The Directors: Boo George
Director and photographer Boo George’s love of the lens began in Northern Ireland, after his father gifted him his first camera. He would go to Wicklow Mountain to take pictures of travellers camping, fascinated by a community that lived on the outskirts of the outskirts. His love of photography has since grown into a lifelong passion and vocation.
After gaining a scholarship to university to study photography, Boo spent his final year travelling around to complete his projects, focusing on studies of humble characters such as itinerant travellers and local fishermen, with one project taking him out on a fishing trawler for 10 days on the North Sea. These were the beginnings of what became Boo's signature style: moody, cinematic, personal and revealing.
It was Boo’s 2010 portraits of Zambian diamond miners that caught the eye of Love editor Katie Grand, who gave him his first big fashion break. His documentary-inspired photographs, capturing moments of unguarded humanity, became his calling card, reminiscent of his idols, Richard Avedon and Irving Penn.
In 2013, Boo was recognised by W Magazine as the winner of ‘The Shot’, and has since worked as a photographer and director across many recognisable brands such as Emporio Armani, Ralph Lauren, Hermes, Levi’s, Louis Vuitton, Erdem, Vogue and Calvin Klein, among many others. Throughout his career, Boo’s lens has been graced by many recognisable names such as Emma Watson, Eddie Redmayne, Helen Mirren, Victoria Beckham, Michael Fassbender, Kim Kardashian, Sandra Oh and Sienna Miller to name a few.
LBB> What elements of a project sets one apart from the other and what sort of projects get you excited to shoot them?
Boo> I just came back from Montana on Saturday night, I was over there shooting The Stetson cowboy hat campaign, things like that are just a dream to do, you know. It’s like all the aesthetics that I love, it’s men and women on horses in their western gear and the landscape, the landscape lends itself so well over there. It’s incredible, absolutely… breathtaking.
I’ve also just directed a project shooting divers off the West coast of Ireland which I loved, really cool too. So all the projects that I tend to do I’m quite into, you know. And then commercially, if you’re getting paid a shit load of money, it’s even better “hahaha”.
LBB> What do you think sets one apart from the other? When a project lands on your lap, what is the first thing you’re thinking?
Boo> Well for example, I just directed Range Rover Evoque, with the agency Accenture Song. I knew it had to be of a certain level, car ads are never kind of rough and ready like, say a jeans campaign would be. It’s often very slick imagery with Range Rover so I knew the ad had to be at a high level of quality. I had to have my game face on for that one. It had to be super slick. Everything had to be right, the lighting had to be perfect. So something like that is completely different to shooting a jeans campaign where it’s going to be down and dirty. When shooting for a hotel chain or a car company for example, they are more formulaic almost. You are going into the project knowing what they want.
LBB> It sounds like you like shooting on location a lot more?
Boo> Yeah, I absolutely love travelling. I’m going to Paris on Thursday to shoot there. I hate filming in the studio, there is no point, there is no space. I love being out at sea, out in the fields, up the hills. You know like big huge scale sets, where all the elements are there, you’re just bringing the camera along and documenting them almost.
It’s the same on location in ‘El Rocio ’in Spain, a lot of the spaghetti westerns were shot down there and anytime you turn on the camera it’s just f***ing incredible.
LBB> How do you approach creating a treatment for a spot?
Boo> I treat every project differently, it depends on what it is you know. You are there to sell a brand!
LBB> Do you have a process that you go through in your head to almost test it?
Boo> Yeah, there is a sort of narrative that I tried to keep to. For every film and photographic project I try to make it so that there is a narrative. So in that sense there is a start, middle and ending. Whether it’s a car film, whether it’s a shoe brand, whether it’s a hotel brand you have to have a start, middle and ending but the main thing is that the product and the image or film looks f***ing cool.
I love big scale! I love going to somewhere like Cornwall and shooting there. Or shooting in places like Montana, or New Mexico, or Argentina, or Iceland especially when using film cameras, it’s all so cinematic. When you put someone in that vast space, it just looks surreal. I absolutely love filming horses in Ireland, Iceland or Argentina and if I slow it all down, it just looks so beautiful. You film a horse at the end of the day in some islands like the Faro Islands and you slow the camera shutter speeds down and it just looks epic.
LBB> If the project is for a brand that you're not familiar with/ don’t have a big affinity with or a market you're new to, how important is it for you to do research and understand that strategic and contextual side of the ad? If it’s important to you, how do you do it?
Boo> Well, I’m actually doing a project in Bahrain at the end of August, for a fashion brand. I know the brand but the project that I’m doing is slightly, well it’s not something that I would usually do. It’s kind of like a fashion runway film but it’s quite complicated, so in the lead up to the shoot I’m going to dive deep via research. I’m going to look at all the old, and all the new Prada films, Marc Jacob films and the Wayfair films to reference them and see what they’re like. I also ask the client ‘what didn’t you like about the previous ad?’, I would never say ‘what did you like? ’because if they liked the last ad so much they wouldn't be speaking to me, would they? I try to find out as much information as possible from the brand and about the brand, and then go from there.
LBB> For you, what is the most important working relationship for a director to have with another person in making an ad? And why?
Boo> It’s with the DOP, and obviously you have to have a good rapport with the client… but the relationship with the DOP has to be pretty bang on because you are telling them what to do on your behalf. You are saying to them; this is what you want to achieve and that ‘you ’need to achieve it for me. Now this doesn’t mean that I don’t come from a photographic background, I could achieve it myself but when it comes to film the scale is much bigger, so I tend not to hold the camera at all. I just walk around with my hands behind my back giving out instructions and get stuck in, you know.
