in the press.

SPEAKER_00 17:34

Yeah, it happens a lot. I mean, there are there are what they they call they're called set up pap shots, yeah. So there are that does exist, you know. So sometimes, you know, the thing about uh camera never lies, it can. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:54

Oh, I love that. That's definitely appropriate for us. Um I'm interested in like how does uh the a day so on a day that you're doing a premiere, yeah. What what's your normal day like?

SPEAKER_03 18:09

So the premiers don't like so. First of all, we go down, um, the draw time, so the is about five o'clock. So we go down, we check in with the PRs, we hand in our press cards, they put them in an envelope because that's when the photography draw comes a bit later. Oh, I'll tell you all about this in a minute, but um we get uh go for security, um, and then we get into the red carpet and we stand there, and all of our press cards are in a big envelope, and there's there's a few different um envelopes because there's first draw, which is um the ones that go in first from like agencies and stuff, and then they'll have a second draw, which may be freelance photographers or my lesser agencies. Um, and then we sit there very nervously and go and look at the space and go, please let us get drawn out soon. Um, and then they go through and they pick it out and then they call out your name. You go and you try and pick your spot in the pen. Um, and then you wait for the for people to arrive. Yeah, do you have any other questions about the draw?

SPEAKER_02 19:19

I just had no idea. So obviously, this is so you're invited by the PR company, and and this is another thing I think people don't realize that that it is all all it's all separate, isn't it? It's like you know, even the the even the film itself might have a probably have a PR company, but then also that actors also might have a separate PR company. So I'm assuming one or the other will invite you. Um do you always have relate? Do you have to build those relationships first?

SPEAKER_03 19:51

Yeah, there's about um three or four um really big uh red carpet PRs that we work with, so it's always usually those four that deal with us, so we know them really well. And um on like I don't know, like on a Monday, you'll get an alert for something that's happening two weeks away. You apply for it, you hope you'll get in. You these days you find out maybe one or two days before that you're getting in. Um, yeah, so it's usually we get in, but sometimes it can be tricky and you have to wrangle it. But um so once you're in the pen or just before, they hand you a tip sheet, and that's got all the faces and names of who you're gonna be shooting. So the first few pages are gonna be the cast, producers, and then afterwards comes celebrity guests, and then maybe a third page of influencers, so all of our people. So we like to put in our laptops because when we do a premiere, we have our laptops on little stands connected to the barrier and a cable going from that to our camera. So the pictures are coming right into our laptop. Before that, we've done the preparation of writing our it's called an IPTC, which is basically the caption saying where it is, what the event is, who the person is, yeah. We have all the names in, so then it's a lot of wait. It's usually about an hour of waiting in the pen and chatting to the other photographers and eating sweets.

SPEAKER_02 21:16

And then the loo, what if you need the loo? Can you guys?

SPEAKER_03 21:21

Well, I don't know. I'm I'm I'm careful not to need it, but um, some people do go to the toilets and some but when it starts, there's absolutely no chance you're gonna get out. You're packed in a pen so tight that you'd probably knock everybody over and knock over cameras if you tried. And then the then the the celebrities start to arrive, and then it's about shooting them, and you can take over my outlets.

SPEAKER_00 21:45

Well, then, yeah, yeah, it's about shooting them, and one of the things you need to do. I mean, there is this uh idea, and I think that comes from um I don't know, the old style. You have to get the person to look at you. So there's a lot of shouting involved. You're calling their name, you're getting them to wherever your position is, you're trying to get them to actually look at you. But the thing is, most people on the red carpet can't really see you because of all the flashes. So they don't really know where it's coming from. They're only guided by vocal.

