Edward Bond: A Critical study

Fantastic news today, as I find myself a published photographer in a newly released book by Peter Billingham on playwright Edward Bond. You can grab a copy of it here should you fancy.

 In 2012 I was involved in photography for Peter Billingham’s production of Edward Bond’s ‘The Children’. A couple of these were snapped up by the publisher for this book and I lent a hand elsewhere with some photo correction. If you’d like to see a few of these then pop over to here.

I'll put up a snap of the book when I get a physical copy in my hands.

C

Bullet Time Rig

...shh. We're still hush hush about the secret project.

However I can reveal that I built a bullet time rig for it. I don't think I'm going to use it for this particular project after all but I'm sure it will come in useful in the future.


If anyone is interested in how I made this I might put up a how to guide.

Secret Project

Well, I've got a new project on the way, TBA just after the turn of 2014. I'm not going to say too much just give two mini teasers for you to enjoy.

Teaser 1:



Teaser 2:

Blissfields 2013

Congratulations to the whole blissfield’s team who pulled of yet another fantastic year of fun and frivolities.

This year's lineup had some stonkers in it but none moreso than public service broadcasting. This fantastic outfit perform live soundtracking (which I already love) to CC licensed visuals provided by footage from the internet archive (which is very clever). You should give them a listen and watch here.

This was particularly interesting to me as I’d accidentally ended up installing and running live visuals at the Elysium Lounge at Blissfields. Though the team has run the fire area and chillout system in the past this was the first year we had attempted projections. As such there was a massive amount of material that we needed for the VJs but not a lot of time to produce it. So the idea of creative commons licensed material became very important.

Much like public service announcement I started with historical footage found on the internet archive. This is a wonderful resource for visuals featuring old broadcast films that have fallen out of copyright and some slightly bigger names such as night of the living dead that simply messed up their licence ages ago. Check out the archive here.

This was all very well and good, but it does take an age to cut into something meaningful and useable. Also vintage B&W film stock has certain connotations in itself setting aside the content of films like duck and cover. We really wanted something a bit more geometric and colourful. Thank god for Beeple.

Beeple or Mike Winkleman is a video artist whose previous work includes videos for the like of flying lotus produced for Warp. Very generously he’s put a lot of his visuals available for free online along with the cinema 4d files used to create them. I thoroughly recommend that you check them out as they are amazing.

Inspired by Beeple I’m doing the same in return. I produced 2 original ten minute ambient loops for the overnight chillout show state. These are now available and CC licenced for people to do what they like with.

Mandelbrot variation:


Visualisation - Mandelbrot from Corin Evans-Pritchard on Vimeo.

Shattered glass:

Visualisation - Shattered Glass from Corin Evans-Pritchard on Vimeo.

Share and share alike people,

Enjoy.

The Collector (Trailer)

I've just completed my first ever full 3D animation called the collector.

"The collector is a dark and lonely figure who hates light and music. So great is his hatred that he has stolen the stars from the night sky so that the world is without the light of music of the heavens.

As yet another helpless star is captured and imprisoned in the collector’s larder we join the stars as they are suspended in jars from the ceiling. Even through the dull glass each glows with a soft incandenscene and hums a sad lonely note.

The newest addition to this gallery or lights discovers through longing motion that he can strike his glass prison against his neighbour to free him. In doing so this becomes the story of the stars and their escape."

I did this project in Maya which was a mighty step learning curve. As such the project is a trailer more than a completed piece. If there is enough interest in the long run I hope to get around to telling the full story one day.

An Ordinary Life

I’ve designed the sound for a short film called An Ordinary Life directed by Lorne Guy of GoodGuys Productions. This isn’t the first piece we’ve done together, in the past I designed the sound for a short entered into the parallel lines competition called Arklight:

This film however is very different in nature and deals with real human issues. Serco approached Lorne to commission a film that explored themes of care and the realities of the life of carers. The film tells three interwoven stories of those affected.

An Ordinary Life from Lorne Guy on Vimeo.

