A friend of mine (Lee) and I went through a phase of going out on a Wednesday night. A school night with both of us working the next day. We always had the intentions of getting the last train back home but we both knew that was never going to happen. The neon lights of Sauchiehall Street beckoned us to stay out until the wee hours of the morning every time we went out. We have bumped into many interesting characters and have made some friends too. Armed with nothing more that Apple Pay on our phones and a Leica camera hanging round our necks we some how always manage to attract genuine nice people with creative backgrounds. Just like us.
On one of those nights we drunkenly bumped into a guy called Jamie. And it felt like every time after that we bumped into him when we were out. Jamie runs a production company and asked Lee and I if we would be interested in doing behind the scenes photos for a music video he was working on. Well he asked Lee. I was not present for this conversation. The first I knew about it was a week before it was due to happen and I looked like a deer in the headlights when Jamie asked me if I was “still alright for next week”. Luckily I managed to clear my schedule for the day.
To settle our nerves for the day Lee and I went out the night before for a few pints. We got separated due to me loosing track of time and Lee ended up getting home at a decent time to get plenty of sleep for the day. I however carried the flame for both of us by heading to SWG3 for one of the craziest techno nights I’ve ever experienced.
Fast forward to 7am and I’m arriving home just in time to pack up my camera back and catch the 8am train to the shoot location. I was at this point feeling great and ready to take on the world. Knowing that a hangover was dangling above me waiting to drop harder that the music from the speakers a mere 3 hours prior to this an executive decision was made to charge on. Straight to Greggs for 3 savouries and a bottle of water. I was ready to go.
The shoot was scheduled to last 12 hours in total so I knew this was going to be a long day. I spent most of the day drinking more water and trying to make it look like I had slept more that 2 hours in the last 48.
Once the band arrived it was go time and I managed to forget all about my lack of sleep.
The filming came to an end at around 5pm and I asked the band if they would mind if Lee and I took some formal shots of them. I sourced out a lovely big window for some individual portraits of the guys and we decided to do some group shots agains a neutral backdrop that was right next to a large window that lit the band just right.
I thoroughly enjoyed the day and would like to thank Jamie for asking me to come along. Special mention to all the team that were involved too.
I can’t share all the images just now as the music video isn’t out yet. But I will post more soon!
All photos taken with Lecia Q, Leica M10-R and Leica SL2-S
bryanleonardthompson.com 