John C. Reilly, with whom I worked on the set of the Laurel and Hardy biopic, Stan and Ollie, was nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture Comedy or Musical.

Unfortunately, he was beaten by the very talented, Christian Bale, for his role in Vice.

BBC America’s dark yet funny ‘Killing Eve,’ did well and not only saw the show nominated for Best Television Series – Drama, but also had one of it’s incredible leading ladies, Sandra Oh, up for Best Performace by an Actress in a Television Series – Drama. Alongside Oh, was nominee Caitriona Balfe, with whom I have been working on the last two seasons of ‘Outlander.’ It was also a delight to see Elisabeth Moss nominated for this award for her role in The Handmaid’s tale, which is quite possibly one of the most gripping series I’ve ever seen.

With talented and deserving competition, I’m incredibly happy to see Sandra win the award. She is one of the most charming and lovely actors I’ve ever worked with. Not only extremely talented and professional but hilariously funny and totally down to earth; Sandra was such a delight to work with and I sincerely hope our paths cross again!

Want to check these guys out in action? Stan and Ollie is out in cinema’s now, and you can find Killing Eve on BBC iPlayer and Outlander over on Amazon.

Want to see more photos from these productions and more? Check out my portfolio!

The post Sandra Oh wins Golden Globe! appeared first on Aimee Spinks Photography.

I’m proud to say I was shortlisted for the Arts and Culture award along with Alicia Daniels from Aston Performing Arts Academy; Daniel Alcorn from Badego/Birmingham Design Festival/Substrakt; Anisa Haghdadi from Free Radical (Beatfreeks Arts); and Laura Tellwright from Town Hall Symphony Hall.

In all honesty, I was certain I wasn’t going to win. The other shortlisted entrants were so strong and I’d always felt like an outsider to these kinds of events. My husband, Andrew Ward, is a thought leader on the tech scene and being the entrepreneur he his, runs several tech companies including his web app agency, Scorchsoft. As a result, he is a regular at these kinds of corporate awards nights, himself being a finalist for Birmingham Young Professional of the Year 2017, winning the Silicon Canal award for Most Influential Male in Tech in 2016 and also taking home his own Future Face award, this one for Entrepreneurship, back in 2016.

I had always bemoaned that fact that the arts never seemed represented in all of these various awards nights so I was delighted to see that the category for Arts and Culture was last year added to the Chamber of Commerce Future Faces Awards.

Working as a unit stills photographer means it can be really difficult to celebrate your work the way most established photographers do. We do not own the copyright to the images we create, and so it can be almost impossible to get permission to display work in exhibitions, books or submit them into prestigious industry competitions. I saw Future Faces as a rare opportunity to be able to share my successes and I am excited to say I won the award!

When you are just focused on doing the best work you can and forever strive to improve, it can be easy to forget how far you’ve come. I wasn’t sure if I had as much to shout about as some of the other shortlisted candidates, but when I sat down and thought about where I had started out and where I found myself now, I can honestly say it made me feel proud.

I grew up in one of the most economically deprived areas of the country, Blackpool, where the arts just weren’t seen as a viable career option. When you’re from a low-income background, you don’t have the financial safety net that enables you to take risks associated with a career in the arts, or even self-employment and many people in this situation feel a heavy pressure to put aside their passions in favour of a seemingly more reliable career path. Even after I achieved the highest GSCE results my high school had ever had, my friends and family would often suggest I have a “back-up plan.”

Being the stubborn person I am, I ignored their advice and committed myself to a 3-year photography degree, moving out and accumulating thousands of pounds in personal debt knowing that my parents would never be able to support me financially if I didn’t make it work. I knew entrepreneurship would be important, so I supplemented my degree studies with my own reading and research into entrepreneurship and self-employment. As soon as I graduated I moved to Birmingham with my boyfriend (now husband) and immediately enrolled onto Birmingham’s BSEEN entrepreneurship program where I learned valuable skills on how to network, pitch, sell and market.

