It’s been a very wet few days at the Cannes film festival this year. The umbrella has been the souvenir of choice. Hopefully the sun will come back out tomorrow and everything can go back to being glamorous on the beach. Here are a few shots from the last few days, mostly from before it started raining on the second day. We went over to Monaco for dinner the other night and there is a 360˚ panoramic shot done with the Pano app on the iPhone here too.

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to be asked to shoot the reunions of some iconic TV show casts backstage at the TV Land Awards for Entertainment Weekly. We had (most of ) the casts of In Living Color (with the Fly Girls), Murphy Brown, One Day at a Time, Pee-Wee’s Playhouse and Laverne & Shirley. It was a great night and a lot of fun to see them all hang out together again, even if just for a few minutes.

I was happy to find out that my commercial spot for Chelsea Piers won “Best Visual Experience” in the APA Short Video Contest. Here is the full list of winners. Thank you APA judges and of course thank you to the cast and crew and everyone at Chelsea Piers for helping make it happen. I hear I’ll be receiving a Small HD DP 4 EVF as a prize. Very Cool. Here is the spot again if you missed it in the earlier blog post.

My assignment was to shadow the band all day and shoot whatever happened. A day in the life, if you will. I enjoy a nice day of taking pictures and have shot my fair share of concerts and live events. What I was not prepared for was the level of fan hysteria. Sure I’ve heard stories of screaming girls going back to Beatle mania, but does that kind of thing still happen? Well I can report that it most certainly does. And now the fans have Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to exponentially ratchet things up.

After sound check and some interviews in the locker room, the stadium was full and it was time to take the field. The picture above is the boys as they were about to walk out of the tunnel into the stadium and face the fans for their first real solo gig in America (they had only played the today show before this). It was a cool moment and I’m glad I was there to capture it. Thank you to their publicist Mike Navarra for helping make it happen. No matter what they do from here and how many other countless shows they will undoubtably play (Including being the musical guest on SNL tomorrow), there is only ever one first time.

What happened right after that picture as they walked past me onto the field can only be described as ear splitting. The girls (I only saw one boy and he was wearing a teletubby costume) erupted into an enormous collective scream that they then sustained for the rest of the hour long event. I’ve never heard anything like it and it was so high pitched and loud that my ears were actually cutting in and out at times. I’ve heard that screaming girls have set a decibel record at some venue beating out the previously loudest act, Mottorhead. I believe it. This is one of the many fan videos on YouTube, if you want the full experience. Here are a few of the shots from that day. You can also see some others on EW.com. I wish the boys the best of luck as they start out on their upcoming tour and thank you for letting me tag along.

The latest issue of Entertainment Weekly is out with my shots of the Desperate Housewives on the cover. The shoot was back in January in Pasadena as their last season started airing. Since then the show has made news for real life drama in the court room and the final season has been getting great reviews. They seem to be going out with a bang. The show has certainly made an impact over the years giving rise to countless Real Housewives of…. reality series. These ladies are the originals however. The shoot went very smoothly and was totally drama free despite some rumors that things could go otherwise that have dogged them ever since the infamous Vanity Fair shoot in 2005. But to hear what happened then, you just have to go out and pick up a copy of EW. You can also see some outtakes from the shoot here.

Bruce Springsteen gave the keynote speech at SXSW in Austin the other day. Here it is in it’s entirety, which is a little long but very interesting. He says some pretty great stuff about authenticity, creativity, theft, and what it’s really all about when the lights go down. While he is mostly talking about music, it’s true for any medium in the arts. He also takes you through the history of rock and roll and his influences. Certainly a cool speech if you are a fan of him and his music or not.

UPDATE: It seems the original file was taken down on youtube, but you can watch it here instead.

The cover I shot of Zac Bissonnette’s new book has been released. While still in his early 20′s this is Zac’s 2nd book about finance after the success of his first book, Debt-Free U. Congratulations, Zac. It’s tough because my parents are doing pretty well and look great. I haven’t read it, but I’m sure he has all the answers.

The finale of Top Chef Texas was tonight and Paul Qui came away as the winner. He did really well all season and I think won about $150K and a car in challenges alone, not to mention the big prize at the end. I photographed Paul back in August down in Dallas with the rest of the cast for the Top Chef ad campaign when they were just getting started. It feels like a long time ago having watched the whole season. I can’t imagine how he feels. Congratulations, Paul.