SPEAKER_03 22:23

Yeah, and when I first started, I was so nervous about shouting. My voice, I couldn't know how to project my voice at all. Um, but as I got better, I become one of the loudest, I'd say. Definitely one of the most distinct voices because it's so high and squeaky when I shout. Um but it is it's a fight because there's so many people shouting, you get the attention, someone tries to call them away straight away, you have to call them back. But it has got really easier. Um, I think both Mario and I are very recognizable. Mario's got a hat, so he's always says to the guy in the hat, which a few other photographers have tried to start to wear hats. But yeah. Um yeah, and then you get the picture. Uh the standard rule for an agency is you get a full length, a half-length, and a headshot. And then but our favorite photos to take are not those, they're the weirder ones, the interactions with the celebrity, with other people, them walking on, having the having their dress fluffed, having their hair flowing in the wind.

SPEAKER_00 23:32

I mean, we you know, sometimes they they bring their own hairdressers along and they're standing on the side, and uh you can see them combing their hair and spraying hair.

SPEAKER_03 23:41

You got a funny one of Jason Momoa getting his hair done.

SPEAKER_00 23:44

Yeah, I got that the other day.

SPEAKER_02 23:46

Oh, that's hilarious.

SPEAKER_03 23:47

Yeah, and then it's about trying to keep up with the flow. Like ideally, we'll shoot a person, edit them, name them, send them straight away by the time we shoot the next person. Um I really like trying to get it all done while I'm down there so that I don't have to finish my work later in the night. But also, it's about speed. Like the Daily Mail or whatever are gonna have an article on by the time the premiere's ended, if it's a big one. Um, so you want to see your pictures there first.

SPEAKER_02 24:17

It must be quite exhilarating just being like, oh, I like a race, and like, oh, did I get like sounding kind of thing?

SPEAKER_03 24:23

It's true. I I I I prefer I thought at the start I'd hate like a really big premiere or an event like the Bath does, but actually you kind of find like a bit of calm in the flow and in the pressure, and it makes you work really fast.

SPEAKER_00 24:37

And yeah, the slowest premiers are the worst ones. Yeah, they're just firing. Yeah, you're you're you it drags out the faster, the faster the um the flow of celebrities arriving, and you have to you have to take into account that you're gonna shoot them, you're gonna send, while everybody's trying to shoot the person you just shot before. So there's a conveyor belt type situation.

SPEAKER_03 25:07

Also, as you're doing it, you can kind of work out which photographs you need to send, like oh, that one where like they did a giggle, or that one with their hair blown, and then you know straight away that's a picture. So you find that, you send that first, you prioritize that. Um but then so it's basically non-stop for maybe an hour, an hour and a half. We went in about five, we finish seven just after seven. If there's people that come late, we get made to wait. Um, and then ideally we've sent all the pictures, but it's never the case. So then it's the editing later, um, deciding which pictures you're gonna send to which agency. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:53

What if if there's like a new up-and-coming actor and then walking the red carpet, is there anything that will make you take a photo of them or not?

SPEAKER_03 26:05

Um I am quite nice, so I will photograph absolutely everybody. Um because like yeah, but partly because maybe I don't know, and there's the next big thing and I don't want to miss out, but also just I think it's nicer, like these people are on a red carpet. I want them to be comfortable. I don't sometimes people will appear and nobody will shoot them, and it's really sad.

SPEAKER_02 26:30

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:31

Put myself into their situation, so I will always take pictures. Um so at the time we might not know who they are, but when it comes to like naming them and captioning them later, I always do a Google and I see what they've done. Yeah, and then it's like, oh, they're really interesting, yeah. Make sure to send a few more pictures of them. Um but yeah, what would make you take a picture? Like someone in a really cool outfit, um yeah, someone that like reacts well to the camera and like does like a funny face or a funny action, or yeah, yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_00 27:09

There's also a weird fashion aspect to this, yeah. Um the way they're dressed. So you'll get when Lady Gargar came in, she had that big purple dress, and she was the first person. Well, she walked out, and uh, she's got this big purple thing and almost like wings on her sleeves, and she starts fluttering her arms up and down like a butterfly. But everybody went crazy and started shooting that. What we have noticed since that is lots of other actresses tried to do the same thing because they saw those. Oh, I'm gonna do that too.

SPEAKER_02 27:49

I'm gonna lift my like the Lydia Gap uh butterfly flutter. Yeah, oh that's interesting, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:57

So, and also the the fashion aspect of it.

