Redworks

Bush Telly reboot!

2012-02-07T09:48:00.000+13:00

I'm so happy because ....

Bush Telly is to resume programme production after a difficult year of earthquakes in Christchurch.

Bush Telly took a break so that members of the crew could sort their lives out and be part of the community efforts to recover.

The restart process is now underway, with all borrowed gear being recalled, crew members being contacted, and a meeting of Trustees to be arranged soon.

Some specialised equipment is currently being built for filming in the bush.

The first NZ natural history film projects will be quite modest but over time a full recovery is expected. Filming will begin in March next month in the lower South Island.

The Inner Life of the Cell

2011-07-26T10:14:00.004+12:00

I came across this stunning piece a few days ago. Best I have ever seen about molecular machines and cellular microbiology. Watch out for the motor protein and Lipid raft

Slower 8 minute version with narration and no music

Shorter 3 min version set to music

From Wikipedia

"The Inner Life of the Cell is an 8.5-minute 3D computer graphics animation illustrating the molecular mechanisms that occur when a white blood cell in the blood vessels of the human body is activated by inflammation. It shows how a white blood cell rolls along the inner surface of the capillary, flattens out, and squeezes through the cells of the capillary wall to the site of inflammation where it contributes to the immune reaction. ...

David Bolinsky, former lead medical illustrator at Yale, lead animator John Liebler, and Mike Astrachan are some of the creators at XVIVO who made the movie. They created the animation for Harvard's Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology. ... Most of the processes animated were the result of Alain Viel's, Ph.D. work describing the processes to the team. Alain Viel is an associate director of undergraduate research at Harvard University. The movie took 14 months to create for 8.5 minutes of animation. It was first seen by a wide audience at the 2006 SIGGRAPH conference in Boston."

All hail to the Magician

2011-06-05T15:53:00.001+12:00

This excellent tribute to Tony Geddes was written by Elric Hooper for The Press June 3 2011

Late one afternoon, 30 years ago, an energetic, intense and obviously intelligent young man approached me in the foyer of The Court Theatre.

He had heard that our stage designer was off overseas on a scholarship and that the company might be in need of someone to design scenery.

The young man was a pupil of Rudi Gopas at the University of Canterbury, and had enjoyed some success as a painter, but was teaching art at a girls' school to make a living. This was not the usual theatrically ambitious nutter who sometimes accosts you in the street, but someone of quality, charisma - and the necessary amount of craziness.

I happened to have a script of Stephen Sondheim's musical, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, under my arm at the time. I gave it to him and said he should take it away, read it and come back and tell me what he would do if he were asked to design a set for it.

Only a few days later, he returned with a series of stunning coloured sketches of a lunacy that perfectly matched the comic anarchy of the Sondheim work.

I thought I would be mad not to use them in the projected production. It was a huge success.

A few months later, Tony Geddes became the resident scenic designer of the Court Theatre company.

In the 30 years that he held that position, he created a body of work so imaginative, so varied, so ambitious, and so practical that I contend it constitutes one of the major contributions to the visual arts, not just in Canterbury but in New Zealand.

His talent was acknowledged at the Prague Quadrennal of Theatre Design. Therefore, it is bewildering that, given the preservation of the exquisite models, the sketches visualising moments in the drama, and the almost Victorian copperplate precision of the working plans he created for each production, there has been no major exhibition of his work in this country.

His sets were created for the most difficult spaces, on meagre budgets and on a relentless timetable that only the demented or devoted could have survived.

Add this to all the stresses, politics and accidents that any artistic enterprise is heir to, and the Geddes achievement appears the greater.

The shape and cubic content of the old Court Theatre stage were a designer's nightmare. It was two (actor) Stuart Devenies high, three prostrate sopranos deep and as wide as a cricket pitch is long.

However, Tony approached these constraints as a poet might approach the strictures of the sonnet. In this narrow space, he created hundreds of sets, ranging from Shakespeare and Chekhov to Cole Porter, Kander, Ebb, Roger Hall and Michaelanne Forster. His sets were, for the most part, very practical, although I remember a near pirate mutiny when, because of the extreme shallowness of the stage, actors had to go on all fours to make an entry up on the deck of the ravishing set for Treasure Island. ) Over these 30 years his invention never seemed to slacken. Indeed, some of his most imaginative and lovely sets, like those for Heroes and The Seagull , appeared in the last year or so.
All this could not have been achieved without his unique combination of intellect, literacy, humour and yachting skills. Covered in paint, he would sit at lunch in the green room, reading the Times Literary Supplement.