The relationship with the crew is super important too. You also want to be surrounded by a team of people that you like. You want to have a lighting guy who tests things and shows tricks to you, he might say ‘you know Boo, why don’t we try this? ’and I’ll say ‘actually that’s a bloody brilliant idea!
LBB> What type of work are you most passionate about - is there a particular genre or subject matter or style you are most drawn to?
Boo> I’d love to do more documentary and reportage. I’d love to go and photograph, film and document the gauchos in Uruguay and Argentina. I’ve been there a couple times and they are just incredible. I’d love to go back to Mongolia and film some of the horse riders over there because they are so cool. I went to Georgia years ago, I was in the Caucasus mountains and it was weirdly like Irish Gypsies. They rode horses with no saddles, they just held on by the main, it was incredible. Anything to do with horses, I’d love to do more reportage with horses.
When you think of horses and countries that traditionally are related to horses you think Ireland, England, France, Mongolia, Spain, Argentina, Kentucky places like that.
LBB> Do you horse ride yourself?
Boo> Yeah, I’m not amazing but I’ve been around horses all my life.
LBB> What misconception about you or your work do you most often encounter and why is it wrong?
Boo> Years ago I used to shoot wide open. I definitely think nowadays, I want to go back to a classic form of cinematic filmmaking. I don’t like all these horrible low angles and weird angles. I just like big classic cinematic cinematography.
LBB> Would you like to go back to shooting on film?
Boo> No, not at all because it’s too much hassle. It’s too expensive. It’s a pain in the arse. If you’ve got a budget for 100k or 200k, at least with digital you know it’s always there. With film you can lose track.
LBB> What’s the craziest problem you’ve come across in the course of a production – and how did you solve it?
Boo> When I was filming in Central America and we had to bribe the cops, because we were told to stop filming. We said ‘calm it sister ’and handed them some pesos. I don’t think I’ve had any massive disasters. You have to work around shit, even when shooting in Central London you’re always going to come up against situations. When you’re filming on a boat it’s not easy either, it’s a pain in the ass because you’re up and down, left and right, the seas are big you know!
LBB> How do you strike the balance between being open/collaborative with the agency and brand client while also protecting the idea?
Boo> You have to meet in the middle, a lot of the time. You kind of have to do what you are told and keep your integrity, you have to say ‘fair enough ’and meet in the middle. Most of the time this is the best resolution. You can’t be too headstrong & stubborn.
At the end of the day you want to make the image beautiful and you don’t want to dilute it by any means, but sometimes there are days when you just have to say ‘okay ’and pick your battles.
LBB> What are your thoughts on opening up the production world to a more diverse pool of talent? Are you open to mentoring and apprenticeships on set?
Boo> Yeah totally! I will happily help, I love helping people. I’m a conversationalist, I could talk for Ireland! I’d never not want to speak to someone to try and help them in some way. It’s not in my nature not to help. I want everyone to do well, I want everyone to earn money and I want everyone to go to the pub afterwards, that’s my ethos!
LBB> How do you feel the pandemic is going to influence the way you work into the longer term? Have you picked up new habits that you feel will stick around for a long time?
Boo> Photography and filmmaking aside, it’s now not necessary to live in London, New York and Paris. You can come in and out of the cities when you need to. A group of friends of mine have moved out to Cornwall and it’s sound. We don’t have a nine to five job, we do a job every other week, we can come in and out when necessary. People are more lenient now, you don’t have to live in a city.
LBB> Your work is now presented in so many different formats - to what extent do you keep each in mind while you're working (and, equally, to what degree is it possible to do so)?
Boo> I’m doing a project now that’s going to be all over a big huge space in Tottenham Court Road in September, it’s a massive screen. I think the screens are 30ft x 10ft, they are absolutely huge. The image is like an Iphone on its side, so when you try and turn it into a Instagram film you lose the feel of it. Everything is now being shown on your phone so that’s what you have to bear in mind. You use your phone for everything so you have to try and make it cool as f*** but shooting it fundamentally the wrong way, it’s like turning the camera 90 degrees, which isn’t ideal.
Going back to the Montana’s or Irelands or Spain, the landscapes are panoramic, it’s beautiful but when you put it on a phone you lose the left and right, you only have the middle. Cinema is just way more epic.
LBB> What’s your relationship with new technology and, if at all, how do you incorporate future- facing tech into your work?
Boo> I’m not tech minded at all, I let my DOP do all that stuff, they know better. I just make the films and do the pictures. I know nothing about cameras, or anything like that - it’s way over my head! I can count to nine that’s it. That’s the height of my technical skills.
LBB> Which pieces of work do you feel really show off what you do best – and why?
Boo> Personal projects, definitely, I obviously love the commercials and they are of course the bread & butter but if I’m going to do a personal project, I’m putting my own money into it, it means I’m really into it.
Like the divers film, anything that’s near the sea or near horses or near something that, not a city. I want to be out in the elements, in a submarine, or out in the Atlantic getting beaten against the waves. I recently sailed around the fast land rock out in the west coast of Ireland, it’s a lighthouse and I’m probably going to do a film about it. It used to be called the “Ireland’s teardrop” because it was the last bit of land that the immigrants would see before sailing to America. Isn’t that lovely?
