Set Pieces

Film stills are everywhere - outside cinemas, on advertising hoardings, in magazines. Their purpose seems obvious enough - to promote the film by showing you a scene from it. But there is more to it than that. Daniel Meadows has been stills photographer on British films and television series such as "Inspector Morse", "Film on Four", and work by Ken Russell. This is an account of how he got into stills photography, in which he explains why films need to have photographs specially taken. The author describes his work on set, reveals technical mysteries and explains the Five Picture theory of film-making. The text is illustrated with numerous examples of Meadow's work in colour and black and white, and is suitable for anyone interested in the mix of art, technique and business practice that is contemporary cinema.