Valkyrie Premiere

Following on just a few days from the Winslet/DiCaprio London premiere was the screening of Tom Cruise's latest film, 'Valkyrie'. Not bad for what is generally considered a quiet month for the industry.
Tom arrived with his wife, Katie Holmes, and even posed for photos before setting off for his usual marathon autograph signing session, which lasts hours. You can't deny the effort his makes to his devotees, but I do find Mr Cruise a strange man.
But as with the 'Revolutionary Road' premiere, I was pleased with my photos. It was great to get such strong images one of Hollywood's best known couples.





www.samirhussein.com

Seven Pounds Premiere & The Astoria's Farewell

Another cold evening spent outside, this time photographing the 'Seven Pounds'premiere in Leicester Square. Will Smith was good with fans and photographers alike and others celebs at including Danielle Lloyd and Gok Wan.






Following this I covered the final night at the Astoria before it is knocked down to make way for the Crossrail project.
The closing night had been scheduled for tomorrow, the 15th, and was expected to feature The Who and Kasabian, but that was cancelled. Tonight's bill was a lot less low key in terms of names, but did feature some good acts like The Mystery Jets (below).
I wouldn't count the Astoria as one of my favourite venues, compared to somewhere like Brixton Academy, where I've spent far more time. However, it's sad to see it go. I just hope this isn't the way things go for other large London venues, as the capital is in my eyes, the live musical capital of the world.
Finally, the best gig I saw at the Astoria and the stand out moment? Seeing Blur in 2003.





http://www.samirhussein.com

Defiance Premiere

Happy new year!
So, this was my first job of the year and after nearly two weeks of very little camera action I was keen to get back to some photography. I could have done without the minus temperature conditions and the zip on my Lowepro camera bag breaking, but even that didn't stop my enthusiasm to get going again.
Daniel Craig was the star of the film, alongside Jamie Bell, but other than that there were no real exiting names to turn up. I was quite pleased with my photos though, considering I'd done so little over the Christmas period. All my equipment was working fine, which was also a relief.
One other thing - I'm now aiming to update my blog right after completing a job. Last year, due to work load etc, I got quite far behind in keeping the blog up to date, which meant missing out on sharing a lot of what I do. But, with the start of 2009, I'll be looking to post in real time.

Madagascar 2 Premiere

This was a long way from how I'd like to spend a Sunday afternoon, thanks mainly to the pissing rain and freezing temperatures, but Leicester Square it had to be.
The big names to show up were Ben Stiller, Chris Rock and Jada Pinkett-Smith, wife of Will Smith (all below). The rain come in bursts and it as a battle keeping my equipment dry, but despite this I got some stong photos. It helped that the stars made some kind of effort to pose up despite the weather, although Chris Rock couldn't stand still for a second in the cold. Apart from these American stars who all the voices in the film, Danielle Bux (2nd from bottom photo) showed up with boyfriend Gary Lineker to much attention.

Barroso Visits Downing Street & Bunch of Amateurs Premiere

This was my second job inside of No. 10 Downing Street on a commission from the EC, whose President, José Manuel Barroso, was meeting Prime Minister Gordon Brown for talks.
No. 10 is much larger inside than you'd imagine and I was given access to photograph Barroso and Brown walking though the Prime Minister's home before they undertook a press conference in one of the many grand rooms on show.






Later in the evening it was down to Leicester Square for the Royal premiere of 'A Bunch of Amateurs'. The film doesn't feature any particularly big names, but the Queen was in attendance. This date had originally be put aside for the Royal premiere of the new Harry Potter film, but that had to be put aside as the release date was put back to next year, which is why the Queen was now attending a fairly low-key film now.
Of the cast, Camilla Arfwedson (below), attracted the most attention.

'Body of Lies' Premiere

Leonardo DiCaprio was the only draw for this one and there was barely anyone of note who showed up. All-in-all it was very low key premiere, which meant just getting head shots of Leonardo was the order of the day.
This is because newspapers and magazines tend to you headshots of male stars, rather than full lenghts normally reserved for the more glamarous looking girls.

