Gone in 60 seconds: Celebrity portraits under pressure with the Canon EOS R

Leaning on a balcony against the backdrop of the Bay of Cannes, suited director Xavier Dolan appears to be caught in a moment of solitude. The reality? A buzzing star-studded film festival party has been momentarily paused for his portrait to be taken on the dark terrace. Three minutes later, the party is back in full swing.

Experiences like these became commonplace for photographer Paolo Verzone during two whirlwind weeks covering the Cannes Film Festival for France's flagship daily newspaper Le Monde. A member of Agence VU since 2003, the Italian photojournalist and Canon Ambassador has been documenting people for almost 30 years across news and long-term projects. For this assignment, he shot 60 portraits on the full-frame mirrorless Canon EOS R – between four and seven a day – capturing celebrity nominees and award-winners including directors Quentin Tarantino and John Carpenter, and actors Emily Beecham and Hafsia Herzi.

"Sometimes, we had only 30 seconds to take a photo," Paolo says. "The environment could be completely crazy, and you never knew what you would have before you got there. Sometimes you had the time to think of a certain environment or adapt it. Other times you had to improvise, scanning the place to find the best spot. It was super, super challenging, but also interesting, so it was perfect."

Paolo's favourite shot in a star-studded lineup

While he's previously covered the Venice Film Festival, this was Paolo's first time at Cannes. "It's a kind of super crazy adrenaline mess, where everybody is rushing in every direction," he recalls. "Producers, actors, filmmakers, fans. It's an international, global event and you can feel that it's a big marketplace – it's not just for the pleasure of cinema. People who had been coming to Cannes for a long time said they were missing the times 15 or 20 years ago when you could just stop directors and actors in the street and take pictures of them. It's not like that any more."

Indeed, Le Monde had to go through the army of publicists and press teams on the Cannes circuit to gain access to his subjects. Once they had been photographed, Paolo spent evenings holed up with the newspaper's team in their hotel room 'office' putting their stories together. "We were working between 18 and 20 hours a day," he says. "Because it's a daily newspaper, we needed a picture overnight. It was a complete synergy, with a team working on delivering the article with good pictures at the right time."

One of Paolo's favourite shots is of legendary director Quentin Tarantino, at Cannes to promote his star-studded film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie. The film missed out on the top prize, the prestigious Palme d'Or, which went to Korean thriller Parasite. Nevertheless, Paolo found Tarantino to be a "very clever and kind person", who "knew exactly what kind of picture I was shooting and from which angle."

For this shot, Paolo had slightly more time to set up in the corner of a room of photographers, so he used three lights – one projecting the background light, one opening shadows and one on Tarantino – making it "a complicated picture which looks simple".

Paolo usually used just one or two box lights in a basic arrangement. Where possible, he harnessed natural light, as in his portrait of British actor Emily Beecham, who won the Best Actress award for her leading role in sci-fi film Little Joe. "There was a nice light and I put on a slight flash, together with the natural light. So, you have the impression that I just pushed the natural light a little bit more, which the EOS R captures well."

"It's a totally adrenaline-filled situation where your past is working for you, not your present. All the work you have done in the past, and that ways you've dealt with situations in the past, will help you to just be there. You enjoy the speed – you're not against it, it's part of the game."

While most people aren't likely to be preparing to shoot a stream of celebrities at glittering film festivals, there are valuable lessons for anyone shooting in fast-paced conditions. "Try to concentrate on one good picture instead of 10, and be selective – if you perceive that a situation isn't working in two seconds, just change, because you have one minute left to get the picture," says Paolo. "Know your gear well and trust your past experience, because you can't prepare for this from one day to another. It's all the work you did before that prepares you."