Now 28, 10 years after picking up my first camera, not only have I established a career as a professional photographer, but I’ve done it within one of the most difficult industries to permeate: big- budget film and TV. One rife with sexism and nepotism, though thankfully the former has definitely been on the out.

In a job that is typically held by men over the age of 40, I am now one of the youngest and exceptionally few female (I have only ever come across 3 others) unit photographers to have made it into this role full-time in the UK. Over the years I have had the opportunity to work with actors including Samuel L. Jackson, Margot Robbie and Oscar winner, Eddie Redmayne, photograph Stephen Hawking, and had my work printed on huge billboards across London.

Thanks to amazing photographers such as Jay Maidment and David Appleby who mentored me in my first months and gave me my first door opening opportunities, and to whom I will be forever gratefully, I have wanted to give back. To this end I have, and continue to try and give other young photographers the opportunity to shadow me on set, or give me time to answering questions about the job and offer advice. I’ve also spoken publicly at BSEEN entrepreneurship events about my experiences as a creative professional and entrepreneur, helping those at the start of their journey to make the right decisions, as well as provide free workshops to students at The Royal Conservatoire, Birmingham on actor headshots.

Though I feel I have achieved a lot since starting on my path as a unit stills photographer in 2011, I still have a long way to go in my career and I’m constantly learning and developing my skills. My biggest aspirations include being the main unit photographer on a big action or superhero movie, shooting a poster that makes in into my local cinema, and the honour of being accepted into the Society for Motion Picture Stills Photographers alongside the incredible photographers who constantly inspire me with their work such as Jasin Boland, Giles Keyte, Kimberly French and Jaap Buitendijk.

I want to give a huge congratulations for all the finalists and award winners of Future Faces 2018, as well as a massive thank you to all of the photographers who have inspired me, the programmes that have developed me and my husband who has been not only my best friend, but also my mentor and role model for the last 10 years, in helping me get to where I am today, and I hope that the arts will continue to get support and funding to enable others from less well-off backgrounds to follow their dreams.

Thank you to Edwin Ladd and Jas Sansi for the photos of the event.

Want to see what I shoot? Check out my portfolio!

The post I’m the Future Face of Arts and Culture! appeared first on Aimee Spinks Photography.

Boyhood take home the awards for Best Film, Director and Supporting Actress.

Eddie Redmayne deservedly won the BAFTA for Best Actor with his ridiculously fantastic performance as astrophysicist, Professor Stephen Hawking in the moving The Theory of Everything. The film saw three awards on the night including Outstanding British Film and Best Adapted Screenplay though The Grand Budapest Hotel claimed the most with prizes for its Original Music, Production Design, Makeup and Hair as well Original Screenplay.

Julianne Moore saw the only award for Still Alice as Best Leading Actress, whilst Whiplash claimed a statuette for three categories including Best Supporting Actor with J.K. Simmons, Sound and Editing. Meanwhile everything is awesome for The Lego Movie which took the title of Best Animated Film.

Check out a full list of the winners below and see all the nominations here and let me know who your winners would have been!

Best Film: Boyhood

Leading Actor: Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

Leading Actress: Julianne Moore, Still Alice

Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood

Outstanding British Film: The Theory of Everything

Original Music: The Grand Budapest Hotel

British Short Animation: The Bigger Picture

British Short Film: 
Boogaloo And Graham

Documentary: 
Citizenfour

Editing :
 Whiplash

Production Design: 
The Grand Budapest Hotel

Makeup & Hair: 
The Grand Budapest Hotel

Sound: Whiplash

Animated Film: The Lego Movie

Special Visual Effects: Interstellar

Cinematography: Birdman

Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer: Stephen Beresford and David Livingstone, Pride

Original Screenplay: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Film Not in the English Language: Ida

Adapted Screenplay: The Theory of Everything


Costume Design: The Grand Budapest Hotel


The EE Rising Star Award: Jack O’Connell

Director: Richard Linklater, Boyhood

Original Music: The Grand Budapest Hotel

The post 2015 BAFTA Results appeared first on Aimee Spinks Photography.

