January 2008
High Definition Digital Bewilderment and Wildlife
Here we go again into yet another year of digital bewilderment. Now it gets more challenging as we've made the upgrade to High Definition and all that implies. The new JVC GY-HD111e is a brilliant camera but is taking a good while to go through the learning curve of the difference in shooting techniques and requirement that the format demands...especially in terms of light and editing power. I'll be blogging some of that as we go. We're going back to shooting Scum of the Universe from scratch on it to get the quality up there with film...as well as a change of cast.What the new cameras mean is that we have a bewildering range of formats to shoot in. The native format is 720p 25p which gives a really filmy feel to it. It shoots brilliant normal 576 50i DV though..about the best I've ever seen from a camera in this category. It can also shoot 720p 24p for projects that have to go to film eventually..and a really wonderful format of HDV-SD 576p which is great for anything in standard definition that needs slow motion as the resolution is awesome for SD with 50 single frames a second. However all these formats have meant new investment in hardware and software to edit them...as well as new camera techniques to get the best results. We're currently testing the camera out on a diary-form program over the next year of the wildlife in this neck of Leitrim, hopefully for broadcast eventually if we can get enough interesting things to shoot. I'm constantly hunting the Otters in the stream at the back and the Pine Marten who used to live in my old kitchen roof before we pulled it down. I had him eating out of my hand..literally. Anyway, the camera has proved a firm favourite with wildlife filmmakers already and I can see why. If you're interested in this end of our experiences keep checking this blog as I'll post my findings and learning curve. The line between Geek and Artist is being constantly challenged in this field. Maybe I'm just a Gartist.
The Perry Blake AV Show. We've been pretty busy over the last few months with several projects, the main one lately has been the AV show for Perry Blake's 2008 tour. Theoretically it was going to be very simple to start with, with what is essentially a slide show of images that relate to the songs in a very abstract way. Then as we go on it will build into a situation where we will be using live cams on stage that can be mixed through the console with added effects and transitions to stir it up a bit. Strangely enough, this is all very cheap to do nowadays thanks to China and technological manufacturing progress. We have been running tests on the concept of using both small webcams and CCTV spy cams strapped to things like the ends of guitars and mikes etc and it works. However..on the first gig in Portugal we ran into some major technical problems which detracted from the show a bit. The visuals bombed out three songs into the concert and Perry tried to fix them but to no avail. The root of the problem was that the projector in the venue couldn't work from the sound engineer's Mac and so they borrowed an extra laptop to run them from. This worked fine at the sound check but it was running on Vista.... There's no way that Vista should have been used and it left the whole thing open to Uncle Billy Gates and his foibles to screw it all up....and he did big time. In my opinion Vista is fine as a pretty desktop, surfing and email OS but it should never be used in a professional audio visual application..at any time. If you're in the video and audio field you have to stay with XP and give Vista a wide berth if you want to avoid calamities and preserve your machines resources for work rather than gimmicks. Maybe after another 6 years it might be usable but not now. We can't use it in the studio as it won't even run professional our video editing suites at all. That's enough of that rant...but the end result wasn't too bad as the performance itself went fine with it getting very good reviews in the Portuguese press. It was the first time Perry had used sequenced backing tracks for the orchestrations and it worked fine and a big jump from his usual unplugged format. Watch this space..as they say.
Other stuff. On other matter in hand we're working closely with Johnny Gogan of Bandit films who is a neighbour up here...on a couple of very interesting film projects. It is a mystery to all of us around here how this area has attracted some may creative people to live and work here. There's about five filmmakers and dozens of recording musicians and published authors all doing their thing quietly around Dromahair. My American scientist friend pointed out that what we now have is a critical mass. I like that and it's a great label for it all..."The Critical Mass"...in more than one sense of the imagery. Apart from that we're going into another couple of DVD Brochure jobs soon and one is very interesting...more later.
Leitrim TV. The next episode of us hatching ideas is that we've gone ahead to develop an online local TV Station..if that's the right terminology. The general idea ..without giving too many details away, is that we will have a website with content on demand of local video features and news sponsored by local businesses with content coming from anyone in the community that can supply it. Given that the predictions are that most of our viewing in future will come from online delivery we might as well just get on with it. Hence www.leitrimtv.com was born. We'll be developing the format and website over the coming months and updating the news on our "In Production" page as it happens. We're hoping for a launch half-way through the year if all goes well. There's a lot of technical issues to sort out but it will happen somehow. The idea of real local TV becoming a reality is going to open up massive potential for the community. It will be uncensored content for views and opinions, local features and news, documentaries, sport arts and more. If you're interesting in making anything for the channel then get in touch and we'll tell you how it works. We'd like to see anyone..especially the young..with a camcorder making programs of interest to the community or even just their friends. It's not going to be a local Youtube..more like a local version of C4 etc ondemand.