SPEAKER_03 28:00

I mean, if someone comes out wearing crazy outfits, um, you shoot that, or if anyone comes dressed in Vivian Westwood, it's like, oh my god, I love that outfit, gotta get a photo of that just for my fashion scrapbook.

SPEAKER_02 28:13

So if someone's quite neutrally dressed and they kind of come on their not showing that much confidence, that might kind of you may get me.

SPEAKER_03 28:20

I know it's really bad, but like we've send the men last because they're always in suits and there's not much they can do. Um, I mean, some men are dressed better than the women, like in really crazy outfits, but in general, if it's especially when it's the big actor stars, you know, there's not a lot you can do with them. So you'll concentrate on the better outfits first for sure. Oh yeah, we're a good outfit, I'd say.

SPEAKER_02 28:46

Wear a good outfit. And are there any um have you got any funny stories for us? Any any gossip?

SPEAKER_03 28:53

Uh what what kind of thing are you after?

SPEAKER_00 28:55

What kind of funny stories?

SPEAKER_02 28:56

I don't know, like um uh one of your most memorable red carpet encounters or oh god. Oh yeah, you go for that one.

SPEAKER_00 29:06

Really?

SPEAKER_02 29:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:07

Okay, so Brian Cranston.

SPEAKER_02 29:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 29:11

You know Brian Cranston from uh Breaking Bad. Now I didn't know this because I never watched Breaking Bad, but he has a hat in Breaking Bad, it's the same as mine. Okay, and so I used to get people saying to me Heisenberg. And I didn't understand why some people would say you look like Heisenberg, and I was thinking they meant Heisenberg, the nuclear physicist from the Second World War. But one day, uh one of the old time uh press photographers I was at uh won event in a hotel, and he called me that. And I said, Why did you call me that? And he said, Because you know, Heisenberg. I said, What you mean the scientists? He said, No, breaking back. I said, Oh, I don't know about it. So I had to find out about what it was. Anyway, one day Argyle Premier. Argyle, it was the Argyle premier, Brian Cranston's at Argyle Premier, it was freezing cold, and me and Kat were standing side by side, and he comes onto the red carpet, he goes and does the VIP photographer's bit first, and then he walks up to the board in front of us, stops, and then walks towards me, comes up to me, shakes my hand, and says, Love it, you're representing. I went, What? Why is he saying that?

SPEAKER_01 30:39

It's the hat, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:42

Because he thought I was wearing the hat for him, I think.

SPEAKER_03 30:45

And then he came and shook my hand, and he was like, Oh, your hats are so cold.

SPEAKER_00 30:50

That was one of the funniest ones.

SPEAKER_03 30:51

Yeah, oh, what about George Clooney? He's always cleany, he's always good on a red carpet.

SPEAKER_01 30:56

Really?

SPEAKER_03 30:56

Yeah, yeah. Like uh last time I was doing um the prince's oh, sorry, the king's trust now. Um, he's there with a mall, and we're taking his picture, and then he comes over when everyone's shooting a mall, and he like grabs um the one of the video guys' cameras, and he's like taking pictures himself of a mal.

SPEAKER_00 31:18

Yeah, and going so I've got a picture of him holding that camera shooting her and that made the press. So that was a good one.

SPEAKER_03 31:28

A previous one. Um, I don't know if I should say this or not.

SPEAKER_00 31:30

No, I don't think you should. I know what you're gonna say.

SPEAKER_03 31:32

Well, we can cut it.

SPEAKER_02 31:33

You can just not say the name and you can tell me after.

SPEAKER_03 31:37

Okay, it's a very um famous actress that he's co-starring in in a film with a few years ago, and um I'm shooting her, and he comes over to me and he like leans in and says, Oh, she's not as good as she used to look, is she? Yeah, flight's not name names on that one.

SPEAKER_00 31:57

No, no, but he what the thing about him is he actually comes over and leans on the barrier with the photographers and talks to us.

SPEAKER_03 32:05

Yeah, which is that's nice. Tom Cruise does that a bit too.

