Denied...

Ok, for those who don't know I've had a lot going on recently, creatively speaking.

Along with the E Sting, Jenny Ringo making of, 20 minute animation, and a host of writing plans I really need to start working on, I decided to enter a competition to make Flogging Molly's next video, Revolution.

When I say decided, I dived in basically. I've teased before about it, trying to find help on Facebook, deciding to use a puppet and such, and the final nail in the coffin, finding out that I needed to shoot in HD. But I'll get back to that.

So, there are five weeks until the deadline of 23rd June 2011, I wrack my brain for an idea. I get one. Lots of people singing the song cut together. Simple I thought, but only a handful of takers. So I go back to the drawing board.

Ok A puppet, and one person. But the person works in a shop and has a party. More sets and people required. I roughly storyboard and don't like what I see. Back to the storyboard.

This is all going on as the day job gets slowly and slowly busier, not giving me much time to focus on the video, so stress levels are rising.

Eventually I decide to scrap leaving the house (a decision I often fall back on, and is often the right choice). So the video will be 1 person, 1 puppet 1 location. Sorted. Girlfriend Charlotte stars, Brother Chris did most of the camera work and Brother Tim pressed play on the CD Player/PC (he will be more prominent in the next project.)

So I spend a week making a puppet, ready to film on the Saturday. I didn't quite get there so Sunday (12 June 2011) it is.

We begin.

We start late, around noon, film till about 5 with Brother Chris, me crawling into some seemingly impossible contortionist positions to give the puppet life. All is going well. Until I remember the specifications of the video "ALL VIDEO MUST BE IN 16:9".

Crap.

We shot all day in standard 4:3, as I forgot to change to widescreen. We grab a couple more shots, now in widescreen and call it a day to reasses.

The widescreen I decide I can get around, not in the best way, but I can crop the edges of the 4:3.

So we continue to film over the next couple of evenings. By now I only have just over a week to finish but by the weekend I have everything I need.

It's around this time that I find out it also has to be HD. I have been using a MiniDV camera, nothing special but it usually serves its purpose. I don't do much filming being an animator so never thought of upgrading, plus the funds I do not have.

With this problem facing us, we all decide we can get away with it, add enough of an effect to make it look as if we want it low quality. Which in a way, is the point of the video. 1 person in a house trying to find a job. It's real and down to earth. HD wouldn't add anything to the video, just quality for the sake of it. I persevere and continue on my merry way.

But now the Parents are visiting. I can't and don't want to ignore them to edit, so have to edit around them. This means on Saturday night (18/17 June 2011) I'm up until 3am editing. And I win. Edit complete. It's all working out. Then I do a quick test and it won't render/export. 2 hours later I get the program to export properly and retreat to bed at 5 o'clock in the morning.

5 hours later I'm awake to start again. I need to get it uploaded on the Tuesday so I'm getting panicky. I needed Sunday to do the rendering but instead spend the day working on the little effects shots. By Sunday night it's ready. I start it exporting and wait. But the file's massive. Managing to watch it on th PS3 on the 32inch HD TV, all looks good. Except the effect is too much and doesn't work.

It's getting late. It takes hours to render so I have to leave the PC on overnight. I go to sleep then to work. Monday evening (20 June 2011) I get the video which hasn't worked. I need to render out again. Once again it doesn't quite work and the file size is massive. Stress levels are at max as I have to leave it until Tuesday. The day I needed to upload it.

At this time I have checked the specs and realise it has to be no larger that 300Mb. At the moment I'm clocking in at 700Mb.

Tuesday evening, I get in and go back to basics. Cut out everything that isn't needed for a smooth render/export, simplify the effect, do a bit of online research and email a couple of friends about compression. Deciding to reduce the bit rate I get it down to 287Mb. Excellent.

We watch and it's all good. Excellent.

I upload it and wait for the response...

"Hi Peter,



Do you have a higher quality version of your video you can upload? We're a platform for official music videos and only publish entries we believe have the potential to be used in that capacity. The version you uploaded seems to be fairly low resolution, even when watched in HD.


Thanks"

Crap. I didn't fool anyone.

At this point there was a mad dash to try an make it better quality, around going to see Green Lantern...

(Side Note: I enjoyed the film, however, the four writers really didn't help. There was lot's going on, but then at the same time, lot's of hanging around. Kind of like Thor. I think if they were introducig Oa and the Green Lantern Corps then they should have used them, rather than as a short "this is what's happening, let's train, ok done." It should have been more earth based to give more room to play with the ring and the things it can do. Overall it was just too jumbled. Ryan Reynolds was good, the CG was ok, reminding me of the original Tron. Not sure if this was their goal. I think WB need to stop thinking about money and get the animated movie writers to make a live action leap, or at least consult. As I've said before, they need to employ someone to say "Yep, that doesn't really work")

...but ultimately time was up. I had been denied entry to the competition for not having an HD camera, and ultimately for not having money.

This is the state of the world we live in. I wrote a nice calm reply back stating that it's supposed to look a bit rough as an artistic choice. I also took this chance to had a quick stab at their insane requirements. They want their videos to be HD so they can show them on a variety of formats. Another of their specifications is for the video to be 1920x1080 pixels. For those that don't know, this is the size of a small house. Well ok, not really, but it is roughly the size of a large TV. Yet the website that host the video is on a tiny little window itself. So to be helpful, I did point out that most of these formats were on the internet, iphones and such. Where mostly the video is in a small window.

Anyway, I reasoned that to fit into there MASSIVE specs but reach the TINY files size something had to go, so this could also be the reason.

At this point I wished him on his merry way.

So thats the end of my epic tale of stress. I am happy with the result and think I've made a great video, and think it would have had a chance at winning.

But there's one thing that still frustrates me. All the time and effort that I've used, has ultimately gone into a fan video. A copyright infringement heavy video that can only be seen on the youtube.

