Cannes Lions Facebook Photographer 2018

With May gone and the trip to Berlin now in the distance, June was looking to be a busy month. Cannes Lions Festival is held in June and Facebook were planning on making their presence felt. Cannes Lions is a marketing and communications festival with all the big corporations attending. I was going to be Cannes Lions Facebook Photographer 2018!

I was attending for 10 days photographing on behalf of Facebook. This was going to be epic. I was Facebook’s official photographer. What a priviledge!!

There were 17 crew, with myself being the only stills photographer alongside 16 other video production members.

We had a whopping villa booked to house us all for the week, a swimming pool with BBQ, indoor games room, piano and games consoles. Personally I was excited to be there but I didn’t realise really how busy I was going to be and have no time to really enjoy this wonderful venue.

The first 2 or 3 days were spent documenting the set build and getting a feel for the vast town. Security was so tight! With flash cars, and the biggest yachts you’ll ever see moored up next to the Palais.

Facebook had their own beach, and pier to match. The set was massive! With private areas set for food, screen printing, messaging, Insta stories, and even a decking area with chill zones and beach swings. Instagram had the most amazing set up with screens in a 360 darkened room, mirrored ceiling and a water floor, to make the most amazing experience you’ve ever seen. ES Devlin, the artist was showing her latest work with Instagram. She’s done work with many famous music artists which include Beyoncé and Kayne West. I met her during one of my shoots and she loved the imagery I captured of her work. It was shown on Instagram’s business page and had thousands of likes, instantly.

The first formal commission was to photograph at the ‘Beach Stage’ with Carolyn Everson, VP of Global Marketing Solutions at Facebook.

Being Cannes Lions Facebook Photographer 2018 I was going to this event.

She did a talk on various aspects of how Facebook are changing and adapting to the ever evolving world of social media. How she came up through the ranks and her history in the marketing world.

It was very interesting, but I had my professional head on and was focused on the job at hand.

After 10 minutes I had captured some quite amazing images. Amazing in the sense that the set really lent itself to photography. Although the heat was intense, and everyone was ‘in the same boat’, even the still video guys were mopping their brows. There was a quick group shot after with the VP of Global Marketing for HP and another corp.

From the Beach stage, I had another shoot booked at the main stage at the Palais, again with Carolyn, she was on a panel with Unilever’s Chief of Marketing and Communications; Keith Weed. Being interview by The Economist.

Once again, amazing imagery, light was a pain, but as I have the latest Canon gear in stock, I managed to get some beautiful stuff.

The week went like this most of the way. With a couple of evening shoots thrown in for good measure which included Instagram dinner parties. These were amazing, all white table sets, curtains and candelabras.

Below are a couple of images from the 10 day shoot, most of the imagery is private and I couldn’t post on here, but this’ll give you a good taste of the place!

Here’s the link to Cannes Lion too if you’re interested in attending next year?!

https://www.canneslions.com/

Instagram Business page is here;

https://business.instagram.com/?locale=en_GB

Facebook busines page;

https://en-gb.facebook.com/business/overview