BBC2 8pm Sat Rankin shooting hollwood stars

dinneenp

BBC2 8pm Sat Rankin shooting hollwood stars

Rankin, the UK's leading fashion photographer, reveals the rich history of Hollywood photography and how its most influential and enduring images were created. From Hollywood's golden age, epitomised by gorgeous images of screen goddesses Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich to brooding shots of Marlon Brando; from the unparalleled allure of pictures of Marilyn Monroe to iconic black and white stills of Charlie Chaplin, Rankin immerses himself in the art of the Hollywood portrait and explores the vital role it has played in both the movie business and our continuing love affair with movie stars.
To understand how the image makers of Hollywood created these iconic photographs, Rankin recruits a cast of leading Hollywood actors to help him recreate some of the most important - including Leslie Mann (Knocked Up, 40 Year Old Virgin); Selma Blair (Legally Blonde, Cruel Intentions), British actor Matthew Rhys (Brothers & Sisters, Dylan Thomas's biopic The Edge of Love); actor extraordinaire Michael Sheen (The Damned United, Frost/Nixon), and living Hollywood legend Jane Russell.

Tallon

What?

swingking

Good programme on BBC2 now

swingking

It's more to do with the reshooting old Hollywood stars portraits recreated

kelly1

Thanks SK, watching it now!

PCPhoto

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056140945
dont have bbc

angeleyes

I just caught the end of it - am raging to have missed it. It looked very interesting.

Going to see if I can view it online or download it.

swingking

watched this tonight. Great programme. I really liked the main thoughts of the photographer before he goes to take the shot.

My favourite bit was during the shoot of the pin-up model in the hay.

DotOrg

it was pretty interesting both from a photography point of view and from a hollywood stars of old point of view

it did show how many assistants are needed to pull off a big portrait shoot though

http://rankin.co.uk/

Borderfox

Threads merged

Great program

Paulw

Ok, I'm late to the thread. LOL. I recorded it and only watched it now. Very interesting indeed.

Just curious - what are people's views on trying to recreate an old image, similar to what he did?

melekalikimaka

Paulw wrote: »

Ok, I'm late to the thread. LOL. I recorded it and only watched it now. Very interesting indeed.

Just curious - what are people's views on trying to recreate an old image, similar to what he did?

bit of a gimmick if ya ask me, great tog, the show wasnt great imo

Borderfox

Thought he could have done better with the Faye Dunaway shot with the location

Paulw

In general though, what are people's thoughts on trying to recreate past photos? Historic photos, iconic photos, etc.

Lucky23

Only just spotted this thread, i'm a big fan of Rankin so will have to see if I can get this on the iplayer.

Cheers for the post letting us all know

TinyExplosions

Paulw wrote: »

In general though, what are people's thoughts on trying to recreate past photos? Historic photos, iconic photos, etc.

I'm not sure myself.... I think there's some merit to a point, but mostly don't see the need to spend ages trying to capture something that was possibly thrown together in a moment.

To refer to the docu -I thought the Chaplin shot was interesting, but mostly from the viewpoint of seeing an excellent method actor go into character -it was far more interesting to me than the picture itself.

The Faye Dunaway shot was an excellent case in point -Terry O'Neill shot it very quickly using what was to hand, and Rankin was prattling around to much trying to 'recreate' it -just take your own shots man!

Personally, I hate Rankins work, which put me off the docu a bit, but that's just a personal opinion!

dinneenp

Being honest I turned it off. found it non-interesting....
I guess there's very few 'photography' shows/docs on tv so we'd tune into anything 1/2 related in the hope that it's good.

angeleyes

Does anyone know how to download this program to watch. I went to BBC Iplayer and its not available in my area. Sorry for asking such a basic question but I haven't downloaded t.v. programs to my pc before.

Zxc

There aren't enough programmes related to photography on television. At least on any of the channels I have access to.
I enjoyed watching this programme but I was a bit disappointed by the content. It was neither a history or analysis of Hollywood photography nor a How-To-Recreate. It fell between so many stools.

At times it reminded me of that TG4 show, Cartaí Phoist (?) where people recreate old John Hinde postcards.

To be fair, maybe it was better than I remember. I fell asleep shortly after so was nodding off toward the end!

Lucky23

Ugh tried watching the show but it was a bit dull. Just felt Rankin did the show to promote himself as he seems to be trying to become a celebrity these days. I still love his work though

TinyExplosions

Lucky23 wrote: »

Ugh tried watching the show but it was a bit dull. Just felt Rankin did the show to promote himself as he seems to be trying to become a celebrity these days. I still love his work though

+1 on that -it's great to see photography programmes on tv, but if Rankin becomes the poster boy for it, it's not a good thing

Kazujo

He did a similar show last year in the UK where he recreated old shots but he more captured the look/style of the shot rather than trying to make an exact copy of the original.

I thought it was funny when he was using the old lighting rigs on the Jane Russel setup. He really didn't seem to get on with the older historian guy, especially when he tried to help