If I'd know this was the was it would end, I could have just edited together shots of Buffy and Angel or the Bella/Edward/Jacob love triangle and been done in 20 minutes. But at least it will get seen.

So on that defeatists note I bring to you my rejected entry for Flogging Molly's Revolution:-

Flogging Molly - Revolution




A short afterthought:-
Youtube like to crack down on copyrighted material so I'm not sure how long this will exist on youtube. They've already flagged it up, not sure what their policy is these days.

Finally:-
I'mm pretty sure the puppet (Marshall Bravestarr) will return in something much much better. Mark my words, my puppeteering hands are not dead yet.

100 posts = 100 things to talk about...

So here’s how it was...

I started the blog about just under 3 years ago. On Thursday 14th August 2008 to be exact I’m not particularly sure of the reasons off hand. I was going to mention that according to my original post it was because of this...but I don't seem to have given a reason. I think I started it, as Brother Chris said, so that I can look back on what I was moaning about months ago. That, and people will want to know how it went down.

It’s always been difficult continuing to blog when you can count your readership on your fingers, and see most of them in real life regularly. I have managed to keep it up over time though.

So over the last couple of years I’ve talked about things that annoy me, things that excite me, things I’ve been working on and a lot of complaining. I also gave up at one point, only posting occasional musings.

Fun fact time, whilst this blog has existed I’ve lived in four houses/flats, 3 towns and had 4 jobs, included a period of unemployment.

I’d just finished a making of, completed a shorter making of, made a 2nd E4 ESting and a music video. I’ve seen a number of bands, seen a load of films and mused a lot of random musings.

So that’s basically how it went down...

...and here’s how it is.

So right here in the present I'm still busy. I'm still working, which yes is good because I get money, but it does take up a hell of a lot of time, and is a bit annoying. I've lived in my current house for over 6 months which is looking good. And I'm still playing games. Got my hands on a PS3 now thank to the Girlfriend's gaming madness. Uncharted is amazing by the way.

So with all the above going on I'm still busy with the creativity. I wrote a list recently of all the things I have to work on and there were about 10 items on there, and they're all in different stages. Some are more urgent than other, some are writing based, some making of based. 1 is a whole animated film. Not feature length of course, but long-ish. I am quite confident to announce, over the next year or so I will be working on:-

Lost in 5 Towns: A Tale of an Everyday Joe.

Did I juts break a rule and announce a project... oh crap. I wont divulge too much information, just that it's a film close to my own heart, set in good old Stoke-on-Trent. Now, if you never hear of this again, I will have learned my lesson about announcements on blogs.

Still I've still got the secret writings I've got going with Brother Chris which will hopefully come to fruition in the near future. And on that note, you're all up to speed.

So here’s how it will be...

Some stuff I guess.

Here's to the next 100 posts.

They asked for 1000 Lawman, they got only 1. He was enough...

So I need to post simply because I haven't in a while.

Things have been busy since the last time. I say busy, I had a week of so I've really just been lazy. Time off should really mean I get a chance to catch up on all the things I need to write/create that I normally don't have time to do. However in this instance I used the time to play games. I did take in a spot of theatre to see the Dickensian 'The Black Veil'. It's based on a Charles Dickens short thriller. It's not a bad story, slow to get started. It could have done with a few ghosts but enjoyable non the less. It was just a little odd to go on the Wednesday Matinee with the retired community of Worthing.

Now I say I had a week off, but I blatantly lied. I had to work again on Thursday and Friday.

This is what else happened:-

I saw I Am Number Four - A bit muddled, with too much Twilight influence. Not sure the studio knew what they wanted to do with this.

I saw Paul - A slow starter with a few jokes. Not a clever/sharp as Hot Fuzz or Shaun, but better than Superbad but not as good as Adventureland.

I couldn't see Drive Angry 3D - stupid Odeon only had it on for one week. ONE WEEK!! This is crazy. I blame the world...and Yogi Bear 3D...and most of all the stupid Odeon.

Finally, on Saturday, after many double bookings my girlfriend Charlotte and I went to see KT Tunstall at the Brighton Dome. This was a strange experience, mainly due to small coincidental happenings (Mark Wahlberg wasn't there though, I think). I was talking about previous gigs I'd been to and how Rob Zombie had used Devo (who Brother Chris ans I saw a couple of years ago - See here) in his playlist before the gig. At this point Whip It came on. Awesomely weird I thought.

I then mentioned how the first ever gig I went to was to see Ash play in Wolverhampton, over ten years ago. then who should come out on stage as pat of KT's band, but Charlotte Hatherley. Once again. Awesomely weird.

Overall it was a great show. She's a lot better live than on the CD's and the band were really good. There were a few annoying people throughout the evening. We arrived early to get a good spot and started queuing at 6:30pm. Doors were at 7:00pm. This didn't stop everyone behind us sneaking forward to see why the doors hasn't opened yet - because doors were at 7 maybe. Or complaining that THEY were making us wait outside - BECAUSE DOOR WERE AT 7:00.

Once inside we got to the second row back and found ourselves next to Veruca Salt and her first gig experience. This would have been fine if she wasn't hurling abuse at the support - The Pictish Trail. A one man singer/songwriter, who was brave enough to come on alone, only to be heckled by 10 year olds.

People just didn't seem to understand what exactly happened at gigs.

Anyhoo here's a video. I'm at work so not sure how good this is.



As with other gig reviews I need to point out that we were standing on what was essesntially the second row just to the left of centre stage. At about 20 seconds, KT Tunstall was directly infront of us. I think we may be on this video in the darkness of the crowd.

I also managed to nab myself the plectrum shrew threw out to the audience. This time using my Eyes of the Hawk. Having already used Speed of the Puma to get the Alice Cooper money I only need to utilise Ears of the Wolf and Strength of the Bear to confirm my Bravestarr status.