SPEAKER_00 32:08

And Tom Cruise does that too.

SPEAKER_03 32:10

Oh, does he? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:12

So some of the really big stars, they're actually more at home on the red carpet with us. I don't know, it's strange.

SPEAKER_02 32:21

Yeah, because I guess I guess it's funny. I think as an actor, you come on, you're quite intimidate, like you guys are intimidating, obviously. So yeah, you kind of, I guess people might not think to cross the line into friendship, but I guess people more experienced are a bit like okay, I do this every day. Uh you know, we help each other, I guess. They know how you are.

SPEAKER_03 32:41

It was funny, we were talking about this last night. Um, there's a lot of like really famous actors that are really shy on the red carpet still, and like look very nervous when you shoot them. Um, I don't know if we should mention names.

SPEAKER_01 32:55

No, not my name.

SPEAKER_03 32:56

But like considering they seem so confident in um films and on TV shows, and then you see them on the red carpet, and they're nothing like that at all. They're like, how could you be nervous in front of a camera when you can do it in front of like a fill a video camera?

SPEAKER_02 33:10

Uh yeah, that's really interesting. I guess it's quite a different thing in a way, but um, especially for the bigger the bit I've never I've never done any of the big, big premiers, but I can imagine with all the crowds there as well, it must be quite yeah, I I can imagine it being terrifying. Um, what do you think of influences taking over the red carpet?

SPEAKER_03 33:31

So, as I mentioned, like a lot of um other photographers would be really annoyed with that, but I could I think it's really necessary for the film's promotion because yeah, like we said, they're they're gonna be there. The we're stuck in a pen. We're taking our standard shots in the pen, but they're there with their phones and they can wander around, they're gonna be sharing it straight away, they're gonna be kind of given a different perspective of the premiere. They're also gonna go see the film so they can give their reactions to that. Yeah, so I'm all up for influencers, really.

SPEAKER_00 34:06

Yeah, yeah. I mean, uh initially, um, influencers used to be someone they used to tag on at the end of the premiere. You'd have all the main people coming along and uh the bigger celeb the lesser celebrities coming along, and then right at the very end, you'd get one or two influencers who nobody would know who they are. Uh, but now you get whole pages of them.

SPEAKER_03 34:34

And the other cool thing is like when it's like a film like Barbie or The Little Mermaid or Devil Birds Prada, they get fully immersed and dress up um to the theme, which looks really good for the pictures because when you shoot the stars and stuff, they're just dressed like they are, they're not like in character, but they go full on. You get a bunch of cosplay influencers, and they're the best. They've cut they come actually dressed as Superman. Yeah, so that really adds to the I mean, even the Odyssey the other day.

SPEAKER_00 35:04

I mean, some of the influencers turned up wearing armor, yeah, and Grecian dresses, Grecian dresses and you know, Greek goddess dresses and and armor stuff like uh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:14

So I like that because it it definitely adds to like the fun and the immersiveness of the premiere and makes it more of a spectacle than just having actors and actresses and everybody in like black tuxedos, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:27

It's great for the film as well, because it kind of like yeah, no, it's great for the film and then promoting the film as well, I can imagine. Yeah. So what's your what's have you obviously you've get given me some really fun moments, but have you got like a favorite moment?

SPEAKER_00 35:44

What a red carpet favorite moment, yeah, or like career. Just too many.

SPEAKER_02 35:50

I mean which one? Give me a few because I'm really enjoying this.

SPEAKER_03 35:54

Yeah, so look at favorite films, it's difficult. Yeah, I guess if it's a film like we're really excited about, like the one that I really wanted to do this year was Devil Wears Prada 2. Um, because I just really wanted to see it, so that was really fun for me. And then the one you really want to do was Odyssey, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:14

Being Greek in a yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:16

So like previous years there's gonna be like a really big film like Barbie Oppenheimer and whatever. Uh so yeah, that's that makes that side more enjoyable when you like you you've done the red carpet and you think, oh, I'm really excited to see this film now. I can't wait. Um but I guess the thing that our highlights are really in where doing that has led us with Sidetrack and getting to like be on the other side, going to like the parties, meeting people up close, getting to know everybody, doing like crazy immersive experiences, being places you never ever thought you'd be, having the weirdest encounters with people you never thought. So that's definitely the highlight.

