Fish and Fashion

I was assigned on a top secret mission to go behind the scenes of the filming of some Young's Fish Commercials with Port Isaac's Universal-signed Fisherman's Friends. Joining me on this mission was a first rate cameraman Carlos "big in Dubai" Homer. We set sail from London's Paddington mid afternoon on a Monday. With three nights sleeping in Cornwall we took to investigating where we would be staying with the power of the Iphone. Our first hotel didn't have a conventional website with what looked like semi-drunk photos of the bar staff on their 'staff' section. The hotel was based on the very edge of Britain and the night sky was awash with bright stars. Phone reception didn't exist so we procured a local beverage and awaiting a random bumping into the women in charge of us (Lucy Newson: FrankPR). Prior to her arrival (accompanied by Jake a Photographer) we had fun settling in with the regular drinkers at the bar. It wasn't quite like the Ewoks meeting C3PO for the first time but it was close to that. The natives were keen to interrogate us as to what we were doing in Cornwall at possibly the most off-peak time of the year. I'd been briefed to be careful about my twitter and facebook comments about the top secret mission so we had to keep things ambiguous - "we don't know why we are here", "I think its something to do with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Rick Stein", "something fishy" I told them. No more questions were asked. We bumped into the boss and soon retired to bed. I had hoped to fall asleep to some Marina and the Diamonds c/o youtube but Carlos' testosterone levels were must have hit a new high and I hadn't a chance of accessing youtube so despite the sub zero temperatures I fell asleep.

Day2: Padstow.

After a fry up from the catering van in total darkness we meandered to 'set'. The morning's shoot was based at the Quay with the Fisherman's Friends having 'brought the fish from sea'. Aside from interviewing an extra and being an extra pair of eyes and ears for Carlos I didn't have to work very hard so when the afternoon came I decided to give Carlos a break and go out on a rib (very small inflatable boat) with the safety drivers to get some shots of the Fisherman's Friends boat at sea. I'd been out around the headland of Padstow before in a speed boat but this was like no other boat trip and like no other shooting I'd ever done. Nearly three hours at sea and my body felt like it had been forced to spend 24 hours working out at a gym. The sense of achievement was my reward as was the 4 x 5 seconds of usable footage I'd shot. That evening we ate at Rick Stein's Bistro and slept rather well.

Day3: Port Isaac.



We landed at the port. Cameraman Carlos, Photographer Jake and the boss (Lucy: FrankPR) went to the unit base to seek out breakfast. I was keen to explore the beach so left them to it. I found a couple of massive (dead) spider crabs, an edible crab and a star fish so for kicks placed them rather close to Lucy's pink suitcase. This was perhaps the start of some major banter around pranks. Carlos handed my a cup of tea and some porridge - at the very bottom on my porridge was a rather dubious brown substance. I took a couple of mouthfuls but it wasn't right so I left it. Spotting some smiles amongst the team it soon became clear I'd been stitched up with brown sauce. Retribution was going to be sweet - or in the case of Carlo's lunch time desert strawberry cheesecake with mayonnaise instead of cream :)

Final Day: Padstow

Due to epic rain our camera's viewfinder had failed. This meant for uneasy shooting but thanks to the production team on the commercial we were able to borrow a monitor to get through it. At lunch time I spotted the Fisherman's Friends enjoying some diet coke's in their local watering hole so I persuaded them to come and do a little fun for our video:




I've always been a big fan of spending time in Cornwall and this trip proved no exception.

Writing this on the back of a brief trip to London's Fashion Week. My job was to get some reactions from audience members at the Vodafone VIP event. There were some seriously trendy types all over Somerset House. Pleasing to see some royal blue and Tweed action.