Now I'd better do some work.

Rob Zombie stole my ears...

In a Brother piece to Brother Chris blog, which can be found here, I also felt the need to make you all wish you where with us last night. Rob Zombie was amazing. Seriously, I have proof.




During this next one at about 4:46 Rob Zombie left the stage an was a mere foot away from where we were standing. This was cool. Also at about 9:20 listen out for The Munsters theme. By this time Rob zombie was somewhere round the back.



These videos do make me wonder whether getting so close to front is worth it. The sound is a lot better on these videos than what we heard thanks to the giant speaker we were next to. Also we had a couple of strobe lights in our eyes. And were standing next to a large cannon. We didn't explode though thankfully.

Saying all that though, you can't the replace atmosphere of being close to the stage. I'm sure the next gig I'll have this same discussion, and still end up at the front.

That's the only way I can actually hear the music.

I've moved again?

So I was checking my old posts an realised that my last proper post I was monaing about moving and what not, then realsied I've since moved again. That's just how little imagination I have for this blog.

I really want to get back into it but time is precious.

So why now, well I'm here to sing the praises of Tim Robbins an the Rogues Gallery Band.

There was a great assortment of instrumentalists onthe packed stage, including a saw player. No one seemed to take video form last night but here's a bit of a random one.



You find more form this youtube video here

In a completly different style I saw Barenaked Ladies at the beginning of September


I only ever had one album, alsways meant to get more and I think I shall.

Once again the latter part of the year in Brighton is much more fun than the first.

Jonathan Richman is next.

"Soldier" - Bitter Ruin

So I completed the music video so details can now be revealed. I suppose the main reason for not giving out much information about a project is to svae you from any embarrasing confrontations if the project fails and the interested public continually ask "Whatever happened to the music video idea, it sounded awesome".

I decided to take this further and just not reveal what I was working on, even when I was pretty much finished. This was mainly due to not having the time to blog about it.

So here we go, the complete making of the music video Soldier by Bitter Ruin.

I first met Bitter Ruin back in June at the BirdEatsBaby album launch party. When performing they asked a very casual audience that they were interested in a video and if anyone had any ideas to let themselves known. I had no ideas, however bought there second EP and emailed them a day later to say I was interested in making a video for one of their songs. They happily agreed and that was that, Soldier was made.

At least I wish it was that simple.

Over the next couple of months I worked on ideas thinking of what would work best, and how I was going to make a video. The last full animation (and by full I mean animated short) I made was back in 2005, In Case of Zombies. Chris gave me the idea of doing something Jan Svankmajer-esque from there I remembered the story of The Brave Tin Soldier by Hans Christian Anderson. Now I don't read much so I just presumed any knowledge I have of stories will be common knowledge, not the case. As with John Otway on Jonny the Pessimist I had to remind a whole load of people about the story of a one legged tin soldier who falls in love with a ballerina and has an adventure to get to here only to end up in a fire with here at the end. (Here's a link if you want to read the full story - The Steadfast Tin Solider)

So I storyboarded the video and met up with the band to explain my ideas. All was going smoothly, I gave them my ideas, and they gave me their thoughts. The premise was that "someone" was building a War style diorama so had set out a variety of tool son the table, sewing things, work tools and paints along with the set "they" were building. This was where the soldier saw the ballerina. However rather than just recreating the story I flipped it around so that it's the ballerina trying to reach the Soldier, influence from the Jean Pierre Jeunet film A Very Long Engagement.

I was set to begin. I wanted a lot of actual First World War footage to play in the background of the soldier set. Therefore my plan was to create a lot of the video on the computer using Combustion to alter camera movements and so on. This was to avoid any lighting issues I would have with an actual green screen.

So at the end of July/early August I began work on the preparation side, building the set, designing the ballerina and guttering any props I needed.

Production kind of began towards the end of August when I took photos of the soldier and the set ready for composition in the computer. At the beginning of September I animated the ballerina. This went surprisingly well. I'd planned on having to pull an all-nighter just to get that thing done but found that id didn't quite tae m that long. Maybe watching A Mighty Wind and Hairspray helped. I don't know, but I finished all animation over a couple of days. Now things began to get complicated. In theory I had the majority of the scenes and could begin editing. Which I did to a degree. The soldier scenes couldn't be completed until I had the chosen war footage. The footage was all sourced online from the Internet Archive from the video, America Goes Over. I left this side of the film a while and worked on the ballerina. Most of this was simple, just a case of speeding up the animation. However there is a scene in the middle that in my head was simple but in practice drove me insane.

There is a shot where the ballerina is dancing go the edge of a table but as she is there a wind blows an assortment o f objects off the table. This was fine until I wanted the objects to fall off the table. It's pretty difficult animating with gravity. So I had a lot of importing and exporting, green screen masks and layers and composited the whole thing together. It was not simple however I was finally happy with the result, which unfortunately is only on screen for a few seconds. Did I waste my time? I don't think so, that's kind of the point of animation. Although you may not notice it the film just wouldn't be the same without the scene.

I met up with the band once again to update them on how things were going. They informed me of an idea that they were planning on having a screening launch night. I thought it was a great idea and agreed on the beginning of November. A couple of days later after working on the video some more, I changed the date to early December.

So production moved along until a fateful day in October when I got a job. This is a good thing, but it slowed done production having my days taken away. But still I plugged away. Until another fateful day in October WHEN MY PC BROKE. This caused me no end of stress and general anger. Especially when I had to take if back to PCWorld and couldn't find out what was going no until two weeks later when I got it back. So once again I began work. Until a further fateful day in October when I got a cold. OK so this wasn't so bad, but it was the first weekend I had on the video for a while and was planning on getting a whole chunk completed, and then I got instantly ill. I did as much as my brain could take and then had to focus on getting better. Now I had just over a month the finish the video.