It’s very interesting the difference in working on these two shorts. Obviously with arklight as a fantasy we could go a little more outlandish, creating the sound of the spaceship from jet planes and seismographs. In an ordinary life we were a lot more subtle reinforcing the location recordings with subtle Foley or little sonic character points to steer attention and stress vulnerability.

Lorne was good enough to contribute his voice for some slightly heavier breathing for Bill’s character while I provided the wheezing. Being unhealthy does have it’s uses.

I really enjoyed working with Lorne on this project and hope to carry on this dynamic on other projects.

PD150 Training Series

I’ve produced a short training series on the Sony PD150 camera for Winchester university over summer. Don’t know your shutter speed from your frame rate? Wondering why camera operators are obsessed with zebras? Perhaps this could be just the thing.

Regardless of whether you own a PD150, something better or something worse the videos are designed to painlessly introduce you to the concepts inside all cameras and are broken into bitesize chunks.

Video 1:
Unless you’re a student at Winchester University an introduction to how to book kit is probably worth skipping this one.

Video 2:
Any cameraman worth his salt should know how to efficiently set up a tripod. This is demonstrated here with a libec TH650DV.

Video 3:
An introduction to the basic functions of the DV cameras such as powering the camera, different camera modes and where camera video outputs are.

Video 4:
The simplest functions camera framing are discussed… Zooming and Focusing

Video 5:An operator must know how to adjust the light levels of their camera and the reference changes to set them correctly. Key controls for doing so (iris, gain, shutter speed, ND filters and zebra) are all explained.

Video 6:
Good images mean nothing without good sound. Here I explain how to go about basic mic recording on the Sony range

Video 7:
A little bit of information about timecode, tape and recording formats

Masz

Masz is a forthcoming project that I have been working as on as 1^st AD, cameraman and editor for Yvon Bonenfant. We’d previously worked together on packaging his wonderful show Beacons into a trailer for producers.

Masz is a tribute to Diamanda Galás’ incredible work, Plague Mass, premiered at the MIX 2011 Queer Experimental Film Festival in New York City on Nov. 19th, 2011. Yvon is now circulating the final version of the work to festivals. I’ll list a link as soon as it has done it’s rounds.

For now here are some lovely stills to excite you:

So What Exactly is Street Arts?

Ever wondered what it was like to study street arts. Well I’ve just produced a video for Winchester University’s Street Arts programme that explains exactly that.

Winchester has been one of the premiere cities for street arts hosting the hat fair every year with performers travelling from all over the world to take part. Also historically it’s had very friendly busking bylaws that allow street musicians not to require a licence to hold a spot for a short time.

All this makes it an excellent place to study street arts.

Should you want to know more, check out the video:

Camerawork by David McCormick 

Steam Powered TV Stations

So a bit quiet on the digital front of late, but it’s been a busy summer so there’s plenty I’ll be updating over the next couple of days including Eastleigh Festival, Blissfields, Goodweekend Festival and some video tidbits. Tonight though I’ll talk about how I managed to end up getting my work onto Lithuanian Television.

A few years back up in Liverpool I’d worked with Snorre Bergerud on Rasabasa in the LIPA studios. You may remember snorre from the many phalluses cropping up in Richard O Flynn’s photos (Freud might have something to say about this). As a member of Rasabasa he had footage of a gig they’d played at Tamsta Club.

Obviously there was a problem here with the 10,000 odd miles between us so getting the files over to the uk was the first problem. After some investigation it appeared the best method was skype as you can pick up sharing files where you left off after a days pause. Ge.tt was a good way to get the rushes back over, and I can strongly recommend it as A: there is no sign up process (making it both anonymous and quick), B: The upload limit is 3GB C: The files delete themselves after 30days (making sure you don’t inadvertently leave precious copyrighted materials laying about)

Getting the look right for the project took a little time as it was shot on a few different cameras and delivered in a few different formats. Colour balancing was done in premier using the 3way colour corrector to reign it in a little. After this though upon consultation with Snorre it was looking a little digital so I decided to take magic bullet to it.