SPEAKER_00 37:02

Yeah, it's true.

SPEAKER_03 37:03

Yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_02 37:05

And how how do people get in touch with you? How do they find out about sidetracked?

SPEAKER_03 37:09

Um, well, a lot of people do it on Instagram. Um, we've got our magazine, which we've just relaunched and it's looking really good. And we're also adding like a social networking element to it. So you can find all the events there. You can see every everyone can find their photos. Um, they can find photos of the main event. Um, eventually they're gonna be able to like follow each other. So they're gonna be actors are gonna be able to connect with other actors, yeah, directors, producers, film producers, yeah, makeup artists, models, uh yeah. So for now, like um just um Instagram sidetrack London or the website sidetrack.london. Um and then there's a like a button now where you can sign up to become one of our sidekicks. And then if you're interested in doing anything like going to review restaurants or even just like be part of the community and connect with other actors and follow them and you can message there. Or if they want to go, if they go to one of the immersive experiences we've gone to, they can go there and they can give their review about great, how great it was, because they went and saw it and they thought it was fantastic, or and also they can tell us what their absolute favorite things in London are because right there it was just us saying what we've done, but I like some of the best things we've done is because it's been recommended by someone else. So now they can actually do it, they can tell us where to go.

SPEAKER_02 38:30

Wow, that has just blown my mind. And you sent me your website as well, and I'm like, this is so clever, there's so many layers to this, and it's so exciting the way that you've kind of like I don't know, it's so forward-thinking, it's really exciting.

SPEAKER_00 38:44

Like I said, dinosaur asteroid.

SPEAKER_02 38:48

Oh well, together you're a perfect mixture, and I'm looking forward to hearing more. But thank you so much. This has been so insightful, and I love your gossip.

SPEAKER_03 38:56

Did you want to talk about the toughest moment? Oh, go on then. Oh, yeah, tell me more. What's your toughest moment? Okay, so one of the toughest moments are kind of also some of our favorite. Um, so when lockdown happened and we had no red carpets to do, we like were basically desperate to go out, but luckily, because we were press cards holders, we were essential workers. So when the um protests kicked off, Mario convinced me to come and do the Black Lives Matter protest.

SPEAKER_00 39:26

Yeah, that was a good one.

SPEAKER_03 39:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:27

Um the first Black Lives Matter protest, which kicked off.

SPEAKER_03 39:32

Yeah, so uh we go down and it's like starting in Hyde Park, and it's just like a kind of regular protest and stuff, and then we're like, we should go to Downing Street and go stand outside Downing Street. Um we're there and like massive crowds of angry people shouting and stuff, and they're shouting at the police, like um what's it take a knee? Take an e they were shouting. Yeah, they were shouting. I like looking at the guy next to me, I'm like, he's gonna do it, he's gonna do it, he's gonna do it.

SPEAKER_00 39:58

And so we pushed to the side of the crowd so we can get like a nice vantage point, yeah, and then the policeman knelt in front of this massive crowd of people, and so we shot that, yeah, and that went everywhere.

SPEAKER_03 40:15

I mean, I I was pretty new, I got my first proper image published of that in um Hello magazine, but yours was like on every newspaper, yeah, it was everywhere, and they still talk about it today.

SPEAKER_00 40:28

That's the funny thing, it's uh when people talk about that sort of thing, they say, Oh yeah, but the policeman took a knee outside Downing Street.

SPEAKER_03 40:36

But after that happened, um Mario spots like all these horses line up. He's like, Right, come, come, come with me. And it's like, Well, okay, it's like come and stand in front of the horses, and we're gonna get a picture of them charging towards us.

SPEAKER_00 40:49

So, yeah, I dragged Kat, all the other photographers all ran to the sides of the Whitehall, and I dragged Kat into the middle of Whitehall as this horse charge started.

