Good evening...Commissioner
It was this time last week that I was stood on the red carpet for the Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy UK premiere (at least it was when I started this post). Such an anniversary has prompted me to finally sort myself out and upload my thoughts and audio interviews from arguably the biggest British premiere of the year.
With the prospect of meeting the country's finest acting talent I stood in the designated press pen full of excitement. This was the first time I'd ever been to one of these events, let alone standing on the other side of the guard rail away from the general public. With the press pass around my neck it felt like I'd been given the key to the city.
Well, it did to start with. As I arrived at the British Film Institute headquaters at Southbank, I was ushered to the start of the red carpet. Feeling like a star in my own right, I strolled up to the bouncer waving my pass who then pointed me to the 'business side' of the guard rail. It was about quarter past three, around 90 minutes before any of the stars were scheduled to turn up, yet the crowds had already assembled. The fabled positions at the front had been taken by fanatics, holding homemade boards that wouldn't have looked out of place in the crowd for the TV show Gladiators.
Of course, I too was there about 90 minutes before anything happened which gave me a chance to observe my surroundings. If you've ever been to BFI Southbank you'll know the entrance to the building is underneath Waterloo Bridge directly on the riverbank, which created an interesting atmosphere for the premiere. Rigging and lights had been fitted to the underside of the bridge and Tinker Tailor motifs were adorned on any spare surface.
The press pen for the national press (and moi) was at the far end of the red carpet. I was initially upbeat that we'd get all the stars as most of the photographers were positioned next to us, although slightly apprehensive that there was a row of TV cameras between us and where the talent was arriving. Setting myself up between a writer from Empire Magazine and a critic from the Evening Standard, I got my notepad out and started thinking up questions for Messrs Firth Oldman Hardy and others.
The first recognisable face to turn up was in fact Lizo Mzimba, the BBC's Entertainment Correspondent. Here was a man who whilst at Newsround, translated all the 'adult news' and made it understandable for world-curious children like me, essentially turning himself into an all-time hero in my eyes. He and the BBC team had set further down the red carpet, right next to recognisable face number 2. I'd worked with Steve Hargrave during my time at Sky News on what actually turned out to be one of his last stories before he became Daybreak's entertainment correspondent. Hargrave, Mzimba and the BBC and Daybreak teams were down one end of the red carpet, I was down the other end with my Edirol and notepad starting to think I was going to struggle.
After getting a good few interviews with some of the cast and crew (which are dotted around the post) I was still worried I hadn't got anything with the big four (the acting talents that are Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy and Benedict Cumberbatch). Worst still, I had only seen Gary Oldman, who had spent about an hour chatting to Mzimba and Hargrave.
It wasn't until about 45 minutes before the screening was about to start that I spotted the hulking frame of Tom Hardy lumber down the carpet au rouge. Following closely behind was the more vertically built Colin Firth who was attached to his wife like they were siamese twins. And finally, the wispy-blonde hair of Benedict Cumberbatch came into view, with his piercing glare sending the riff-raff into a screaming frenzy.
Like a set of starved hyenas, the photographers abandoned their position next to us and made their way towards the talent. And with that, my chance to interview any of these juggernauts of British cinema went up in a rather British puff of smoke. Mzimba and Hargrave held onto the four of them like they were parts of their soul and the several dozen PR people could only shrug their shoulders in response to our cries of 'WE WANT HARDY'.
Cries turned into groans as a set of nightclub bouncers appeared (by day ushering filmstars, by night fighting with Sambuca-fuelled scallywags) to point the stars still on the red carpet in the direction of the door, ending my first experience of a red carpet premiere on a rather bum note.
As I made my way back home struggling to shift a feeling of disappointment, I had to keep reminding myself it was my first experience of a red carpet premiere and to be thankful for the opportunity. Most of the other journalists in the press pen were anything from late twenties to late forties, yet not even they had managed to get the amount of interviews I'd got. Even though they were all from national publications, I had jumped in front of them all with Edirol to get a few cracking little interviews.
Of course, these things are always about learning from the mistakes you've made. I've made a list, so take note.
1. Take a video camera. Those with a camera and a microphone were given preferential treatment in getting hold of the stars than those with old school equipment such as a pen and paper. It seems that if the stars make the effort to look good, they're going to want you to see it rather than describe it.
2. Don't expect to follow the talent into the cinema. Prior to the premiere I hadn't actually seen the film meaning coming up with questions was a challenge. But no matter, I thought I was going to see the film in the next few hours. Wrong. No journalists at the premiere are allowed into the cinema and if you want to watch the film you have to attend the press screening which can often be a week later. I did eventually get round to seeing the film and surprise surprise, it was magnificent.
3. Establish a good spot. One of the advantages of getting there a whole hour and a half before anything happened was that I was right up against the guard rail in a nice position. It did mean that as soon as someone famous walked past a whole host of dictaphones were thrust either side of my face, but that was a small price to pay for getting some good interviews.
I'm hoping to put these lessons into practice at the Happy Feet 2 European Premiere in November that I've been invited to where Hollywood A-Listers like Elijah Wood, Robin Williams, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt and the rest will come under fire from yours truly.