There we go....lots of news and only one rant..not bad going eh?
Cheers
Patrick.
22 Oct 2007
All that Jazz
Hi there all, It's been as busy as hell here for a good while now and it's mainly music related video we're working on. We've just finished shooting the International Jazz Festival and Summer School for the Sligo Jazz Project. This year they had some real legends in the world of Jazz involved in both tutoring and performing, such as Rufus Reid and Paul Wertico to mention just two. We actually found ourselves being completely immersed in the whole vibe of this outstanding Festival with world class musicians and performances. Rufus and Paul have 12 Grammy awards between them. We shot concerts, workshops, masterclasses and interviews to build a complete picture of the Summer School and Festival to initially make a DVD for funding for next year, but will also be looking at producing some of the 30 hours of footage available for the various parties for release and maybe broadcast at a later date. There were outstanding concerts from Avishai Cohen and Havana Son. From a personal level we have to say that it was not only a challenge filming the artists to do justice to their world class performances, but also that it was a real pleasure to be involved being audiophiles and musicians ourselves. The life philosophy of these professional Jazz greats formed a good part of the lectures and they are a real inspiration to the budding musicians….awesome stuff! To get a measure of the Festival visit The Sligo Jazz Project
Anyway…we shot about 30 hours of footage altogether between the two cams. ..and have to try to put the first piece together soon. We've also been shooting a music video for a band called Dave's Radio…more on that later as things are running ahead of us with their situation..and it looks as though it's all happening for them in the UK now and a name change is happening. Basically that means that the video storyboards will all change etc…and we might go again from scratch. It could get interesting. Video killed the radio star…as in Dave..haha..nearly anyway.
It looks like we're shooting another Perry Blake live gig on his Irish tour maybe.
So..apart from that..not a lot else happening of any interest really. That's all the news from Sleeping Warrior Productions up our mountain at the moment. Mind you..I feel a rant coming on so maybe I might post again soon.
Cheers
Patrick.
24 Jul 2007
Nuptials, Thailand, Summercase and the big Indie Summer.
OK...been a while since I found the time to do any blogging. In the meantime a lot has happened. I got married, went to Thailand on Honeymoon and built a new studio. Jim was off at the Summercase festival with Perry Blake and the crew and we've just finished a hard three days filming at the Indiesummer festival in Carrick. Perry went down a storm at the two gigs at Summercase by all accounts. There was an impressive line-up at the festival including acts like the Scissor Sisters, Kaiser Chiefs, Chemical Brothers and lots more. Jim got back absolutely whacked and had to go straight into the next weekend in Carrick. We shot over 20 acts at Indie Summer and could do with a rest before we get through the 18+ tapes we shot. There were some great acts on and some of them are going to be big by all accounts. The ones that stick in my mind are Dirty Epics, Dave's Radio, Reemo, Kiernan McMullen, Kojii, Monday Club, Amo and more. Great live rock'n roll at it's best. Most of the acts could have blown away all the bands in my time in gigs like the Marquee in London back in '76-'77. All praise has to go to Johnny Beirne of Downloadmusic.ie for putting it all together...well done Johnny! Also a big thanks to Leon from Reverb Studios for helping out with the audio..can we have our shotgun Blimp back now all nice and clean?..lol.
Right..that will have to do for now..tapes to log...back soon with a more detailed resumé of the weekend..
Cheers
Patrick.06 Oct 2006
Gloom and plastic Padre Pios
Hi again from a very wet and windy Ireland. There's not too much to report here really. Jim is just back from Crete after drowning in cheap local red wine and getting a well earned rest so I've been spending time doing other things. I have to come up with an animation for In Home Entertainment of their logo, and some kind of loop for the big screens at the Toys for Big Boys expo in Dublin. We also have to design some audio for their stand too that people will get through their headphones when walking around the stand. It all sounds interesting at the moment.
Perry and Glenn are just back from Montpelier with Neil Conti doing the mixing for the new album which now looks like it's going to be called Canyon Songs. The mastering is going to be done in the US apparently. Now they're back we'll get on with more filming of them putting the final touches to the album, and maybe get a chance to try out our new camera crane to get some interesting shots through upstairs windows etc. We'll probably shoot a couple of songs in their entirety in the studio hopefully with one or two of the guest artists on the album. Steve Wickham, the amazing violinist best known for playing with The Waterboys was playing on a track or two and we have footage of him recording. Check out his Myspace under the profile for Steve. We got also some great footage of him messing around with a bottle of Rescue Remedy lol. Great vibe and a lovely guy.