“In preparing to play Stephen I met many people fighting ALS, and I met their families fighting alongside them. And the courage and the bravery and the spirit, this triumph of spirit that I witnessed, blew my mind. So I’m incredibly grateful to them.”
Picture: EPA/PAUL BUCK

There was tough competition for the Best Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series category with the likes of Game of Thrones and House of Cards going against the equally successful Boardwalk Empire and Homeland. Unfortunately for all of these great shows however, Downton Abbey pipped them to the post.

Other notable winners include Orange is the New Black which earned awards both for the best ensemble performance in a comedy but also for actress Uzo Aduba who took the award for best female performance in a comedy.

Viola Davis beat the brilliant performance of Tatiana Maslany in Orphan Black, as well as other favourites to claim the prize for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series, and the respective prize for best actor deservedly went to Kevin Spacey’s fantastic work as the ruthless Frank Underwood in the political thriller, House of Cards. If I could have things my way, I’d have struggled to separate both he and Peter Dinklage for the honour as the latter’s performance as Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones makes him one of the most memorable characters of the ensemble drama.

Being the stunt fan that I am (I used to want to be a stuntwoman once upon a time and still get pangs of jealousy when I see the cool stuff they get up to on set), it’s great to see action performances getting recognised. This year the honours went to the stunt ensembles from Unbroken and Game of Thrones.

Below are the full list of nominees and award winners. Don’t forget to let me know your thoughts on who your SAG Award winners would be!

Performance by a cast in a motion picture

WINNER: “Birdman”
“Boyhood”
“The Grand Budapest Hotel”
“The Imitation Game”
“The Theory of Everything”

Performance by a male actor in a leading role

Michael Keaton, “Birdman”
Benedict Cumberbatch, “The Imitation Game”
WINNER: Eddie Redmayne, “The Theory of Everything”
Jake Gyllenhaal, “Nightcrawler”
Steve Carell, “Foxcatcher”

Performance by a female actor in a leading role

WINNER: Julianne Moore, “Still Alice”
Reese Witherspoon, “Wild”
Felicity Jones, “The Theory of Everything”
Rosamund Pike, “Gone Girl”
Jennifer Aniston, “Cake”

Performance by a female actor in a supporting role

WINNER: Patricia Arquette, “Boyhood”
Keira Knightley, “The Imitation Game”
Emma Stone, “Birdman”
Meryl Streep, “Into the Woods”
Naomi Watts, “St. Vincent”

Performance by a male actor in a supporting role

Robert Duvall, “The Judge”
Ethan Hawke, “Boyhood”
Edward Norton, “Birdman”
Mark Ruffalo, “Foxcatcher”
WINNER: J.K. Simmons, “Whiplash”

Performance by an ensemble in a drama series

“Boardwalk Empire”
WINNER: “Downton Abbey”
“Game of Thrones”
“Homeland”
“House of Cards”

Performance by an ensemble in a comedy series

“The Big Bang Theory”
“Modern Family”
“Brooklyn Nine-Nine”
WINNER: “Orange Is the New Black”
“Veep”

Performance by a male actor in a television movie or miniseries

Adrien Brody, “Houdini”
Benedict Cumberbatch, “Sherlock: His Last Vow”
Richard Jenkins, “Olive Kitteridge”
WINNER: Mark Ruffalo, “The Normal Heart”
Billy Bob Thornton, “Fargo”

Performance by a female actor in a television movie or miniseries

Ellen Burstyn, “Flowers in the Attic”
Maggie Gyllenhaal, “The Honorable Woman”
WINNER: Frances McDormand, “Olive Kitteridge”
Julia Roberts, “The Normal Heart”
Cicely Tyson, “The Trip To Bountiful”

Performance by a male actor in a drama series

Steve Buscemi, “Boardwalk Empire”
Peter Dinklage, “Game of Thrones”
Woody Harrelson, “True Detective”
Matthew McConaughey, “True Detective”
WINNER: Kevin Spacey, “House of Cards”

