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Saturday, October 27th, 2007 It was fine weather at Whitby over the October 2007 Gothic Festival. This is the fourth I've been to and it seems to be growing in popularity. |
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Having captured a perfect panning shot of the sailing ship coming into Whitby harbour last year to conclude my film-to-record Vampire (mpg video trailer - 45 sec - 4Mb), I decided this time I would need a lot of people shots in my next Goth venture 'Darkness'. We rented a cottage for the weekend, useful for additional gothic location shots. Arriving in Whitby late Saturday morning we parked at the top, overlooking the Pavilion. My wife Judith took our two sons to play on the beach, while fellow movie-maker Andrew Cockerill and his Sony FX1 accompanied me around the bay. Armed with my Canon XHA1 I wondered how people would react to me asking them to pose, parade or snarl for the shots I had in mind.  People walk around dressed in Victorian/Edwardian outfits - men with top hats and tailcoats, canes; women of all shapes and sizes in corsets, bustles and veiled hats, carrying parasols - influenced by 'Bram Stoker's Dracula'. With the popularity of the Johnny Depp movies I noticed an increase in Caribbean-influenced Pirates. There was also a Nosferatu and Frankenstein's monster. Up the many stairs were young ladies with parasols, posing for photos by weather-torn hardly-decipherable gravestones. One was Becky - who had played a "victim" in 'Vampire'. We chatted and she let me film her again. No one I asked objected to being filmed. I even saw people awaiting their turn to photograph some of the more splendidly dressed Goths - who they don't even know - and the whole bay started to feel like a huge studio. Phantastic! Dates for next year's Goth Festivals: Fri 25 - Sat 26 April 2008 and Fri 31 Oct - Sat 1 Nov 2008. See you there!  |