James Bond 'Quantum Of Solace' World Premiere

This was probably the biggest premiere of the year in London, with anticipation even eclipsing the Batman and Sex and the City screenings. James Bond of course needs no introductions, but the fact that this was a Royal world premiere with Princes William and Harry walking the red carpet for the first time added to the build up.
The whole of Leicester Square was taken up by the premiere as a huge crowd gathered from early in the day.
With all this in mind, outside of the cast there weren't really any huge names who turned up to attend the screening. I also had problems with my flash quantum battery, meaning by the end my flash was only firing in about one in four frames. This was particularly annoying as it was the Princes who were last to turn up. However, I got one good frame of the only time they looked up at photographers (below).
Other than them, the main centre of attention was Bond himself, Daniel Craig, and the bond girls including Olga Kurylenko (seen below).

Easy Virtue Premiere

This was the final of the BFI London Film Festival premieres I was covering and it was all fairly straight forward. Jessica Biel was the main draw, but director Stephan Elliott bought along Fizz the dog, who apparently also stars in the film, and made sure the dog was given a lot of attention by kissing it in front of photographers.

Pierre Lewis & 'The Brothers Bloom' Premiere

This sunny Monday morning I went down to a cafe in Soho to get some shots of Pierre Lewis, an up-and-coming singer who's taken the dance chart by storm and model turned DJ, Lauren Pope, who's done a remix of one of Pierre's tracks.
I spent an enjoyable hour or so over a coffee with them at Cafe Boheme, a great spot in the heart of Soho to get away from the madness of central London (it's even open till 3am if you fancy some decent late night food), before getting some candid shots of the two of them.




Later that night it was back to Leicester Square for the premiere of 'The Brothers Bloom' as part of the BFI London Film Festival. Rachel Weisz was the star attraction.

Franklyn Gala Sceening

Having missed the opening gala of the BFI London Film Festival to cover the MOBOs last night I went along for red carpet arrivals of 'Frankyln', the first major gala screening of the festival.
The films stars Eva Green and Ryan Phillippe and kick starts two weeks of film premieres, which will bring A-listers such as Penelope Cruz and Gwyneth Paltrow to the red carpet, before the big one, the James Bond premiere in a couple of weeks.

High School Musical 3 Premiere

Not being from the target audience, I don't think I realised just how popular the High School Musical brand was before this premiere. But on hearing more two hours of hysterical screaming (the loudest and most persistent I've heard at a premiere), largely caused by the appearance of actor Zac Efron (top photo) I soon learnt the impact the films has had on the younger generation. It's been suggested that it's the Greece for a new generation and that Efron is the new John Travolta, which seems like a fair comparison.
Photography wise it was a bit messy as there were so many families with children milling and gawping on the red carpet on their way into the cinema, meaning a lot of the time we unable to get clean shots of the stars. However, Vanessa Hudgens (bottom photo) posed for long enough to get the required shots of her and, to be fair, they at least made an effort with the group shot of the main stars.

Righteous Kill Premiere

I was quite excited about shooting two legends of the screen, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, appearing on the red carpet together. Unfortunately, rather than the two of them posing together they were joined for a group shot by 50 Cent, who also stars in the film and the director. It meant we couldn't really get a strong shot of just Pacino and De Niro together, which was annoying, but there was still quite a few good photographs to be had of Pacino in particular.
He looked the part as usual whereas De Niro seemed a bit disinterested at having his picture taken.

Leatherheads Premiere

George Clooney and Renee Zellweger were the only stars of note at the 'Leatherheads' film premiere. This didn't prevent them from taking an age to reach the photographers, after wooing the crowds and undergoing TV interviews. When George did make it over to pose, our shots were nearly ruined as a group of girls from a reality TV show - I have no idea which - proceeded to try and pose in awe alongside of George. Thankfully they were soon cleared out of the way and we got the shots of George posing with Renee.
A busy night followed, trying to juggle filling the photos, enjoying a Birthday meal with my cousin, watching the Liverpool v Arsenal Champions League game and packing for a trip to Dallas, Texas tomorrow morning.