Apart from that the only filming I've been doing in the last week was of the Scottish branch of my family..cousin Douglas and auntie May.. over here for their annual remembrance ritual at the Lake Isle of Innisfree on Lough Gill down the road. My uncle Michael's ashes were scattered there a few years ago and every year we have a wee scattering of flowers on the water followed by a meal etc. This year was ruined by some insensitive American Yeats tourists turning up and asking questions and generally screwing up the whole vibe somewhat. My auntie May wanted to go to the Catholic shrine at Knock this year so we all went the next day to help her stock up on Holy Water. They say it's a good idea to dilute it later to make it go further. I got some of the scariest footage I've got for a long time. There was a wedding on and it was the most tasteless thing I've ever seen. I think that people saw me filming and thought it was a comedy program. I just had to shoot some of it though. The bride had a tiara on about a foot high and a faery dress..and all the bridesmaids and her all had hair extensions down to their knees...fake tan with sparkly stuff all over them, big silver balloons with congratulations on them and they all got into three stretched white limos. After that we went around the shops in Knock...which has to be Ireland's tackiest town. Dougie's fiancée Moire was in stitches seeing all the plastic Jesus and Padre Pio statues, sacred hearts, holy water bottles etc and in between them plastic guns and smutty stickers and even plastic willies. We finished off by dining on the local delicasies of sausage and chips and a mug of tea still surrounded by plastic religious crap for sale in the restaurant.. I shot as much as I could of all of it as I feel a cultural study doc coming on...lol. It's certainly worthy of National Geographic anyway.
Ok..that's about it for now. We should be out shooting another DVD Brochure project next week and if we can actually find some dates where everyone is in the country at the same time we might start shooting Scum of the Universe at long last properly...touchwood. It feels like winter has arrived in one big blast...dark wet windy nights already. I think we're going to have to find some work in the sun soon or we'll all go mad. Maybe some submissions to the Travel Channel would be in order....documentaries on studying the Ceolacanth for a few months. Oh..on the subject of wildlife, if anyone out there likes Pine Martens let me know. They are officially Ireland's rarest wild animal, but I have them living in the winter in the kitchen roof and I even feed one of them by hand. The whole Pine Marten story is a long one which started with the murder of all my stock of birds a few years ago and since then the Pine Martens and me have got on OK somehow. This will be the last winter that I'll get a chance to film them coming in as the whole kitchen is going to be taken down for a new one. Then they'll need a new home as this old house now has to become habitable by a woman next year after our wedding in May and it's either the Pine Martens or Serita....no competition.
Cheers
Patrick.
10 Aug 2006
Psychics and Limoncello
Hi there. OK..just back from Italy (Sorrento) for a well earned break with Serita. Did Pompeii and Herculaneum as you have to when there....shame I couldn't take the XL1s with me to get some decent footage rather than the Digi8 holiday cam. Before we went I finished off the TV commercials for Astrology Ireland. That was an interesting project as they were all built in 3D programs and composited in After Effects. Jim did the Voice Overs and we did things to his voice that sounded like his dangly parts had been interfered with. It was hot during those weeks and it was surreal that I was sitting here in shorts pumping sweat while the two machines heated up rendering out the animations pushing the studio temperatures up even further...and had to take cold showers every hour. That just doesn't happen here in Ireland. Anyway, the broadcasters were happy with them so was the client. I'm told the cheque is in the post.
Next week we're over with our mate Perry Blake in his studio to film him working on his new album. The album is sounding great..some really good songs. The footage will be going into a new DVD of the making of the album and maybe for broadcast in France too. Perry is in Montpelier at the moment getting the drum tacks down with Neil Conti (ex-Prefab Sprout) then I think he's off to Marco in Italy for strings...then to Toby for guitars etc and then back to Montpelier for mastering. We'll try to shoot as much of Perry and Glenn in the studio working as we can..not like the last time when it was almost finished before we got in there with a camera. Perry's studio is now based on a laptop rather than the old hardware setup and himself and Glenn have done an awesome job of engineering it themselves considering the massive learning curve they were up against. They've also had some very interesting guest artists on the album too...more later when it's finished.
Apart from that we're still busy with bread and butter work on DVD Brochures for hotels etc and we should eventually be setting dates later this month for the filming of the short film Scum of the Universe for an American sponsor. It's taken forever to get going on this one. Paul Ryan from Dublin is now going to play the lead part as Glenn is too busy with the album and other things involving music, but he will be doing the sound track for the film.
That's it for now from the Sleeping Warrior Empire up the mountains here in Co.Leitrim and just for a change...it's grey and raining again...feels like home after Italy alright. I tried to buy a bacon sandwich at Maynooth station the other day and they wanted five euro..bloody hell, you could get a pizza, salad and beer for that in Sant Agata! Welcome back to rip-off Ireland with a vengeance.
Slán go foill
Patrick J. O'Rourke (aka Rick)