SPEAKER_03 41:01

And the police, like all the police are going to me, no, no, no, you're just like a little girl, you can't be here. Like, you should stand at the side. And I'm like, No, no, I think I'll be okay. I'm gonna stay here. And yeah, they charged at us. We got like these amazing pictures that I never thought I'd take or be brave enough to take.

SPEAKER_00 41:18

So, yeah, the horses come trundling down Whitehall, and they're getting closer and closer and closer to us. And it's raining, there's a rain, there's a thunderstorm going smoke bombs, and and then suddenly, as the horses were about to collide with us, they all pulled them, they pulled the reins of the horse to stop the horses, and the reason for it was uh one of the police riders in this group that was charging hit the traffic light on the head. So, because if the horse is quite high, you see, and as they went trundling down Whitehall, the it hit their head with a crash helmet on and got knocked off the horse, so all of them had to pull the horses back, so the literally the charge stopped just in front of us as they all pulled their horses back to go and see what happened to this other rider.

SPEAKER_03 42:20

So that was like a a terrifying thing, but also probably one of the best because I wasn't I was very shy as a photographer at the time, I was new to I had a very small, crappy camera that the other photographers would laugh at. But after that, it was like if I can take a picture of that and I can handle that, I can definitely handle like red carpet and anything else. So I just feel like that's the moment that like I became a proper photographer, and I sold my first picture.

SPEAKER_02 42:49

So congratulations, that is insane. I was gonna say that you have to be ballsy to do this job, don't you? Yeah, yeah. No, that's that's amazing. Can I ask a cheeky question? Yeah, what's the most you've made from a photo?

SPEAKER_03 43:05

Oh, uh god, I don't know. I don't know. Um, me maybe like £300 or something, but I don't even know where the picture went. I think it was bought like by one of the film companies or a fashion company or something.

SPEAKER_00 43:18

I mean, I had the Florence Pew Dress.

SPEAKER_03 43:22

Yeah, that was you've had stuff on the front of like the papers.

SPEAKER_00 43:25

Yes, I have, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:26

So that must have been a lot of people.

SPEAKER_00 43:27

Yeah, it was, but I I you can't remember. I can't remember. There's been quite a few.

SPEAKER_03 43:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:32

But you know, that that one, the police kneeling one, was yeah being sold and sold and sold and sold everywhere.

SPEAKER_02 43:38

So you get repeat every time.

SPEAKER_03 43:41

Yeah, so that probably helped you survive COVID. That was Victor.

SPEAKER_00 43:47

Yeah, uh, but um, yeah, it as I said, as time has gone on, uh the prices of photographs have got less and less and less.

SPEAKER_01 43:57

Of course.

SPEAKER_00 43:58

So um to get a big sale nowadays is quite difficult.

SPEAKER_02 44:06

But then, but then surely in one night, if you're selling a few of them, then that's but I mean if you're gonna look at the unique type of photography that only one guy got, that's the one.

SPEAKER_00 44:20

Yeah, if you get something exclusive, was it uh the guy that was hanging from the cenotaph holding the the flag, yeah. I mean, the guy that got that, it was thousands for that one. That I know the guy that got it, but uh in general, most uh celebrity red carpet stuff is kind of not unless it's some really exclusive thing that you've got, which is rare, to actually get an exclusive thing. Um you don't get that much money for it.

SPEAKER_03 44:56

I definitely wouldn't advise people to do this if they want to make it. Unless if you want to just make money, that's not you're not gonna be happy with it. Um you've got to like enjoy the hard work, enjoy waiting for just be ready for disappointment where you wait for hours and the person that you wanted to get a photo of never even comes, or they ignore you and go to a different photo section and only do the inside photography. Like, yeah, yeah, it's ups and downs. But everything.

SPEAKER_02 45:32

This has been one of the most fascinating. It's just so different, so relevant in the sense, but thank you guys so much. Thank you for having us. Looking forward to seeing you on the red carpet too.

SPEAKER_03 45:44

Yeah, well, look if we're just doing you on the right carpins.