Performance by a female actor in a drama series

Claire Danes, “Homeland”
WINNER: Viola Davis, “How to Get Away With Murder”
Julianna Margulies, “The Good Wife”
Tatiana Maslany, “Orphan Black”
Maggie Smith, “Downton Abbey”
Robin Wright, “House of Cards”

Performance by a male actor in a comedy series

Ty Burrell, “Modern Family ”
Louis C.K., “Louie”
WINNER: William H. Macy, “Shameless”
Jim Parsons, “The Big Bang Theory”
Eric Stonestreet, “Modern Family”

Performance by a female actor in a comedy series

WINNER: Uzo Aduba, “Orange Is the New Black”
Julie Bowen, “Modern Family”
Edie Falco, “Nurse Jackie”
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, “Veep”
Amy Poehler, “Parks and Recreation”

Action performance by a stunt ensemble in a motion picture

“Fury”
“Get On Up”
“The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies”
WINNER: “Unbroken”
“X-Men: Days Of Future Past”

Action performance by a stunt ensemble in a comedy or drama series

“24: Live Another Day”
“Boardwalk Empire”
WINNER:“Game of Thrones”
“Homeland”
“Sons Of Anarchy”
“The Walking Dead”

The post SAG Awards appeared first on Aimee Spinks Photography.

As with the upcoming BAFTAS, Boyhood, saw 5 nominations from which it managed to secure 3 Golden Globes, including Best Motion Picture Drama, Best Director with Richard Linklater, and Best Supporting Actress for Patricia Arquette.

As hoped by myself, the incredibly talented Eddie Redmayne beat fellow Brit, Benedict Cumberbatch to the Best Actor (Drama) award. That’s not to say I don’t at all have a total ‘thing’ for Benedict who is a great performer in his own right, it’s just that quite frankly, Eddie Redmayne blows me away and I doubt anyone can fail to be impressed by his performance in The Theory of Everything.

Credit: Liam Daniels

Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel took the award for Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy) though its star, Ralph Fiennes, unfortunately couldn’t beat Michael Keaton’s performance in Birdman for the award for Best Actor in that genre.

As for TV, The Affair took both the Best Actress (Ruth Wilson) and the Best Drama Series awards, beating my favourite shows of all time; Game of Thrones and House of Cards, though Kevin Spacey deservedly won Best Actor in a Drama for his outstanding performance in the latter, conquering a seven-time losing streak.

Again, my favourite nomination for the Best Comedy Series, Orange is the New Black, didn’t quite make the grade and was beaten my Amazon original, Transparent which is arguably raising the bar for programming with its sincere look at sexual identity. The show’s star, Jeffrey Tambor also took the award for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical and dedicated his win to the transgender community.

Another winner to give an emotional speech and to steer the Twittersphere into talking about serious issues rather than what the ladies were wearing as seems to be the key topic of discussion these days, was Downton Abbey’s Joanne Froggatt who took the award for Best Supporting Actress.

Check out the full list of nominees and winners below and let me know who your winners were! As ever, it will be interesting to see how BAFTAS winner will reflect those of the Golden Globe Awards!

Film:

Best Motion Picture – Drama
Boyhood – WINNER
Foxcatcher
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory of Everything

Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy
Birdman
The Grand Budapest Hotel – WINNER
Into the Woods
Pride
St Vincent

Best Director
Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
Ava DuVernay (Selma)
David Fincher (Gone Girl)
Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman)
Richard Linklater (Boyhood) – WINNER

Best Actress – Drama
Jennifer Aniston (Cake)
Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything)
Julianne Moore (Still Alice) – WINNER
Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl)
Reese Witherspoon (Wild)

Best Actor – Drama
Steve Carrell (Foxcatcher)
Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game)
Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler)
David Oyelowo (Selma)
Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) – WINNER

Best Actress – Musical or Comedy
Amy Adams (Big Eyes) – WINNER
Emily Blunt (Into The Woods)
Helen Mirren (The Hundred-Foot Journey)
Julianne Moore (Maps to the Stars)
Quvenzhané Wallis (Annie)

