Robyn Hood’s TV Debut

Actress: Jessye Romeo, Location: Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Year: 2022, Photographer: Ajani Charles

Through Corus Entertainment and Boat Rocker Media, the new scripted television series Robyn Hood, a modern adaptation of the classic Robin Hood myth, debuted this Wednesday, September 27, 2023, at 10:00 PM EST via Global TV and Stack TV.

I am happy for and proud of everyone involved. It was not an easy or predictable journey, and producing Robyn Hood took immense energy, coordination, concentration, expertise, and capital, among other valuable resources.

I felt relief and excitement during the series debut, but it was also somewhat anticlimactic, as I had watched the first episode twice leading up to its televised premiere.

With that said, on Tuesday, June 21, 2022, I was walking down King Street East in Toronto's downtown core.

As usual, I was in a burnt-out state, and I was looking forward to resetting my mind and body as I was on my way to H2O Float Studio, wherein I would meditate in a sensory deprivation chamber, otherwise known as a float chamber, for an hour, with no sounds and no visuals.

Robyn Hood Featurette: The New Nottingham With Julien Christian Lutz, Professionally Known As Director X

Peace and quiet were moments away.

No other habit can get me from burnt out to any semblance of normalcy in an hour or less, so sensory deprivation, which many people refer to as floating, is miraculous to me and my favourite way to meditate. I recommend that all film and television professionals try it or, ideally, engage in it regularly while working on lengthy productions.

As I approached the corner of Church Street and King Street, I received a call from my friend, colleague, and mentor Julien Christian Lutz, professionally known as Director X. He told me that he had arranged for me to be the unit still photographer for his upcoming television series Robyn Hood, as he was, and still is the series’ showrunner, executive producer, and one of many directors, leading the series alongside executive producer and showrunner Chris Roberts and executive produce Kerry Appleyard.

He told me that a producer would call me that day to on-board me, and notably, he asked me not to give her “the Ajani treatment.”

When it comes to business, not only do I typically want to know almost every detail of a project before I join it, but my production company’s lawyer, John Wires, analyzes every contract that comes my way before I sign it; I also analyze every contract that comes my way before I sign it, and as of last winter, ChatGPT analyzes every contract that comes my way before I sign it. It is as if I have three lawyers reviewing my contracts.

On top of that, I am willing and able to negotiate the terms of a contract for up to a year before signing it. Maybe longer than a year.

I recently closed a deal that involved six months of intense negotiations, many site visits, dozens of meetings, hundreds of e-mails, and many billable hours.

At this point, it is impossible for me to work for less than my clients, and the market determines I am worth based on my past results as an artist, entrepreneur, and service provider. I price myself and my services accordingly, and it is equally impossible for me to sign a contract that does not align with my values and goals, unlike many artists and entrepreneurs around the world who mindlessly sign agreements that they regret, only to be implicated in various arguments and legal litigations months or years later.

And I teach my students through the Canon FUTURES program and other institutions to carry and conduct themselves similarly.

So, Julien told me there would be no time for all that, my usual way of starting a project. There was no time for a lengthy analysis of the situation, and I could not negotiate with the union I would be representing, as production was commencing that day. My first day on set was about 48 hours away, on Thursday, June 23, 2022.

Furthermore, he went out of his way to acquire a permit that allowed me to be paid union rates and to work within the framework of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (Local 667), otherwise known as IATSE (Local 667) without going through the lengthy process of joining the union as an official member.

There are very few IATSE permittees, and months after the production of Robyn Hood’s first season wrapped, longtime unit still photographer and IATSE (Local 667) member Jackie Brown told me that in her many years in the union, I was only the second person she had come across to be granted a permit from the union.

Director of Photography: Jordam Oram, Location: Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Year: 2022, Photographer: Ajani Charles

After my relaxing and much-needed float, I was in a sedated state. I decided to have a coffee at Balzac's Coffee Roasters in Toronto’s distillery district, which is when our production’s publicist and my primary point of contact and manager for Robyn Hood, Adrienne Kakoullis, called me to brief me on my contributions to the project.

Adrienne was cool, and I did not give her “the Ajani treatment.”

Two hours later, after walking about half an hour and while still in a sedated state at my condo, I began introducing myself to part of the administrative team and crew behind Robyn Hood. I started filling out all kinds of digital paperwork.

I also contacted part of the Canon Canada team, who graciously and promptly sent me some of the best photography and filmmaking equipment I had ever used.

There was no time to waste, and about 48 hours later, I was driving through the downtown core of Toronto, heading to Hamilton, Ontario, for my first day on set.

The drive into Hamilton was very scenic and filled with nature. The parks in Hamilton looked amazing, and I have meant to visit them for years.