This was my first time using it as a finishing tool so we optioned a few different looks which you can check out here:


Magic Bullet Screen Test from Corin Evans-Pritchard on Vimeo.

Picking out a 10 second two shot I set up a couple of different looks for the project that I thought might be appropriate. These ranged from subtle to ridiculous (the last Jean Pierre Jeunet nightmare) so I could gauge where we were headed.

The final decision was to go with the ‘old school’ look where I had roughly approximated the look of 1970s film. The outer most range of blacks and whites are pushed out a litte giving Rasa a slightly angelic glow while moving the overall palette away from greens toward browns. Popping on a slight vigniette and a little grain helped add that older feel. Amazing how just pushing something gently over the edge of visual distortion can make it actually look better.

The cut was then delivered in two formats (youtube ready, and TV ready) You can check out the finished edit here:



Been sat there a while in my absence so it’s well clear of the 10,000 mark.

The TV version was a little stickier. For a start my advice for delivery was, ‘whatever, but preferably an avi’, which leaves a lot of leeway really; fps; interlaced vs progressive; HD vs DV; pixel aspect ratio; leader. I’m pretty sure on UK TV you get a production pack where you have a very clear layout of format, legal broadcast brightness and colour range and a very specific description of the leader to be used.

If you’ve not come across the term ‘leader’ it’s basically what your clip has at the start to identify it to the television company’s studio. Normally it consists of colour bars and tone (so they can check and calibrate image and sound if needs be) and a production slate. This details who made it, the duration, the format and some emergency contact in case of any errors. This also should have a clock counting down so the gallery know when to cue the VT (video tape).

But, as I say, all that was in my production pack was that it should be ‘preferably an avi’. For some reason I’m imagining this TV station to be steam powered and the tape machines triggered manually by pulleys.

I crossed my fingers and hoped that the format was alright for delivery. And then it went out, on ‘Labas Rytas Lietuv’ on the LRT channel to approx 1 million viewers. The name translates as good morning Lithuania so it’s left me with both an image of a manic robin williams and a grumpy unshaven Richard Madeley. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to take part it watching due to the time difference and a very limited knowledge of Lithuanian television schedules. I’ve since found out that you can watch streaming live international television here, worth a look if you fancy playing cross continental TV roulette.

Since getting the Ošia video out on TV and up around the web I’ve worked with snorre again to cut together a new live Rasabasa performance. The song is a new one being recorded in Vilnius as I write so you should follow the progress here. But first off, check the new edit, it’s very colourful:



That's all for today :). Back tomorrow with more summer projects I've been busying with.

C

Spinney Hollow - Evil Dead

Spinney Hollow - Evil Dead by Corin Evans-Pritchard

This is a little submix of some sound design I did for the Winchester Film Festival's showing of Evil Dead in the woodland setting of Spinney Hollow (Fair Oak). Originally mixed and reproduced in a spaced quadrophonic setup it sounds a little more cluttered than when coming out of four speakers.
Hope you like :)

Winchester Film Festival 2011

So again, a pledge of increased prolific writing dishonored. But hey it's been the busiest time of year for me as I've just finished this year's stint of working the Winchester Film Festival.

There's lots of boring stuff I could ramble on about like transcoding videos and the like. Fortunately that's about as boring to write as it is to read so I'll skip on to the pretty pictures:

Winchester Cathedral - I Confess/Le Confessional

One of the first showings we did was at Winchester Cathedral known for among other things being a location for The Da Vinci Code. More fascinating perhaps is that at in the 19th century the whole building was sinking into ground and a deep sea diver had to swim under in pitch blackness to reinforce it's foundations (more here if you're interested).

We we're showing a double bill in the cathedral of Hitchcock's 'I confess' and 'le confessional'. As the latter was a rather rare import and required switching regions on the day nobody had seen it yet. Thankfully despite being a little at odds with the preceding film (two stripclub scenes, drug abuse, profanities, suicides and male rentboys in questionable saunas) we had no complaints.