So I spent the next three weeks filming the last remaining scenes, filmed the band and melted the soldier. This was obviously done last in case I needed reshoots. I managed to get the video completed by the last week of November, in time to have my birthday free, and giving me just over a week for any changes, which was needed.

The final cut was fine however there were concerns over the look of the film. I had opted for a black and white video to match the whole silent film feel of the video but it was later agreed that the original colour cut looked more visually appealing. I'm still fond on f the black and white though and it will probably appear online one day.

So it was complete, the last four months had been spent working on the video and it was time for the launch. In that time another video was being completed for the band to share the evening, and annoyingly it only took Mark Withers about two weeks.

Regarding the night, it was excellent. The audience really seemed to enjoy the whole thing. BirdEatsBaby provided support which put a whole full circle end to the story and the videos were screened to a great reception. The two videos are completely different to one another which is good as I was worried that the night would be spent comparing two pieces of work.

I had to provide a short speech, which I'm becoming a dab hand at, sort of. I said something, can't really remember what but it was relevant so all was good.

And without further ado, here's the complted video.




So that was the saga of Soldier from start to finish. Since completing the video I haven't really done anything. It is Christmas after all. That isn't to say that my brain is empty, I'll be spending the New Year writing another feature with Brother Chris (shhh!) and hopefully at some point get a long awaited live action short off the ground.

We're not worthy...we're not worthy...

Will he ever get live that down? Brother Chris and I went to see ALICE COOPER last night and it was awesome. It made things a lot easier that he was playing at the Brighton Centre so no complicated travel was needed to get there which helped the evening go more smoothly. Also there weren't many annoying drunken louts in the audience. This ones that squeeze themselves in to the non-space in front of you with their overflowing pint cup.

The support came in the shape of Man Raze (yeah, we didn't know either) who consisted of Phil Collen of Def Leppard, Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols and Simon Laffy of Girl (Yeah, we didn't know either). They were ok. There's only three of them which isn't that great on a large stage. As support bands go, they kind of served their purpose and played a few songs to kill time before the main attraction.



And then we waited. We weren't sure why there's still a long wait between bands. Surely the sound check will have been completed before the show. With Alice Cooper I realise there's a lot of stage to set up for the show but still I wonder if it's more of a traditional thing. Anyway, we were standing at the front, once again only a few people back. Pretty much the same position when we saw Devo. Here's the opening fro your pleasure, excuse the terrible sound.



We were standing just to the left of the curtain in front of the microphone at he the far end.

He then continued to play a real mix of tracks from the old to the new, even some I wasn't too familiar with such as Killer and Guilty. It was an awesome stage show this time around. I saw him last year I think, maybe the year before supported by Motorhead and Joan Jett, and although there was a (stage) death, there wasn't much of a link between the songs. However this time, with The Theatre of Death, there were some cool set pieces, including numerous deaths and a nurse grinding sparks off her body.

Once again he didn't fail to impress. He also doesn't seem to have aged since the eighties. It's not all about Alice though, his band were excellent. It's a pity I can never remember who they were, research must be done I think.

So once again Alice Cooper survives, hopefully for a few more years. I look forward to seeing what he pulls out of the bag next time.



As a quick note, there's a lot of stuff that gets thrown into the crowd such as canes, necklaces and Alice Cooper dollars, and on his occasion I was qucik enough to grab a dollar bill out of the air. Unfortunately it is only pretend currency, but still a great souvenir.

John Otway...Awesome!

So last night was the second night of eccentric entertainment that I attended. Yes following form the success of Kinky Friedman I went to see Otway and Barrett. To those to in the know, that's John Otway and Wild Willy Barrett, together once again after, well only about a year, but I didn't have chance to catch their last tour. Before then though they haven't played together since the early eighties, as far as I know.

It was great to see what was, in essence, the original line up and to hear some Otway classics as they were originally performed back in the day before I even existed.




There was no real weirdness about this gig as I had company so nothing to report on that front. However, not wanting to let the night go by smoothly Brother Chris convinced me to go over and say hello. This was mainly due, for those who don't know or can't remember, to the fact that John Otway recorded the voice-over track to my graduate film Jonny The Pessimist. So an awkward conversation was had, made stranger by the fact that my PC blew up in the morning so I started moaning about that. At this point we wished him well and returned to our seats. Anyway, he did remember making the film and from what I could tell did seem to enjoy it which is nice. He mentioned how he'd been forwarding people to it via the John Otway forum and would link to it when his new site is up and running. Which is all great stuff.



So the gig continued, there were a few songs I'd never heard live before which was great. A highlight being The Highwayman, which was a definite influence on Jonny The Pessimist and if I remember correctly, the first Otway song I heard.



So once again another awesome night. Wild Willy Barret was excellent,a great straight man to Otway's eccentricities and a master musician. There were also some excellent and surprising destruction of guitars and a pair of Chekhov's bagpipes that it seemed would go unused until the finale.

So that's it for a few weeks, back to the day to day monotony of life, and the trials and tribulations a sucky, blowed up PC.

Kinky Friedman

I saw Kinky Friedman last night and a strange experience it was. If you don't know who he is I wouldn't blame you. I only know of him through my Dad who was a fan of his stories collected in The Kinky Friedman Crime Club which all feature Kinky as a "wise-cracking, cigar-smoking, cat-loving reluctant hero-detective and are based in New York" - says Amazon. Anyway, hes been trying to get me to read these for ages and I think it's about time I did. The reason I was so reluctant before was mainly due to the fact that I only read a work during my lunch break and the book was a big 'un, to big to carry in my bag. The other reason I know of him is through the song, "They ain't making Jews like Jesus anymore" which featured on one of Dad's tapes he used to play in the car.



So when I found out he was playing in Brighton, I must say I was interested but reluctant due to my current situation of money, however after Dad pointed out that I paid a hell of a lot more to see Kevin Smith (coming up on 10/10/09) I thought what the hell. And I'm glad I did.