About an hour and a half after I left my condo, I parked my car in a lot that reminded me of the lots in some of Toronto’s largest parks.

Executive Producer: Julien Christian Lutz Professionally Known As Director X, Location: Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Year: 2022, Photographer: Ajani Charles

It was very peaceful and surrounded by tall trees, not far away from downtown Hamilton, situated behind a studio that Boat Rocker Media had acquired for the production of Robyn Hood.

After briefly signing in at base camp and being tested for COVID-19, I received a negative test result. I promptly hopped into a shuttle van that took me to Robyn Hood’s set, which took place in what appeared to be public housing attached to a community centre and a parking lot.

It appropriately looked like we were shooting in the hood.

I was glad to meet Adrienne for the first time; I greeted Julien soon after. It was great to see him working on a project that undoubtedly took years to bring to fruition with the support of numerous organizations and individuals, and I was eager to start shooting.

Before meeting Adrienne in person, my understanding of unit stills for television was that it was a role that involved shooting behind the scenes and shooting for research purposes.

Such an understanding came from studying Stanley Kubrick, a photographer, before becoming a filmmaker.

In addition to street photography and different forms of photojournalism, he shot behind the scenes for various films before his filmmaking career began. He hired his nephew to do the same when he became a successful filmmaker. His nephew was also assigned to conduct photographic research for Kubrick by documenting potential sets for his films and more (around the world).

Thankfully, Adrienne carefully explained that my role for Robyn Hood would involve shooting episodic images.

In other words, I would shoot the subjects of Robyn Hood as they were performing as if I were a camera operator, and my images would be, and are currently being used to promote the series through online publications, social media, magazines, and so on.

Given my propensity to create as much value as feasibly possible for my clients and colleagues, I decided to shoot every episodic image needed for the show to the best of my ability. As a bonus, I decided to shoot behind-the-scenes stills and videos, which was not part of my job description for Robyn Hood.

As usual, I refused to do the bare minimum. However, for my first three days on set, it was challenging to make the necessary cognitive shift from prioritizing behind-the-scenes imagery to prioritizing episodic images.

It also took me a few days on set to develop the situational awareness needed to consistently stay out of the way of our production’s camera operators, Antony Ellis and Brent Robinson.

Camera Operator: Brent Robinson, Location: Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Year: 2022, Photographer: Ajani Charles

If I am not mistaken, on four occasions throughout the production of Robyn Hood, I got into Antony and Brent’s frame. It took a lot of humility, observation, studying, repetition, and mentorship through IATSE (Local 667) unit still photographers and Adrienne for me to develop the situational awareness needed to shoot unit stills for our project without stepping on any toes, literally and metaphorically.

I was so new to shooting unit stills for television that I showed up on my first day on set wearing all-white Nike Air Max sneakers, jean shorts, and a bright red Canon t-shirt.

There is only one appropriate outfit type for shooting unit stills: an all-black outfit, specifically so that the actors, actresses, camera operators, and others are not distracted by what one is wearing before, during, and after the cameras are rolling.

A unit still photographer is essentially a ninja. Although my role within Robyn Hood was vital, a handful of people were not interchangeable, and their roles were a priority to the production and its shareholders. It was thus in my and everyone’s best interests to stay out of their way and not distract them.

Everyone on a film set is essential and a small part of a larger whole, a grand vision. Still, some people are more critical of what the consumer sees on TV and mobile device screens.

Those roles were given to Jessye Romeo, who plays Robyn in the series, and Nykeem Provo, who plays Little John, along with a handful of others.

Despite my introversion, I have a lot of main-character energy. Still, I was not the main character within the context of Robyn Hood, not by any means, and I was there to capture the essence of the show and its scenes through photography for marketing and publicity purposes.

It was great meeting Jessye for the first time; she seemed very relaxed and the definition of a professional. I regret being too overwhelmed and preoccupied with other projects to research Jessye and the other actors and actresses involved in Robyn Hood last summer.

I did not realize until my last day on set that Jessye is British with a British accent, as she stayed in character for most of last summer, and I took her character’s accent at face value.

She spoke with a Toronto accent for nearly the entirety of the summer; the other lead roles on the show are from Toronto, so I assumed they were all from Toronto.

Yes, I thought she was Jessye from Scarborough, Ontario, Canada.

I shot at a high volume on my first day on set, and between all the people I met, the information I absorbed, and the footage I accumulated, I was pretty exhausted by the early evening.

Actor: Nykeem Provo, Actress: Jessye Romeo, Location: Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Year: 2022, Photographer: Ajani Charles

I met Nykeem that night, as he was scheduled to shoot after my shift ended, and that was the start of our friendship and the camaraderie that would develop among many involved in Robyn Hood.

