Unit Still Photography on 'Pulp by Rind' - an Analysis.

Relatively early in my journey as an unit still photographer, I got the chance to shoot stills on the set of ‘Pulp by Rind’ directed by Alanis Braun, a student film production of the University of Westminster. One of my favourite films I have worked on so far, I thought I would walk through the process of taking the photographs and do some in-depth analyses of some of the stills I took.

Let’s have a look at some BTS photographs first.

What helped on this set is that I knew majority of the crew before we started filming through my university, so I had that connection already and straight away I was able to get fun shots.

We had both outdoor and indoor shots at the same location, so let’s have a look at some outdoor shots.

We were shooting on a bright day with harsh sunlight, so the crew had to set up a big diffuser screen. I stood out of the way while both crew and cast were setting up on a crowded terrace, and I got the chance to take a photograph with the crew setting up the tall diffuser screens and the cast sitting at the table, so I went for a vertical photo to show the scale of the equipment we were working with. Outside on sunny days I find it easier to do big group shots as well as I can up my apeture and get more people in focus, compared to dark rooms inside where my apeture is as low as possible.

In my photographs I like to play around with composition, and I particulary enjoy how everyone is in the bottom half of the photograph, and the fact that there are multiple crew members visible is a bonus for me too. I get enough chances for individual portrait shots, but shots where I can get a crowd well composed is a rarity, so I try to search for those chances.

Besides the shots from further away, I also wanted to get close ups to get some of the items on the table visible, and I always try to get at least one shot with the clipper, and I managed to get that shot too. I framed the shot so that the actor on the right would help frame the shot, and in camera I exposed for the bright areas and in editing brought back the details from darker areas.

On set during takes, I tend to wonder around and capture what seems interesting, but when people have time to interact with my camera and strike a pose, I treasure those moments. They are fun not only for me but also for the crew to post online, and often I find the ‘silly’ moments posted on social media.

Going back to the earlier comment about composition, here I got the chance to photograph one of the lighting crew through a window from the inside. Since they were setting up a diffuser screen right in front of the door and taking photographs from outside was not as interesting. The framing of the window highlights the crew member, and your eye is drawn to it.

One thing I try to do on all sets I have been on so far, is take photographs of all crew members, especially when the crew is less than 20 people. In the above photograph is a puzzle being put together by the set designing team. Besides just portraits of people I also like getting detail shots - I know they likely won’t be used for marketing purposes, but since this was a student film and people were still building their portfolios, I was hoping that shots like these could be used for that purpose.

Indoor we were dealing with smaller spaces, so I had to find ways to still take interesting photographs. Here I had the chance to photographs some crew members through a mirror when they were changing lenses, with a portrait of jesus leaning against the mirror which is a prop of importance in the film.

The last two BTS photographs I want to show before going on to the stills photographs are these two where I am playing around with light. In the left photograph, I am using the light that is being set up to help illuminate the crew member, and in the right shot, I am using a light to create a silouette of a crew member. Two different ways to utilize light, which I find rather interesting.

The stills

Before going into the analyses of the stills, I want to talk about them in a general sense, and my experience shooting them. Shooting these stills, was immense fun. One thing that was great about Pulp by Rind, was that there was enough time for me to step into the set to take stills, and to not have to take stills during takes which has been the case on some sets I have been on. Being able to take stills outside of takes gives me extra time to set focus, stand in places where I normally would not be able to stand, and it is easier for the actors as well since they don’t have to focus on multiple things at once. At the time of this film, I was with gear that for some reason did not let me shoot with silent shutter in manual, only automatic settings, and it would choose very odd settings for automatic, so being able to set my own settings as well was a bonus (luckily I have upgraded my gear since then, and can shoot in silent mode in manual!).

Let’s start with the shot was ended up being used for the poster, which was designed by the director. In this scene, the facial expression of the actor holding the pitcher of juice towards the actor who we see the back of the head of is of importance, so I wanted to make sure I got a shot with the right facial expression, which this shot was able to capture. The juice pitcher is also important to the plot, so that being rightly framed was important too.

In this shot, one of the first shots of the film, the character is making soup and is deep in thought, so I decided to get close up to represent that deep thoughtfullness. I also decided to shoot the actor from his left rather than his light, to let the light ‘illuminate’ his character as well, as the character has a rather dark side, but I wanted it to be subtle to not give too much of the plot away.

Here is another photograph where I used subtle technicalities to present a factor in the story. Though the actor on the left is in the foreground, she is out of focus, and instead the focus is on the actor further away, in the back. In this case, the male character cares a lot about the female character, his mother, but he is also selfish and his actions only benefit himself. By moving the focus visually to him, it represents how he perhaps unconsciously focuses more on himself.

Just some small notes about this photograph - here the character is praying, but there is something a little evil about his prayer - so I wanted to get the statue of jesus in the background. The fact that the statue is out of focus and almost out of shot does fit with his prayer as well.

Most shots so far have been focused on people, but here we have where an item is in focus instead. This bottle of pills is where the plot comes together, so getting a sharp shot of it was important. I also had some shots of the pills on the bedside table, but I believe seeing it in the hand of the male character, with the female character in bed adds more to the story.

Here we have a shot where the photograph is taken from the point of view from the main character. The main character is sat inside while a conversation is happening outside between his mother and two guests, and the main character does not like the male guest. I wanted to get this shot from slightly behind the curtain to give that mysterious, peeking vibe that is going on in that moment.

Lastly, we have a photograph that was not part of the film at all. The actor, Adam Isla O' Brien, asked me if we could take some photographs together. Inbetween shots we went to a field attached to the house we were filming at, and after admiring the deer on the edge of the forest in the back of the field, we decided to take some photographs. Unfortunately, as we went out to take photos of a whim, I did not notice my camera was about to run out of battery, and after I took just one shot, the battery died. However, the shot that we got, was brilliant in our opinion. Him facing the sun with his eyes closed, has a slight isolated view, and the edge of his waistcoat lining up perfectly with the edge of the forest was a pure coincidence, but it’s a great little touch. In the back to the right of him, you can see some deer, which almost feels like a fun little easier egg. Sometimes, that singular photo taken on a whim is all you need.

These are just some thoughts about the BTS and stills I took for ‘Pulp by Rind’. I’ve taken many more stills and BTS, which you can find on their relative pages on my website. I already knew I liked unit still photography prior to working on this film, but this film really set it in stone that I want to be primarily an unit still photographer. Working together with so many other likeminded creative people on a singular project is incredibly inspiring, and from an unit still perspective, there is always something to photograph - whether it is actual stills, or crew setting up equipment, or actors in hair and make-up. The director of ‘Pulp by Rind’ is an absolute joy to work with every time and has a special magic touch that is visible in the film , and the latest film I have worked on that isn’t out yet was directed by her and feature many of the same crew as well and it features the same magic touch.

Thank you so much for reading my first blog post - this is something I have not done before, but it is something I have thought about doing for a while. If you have any questions, feel free to comment them or even contact me, details are on my about page. Best, Hedi x