At first it was a little strange as I had gone by myself I had a lot of hanging around to do. There's only so many times you can read the flyers on the table. That an the fact that the place is like a cabaret club it was a little off putting. But I stuck with it. The problem is whenever you find you have time to wait anywhere, and if conversation is running dry (or none at all in last nights case) you start to people watch. you try and figure out who's there because they're fans and who's there for a simple night out. You also start to judge people a lot depending on the way they're acting. Not in an evil way I might add. To give an example there was a group who throughout the night were collecting more people and hugging and laughing and by the end begin quite annoying with their talking, but I gathered they were on some kind of work-based retreat and were there for the sake of it. On another table were an older couple who from what I could tell were obsessives as they lit up when Kinky came out before the show to sign some books and they rushed over in excitement. And then there was me, strange guy on his own staring at flyers and practising origami.

This wasn't as bad as a rock gig where there's always a point when you see someone who's really annoying and then they forever turn up and seem to hang around you. But I digress.

Once the show started all was fine. Kinky sang, with piano accompaniment of Little Jewford (of the original line up Kinky Friendman and hte Texas Jewboys) Then there was a brief Q&A about his political career (he's running for Governor of Texas), an excerpt from his book and a final set of songs with a double encore. And just to state this wasn't a run out the back and wait for a couple of minutes encore, this was a go off the front of the stage and then decide to play a couple more songs encore. I'm not saying it wasn't planned but, I think, depending on audience reaction, he could have refused.

In a strange, coincidental note, for the final song of the night he played the folk song Pretty Boy Floyd originally by Woody Guthrie. This was strange due to the fact that only a week before I bought I CD of American Murder Ballads for that song. Bizarre.

Anyway, it was a great night after the initial weirdness. I then went over, shook the man's hand and left.

Why can't things just work out first time.

So I storyboarded the music video. It all looked pretty much OK. Then I listened to the song again and realised that what I'd 'boarded may be a little too fast for the song. I think when animating I should be able to sort this out and everything will look cool once again. However, I have also realised that there's not enough story to fit the song, especially if I want certain frames at certain moments in the song.

So I thought I'd made major headway into this video but it looks like there's a lot of re-jigging to go before I can begin animating. There's no doubt this will bring it's own problems due to the fact that I don't have the correct equipment to do this properly. This project could all end up in a big mess. However I could always scrap the Svankmajer idea and go back to a traditional method that I'm more in tune with.

I'm also struggling wiht an assortment of differing file types that Premiere refuses to recognise. A problem when trying to combine the storyboard with video samples.

Anyway, despite what I've just said it is kind of going well and I hope to get this stage complete by the weeks end.

Better than I remembered.

So I did just watch Big Top Pee Wee, and as stated above it was better then I remembered. It is in no way equal to Pee Wee's Big Adventure, but it still has a few laughs. I think I could never grasp why Pee Wee now owned a farm in a small town where everyone seemed to hate him, whereas before he was in the city where everyone loved him. Even Amazing Larry.

A couple of key points to add. Big Top Pee Wee, I only notice today, stars Benecio del Toro as Duke the Dog faced boy, in his first feature role. One can't help but wonder if Joe Johnston was watching this film when casting for his remake of The Wolfman.

This was also a stand out moment of the film, the best line in the film. When Gina tells Montana that she loves Pee Wee because he is funny he says, "If you wanted funny, you could have gone out with Snowball" She then replies "Snowball's a clown Mace, clown's aren't funny."

So Big Top Pee Wee has gone up a few levels in my book.

I was originally going to blog about some other stuff. Basically the music video project I've been working on. Basically finally got around to storyboarding it today. Not sure how it's going to work though. I've planned a lot of close shots and as I'm planning a Svankmajer visual look I don't think the camera I was going to use will have a decent enough focus level. Also I thought there was a lot going on but maybe not enough for the 3 minute song. Before I present it to the band I'm going to create a rough animatic just so I know it's roughly in the right place. Despite that, I've also got a few green screeny tests to do first, just so I don't promise anything I can't actually do.

Ideas re-thought and re-posted.

Not my ideas that is, that's why I'm leaving the last post intact. The music video create by Dad's friend was taken down and re-posted in a completely new guise, so here it is once again.

Screaming Till The Sun Goes Down (2nd thought mix) from Extra Familiar on Vimeo.

Enjoy once again.

Some good stuff...

So today I saw a woman carrying a severed head. Ok so it wasn't a real severed head, well, not real as in from a human. This was all resolved after I reapplied my glasses to my face and saw the head for what it was, however it did scare me for those few brief seconds. What has this to do with anything? Absolutely nothing, which is what this post is all about really.

Although not mentioned in full last time, I'm still working on my E4 entry for this years Estings, and I'm about half way through. If all is well it should be good. However I'm going to have to make it longer than the 10 second limit and cut it down afterwards which hopefully won't detract from the final piece.

This is stopping me from looking for a new job, which is an almost inconceivable task in the current climate, however I shall persevere and hopefully come out the victor. (that is if working actually makes you the victor, or some kind of sheep like being. But hey, I need to eat)

This paragraph is used to sing the prises once again of Scott Pilgrim. My obsession is fueled by the daily photo updates on Edgar Wrights blog here. Nothing much has been given away yet. There are a few cool videos featuring the cast, but nothing as to how the film will finally look. There's a long way to go just yet, set for release in 2010 (that's Twenty-Ten by the way) but I must say I'm looking forward to it. The unfortunate thing is I'm currently on volume 3 of the comic ans therefore only have another 2 before I'm out. I think there's to be a sixth and final volume set for release with the film. I'm just gonna have to keep my eyes peeled.

