All Photos © Jonathan Scott Shensa Photography
Greetings and welcome to my latest blog. As many of you know, the entertainment industry is currently shutdown due to The WGA (Writers Guild of America) and the SAG (Screen Actors Guild of America) strikes. During the current strike stopping all work on camera and behind the scenes, actors are prohibited from promoting projects they’ve already filmed, in the form of interviews, premieres, fan expos, press junkets, festivals, and podcast appearances, among other types of publicity. SAG members are also banned from promoting their projects via social media. Celebrities now have something they never have, free time. Many have focused their time to their families. Others have chosen to use the time to devote to other inserts like writing books.
Matthew McConaughey “Just Because” In-Person Photo Opp Book Passage (SF Ferry Building)
One of my favorite things to photograph are book signings. I love seeing the fans faces when they get the chance to meet their favorite celebrities. Due to COVID, most of the book events the last 3 years, were forced to be done virtually instead of in-person. A week and a half ago I was in Hawaii, checking my favorite Bay Area Independent bookstore Bookpassage’s site (https://www.bookpassage.com). I saw that the store was having a Children’s Book event with Academy Award-winning actor and #1 New York Times bestselling author Matthew McConaughey. Matthew was already in the Bay Area for last weeks Dreamforce convention (an annual event that brings together the global Salesforce community for learning, fun, community building, and philanthropy). The book event was to celebrate the release of his debut picture book (for kids) “JUST BECAUSE” with a photo-op for fans with the actor.
Some might be confused why Matthew chose a children’s book for his follow up to “Greenlights”, his #1 New York Times bestselling autobiography. The 53-year old actor is a father of three (ages 15,13, and 10). “So we’ve had some cool conversations about these about different couplets in our family. I’m finding that after I’m having conversations with my kids about this book, I’m still continuing conversations with myself, conversations with my wife, conversations with other people about some of these couplets.”
The book event was 16 hours after I returned from vacation. In the past I’ve had a great time photographing many celebrities at the Bookpassage stores, in San Francisco and Corte Madera locations. I know that Matthew is a very private person and it definitely seemed like a fan event. I applied for credentials thinking it would be a long shot. I decided to purchase a very affordable pre-signed copy of the book. I have a small collection of signed books by my favorite actors and actresses. I figured worst case scenario, I could always use just the photo-op photo for my blog. Matthew is one of my favorite actors, so I had no problem supporting the bookstore and the book. To my surprise Bookpassage’s, Karen West, emailed me back letting me know that his management, and they will allow me to capture photos of Matthew signing at the very beginning of the event for 2 minutes.
I arrived at the Book store in the Ferry Building early to find parking and to check out the scene. I was coming from Marin County (North of the Golden Gate Bridge) so I arrived very early. For starters, I found a parking space across the street from the Ferry Building. I entered the store to find out check in information. There was a stack of books that were pre signed by the register. Matthew wrote the children’s book with illustrations by Renée Kurilla. Since I was early I decided to get in line outside the bookstore to get my ticket for the book. The line was long and got longer with every minute. I spent time on line talking with Matthew’s fans. Everyone was so excited for the opportunity to meet McConaughey. One woman told me “If this was a Comic Con or another fan event convention fans could play anywhere from 100-$500 for the opportunity.” Matthew who was already in San Francisco to give a speech at the Dreamforce convention (an annual event that brings together the global Salesforce community for learning, fun, community building, and philanthropy). The Oscar winning actor added this special meet and greet to his schedule. His current book tour only had a hand full of event dates, starting in Austin and ending with 2 LA events the Saturday, after the San Francisco Bookpassage event.
Matthew arrived on time. The store had a step and repeat banner that had the name of the book on it. To my surprise, Matthew came out without the book and started taking photos with his photographer with the fans. Sadly, even though I had permission from the store and management the photographer made me go all the way to the left, when he was shooting to the right. I was told that I couldn’t talk or call over to Matthew. At this point I knew I was fucked. Obviously the rude hired photographer(shot all the book tour photos) had no experience shooting professional entertainment events with other photographers. Having a great relationship with the store I didn’t want to upset Matthew or the store, so I ended up using a longer lens to at least get some shots. Normally I’d be upset and would be looking for a publicist (who didn’t seem to be around) to complain. The outlets I worked with need at least a couple eye contact shots. Which was hard to do when you can’t call out to the subject you are photographing and the talent never looked my way. However, I knew coming into this event that it was geared as it should be to the fans.
Luckily, I happen to fall into that category with Matthew. I had pre purchased a book that came with a photo op. I was put inline by the store and didn’t have to go to the back of the line. According to the store they had sold 1,000 books. When I reached my place in the Matthew turned to me and said “Cool shirt, man (I was wearing a Stevie Ray Vaughn shirt).” I then posed for a photo with him before heading out of the store. Outside it was a rare warmer day on the bay. I asked some people who had their books to pose with them. After that I had the difficulty of somehow editing the images with low lighting. After lots of time spent editing I at least had something to present to my outlets. Unfortunately, without having a photo of him holding the book or any eye contact shots, I knew this would be hard to get them to post it. I figured this would be a blog post. The store as always, put on a great event. If you are in San Francisco or Marin County you have to check the stores out.
All Photos © Jonathan Scott Shensa Photography
One of the reasons I wanted to get promotion for the store was, like the independent photographer, independent book stores have the daily fight to stay in business. With sites like Amazon and people using Kindle’s, many book stores including major chains like the Barnes& Noble near me have been forced to close. My dad spent five decades working in the book publishing business, including a number of years working at Random House, the publisher of “Just Because”.
“Just Because” was released by Penguin Random House on September 12th. The book just reached the #1 spot over the weekend on the New York Times, children’s book list. The actor and writers sons Levi, 15, Livingston, 10, and wife Camila Alves, threw him a surprise party to celebrate.
All Photos © Jonathan Scott Shensa Photography
Thank you for taking your time to read my blog. For more celebrity pictures and stories checkout my social media links at the bottom. Don’t forget to support independent films and books in your city.
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