Back in April I was contacted by the production team for the
CBBC programme ‘Marrying Mum and Dad’. The basis for each episode is that
children plan their parents wedding, making all the big decisions such as
wedding theme, dress, entertainment and venue. All this without the parents
knowing. The production team informed me that the wedding theme they were
currently filming was based on the 1960s. They asked me if I could produce two
canvases in the style of Andy Warhol, which the two children and presenters
could paint. The images would be of the children’s parents, which would then be
photographed, and then printed onto the wedding cake.
The time scale from the phone call to filming was just over
a week. I produced two draft copies of how I envisaged the pieces to look,
which the producers approved of. Once the canvases were complete, I would then
photograph the canvases and produce four ‘panels’ in the Warhol style (each
panel being a different colour of the original image). The production team sent
me two photographs of the parents who were getting married, which I sketched
out onto the canvases. The day before filming, I prepared various ‘skin tone’
paints as well as other colours. I was told that the filming for painting the
artwork would be for a morning. I contacted my cousin Simone, who is also
an artist, to help.
The morning of the filming the film crew arrived to set up
their equipment while the production team and presenters ran through what was going to happen. They immediately
made us feel at ease and made the atmosphere in the studio totally relaxed.
Shortly after, the children (Abbie and Liam) arrived, who hadn’t seen the
artwork they were about to produce.
We decided to split into two teams. Myself, Ed Petrie (the
male presenter) and Liam would paint the artwork of their dad; while Simone,
Naomi Wilkinson (the female presenter) and Abbie would paint the artwork of
their mum. The morning flew by and surprisingly we managed to get both pieces
finished. Throughout the morning there was great banter and laughs between the
crewmembers, the children and ourselves. Once the filming was complete, I
photographed the artwork and adjusted the colours on the original paintings to
create an ‘Andy Warhol’ style effect. These four images were then emailed to
the cake designers, who printed them onto icing panels and put on the wedding
cake. On the day of the wedding, Abbie and Liam then gave their masterpieces as
a wedding present to their parents.
I had a great experience filming and would love to do
it all again.
www.carlbrind.com
After the wedding I received messages from the presenters Naomi Wilkinson and Ed Petrie
