Entertainment reporter to photographer: “I wish I was a photographer. You don’t have to talk to [the actors].”
During the film festival:
• There were two near fist fights between photographers in the photo areas.
• As macho film star Josh Brolin arrived, a photographer yelled, “Give us a wave!” Brolin stopped and stared, “Are you crazy?”
• When a photographer called actress Eva Mendes “baby”, she stopped and yelled back, “Don’t ever call me ‘baby’!” :
• As some photographers start yelling at celebrities, (“Look to the left!”), other photographers will yell even louder (“Look to the right!”). It sometimes turns into a screaming match between photographers who end up looking and sounding like children.
• Some photographers panic when a celebrity walks left or right. These photographers feel the need to move along with them, thereby causing a stampede of photographers pushing and shoving each other. These photographers have no idea how to work a picture or how to let a picture come to them, as pictures often do.
• At one press conference, a photographer shot over 900 pictures. For comparison, I shot 122 frames. His constant camera clicking was so bad that even other photographers told him to stop it. The guy was shooting “on spec” so the more pictures he took, the more chance he had to make a sale.
(Added September 16: another photographer did over 1,000 pictures at a press conference today).
• When a well-known actress arrived, one photographer intentionally blocked the other photographers so they couldn’t get any pictures despite the others yelling at him to move.
• At the start and end of every press conference, a number of photographers rush the small stage to yell at the actors, (“Look to your left!”, “Look to your right!”, “Look at my lens!”), and do point-and-shoot, direct flash pictures. These pictures are always boring and are of very limited use. Yet for some unknown reason, these photographers still do it.
Not sure why the film festival puts up with this. One might think it’s embarrassing to the film festival. At a press conference today, the actors did pictures at the start but, at the end, they refused more pictures and walked offstage.
• When a French actor is present, some photographers will yell in French (“À droite s’il vous plait.”) even though the actor is fluent in English. When a British actor arrives, some photographers will yell with a faux British accent.
• When calling to a celebrity, photographers will use the actor’s first name, (“Brad, over here!”). But at a press conference with Bill Gates, they called, “Mr. Gates, over here please.”