Chesil Tunnel - The Third Man

A few days later we were set up in Chesil Tunnel. This is a large abandoned railway tunnel running under st. catherines hill. It's been out of use since the 60s and is rather tragically filled with thousands upon thousands of redundant council bins.

After creating some space we set up a good hundred meters into the tunnel (that screen you see is over 4 meters wide) and ran some festoon down so people could see enough to walk but without bringing to much attention to debris. The chilling, dripping brick tunnel was perfect for that evening's screening (the third man) but I shalln't dwell for spoilers sake.

Yavington Barn - Witness

The following day I was sat at home sorting out the short film award showing if I'm honest but I thought this showing in Yavington Barn both looks lovely and was very apt. The film... Witness. :)

Winchester Great Hall - Nosferatu

The next day and the next site specific setup was Werner Herzog's 'Nosferatu' in the Great Hall. The 13th century hall was as deep and darkly gothic as the film.

Spinney Hollow - Evil Dead

Which brings me on to the screening that Winchester Film Festival is known for, the one where the tickets go shortly after they're up. Evil Dead in spinney hollow.

SH - A survivor waits for the first bus

Visitors arrived by bus and were shepherded through a zombie infested woodland by a lone shotgun wielding survivor (from theater company ‘The River People’).

When they eventually reached the safety of the campsite they settled down in front of the fire provided with hot chocolate and popcorn served by tethered zombie waiters.

SH - Spooky lights

The Spinney Hollow showing also gave me the chance to flex my sound design muscles as buried in the blackness were several unseen speakers pumping out shrieks, clatters and hushed chanting. I'll put up the full mix once I've mixed it down to stereo for your enjoyment.

SH - Pre Show

With the audience settled around the fire I began the preshow of horror shorts and fake trailers lulling them into a false sense of security.

SH - Showtime

We were perhaps a little cruel when it came to their journey home. As the
audience walked back through the forest surrounded by my spooky noises
zombies lunged out of the leafy darkness and attacked. This came to a head
as the guide (the survivor) was torn apart in front of the bus home as
zombies set about piercing the intestine filled blood pack he’d been
wearing throughout the performance.

SH - Post show

If anyone has ideas for next year's showing do let me know. We did blair witch last year so I've personally exhausted my supply of wood based horror. And no we will not do cabin fever... because it's rubbish.

Railway Inn - Live Sound Tracking

The final night was a perfect end to the festival. We were in the railway inn and as a gig venue the setup was very relaxed (so the previous day's 9am - 5am shift wasn't felt too harshly). The films soundtracked were 60s cult sci-fi’s La Jetée (the inspiration for 12 Monkeys) and Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB (George Lucas’s first film), plus (Six Men Getting Sick) by David Lynch and (The Big Shave) by Martin Scorsese. On the melodies were Jayetal and the Limes.

Perhaps most ambitiously the night ended with the limes soundtracking the PS3 game Red Dead Redemption that allowed a fantastic chance for improvisation (particularly where an unplanned horse fall occurred).

The night was filmed so I'll post any videos as and when they materialize.

Well that's it for now, hope your eyes found the photos delicious. I'll be back soon with some videos I've shot recently.

Stay Tuned

Composition/Sound Design Showreel

Hi there.

While construction of the site rumbles along I've been building a few different showreels of some of the stuff I've been working on. It's going to be a trilogy, composition/sound design, recording, and video work.

Here's part one:

Composition/Sound Design Showreel on Vimeo.

Back soon with part deux.

C

RICHARD O'FLYNN Releases "Albiet Nothing"

What!!! Where did May - September go??? Ok, well, no they weren't erroniously deleted, I've just been busy. Anyway bigger news:


RICHARD O'FLYNN HAS RELEASED "Albiet Nothing"

"Dedicated to brothers, sisters, cities and lovers, Richard’s debut album is titled ‘Albeit Nothing’. The album is a reflection on life, loss and society and is an interpretation on how it is to live in this world. His songs (which are both joyful and tragic) are based on Richard’s personal experiences and observations of other people’s lives.