A TV production is a tribe with different factions, inside jokes, tensions, and nearly all the other social dynamics that define us as human beings.

Combined with the fast pace of TV production, the financial and time pressures imposed on everyone involved, and the incredibly long hours on set, the production of Robyn Hood involved the entire range of human emotions.

The angriest I have ever seen Julien was on the set of Robyn Hood, and the happiest I have ever seen Julien was on the set of Robyn Hood.

The most alert I have ever seen Julien was on the set of Robyn Hood, and he also frequently passed out in his chair in front of his monitors (like many others).

Such emotional ranges and conflicts are a part of the game, an expensive and expansive team sport with many literal and metaphorical moving parts.

I found that no amount of meditation, journaling, or stoicism, some of my daily habits, led me to completely transcend the stressors that came with Robyn Hood’s production. Still, my stress levels would have undoubtedly become unsustainable without such practices, considering Robyn Hood was one of many concurrent projects on my plate last summer.

One of the aspects of Robyn Hood’s production that had a significant positive impact on me is known as the Pygmalion effect, or the Rosenthal effect, which is a psychological phenomenon wherein high expectations lead to improved performance in a given area (and low expectations lead to worse).

The effect is named after the Greek myth of Pygmalion, a sculptor who fell so in love with the magnificent statue he created that the statue came to life.

The cast and crew of Robyn Hood included some of the kindest, most talented, organized, dynamic, and ambitious people I have worked with. Julien is at the top of his game, and I wanted him to be as successful as possible, along with everyone else involved in Robyn Hood. Not to mention that I was taking many steps toward various filmmaking goals (that go beyond unit stills) by contributing to the project. So, such implicit and explicit expectations brought out the best in me.

I became much more proficient at photography and many other skills precisely because of Robyn Hood, which led me to shoot more images than I had ever shot for a single project besides Project T-Dot, my documentary project on Toronto’s hip-hop culture, community, and history.

Actor: Nykeem Provo, Location: Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Year: 2022, Photographer: Ajani Charles

From my perspective, it was, and still is, surreal that a television series featuring as many diverse voices and faces as Robyn Hood, a predominantly Black on-camera series that included many talented Black professionals as part of its crew, is on prime-time television in Canada.

There has been much backlash about Robyn Hood online recently and leading up to its televised debut, most of which involves claims that it is culturally appropriating a uniquely European mythology.

The documentary Everything Is A Remix highlights the concept of creative works building upon existing ideas and culture, which is fundamentally human.

Robyn Hood draws inspiration from the classic Robin Hood story, numerous interpretations of the classic story from the 20th century, and various comic books while adding a uniquely Canadian and hip-hop twist.

Art often involves reinterpreting and remixing existing cultural elements, making the series a legitimate creative endeavour rather than cultural appropriation.

Hip-hop culture is Black culture; the phenomenon was also significantly influenced by Latinos during its infancy in the Bronx borough of New York City, yet Eminem’s interpretations and expressions of hip-hop culture and hip-hop music are no less legitimate than those of his Black and Latino predecessors. He has been one of my favourite rappers by far since 1998. Similarly, Pablo Picasso’s famous abstract works were influenced by different African art forms, at least in part.

Actor: Ian Matthews, Actress: Emily Piggford, Location: Pickering, Ontario, Canada, Year: 2022, Photographer: Ajani Charles

Moreover, the show was not made for many of its critics. They are essentially criticizing a show that was not meant for them. For example, I am subscribed to Netflix, Disney Plus, and Amazon Prime and utterly uninterested in 90% of the content on those platforms.

The difference between me and the average consumers of various forms of content is that I create art, I create content, I operate a business, and I serve others to such a degree that I lack the resources or desire to criticize others online, especially if they are involved in projects that disinterest me.

In his famed Man In The Arena speech, Theodore Roosevelt once said, “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

I am not sure if the series will be renewed, which is beyond my control, but I will be there to shoot better images than before and support my amazing colleagues if or when it is.

I would work with everyone involved in Robyn Hood again in a heartbeat.

The images featured here are from the productions involved in the first episode of Robyn Hood. I have also included a few photos from the series’ second episode.

Actor: Nykeem Provo, Actress: Ksenia Daniela Kharlamova, Actor: Idrissa Sanogo, Actress: Jessye Romeo, Location: Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Year: 2022, Photographer: Ajani Charles

As each episode is released, I will share more thoughts and images on the series and filmmaking in general in the coming weeks.

Most of the images to come will be shared in chronological order.

I will also be cutting a mini behind-the-scenes documentary that I shot on Robyn Hood, and I look forward to sharing it as soon as possible.

