Hats on Film

For the last week we've had a film crew on site, making a documentary about how we live and how our small community functions. We get a lot of people coming here to film or take photographs, yet this crew have been different, because they are looking beyond the surface of the artwork or strange looking homes. And they're making a documentary in support of us, and for that reason we've been happy to co-operate.

In my usual fashion I tried my damnedest to hide from the cameras, until I was caught out early one morning taking my washing up to the communal washing machine, wearing a tatty old dressing gown and my wellies. Having been caught at my worst I figured I'd little left to lose and granted permission for an interview and for a photoshoot to be filmed.

It got a tad crowded in my caravan, with the camera guy and the sound guy and the director giving the interview, however Tom did manage to grab a few behind the scenes shots from the photoshoot; recording the film crew recording me recording Silvia. 

Gotta say, I found it difficult trying to work with anything up to 3 cameras on us at any given point! And it made me feel like a bit of an amateur, as we weren't having the greatest of luck with lighting and composition (i.e. it was way too sunny to get the angles I wanted). My body language in these photos isn't great - hunching to concentrate on the camera as you do, but methinks there's a hint of "leave me alone..." going on there, too.

That said, we did get some good shots. I haven't finished looking through them all yet, let alone editing, but here's a couple from that shoot..

Yup, that's Silvia modelling Playful Woolly Toppers Hats. I realised with Bambeanies that it's seen purely as a kids Hats book, even though I included adult sizes, because of the way I presented the book and photographed the Hats... so with this book I want to highlight the fact that big people can have fun with these Hats, too. And Silvia is the perfect grown up to show them off! She carries the offbeat and quirky so well.

It's been a tad strange to say the least, though. Having cameras everywhere can get intrusive pretty quickly. Thankfully they've been a friendly and understanding crew. The film will preview at the local film festival in July and when they put the film up for public viewing online I'll be sure to let you know.