The songs have been heavily influenced by Liverpool and the raw energy, life, joy and pain that is apparent everyday on its streets. The result is a melancholic reflection on the ways in which this world can both create and destroy, carrying some people forward and leaving others behind. This album is about the contrast of light and dark, joy and pain, hope and despair."





Read more

I'm very happy this project has come to completion it was great working with Snorre and Rich to engineer it to such a high standard. Props to Christian Hildebrand & Robin Schmit for mixing and mastering respectively.

I know Richard is very happy with it:



And Snorre has expressed his joy in the only way he knows, through the phallus...



"Are you not suitably impressed?" says Snorre. To which I say:



Anyway once we got all that tedious recording and musical prowess out the way we did what we came here to do:

Richard O'Flynn Sessions Part 8

Yesterday was our final day tracking and proved to be another fruitful one. Rich got down another three vocals tracks over the course of the day which, given the layers of harmonies and since we’re tending to double track many of the parts as we go, is no easy feat.



Fortunately as Rich is a strong singer we got these three done before Rich began to tire and look a little bleary eyed.



We’ll do the last few vocals in another session towards the end of the month as it’s better to get the takes dead on and with the O’Flynn performance they deserve. Also this gives us a chance to have the cello player down who had unfortunately damaged her arm before this week’s tracking. With recording done for the evening we had a chance to listen the tracks so far



The night then descended into drunken revelry as we brought in Snorre’s birthday with Modern Warfare 2 and Black Sheep Ale.

In the morning after a fry up and after Snorre was chased by a trio of neighbourhood dogs we took a last chance to explore Carmarthenshire.


Rich and snorre bottom left

It’s sometimes easy to forget how beautiful Wales is. Having had this session in such a pretty environment has really been good for recording giving us an easy way to take breaks and unwind.



Snorre has been particularly fond of the surroundings which are more akin to the open planes of Norway than Liverpool. Left unattended the mountain man clambered onto the first large stone to remind him of home...



...drank from mountain streams...



...and finally disappeared over the horizon.



Upon returning we loaded the last of the gear up into Rich’s car and said our goodbyes for now, It has been a great experience working with Rich and Snorre on this project and I’m really pleased with the results so far.



I just can’t wait till the next session when we get to finish vocals, track cello and mess around with reverb. It’s going to be great. I’ll keep you guys posted as to when the next time will be.

Tara for now

C

P.S. shouldn't be too long till EPAV.co.uk us live

Richard O'Flynn Sessions Part 7

Today is the penultimate day of tracking and we could not have had things go more swimmingly. Rich finished off tracking acoustics this morning giving his voice time to warm up for a full day of vocal recording. As Snorre and Rich headed into Lampeter for a shop break I stayed behind to construct a baffled corner area to give us a slightly deader sound that could eliminate the river outside.



Upon their return Snorre helped me put the finishing touches to my creation as Rich took a moment to warm up.

(bonus points available for spotting a lumbering giant)

Rich was of course very happy with his new home.



We took a further hour to get exactly the sound that we wanted for the tracks testing mic choices against one another. We settled on an AT4040 for a warm but clear tone and a D190 for the backing vocals that gives a lovely old school lo-fi sound. When happy we ran the vocals into a 1960 Drawmer Comp/Pre which gave a bit more warmth which enriches Rich’s rich voice.



Technical nonsense aside, I have to confess that often tracking vocals for me can be a slightly tedious process. This is simply not the case with Rich. The tonal quality and soul of his voice are unique and very heartfelt. Honestly the tracking on ‘What in the World’ today brought tears to my eyes… In a good way obviously.



