I took this picture of Stanley Kubrick under a camera platform built on the set of
A Clockwork Orange near Kingston-upon-Thames, England in 1970. The publishers Fotofolio have recently made it into a postcard.
Stanley and I were sheltering from the rain underneath the camera platform and shortly after I took the picture the platform began creaking and groaning and then wobbled and collapsed. As the creaking and groaning began, both of us leaped out from under it like rabbits bolting.
This week was taken up with trying to correct errors in the comments section of this blog. (Some people have not been able to post them successfully. "Accept third party cookies" and it will work. E-mail me if in trouble.) Then, shopping for and preparing dinner for tonight, notably making chocolate mousse.
So. I have slipped in two photographs from the past, one of which, that of Stanley Kubrick in the War Room from the making of Dr. Strangelove, was prompted by Richard Butler who brought up his interest in the film on Facebook.
Kubrick was lining up a shot of the circular table and standing in the light of one small spotlight. The Big Board is to the right and slightly behind me. Frequently he would get the grips to set up the camera and operate it himself. Sometimes the camera operator was not even on the set.
I worked for Stanley as a stills photographer on three of his pictures. Stanley loved ping-pong and he put up a tent in his garden so that he could play in all weathers. He was a family man who worried a lot about his cats and his children’s mice and hamsters. His children often appeared on the set. One day some Warner Brothers executives were expected to visit the set of "A Clockwork Orange". (He was probably well behind in his shooting schedule and they would have tried to push him.) Stanley just didn't turn up for that day's shooting.