Now I'm going to talk about a great film form my childhood, Young Sherlock Holmes. This has still stood the test of time as far as I'm concerned. We were going to watch it as part of a double bill with the Dolph Lundgren starring Masters of the Universe but time was against us. I'd forgotten most of what Young Sherock was about. I could remember the classic moments like the stained glass knight (which by the way looks as good , if not better , than any modern CGI) and Watson seeing cakes come alive and force themselves into his mouth. Which come to think of it is pretty weird. But what I could not remember was how terrifying the character Elizabeth Hardy's hallucination was. I remembered that there were zombies, ok I was somewhat prepared, but not for her falling into her open grave. not only this, but a laughing, screaming skeletal zombie carves her gravestone whilst her dead uncle begins to bury her. This honestly scared me. I'm sure they must have cut this from any previous version, or I happened to block it from my memory. Young Sherlock Holmes is good stuff, as good as Congo even. Check out this trailer for the film taken from some random American TV station.




Finally I'm going to post a video that Brother Chris is most likely posting at the moment here.
It's a video my Dad's friend made for one of their old songs.

Screaming till the Sun Goes Down from Extra Familiar on Vimeo.

The song featured on the locally produced LP Cry Havoc by the Stoke Musicians collective. A lot of the tracks still sound cool today as I did give it a listen the other day. Altogether "Do the East Berlin. Do it again!"

Anyway I like the video and I'm glad the song has not been forgotten.

In a final link the same people were behind the song Elasto which I have posted here before, and do so again as I think it gets ignored too much. Now I've got to buy even more extortionate train tickets. Until next time...

Is it better to go out in a blaze of glory or in a long drawn out manner?

So I haven't blogged anything for a while now. There's not really much to report, some life things going on which I'm not mentioning.

As mentioned previously I finished Jimmy Fight, then completed Jimmy CV (which was pretty boring really). Now I get to work on something entirely new. I say new, but really I've got a treatment to write, and old script to re-jig a bit and something music related that I wont elaborate on until it's more official. It's basically a music video but what of and for whom shall remain secret for a while. Jimmy Music will be the code word...words. So I'm pretty covered in that respect, lots to get on with, still at the amateur hobby style level but it's all experience and fun. Therefore it's all good.

In other news we eventually saw Star Trek, which really impressed me. There are a few issues I have with it, nothing major though. And I'm not quite sure what those issues are. When I left the cinema I kinda felt it was all wrapped up pretty quickly I think, as though they'd remembered they needed to save the Captain and defeat the bad guy. But it was cool so good on Mr Abrams.

I also saw Sam Raimi's Drag Me To Hell. I think I saw the trailer to this a while back, but other than that had no idea what this was apart from Brother Chris going on about how it was supposed to be really good. Which it is. It could have been a lot better but its good to see Sam Raimi do something other than Spiderman. It has to be said that Drag Me To Hell was saved by its ending though. There were scares throughout, not many true atmospheric scares but more Boo! jump scares, and there were a couple of missed opportunities, but the ending really helped. I can't really explain any more without giving anything away, but it's cool.

As a final note, my new obseesion with the Scott Pilgrim comic continues, having finally got a copy of Volume 2, which seems to have become rarer than a golden DoDo. So I can finally continue the read the adventures of a guy to which everyday life is..well...everyday life. All with a humorous and slightly bizarre twist though.

Oh, and I think a blaze of glory would have worked better.

Q: Are We Not Men?

To those who don't know the answer, shame on you, but to put you out of your misery, A:WE Are DEVO.

Yes, brother Chris and I saw DEVO last night and it was amazing. I've been a fan of Devo from first hearing them on the Amiga game, Neuromancer based on the William Gibson novel. Now this was a digitized verson of the song Some Things Never Change, but then Dad played us the album Q: Are we not men. A: We are DEVO, and new fans were born.

So here we are say 15 or so years later and finally we get to see them live. Despite the obvious older age the band are in now they still had quite a lot of energy, and could tell they still enjoyed playing the songs. It was a special one off gig where they played the whole of their first album mentioned above. Which no the one hand was a rare and enjoyable experience, however this was at the cost of some other favourites. There was no Whip It, or Beautiful World, or Somethings Never Change, (but I really wasn't expecting that one) but still a really great night.



To give a rough location as to where we were standing we were basically in the second row of people in front of where Mark Mothersbaugh is on the second pompom dance. He was so close I could see the electro-punk excitement in his eyes.



So, in a good de-evolution move, we go to the support band, Robots in Disguise. Now I can't quite work out if I liked them. At first they were a littel annoying, acting as though a) Everyone knew who they were, and B) everyone had paid to see them. Now from what I can gather they have a following. That's all I'm going to say as I do't really follow music these days. Anyway, in listeneing to recordings they seem to be more electronic thatn they were on stage, which is a little disappointing as the music was alright. However, the electronic versions all sound a little flat. Anyway, here's a music video for you to enjoy.



At the moment I've broken my PC so updates of any kind are limited at the moment. Hopefully I'll get it sorted, or a brand new machine to continue on.

My New Favourite Band.

You've probably already seen this on Brother Chris' blog but as they say, a good cast is worth repeating. So here's the video again. The Trouble by Birdeatsbaby.


Birdeatsbaby - The Trouble from Philippa Bloomfield on Vimeo.

I can't really say exactly why this band has suddenly appeared in my musical radar like a massive flashing whale of some kind. Apart from being a really good band, both live and recorded, I think the whole night as a whole played a part. What Chris didn't mention was how weird the night became. We got the the bar at the correct time stated only to be turned away as they weren't open. First impressions were not too good. The place looked like some sort of social club, just an empty room with a small stage, a few sofas and a small bar. Still, we returned later to find the room now contained 2 couples ballroom dancing. Not sure if the place was open yet, we cautiously ventured inside. We were then informed that the gig was downstairs. Yes hidden beneath the dance class like a 30's speakeasy was in fact The Latest Bar. Still not a large place but it has a lot of character to make up for that fact. Things then began to settle down a bit and enjoyment was had. It was a bit weird how we seemed to be the only people there who weren't friends with any of the bands, and the fact that if you needed the toilet you had to go back upstairs and past the dancers.