Best Actor – Musical or Comedy
Ralph Fiennes (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
Michael Keaton (Birdman) – WINNER
Bill Murray (St. Vincent)
Joaquin Phoenix (Inherent Vice)
Christoph Waltz (Big Eyes)

Best Supporting Actress
Patricia Arquette (Boyhood) – WINNER
Jessica Chastain (A Most Violent Year)
Keira Knightley (The Imitation Game)
Emma Stone (Birdman)
Meryl Streep (Into The Woods)

Best Supporting Actor
Robert Duvall (The Judge)
Ethan Hawke (Boyhood)
Edward Norton (Birdman)
Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher)
JK Simmons (Whiplash) – WINNER

Best Screenplay
Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl)
Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Armando Bo (Birdman) – WINNER
Richard Linklater (Boyhood)
Graham Moore (The Imitation Game)

Best Foreign Language Film
Force Majeure (Sweden)
Gett: The Trial of Vivian Amsalem (Israel)
Ida (Poland/Denmark)
Leviathan (Russia) – WINNER
Tangerines (Estonia)

Best Animated Feature
Big Hero Six
The Book of Life
The Boxtrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2 – WINNER
The Lego Movie

Best Original Score
Alexandre Desplat (The Imitation Game)
Jóhann Jóhannsson (Theory of Everything) – WINNER
Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross (Gone Girl)
Antonio Sanchez (Birdman)
Hans Zimmer (Interstellar)

Best Original Song
Big Eyes (Big Eyes)
Glory (Selma) – WINNER
Mercy Is (Noah)
Opportunity (Annie)
Yellow Flicker Beat (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1)

TV:

Best Drama Series
The Affair – WINNER
Downton Abbey
Game of Thrones
The Good Wife
House of Cards

Best Comedy Series
Girls
Jane the Virgin
Orange is the New Black
Silicon Valley
Transparent – WINNER

Best Miniseries or TV Movie
True Detective
Fargo – WINNER
The Normal Heart
Olive Kitteridge
The Missing

Best Actress in a Drama Series
Claire Danes (Homeland)
Viola Davis (How to Get Away with Murder)
Julianna Marguiles (The Good Wife)
Ruth Wilson (The Affair) – WINNER
Robin Wright (House Of Cards)

Best Actor in a Drama Series
Clive Owen (The Knick)
Liev Schreiber (Ray Donovan)
Kevin Spacey (House of Cards) – WINNER
James Spader (The Blacklist)
Dominic West (The Affair)

Best Actress in a Comedy Series
Lena Dunham (Girls)
Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie)
Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Veep)
Gina Rodriguez (Jane the Virgin) – WINNER
Taylor Schilling (Orange is the New Black)

Best Actor in a Comedy Series
Louis CK (Louie)
Don Cheadle (House of Lies)
Ricky Gervais (Derek)
William H. Macy (Shameless)
Jeffrey Tambor (Transparent) – WINNER

Best Actor in a Limited Series
Martin Freeman (Fargo)
Woody Harrelson (True Detective)
Matthew McConaughey (True Detective)
Mark Ruffalo (The Normal Heart)
Billy Bob Thornton (Fargo) – WINNER

Best Actress in a Limited Series
Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Honorable Woman) – WINNER
Jessica Lange (American Horror Story: Freak Show)
Frances McDormand (Olive Kitteridge)
Frances O’Connor (The Missing)
Allison Tolman (Fargo)

Best Supporting Actress
Uzo Aduba (Orange is the New Black)
Kathy Bates (American Horror Story: Freak Show)
Joanne Froggatt (Downton Abbey) – WINNER
Allison Janney (Mom)
Michelle Monaghan (True Detective)

Best Supporting Actor
Matt Bomer, “The Normal Heart”
Alan Cumming, “The Good Wife”
Colin Hanks, “Fargo”
Bill Murray, “Olive Kitteridge”
Jon Voight, “Ray Donovan”

The post 2015 Golden Globe Awards Winners appeared first on Aimee Spinks Photography.