We’re about half way through at the moment having recorded 5 vocal tracks leaving 6 for tomorrow. We’ve jumped in at the deep end and tacked the ones that are harder with more harmonies so I think we’re making good progress. The arrangements are very well thought out and show off Rich’s vocal prowess featureing a fair few layers of harmony.


yes that’s all vocals

Back tomorrow with the last of the O’Flynn session blogs

C

Richard O'Flynn Sessions Part Six

Happy Easter everybody. Today we’ve inducted Snorre into our traditions by setting an Easter hunt that he gruffly lumbered through and also introducing him to the concept of Egg rolling. I think the idea is to throw your egg around as much as possible without it breaking, the last to fracture being the winner. Snorre excelled much more at this than the Easter hunt through brute force, clearing the garden, river, and road with barely a scratch.


Left to right: Rich, Emily (the budding artist), Snorre, Corin

Aside from egg sillyness we have been doing some real work. Rich has been soldiering on with the acoustic guitars completing all bar one track.



So happy with the guitar sound, it’s a touch like The Bend’s acoustics (which is not a bad thing).



We’ll be finishing the acoustic tracking off in the morning tomorrow before moving on to get our vocal sound. It’s been a welcome change to have brighter sunnier weather so we can take breaks in the sunshine appreciating the environment we’re recording in. Snorre and Rich are slowly falling in love…



…with Wales.

With Pro Tools backing up the session we’ve gorged ourselves on a fantastic Easter spread. Snorre is full of meat and we’re all struggling to move so we’ve parked ourselves infront of modern warfare 2. We are all a lot worse at this than we had thought ( "I'm bleedin' out") .



Happy Easter!

C

Richard O'Flynn Sessions Part Five

Day four and Sindre sadly is no longer with us. Rich has thankfully survived this early morning delivery trip to Carmarthen and is back with us today looking only slightly worse for wear. Here is an Easter themed artist’s impression:



Today was originally to be the day for Snorre lay down bass for the tracks. In a controversial move we’ve decided to save this for later and lay the more complicated acoustic guitar parts first. This makes sense as they very much drive the tracks and Snorre possesses the orchestrational talent to pull this off with flair. What can I say the man’s a genius



As the acoustics are so important in these tracks we spent a great deal of time getting the sound just right. We’ve gone for a nice stereo pair that gives a lovely spacially broad bright tone. Of course this is helped by having a lovely martin guitar to begin with and such a skilled player as Rich.



Once we’d got the sound just so we took a little stroll to explore our surroundings and give our ears a breather. Here sheep whisperer Rich coaxes over a young lamb who naively hops towards us to be petted:



Little did he know what we had planned for dinner.



Delicious

C

Richard O'Flynn Sessions Part 4

Day three and the robot drummer Sindre has begun to adapt and become in touch with his so called human senses. He has discovered the joy of taste and has been eating everything in sight like a ravenous squirrel. Here he is discovering the joy of nuts.



Yesterday we covered the louder more aggressive drum tracks leaving more restrained and muted patterns for today. Through retuning, brushwork and re-micing we captured a variety of different sounds from the floating cymbals of sigur ros to the snappier moments of rainbows. Above all else it was Sindre’s flawless grasp of dynamics and rigorous mechanoid timing.



Some of the drum parts for today Snorre and Rich rearranged along the way adding little nuances and altering beats. It’s been a very enjoyable organic process being able decide elements as we go and is a testament to both good orchestration skills and Sindre’s single-minded concentration.



Thankfully today is a little warmer. No snow or hail and a few more heaters. It is still a bit nippy and Rich has taken to warming his shoes up on the radiator as we track, a move that has been reassuringly odourless.



As we draw to a close the drum tracking a sad face occurs. Now, just as he has acclimatised to our ways and performed such a sterling set of drum tracks Sindre must leave us. Rich will be driving him to Carmarthen at 04:10 where he is to embark upon his vessel for home.

Tomorrow as Rich sleeps off this appreciated morning mission Snorre and I will make minor edits to the drums and get us a good bass sound to work with. If this is anything like the makeover Snorre imposed upon me earlier the bass will sound monstrous.



Don’t have nightmares,

C