Without the skills learnt from messing about in boats, the rigging of all those rings and strings that raised and lowered curtains, where there was no other flying space, would not have been possible.

It was a rare match of creative impulse and practical skills. It was the yin of the artist and yang of the mechanic.

Geddes' talents as a painter saved the theatre a fortune. He could disguise rags as velvet and chipboard as Versailles. He was always budget conscious and never pulled that old trick of overspending for art's sake - well, mostly.

He was the ideal collaborator in that, through his intelligence and learning, he could quickly assimilate a director's concept, and then with boyish enthusiasm extend it. He could be feisty and hold out for his ideals, but co-operation was his usual method of getting his own way.

Now that Geddes leaves The Court Theatre company, what remains are the memory and wonder of the sheer range, beauty, ingeniousness and integrity of the scenic work he created over 30 years. It is a great artistic achievement.

* Stop press. Tony Geddes will continue his association with the court as a freelance designer when the theatre reopens later this year.

Elric Hooper is a former artistic director of The Court Theatre.

- The Press

The first film set at Ellerslie

2010-10-28T15:35:00.001+13:00

Here are some pictures from the 3 week set construction in February 2009 for Bush Telly at the Ellerslie International Flower Show.

Working from an old dream

2010-10-26T19:56:00.005+13:00

For many years I had this recurring idea about a TV programme to be called Bush Telly. I had some very clear dreams of what the film set would look like. It would be set in an ancient potting shed on the edge of some bush.

Finally in 2008 I got the chance to design and build this set for an entry into the 2009 Ellerslie International Flower Show. The idea was that Bush Telly would then film a series of programmes using the set while the show was open to the public.

By strange coincidence, Salma Abarro had applied for an internship with Bush Telly. Salma was a design graduate from Montreal University and was a Berber from Morocco.

Salma arrived and did the pencil drawings while I made a series of models. Each set of drawings and models getting closer to the images in my mind. The thick set of construction drawings were copied off and later used for finding sponsorship and farming out as much of the prebuilding work as was possible.

The whole design process took two months, and these are the pictures taken by Eric Ning-Yuan Shen from the final 1:20 scale model.

I think we all learned a lot from this experience. The set won the top awards at the flower show for that year.

Leaf chair

2010-10-18T10:19:00.007+13:00

This is Leaf Chair, a chair that I sculpted in clay in 1998 for Creative Castings to make copies of. It include some small faces around the base that were provided from another source.

Sadly these film photo's don't really do the chair justice but they are the only visual record.

It was really fun to do with vines entwining the chair.

I remember it was hellish heavy.

Camera rig trials

2010-10-17T08:15:00.008+13:00

Bush Telly camera operator Sasha Shamilov with rig S-1

This prototype rig contains

Filming trials start today in the Christchurch Botanical Gardens.

A lot of ingenious tweaks expected.

HDR - high dynamic range imaging

2010-10-16T08:37:00.013+13:00

HDR or high dynamic range imaging is a technique to make images closer to what the human eye can see. Tutorials available on the web

Here are some examples of the use of this technique from clips found on the web. Many of them are filmed with a Canon 5d Mk 2, the camera that Bush Telly own's and I am very lucky enough to use.

The HDR Video Demonstration Using Two Canon 5D mark II's from Soviet Montage on Vimeo.

The Dalescapes of Time. A short film by Patryk Kizny from Patryk Kizny on Vimeo.
The Dalescapes of Time.

A short film by Patryk Kizny.

Shot and edited by Patryk Kizny, Guest footage by Agnieszka Gonczarek. The Dale of Jelenia Gora, Poland. August 2010.

HDR Timelapse demo from Timelapse.it on Vimeo.

Inner Struggle - celebrating the imaginative power of the dyslexic mind

2010-10-15T08:30:00.004+13:00

This is a wonderful piece by Richard Taylor of Weta Workshop up in Wellington.

A dyslexic mind is clearly a good start to have in life.

I wonder who did the bronze casting, it's a very well done.

This sculpture garden can be seen outside the Dyslexic Foundation in Worcester St, opposite the Christchurch Art Centre.

It's great to have good public art available for everyone to enjoy - access to culture being a basic human right.

Earth Story

2010-10-14T08:51:00.004+13:00

Earth Story has to be one of the best science documentary series ever made, right up there with Cosmos made 30 years ago as contender for top position. Here is an introductory clip from the first episode. I have watched this programme many times. Alice in Videoland hold a copy that can be borrowed.

For me the presenter Aubrey Manning treats the audience with respect and capably explains in clear terms complex scientific facts that an interested layperson can understand. I would really like to work on a thoughtful presenter led series like this.