The other reason that made the night was the creation of an idea for the Virgin Media Shorts competition. I don't want to get into too much detail but we started the night thinking, "Yeah, we should do that" to having a full idea ready to begin development.

So yes, Birdeatsbaby, my new favourite band, will forever be joined with one of many weird nights out, and the creation of what will hopefully be a great little short.

Who Watches The Watchmen...

I do. Ok that was kind of a lame start. I'm only really posting as this marks my final post as a resident of Stoke-on-Trent. I shall soon be off on adventures to Brother Chris' abode and hopefully a bright future. However at the moment my head is exploding, and I'm trying to decide whether I'm taking too much stuff with me. Yes eventually I'll probably have my own place and all the space in the world (the contained world of said place that is), but as it goes I have a room. A room previously used as a computer room, with stuff still in it. Now I really am thinking I have too much. We all know there's no way I'll be using everything at once. And I bet some things I never even touch. It's difficult knowing this for certain though, so I like to be prepared. There doesn't seem any more than when I left for University so maybe that's it. I just haven't seen this much stuff piled up in a while.

Anyway, I went to see Watchmen tonight. It hasn't really sunk in yet so I can't decide if I liked it. I know for certain that the first half was cool, but I think it gets a bit dragged out. The problem with it is that the beginning has been reordered a bit, but as soon as you get into the origins of the characters you're just waiting for the next bit of the comic you remember.

So...the new ending. It's ok. Not great, but ok. I don't want to give anything away. I come from reading the comic and was really looking forward to seeing that particular end so it was always going to disappoint. However with the new ending, a guy I went with who has no idea of the comic didn't think it made sense, that the result was not much of a threat. In many ways he's right. They really needed to set it up through out the film, which in turn would change the story. But the base elements were there.

Finally I just want to mention the soundtrack. It's amazing. Zack Snyder couldn't really use much on his last film 300, but the soundtrack for the Dawn of the Dead remake was also amazing. Not the usual choices Hollywood films would make. Plus the Philips Glass track form the trailer is used in the film.

All in all, it is a cool film. I don't agree with other reviews where they've offered up alternative directors. IGN offered Ridley Scott or David Fincher and Mark Kermode suggested Terry Gilliam would have been an improvement. However these directors haven't really made a decent film for a while. Whoever was directing this film it still would've been a hard film to make. You can't please everyone, especially when each reader has there own interpretation, just like the adaptation of a book. I wasn't to keen on the comic elements of Mickey Rourke's Marv from Sin City as I'd always read him as a straight, hard bastard right to the end.

In closing I think Zack Snyder has done a great job. And I look forward to the rest of his career. And his soundtracks.

Laibach...what the hell????

Ok, so randomly I was introduced to this Slovenian metal band the other day. Not personally of course. They are Laibach, and are one of the influences behind German metal band Rammstein.

Now searching over youtube I've yet to find any of their original songs, just some covers. They've also been going since the early 80's I think (a quick wikipedia check confirmed this) but they're still around today, so there are many incarnations of them. The newer tracks seem to be just like Rammstein, so It's the older stuff I'm more interested in. As you can probably tell, I don't know much about them except they are scary. And have fascist undertones, though they claim this is nonsense.

So for fun I've posted three of the best videos, all covers, and for a comparison a couple of Rammstein tracks. Its a music video bonanza.

Enjoy.


Laibach - Life is Life


Laibach - Across the Universe
Stick with this to the end for extra special scariness.


Laibach - Sympathy for the Devil
One of the better covers of this song.




Rammstein - Rammstein



Rammstein - Links 2 3 4

2008 no more…

So its that time of year again. The wrapping paper has been destroyed, no more turkey left to eat, and only the dregs of the chocolate tin remain (usually the strawberry creams or hard toffees). The year has finally come to a close.

With the usual identity crisis I engage in during this time, I wish to share with you my reflections on the year past. Brother Chris has already done all this, and possibly to a far better degree, however, its always good to get a few opinions. People will want to know how it went down after all.

2008 - An adventure in words!

It’s been a mixed year. On the one hand, there’s been quite a few things that were great, exciting and cool. On the other, there’s been a lot of waiting around for these cool things where I just had to get on with work. Bah!

So to list all the cool things. Way back in February I was chosen as a finalist in the E4 Estings competition and was due to attend the awards ceremony. This was hopefully a taste of things to come. Brother Chris didn’t waste a second on the free bar, nor on the free eats. I was more of an eats person, especially the cool little fruit crumbles that only me and Chris seemed to eat.

The whole night had a surreal element to it which made it all that more memorable, having to wait around for so long, taking an assortment of random photos to use up film and basically the first time at an awards ceremony, however low-key. I didn’t win.

The next big event was the premiere of Ten Dead Men, on which I edited the behind the scenes footage into an hour long documentary, and a series of shorter featurettes. This was a definite highlight of the year. Not only the premiere of Brother Chris first produced screenplay, but also seeing all the stars of the film I’d been watching “behind the scenes” for so long. It was kind of weird seeing these people that I knew, but who did not know me. Along with a surreal experience with Doug Bradley screaming Donald Pleasance’s lines from Halloween two inches from my face, and a close encounter with Lee from Steps. That whole weekend was memorable and I doubt I’ll forget it anytime soon.

Then there was work. And it went on.

Unsure of actual dates, around May/June/July I began work on a script with Chris. Basically writing an outline then sending it to Chris for a tidy up, and any changes he wished to include, then back to me for a first draft, and so on back an forth. This was really great of Chris as he was also balancing the writing of two other scripts at the same time. With the script finished, and all parties happy it has entered the next stage in its life…a mystery I am yet to divulge upon.

