James Bond Spectre - 007
Alright, don’t say it… I know… it’s another one of my ridiculous pictures that I’ve used Photoshop to place myself into. Everybody asks why I do it. Hmm, because I enjoy it and sometimes like to play pretend from time-to-time?
James Bond is one of my favorite characters since Goldeneye came out in the 90’s. Even though he has a misogynistic attitude, sexual objectification towards women, and really cheesy one-liners, I still thought he was a cool action hero (along with Indiana Jones).
I eventually watched all the Bond movies ever made, but Pierce Brosnan in Goldeneye was the first one I’ve seen and also due to the popularity of the awesome Nintendo 64 game (Goldeneye). At that time I didn’t mind so much of the cheesy acting and one-liners but was into the action, gadgets, and cool-ness of being a spy.
After Pierce Brosnan retired from being Bond after 4 films, I thought it would be a tough act to follow since Pierce Brosnan was the one I grew up with. I have to admit, it took a while to get used to Daniel Craig but as the films kept coming, I really appreciate that it was more serious and had a darker edge to it than the previous films. That is why Skyfall was my absolute favorite Bond film (at the moment). Really interesting themes, plot, mood, and finally a realistic threat were all present in Skyfall.
I made this photo before I even started in photography during the time Skyfall was being released in 2012. Quality on this photo was basically iPhone 4 resolution so I had to work with what I had.
At this point I’ve lost a bunch of you already, but for those who are still reading, here’s how I re-created the photo. The photo I used was from http://www.007.com/spectre/posters/
Since I had to manage this alone, I setup my camera on a tripod, tested lighting, tried to mimic the lighting angles etc, took a series of photos in front of a white bed sheet, triggered with remote in my right hand, and reviewed it every time I took a photo since I had the camera tethered to my laptop & would immediately display the last shot. After about 30 shots I think I got the right pose. (First photo) Also fun fact, that is a sheet of bounty in my breast pocket since I did not have a white handkerchief.
After cutting/pasting myself onto the movie poster, I had to do a bit of cleanup since I did not match up with Daniel Craig. Cropped the photo from the bottom because there were a lot of credits and movie info that would be time-consuming to remove. Used Photoshop to make it look like I’m holding a gun. Applied some touch-ups. Re-applied the Spectre logo. Done. (Last photo). I could have gone a bit crazier and spent hours on editing but I figured this was just for fun, it's not perfect, won't ever be perfect, and I'm not making money off of this.
I'm pretty excited to see Spectre. Lots of hype around this movie, said to be better than Skyfall, and most likely to be Daniel Craig’s last Bond film. Movie premiered in London last night but will release November 6th. Speaking of which, I’m going to be attending an Omega special event tonight and have access to view the movie before it comes out in America :P Can’t wait.