Veronica Mars Red Carpet (SXSW)

Finally getting back to posting stuff from SXSW 2014. Here's a set of photos from the remarkably telegenic cast of the Veronica Mars movie. Which is available to watch at home and a heck of a lot of fun. Even if you haven't watched the series previously. Warning though - the movie did make me go back and begin binge watching the series.

Kristen Bell posing for selfies with waiting fans

Krysten Ritter

Chris Lowell

13 Sins World Premiere - Red Carpet Photographs

My first film-going evening at SXSW was pretty successful. I watched The Infinite Man and 13 Sins. Plus about 3/4 of Premature (long story - should be caught up soon on that one) whose director I interviewed earlier in the day. More on all that's coming (though all are worth seeing in my view). For right now I just wanted to share some of the red carpet photos I took at the world premiere of 13 Sins an in your face thriller that seems to be part of this year's Cheap Thrills like takes on people forced out of desperation to play along with the sick games of the rich. I actually enjoyed this one quite a bit more, though given how many people truly love Cheap Thrills I may not have a ton of company on this one. But comparison aside it's a solid and engaging thriller. But for now I'll leave you with photos of the striking case and director.

High resolution versions (if you want to just gaze deeply into Ron Perlman's eyes) can be found in this online gallery.

Ron Perlman

The Otherside - Red Carpet Arrivals (including Macklemore)

Friday night drew a lively, packed house to Uptown theater for The Seattle International Film Festival's  screening of the NW hip-hop scene documentary The Otherside. In addition to full capacity inside the front of the theater boasted a jostling (in a friendly way) group of photographers looking to capture a parade of local music artists. Including local guy made good Macklemore. I did my best to grab a peek to share....

I've put the full set of photos up on Flickr. With a subset below in lower resolution. If you're in any of the photos and would like a copy, etc. just let me know.

Included the trailer, a couple of teaser photos and then a bunch more after the jump. I'm planning on writing a more complete review of the film itself in the week ahead.

A special, HUGE, HUGE, HUGE thanks to Isha Rana host of the WNYU radio show North by Northwest. Without her assistance very few of the photos would be properly labelled. And if they're still not probably a typo on my part. Still looking to identify a few of the subjects - please shoot me a note in the comments on directly if you can help.

Dan Torok (director of The Otherside) and Macklemore

 

Macklemore

Prometheus Brown

SIFF 2013 Opening Night Red Carpet

Earlier tonight I had an opportunity to attend the red carpet arrivals for the Joss Whedon production of Much Ado About Nothing. The film was great, that was established during SXSW where I also had the opportunity to shoot the cast's red carpet arrivals. This was an opportunity to be part of their welcome to Seattle, where amazingly bright sun made the photography a bit more challenging than I expected.

 

What follows after the jump is just a small subset of the photos I took. I'll be adding more over the next few days. The full resolution versions are available here. I'll also be posting some photos of less famous SIFF patrons who walked the red carpet within the week. If you spot your photo there and would like a full resolution version just shoot me a note and I'll be happy to get it to you.

Kiss of the Damned

One of my most anticipated films of SXSW was Kiss of the Damned. Not really based on anything particularly significant about the film other that it had (a) vampires and (b) a trashy enough trailer to pique my interest in a big way. I mean, if we're all being honest, they don't put a half naked female vampire chained to a bed out there because it's going to drive audience members way do they?

The good news, is that if you're intrigued before or after reading this review Kiss of the Damned is available ahead of theatrical release on various video on demand channels. The less good news is that in my opinion you'd be way way better off watching We Are the Night again (so long as you can avoid the dubbed version on Netflix). There are some reasons to watch the film, mainly a couple of interesting shots that made me really sit up straighter when they hit the screen. But overall I was seriously underwhelmed.

I'm going to stray really close and perhaps a smidge over the spoiler line in what follows. But I don't think it's going to take away from the film much ... if Kiss of the Damned is going to speak to you it's not because of the minor plot point transgressions I make below.

SXSW 2013 - Red Carpet and Q&A Photos

One of the things I always enjoy doing at SXSW is taking photos. This year I worked a bit harder at it - and I think the results are better for it. Most specifically I was lucky enough to attend Red Carpet arrivals photo shoots for Drinking Buddies, Much Ado About Nothing, and Kiss of the Damned. In addition I tried to grab at least decent Q&A photos for Springbreakers, Short Term 12, Licks, 12 O'Clock Boys, Everyone's Going to Die, and Big Ass Spider! This resulted in photos of a good subset of the Joss Whedon acting universe, James Franco, Anna Kendrick, Olivia Wilde, Joe Swanberg, Jake Johnson, Ti West, Ron Livingston and many more. Basically too many to put in one post. But I hope people will enjoy checking out a fuller gallery I've posted on Flickr. Even that's just a subset of the photos I took. Though at some point looking at Red Carpet photos becomes about as exciting as seeing your neighbor's snapshots from Europe. After a while your eyes are still going to glaze over regardless of how beautiful Paris is in real life.

While I'm happy with the photos, the most fun part of the red carpets for me was chatting with the other photographers (and interviewers). It's like any other SXSW line, but with even more intensely focused (and interesting people). You're all stuck there (very literally during the wait for the guests to arrive on) with nothing else to do but chat, swap tips, and in one case checkout another photographer's shots of Cirque du Soleil performers loose in Austin. Which made me chuckle thinking about how if they were wandering about on 6th Street one might not really even notice anything out of sorts.

If there's a subject you'd like a closer look at (for example if you're in it)- or you have interest in re-using any of the photos just shoot me a note. I only used lower resolution reductions for this post. For a look at a much bigger collection of photos (including the higher resolution versions) feel free to jump over to this gallery.

I've included a fair number of photos after the jump (which is still a small subset of the main gallery). And of course stay tuned for running commentary on the SXSW film's I watched over the past week. That number is approaching 30 - so it may take a while ...

Spring Breakers: Harmony Korine (director), James Franco, and 3/4 of the film's female co-stars

A closer look at the ladies of Springbreakers

Joe Swanberg and the cast of Drinking Buddies

Jake Johnson [Drinking Buddies]

Anna Kendrick and Olivia Wilde [Drinking Buddies]

SXSW 2013 - A quick taste of Whedon

I was incredibly lucky to have the chance to photograph the red carpet arrivals for Joss Whedon's new film Much Ado About Nothing. Everyone was super nice and generous with their time - and the movie totally rocks. I'm still knee deep in photo processing (between that and the Drinking Buddies red carpet) so don't have those to share yet. Hoping to have those pictures up in the next few days. But in the meantime I'll share a brief snippet of the master himself. He's actually answering a question posed by one of the reporters standing next to me on the arrivals line. I'm sort of impressed with myself for resisting the temptation to jump the barrier and give the guy a big hug. But as I didn't I can share the video snippet below, having avoided incarceration and all...

(by the way - you may need to turn the volume up a bit to catch what he's saying)