Easter Special
WHAT IT’S LIKE TO…
From Bodyguard to Luther and The Crown to the forthcoming Mr Loverman, Des Willie has been on the set of scores of TV dramas, capturing countless memorable images
Des Willie, a London-based photographer originally from Birmingham, studied for a degree in geology before deciding that he “didn’t want to look at rocks any more”. He’d always owned cameras growing up, but began to take his hobby more seriously. He studied for a City and Guilds in photography from the University of Westminster and was eventually booked by Channel 4 to take photos of a music TV programme called The White Room. “Then I started shooting drama, and realised that’s where I was happiest,” he says.
He has now worked in the business for 25 years and has travelled the world, from Antigua to Abu Dhabi, working on the sets of dramas, capturing stars including Olivia Colman in The Crown and Lennie James in the upcoming BBC series Mr Loverman. Here he explains more…
BEHIND THE LENS
The reason that I’m on set taking photographs is to represent and publicise the production. When you see pictures from a film or a television show — whether they’re in Radio Times, on posters or the landing pages of BBC iPlayer — 99 per cent of them will have been taken by a stills photographer. Those images are not simply lifted and reproduced from the actual footage captured by the film cameras — they don’t record crisp imagery when there’s movement, so single frames will look blurry.
I like to shoot the action as it happens on set, but sometimes it’s necessary for me to re-create the scene, or I take the actors to one side to shoot portraits. I also document the making of the show, which is called BTS (behind-the-scenes).
ACCIDENTALLY ON PURPOSE
On set I have no direct control over what’s happening in front of me. I can’t change the lighting, direction or the position of the actors. In the way of classic street photography, I’m waiting to capture the decisive moment. For Mr Loverman, the first day of filming was on the streets of Hoxton in east London. Lennie James walked past a shutter [pictured above], and I saw how well it complemented his outfit. After they had filmed one take, I worked out the position I’d have to be in order to get the shot where he looks back down the street.
HIDDEN CAMERAS
I use a special camera that makes no noise on set. Before that, I used to have to put my camera inside a soundproof box called a “sound blimp”, which was unbelievably cumbersome, heavy and difficult to use.
I mainly use Sony cameras. I have two camera bodies and about seven or eight different