Now that the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike has come to an end, and considering SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP will be resuming their negotiations on Monday, it seems that numerous film and television productions in Hollywood and throughout North America and other parts of the world will be starting or resuming much sooner than later.

I look forward to my next TV project, and in the meantime, thank you to Julien and Adrienne for bringing me onto the ship that is Robyn Hood, for teaching me so much about the television world, and for trusting me to shoot the images needed to promote the series effectively. Also, learning from Julien through observation, via Robyn Hood, through our work together via Operation Prefrontal Cortex since 2018, and when I was a production assistant for 235 Films during the first couple of years of my career has been invaluable.

Adrienne also went out of her way to give me numerous insights on transcending workaholism and shooting episodic photographs for television. She introduced me to IATSE (Local 667) veteran unit still photographers David Lee and Ian Watson, who mentored me for part of my time shooting for Robyn Hood, providing me with numerous insights I would not have encountered otherwise, like the importance of using lenses that are identical or similar to those of the camera operators on set, in terms of focal length, depth of field, what is involved in applying to IATSE (Local 667) for full-time membership, and more.

David and Ian taught me things that would have taken me months or years on set had I not met them or had they been less generous with their time, energy, attention, and expertise.

I am also grateful for the insights provided by IATSE (Local 667) unit still photographer Jackie Brown, who met with me last winter. I am thankful that IATSE (Local 667), including but not limited to Dana Rutledge and Roman Neubacher, believed in me to represent one of the world's most influential film and television unions.

Thank you to the camera department, especially Brent and Anthony, for teaching me how to navigate a set more effectively than before and what to look for when capturing a television series’ scene before, during, and after filming has commenced.

Thank you to the fantastic actors and actresses who poured their hearts and souls into their roles for Robyn Hood.

Robyn Hood’s actors and actresses were exceptionally gracious and fun to work with, and recently, some of them have been teaching me about the various acting methods they employ to cultivate relationships with and embody their characters. They are fascinating and super-talented people.

Thank you to Jessye, who, as previously-mentioned plays Robyn and who was a shining light to me every time I was on set; thank you to Nykeem, who, as mentioned earlier, plays Little John and who has uplifted me during every one of our interactions since we first met, thank you to Sydney Kuhne who whose optimism and humour kept me motivated and who plays Marian Fitzwalter; thank you to Kira Guloien, who plays the Sheriff; Meher Pavri, who plays Udai; Lisa Michelle Cornelius, who plays Tressie Loxley; Ksenia Daniela Kharlamova who plays Much; Jonathan Langdon who plays Tuck; Kayla Hutton, who plays Jill Scarlet; Emily Piggford, who plays Mayor Lee; Matias Garrido, who plays Chet Prince; Ian Matthews, who plays John Prince; Manuel Rodriguez-Saenz, who plays Guy Gilsbourne; Chromazz who plays Guy Gilsbourne’s girlfriend; and thank you to our incredible stunt coordinator Angelica Lisk-Hann, Julien’s assistant Ivan D. Ossa, and costume designer Charlene Akuamoah; thank you to Jordan Hayles, Kat Webber, Keisha Rose, and the rest of the editing team, thank you to Jordan Oram, our excellent cinematographer who taught me about the nuances of cinematography and colour grading, and finally, thank you to our production manager Karen Doble who did everything in her power to teach me about the nuances of producing shows like Robyn Hood, and who took care of the cast and crew and prevented unnecessary overtime.

Actress: Kira Guloien, Location: Pickering, Ontario, Canada, Year: 2022, Photographer: Ajani Charles

Thank you to everyone else involved, from the Corus Entertainment and Boat Rocker Media teams to the producers, stunt actors and actresses, assistant directors, gaffers, production assistants, and craft truck employees.

Be sure to watch Robyn Hood on Stack TV and Global TV every Wednesday at 10:00 PM EST for the next seven weeks.

Also, I had the good fortune of attending an exclusive Robyn Hood screening at Paradise Theatre in Toronto, one of my favourite theatres in the city, on the evening of Tuesday, September 19, 2023. Jebril Jalloh produced the event through Get Fresh Company alongside Julien’s production company, Fela, and other parties.

Many of Julien’s longtime friends, colleagues, and supporters attended, including but not limited to Jason Drew Harrow, professionally known as Kardinal Offishall; Paul Parhar, professionally known as Mastermind; Tony Young, professionally known as Master T, and entrepreneur, investor, journalist, and television personality, Kevin O’Leary, who I have studied for years, and who coincidentally wanted to become a professional photographer before becoming a businessman.

The screening was fun; everyone was in good spirits, and we went to a private shisha lounge for the after-party.

Some of my photographs from the screening and more images from Robyn Hood are available below.