Work took over once again. Boo!

In August I started this ‘ere blog, and having a sneaky peak, I wasn’t a happy bunny. I can only remember certain reasons for this and as far as I know these have been eradicated. I say that, I just wanted to use that word. Problems gone basically.

“NEW YORK, NEW YORK a hell of a town!”

September was the time for the New York holiday which was my idea, and funded, at least in part, by me. Don’t take that as a moan, I had the money sitting there, and spend it I did.





Recently I’ve realised how much fun I actually had in New York. I think when I was there I was a little overwhelmed with it all, both in scale and in general holidayness. I hadn’t been on holiday since I was 15 probably. That was eleven years ago, and I think I just didn’t know how to holiday. Anyway, sights were seen, photos taken, food eaten (though not much in my case) and big headed Thor was bought. An excellent time was had by all.




October brought not much to the proceedings. I went to see The Woman in Black at the theatre and I doubt I will experience anything like it again. Bloody scary it was.

Now were pretty much up to date. November held my birthday, and I bought My First Xbox 360. Brother Chris took me to see The Dark Knight on IMAX. This was amazing. Again another memory to keep. After the film we went on a late night tour of the sights, mainly to get back to Victoria Station. A cool weekend was had.

In December I passed my driving test and it was Christmas, which this year I began by watching the majority of My Fair Lady until the rest of the family awoke and present time could begin. Now I can’t get the song "Wouldn't it be Lovely" out of my head.

As you can see the year started off great, then slowly frittered out towards the end. I’m hoping for many opportunities next year, and swear I’ll get more writing done. My head is bulging with ideas after all.

Now the fun stuff.

Game-wise I bought an, Xbox as mentioned, so I’ve got a lot of catching up to do. Throughout 2008 I was catching up on original Xbox games. So for games actually released in 2008, my short memory can only remember that I forked out for the complete Guitar Hero World Tour, a great game, it may not be to everyone’s tastes, and definitely works better with a group, but I enjoy the game solo, always have. I also got Tomb Raider: Underworld. A direct sequel to Legend, and continues in the same universe as Anniversary. Unfortunately, although I still enjoy the franchise the game has lost a little of its originality, and although it sounds silly, I got a little sick of climbing around similar looking ruins.
Lego Indiana Jones was also played but didn’t mark as well as Lego Star Wars. That universe is just too limited. And Indy never fought a giant snake.

Music-wise, I can think of two excellent gigs I attended. First off was Polysics in February. Only the second time I’ve seen them but this did battle for the top stop. Not sure who won actually. Basically, going with a load of mates who had now idea who they’d come to see, and the gig taking place in a tiny, cramped pub,and the fact that I managed to steal the drummers ‘P’ badge, made this gig one of the best ever.




In November, attending the Flogging Molly gig in Manchester proved another highly enjoyable evening. Great company and great music. I can’t be beat.

Film-wise, 2008 was a great year. I won't repeat what Chris has already mentioned as that would be pointless but I agree with what he says about Rambo, Be Kind Rewind, REC and Cloverfield. Always good to mention The Dark Knight as well. In no particular order I want to mention Iron Man and Wanted which I also enjoyed and also Hellboy II was a good ‘un. Now I’ve realised there are far too many to mention. One quick mention, I saw Chocolate on DVD, a film by Prachya Pinkaew and starring JeeJa Yanin. The young star is obviously being groomed to become a female Tony Jaa and with a little more training she'll get there. However this film has been marketed poorly; if you're expecting a full on Muay Thai actioner be prepared for a little story.


I welcomed the return of Indiana Jones. I enjoyed this film, wasn’t too sure of the story but I loved the first half. Indy in the fifties was excellent, I think then it got a bit to CG, and was nicking off Macgyer, what with the giant ants and the knowledge is the treasure. Overall a good adventure picture.

This year Warner Brothers released tow animated movies, Justice League: New Frontier and Batman: Gotham Knight. Both are solid films. Some segments in Gotham Knight are superior to others but overall the film is enjoyable. As is New Frontier. My trouble with this is that I read the Comic this year also, in the massive Absolute Edition, which truly is amazing. Condensing this into a 70 minute film does lose out on the whole but a great job all the same.

Finally, because I’m beginning to lose track of everything, a special mention goes to Joss Whedon who this year unveiled Dr Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog. Created to get around the writers strike, the three-part, 42 minute film was premiered on the Internet in July.



Each part was unveiled over the course of a week and then taken offline. This I think help it as it left your wanting more, but that’s beside the point. I think this was possibly one of the most exciting events only I seemed to have been a part of. I know Chris was interested, but locally, no-one I knew seemed to care, which was disappointing, but I remember I could feel the excitment building. Sneakily checking the website at work to see if the new episode had been posted. But to get back on track, the story was cool, especially the ending. Was not expecting that! And the songs are good, genuinely. The whole experience works really well. I doubt a whole series could work, but the odd one off or feature should definitely be considered.

So whats on the cards for next year, who knows at the moment. I’ll try to get more writing done, as I said, ideas need jotting down, I probably go and see Watchmen, an I’ll definitely buy Ghostbusters: The Game.

I hope 2008 was good for you, and that 2009 will be as good as 2008 was for Chris.

Here’s hoping.

Happy New Year you lucky people.

Blogspot = crap

Ok so I just wrote loads, then lost it all because blogspot is crap and wouldn't save anything so now I've got to write it all again, but I don't want to because I'm ill and now very pissed off. So here's the quick version.

Bloody woods, a crappy short I made got flagged by Universals Music Group because of music tracks I used. The let me keep it on YouTube but I don't really care 'cause its crap.


This video was on Warren Ellis blog. He says its crap and if you like it you are crap. It is crap, but also really funny.


This video scares me. It is weird.


This trailer looks ace, despite the fact it looks fan made.


Right. I'm off now I've wasted all this time.