The Key Art Awards is entertainment’s most recognised competition for advertising and communications across every medium you can think of. Everything from the more obvious forms of advertising such as trailers and poster art/one-sheets, to creative social, TV spot and display campaigns – everything that goes into attracting an audience. Without the creative minds behind the marketing campaigns, cinema would not be as successful as it is today, and it’s great to see this side of the creative process recognised.

You can check out the huge list of award winners across all of the categories here:

http://www.keyartaward.com/

Being a unit stills photographer and keen studio shooter, I was most interested in the 46 winners of the printed medium – the poster art. There are so many great winners this year but Godzilla was slightly ahead of the pack, being recognised for 4 awards. Paying homage to the Japanese origins of the story, many of the posters for Godzilla chose to take a graphic approach over a photographic one and give the one-sheets a style one might expect to see in a manga. Manga is something I’m recently discovering an appreciation for though more for the artwork than the story, so perhaps this is why I particularly like the middle image, which won ‘Best Theatrical Festival One-Sheet.’

Following closely behind Godzilla is The Hunger Games with 3 entries into the awards, and with its ‘District Heroes’ campaign taking gold in the Theatrical Domestic One-Sheet category. I personally really love the images put out for the Hunger Games and in fact think the concept behind the entire campaign is nothing short of genius. Each series of the one-sheets acts as a propaganda campaign ostensibly created by the opposing sides of Snow’s Capitol and the rebellion, with the latter having Katniss Everdeen as their poster girl.  Making it into the 2014 Key Art Awards for print are propagandist posters seemingly created by Snow, whose penchant for manipulation and indoctrination come through in an unsettling way as he appears to hail the citizens of Panem’s compartmentalised districts. Whereas we are normally introduced to films by a poster, trailer or other form of media directly telling us about it; the campaign behind The Hunger Games franchise completely removes the fourth wall and as a result is much more successful in drawing us in (I know I was at least). Lionsgate’s creative campaign strategy doesn’t however limit itself to posters – check out the huge array of propagandist videos, websites and installations that really give the impression that the war going on in the films, isn’t entirely fictitious.

Despite feeling the need to back my fellow photographers, the rest of the stand-out posters for me are from graphic artists, though saying that, I must tip my metaphorical hat to Giles Keyte for his excellent shot of a contemplative Brad Pitt against a foreboding sky for Fury. Definitely a film on my to-watch list.

Though it’s been a while since I’ve been an avid watcher of The Simpsons, its recent advertising campaigns have been nothing if not viral, at least in the US anyway. Making it into the Key Art Awards for print are two posters for the show which have clear fine art influences; as if to imply that the Simpsons have a modicum of culture between them. The juxtaposition of the characters’ often simple and slapstick humour being advertising through fine art inspirations is actually quite effective, and the family’s instantly recognisable colours and signature features seem to be the only thing we need to see to know what’s being advertised. That’s when you know a cartoon is successful. That and the fact that FXX have recently paid $750 million for exclusive rights to all 552 episodes, which it brag about with the campaign hashtag; #everysimpsonsever.  Below are the two images that took silver for being the best  bus shelter artwork.

Still looking at graphic art is Concept Arts’ one-sheet for The Mule, which successfully makes my stomach knot and makes it clear that the film is nothing to do with the equine version of its title. My morbid curiosity has certainly been piqued with this one and Concept Arts get a silver award for it in the category of Theatrical Festival One-Sheet.

With the show being centred on a war between humanity and angels, it’s no surprise to see the one-sheets for Dominion putting a modern, and seemingly sinful twist on paintings that look like they could have been crafted by Leonardo Da Vinci. It’s great imagery like this that makes me want to subscribe to the Syfy channel.

Finally, though not winning an award, there’s no surprise that the poster for Nurse 3D has been listed as a finalist; despite its lack of originality, everyone knows sex sells, and besides, what’s not to love about a hot latex-clad nurse straddling a phallic object? Effective but playing it decidedly safe as far as creativity goes.

Into marketing or just curious about what it takes to promote film productions and TV shows? Don’t forget to check out the plethora of other categories HERE and let me know which creative idea stands out most to you!

The post 2014 Key Art Awards appeared first on Aimee Spinks Photography.