The new season of Cougar Town debuted last night in it’s new time slot. I was lucky enough to shoot Courtney Cox and show creator Bill Lawrence for Entertainment Weekly, at their favorite lunch spot in Culver City, as they discussed the show and how it has evolved. Click the pic above twice to enlarge the article or head to a newsstand now and pick up a copy.

 A few tearsheets from the Men’s Health poster series that’s currently running.

]]> http://scottmcdermottblog.com/2012/02/13/mens-health-poster-series/feed/ 0 scottmcdermott MHPosters MH0911_BPSTR V2.indd http://scottmcdermottblog.com/2012/02/06/the-niagara-double-take/ http://scottmcdermottblog.com/2012/02/06/the-niagara-double-take/#comments Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:49:31 +0000 Scott McDermott http://scottmcdermottblog.com/?p=1508 ]]> I recently received Annie Leibovitz’s new book “Pilgrimage” and immediately thought “I think I have that same shot on the cover of Niagara Falls”. It’s one of the most photographed places there is and about a million other people have shot it too. I was there in Sept. 2010 on a cloudy day and stood in that special spot on the Canadian side and took a picture with my Canon S95 point and shoot like a good tourist. I just dug mine out of the archives and found Annie’s online and put them together. It’s cool to see how the two shots compare. It’s not every day you get to go apples to apples with Annie. Can you tell who shot which one?

David Duchovny

Morgan Spurlock

Anne Heche

A few months ago while sitting alone in the waiting room at the Romanian consulate in NYC (for reasons I’ll go into some other time), a man walked in and asked me to read something for him on a piece of paper. He explained his eyes weren’t very good. I happily did so and reassured him he was in the right room according to what it said. We started talking while we waited and it turns out his name is George and he is a Gypsy from Romania who has lived in New York for about 20 years. He is actually the Gypsy Baron for all of North America. That means he is their leader and judge in any disputes within the Gypsy community. I was intrigued and we ended up having dinner a few weeks later at a Romanian restaurant in Queens. One thing led to another and a few months after that I was invited to shoot portraits of the Gypsy community who live in Queens at George’s birthday party.

I wasn’t sure what to expect. George told me the party would go from 8pm to 8am. So I got to the restaurant with my assistant to set up at 6:30pm. The place was totally dead. As in, the waitresses were eating in the corner. But it was early. We got everything setup by 7:30pm and were ready to go. Still dead. 8:30pm, no one. At 9:30 we decide to have dinner since the kitchen seems open although nobody was there yet. At 10:30pm the band arrived to set up. George walks in with about 5 people around 11pm which was certainly reassuring since we were starting to wonder if we were at the right place. At 11:30pm about 100 Gypsies arrive seemingly all at once and head directly to the dance floor. The party was definitely on. For about half an hour there was a bit of a staring match as everyone was wondering what I was doing with my setup in the corner. So I found George and asked him to make an announcement saying I was there to take free pictures. He just casually leaned over to the person sitting next to him and said something and suddenly my photo set was mobbed. I photographed nonstop until about 3am when I think I shot everyone in the room probably twice as they were lined up 10 deep at one point. Great fun.

I had no idea what was going to happen before the party. The word “Gypsy” certainly comes with a lot of preconceptions for us all. What are the Gypsies like in NYC? How many are there? Where do they live? How do they dress? Traditionally or is it all GAP and Rocca Wear? I don’t have the answers to all the questions but it was a pleasure to hang with them and I am very grateful they would allow me into their world for a night and let me photograph them. Here are a few of the pictures but to see the rest of the series click here.

While on vacation in Lake Placid over new years it came to my attention that it was possible to take a ride down the Olympic bobsled track on a skeleton sled. I’ve done bobsled and luge there in the past but skeleton was never available to the general public as far as I know. Since the opportunity to lay on your stomach, head first and rocket through an ice tunnel at 40mph doesn’t come along very often I figured it’s one of those things you have to do. Luckily I had a helmet mounted Go Pro camera with me to record the experience. I’m especially proud of the fact that I only hit the wall once at the very beginning. Steering with your head actually does work. That’s my friend Nick in the orange pants who graciously agreed to go first.