The DVD is available on Amazon.

This review by Frank T says it all.

"Decent science documentaries are a thing of the past now, hijacked by special effects monkeys and producers who've had it drummed into them that "science is boring, so keep it light". So this series, from the late 1990s, may prove the last great science series that the BBC made.

Like Attenborough's early documentaries, "Earth Story" is perfectly pitched at the genuinely curious non-specialist viewer. The presenter, Aubrey Manning, is a biologist who, by his own account, wanted to understand more about geology so as to deepen his understanding of his subject. To have him present the series was a stroke of genius: he comes to the subject fresh and with a palpable sense of wonder, yet intent on understanding it in depth.

Manning gradually builds up a picture of how the landscape and biosphere of the earth reached their current state, from volcanism via creation of the mid-ocean ridges to plate tectonics. What is so impressive is the seamless tying together of the history, the epistemology and the practice of geology into a single narrative. There is enough detail to satisfy the more intellectual viewer, yet enough of a bird's-eye view to keep the more casually interested engrossed. Lastly and not least, the film of some of the most beautiful landscapes on the planet is quite stunning. What a wise decision it was by the producers to restrict computer effects to animated diagrams illustrating geological processes - it wouldn't happen now.

I can't praise this series highly enough. Whatever you want from a science documentary, this will deliver more. It rocks in every sense."

The Colouring, Bronzing and Patination of Metals

2010-10-13T15:14:00.011+13:00

I discovered this superb book in 1987 when training at Christchurch Polytechnic. It is the best in its field.

It has very clear explanations on how to patina a range of metals. I tried a range of them when I was blacksmithing and also on some of my student jewelery and bronze castings. Most memorable was the range of colours possible on copper.

The Colouring, Bronzing and Patination of Metals was written by Richard Hughes and Michael Rowe, published by Thames and Hudson and is available from Amazon. The local public library and the Polytech library both hold copies.

We have a good FX lab setup now, so it should be possible to try out many of these recipes on upcoming projects.

I would also like to patina some of the hand tools - to make them look really cool.

BBC Life 103 - 3rd lesson: never ever give up

2010-10-09T07:00:00.012+13:00

Filming in the polar ice. Handy if you have good ships, helicopters and plenty of hot food.

BBC Life 102 - 2nd lesson: have fun filming it

2010-10-08T10:18:00.001+13:00

This clip shows how monarch butterflies were filmed in Mexico using a cable cam. The shots are just like flying with the butterfly's.

The cable cam looks very light weight and appears to be made out of bike wheels, a central large pulley and two very small wheels to keep the device on the rope. To make one would take some experimentation but it looks doable.

BBC Life 101 - 1st lesson: not everything is as it seems

2010-10-07T12:30:00.007+13:00

In this clip, David Attenborough explains how the talented crew got a fantastic shot of plants growing in an English woodland over several years.

They first filmed a background plate then filmed in a studio using blue screen.

Watch out for the bike wheel, wooden crane and other clever home built stuff - if the pros can make magic out of bits and pieces then ..

I want to do the same with some shots for the next series of Bush Telly programmes, bringing together cross-sections of soils, geography and life

1st lesson: not everything is as it seems

Hamish's toes

2010-10-06T19:48:00.012+13:00

This is "Hamish" a clay sculpture I got to make in 1998 of a liitle boy reading a book. It was commissioned by Creative Castings, a Christchurch firm that needed original sculptures in order to make hundreds of copies to sell. I was more interested in creating original work and so was quite happy for someone else to make the moulds, do the castings and sell the work.

Hamish lived next door, so he was the main model. I had worked with Sebastian's mum at the polytech, so Sebastian got to be the model for Hamish's toes.

The casting process that was used lost a lot of the detail but despite that, the sculpture was very popular and sold well across NZ in garden and decorator shops.

Hamish and Sebastian are now young men and both tower above me and their mums yet it only seems like yesterday that that this sculpture was being made.

Cloud tanks

2010-10-01T20:34:00.011+13:00

Gormenghast was shown here in NZ in the early 2000's. It caught my eye because my parents had read the books and I remembered them talking about it when I was very young. It certainly lived up to childhood expectations.

It was a fantastic series full of wacky Brit character actors. As I later found out it was based on the first two books of a trilogy by Mervyn Peake.

I just found out that there was a book published called The Art of Gormenghast. Looks really interesting - will try to get the local library to get a copy so many can read it.

Apart from the amazing sets, the castle had a strange look about it. So I did some digging around to find out how they did it. Alice in Videoland had the DVD which included "the making of" in extra features.

It turned out that the makers used something called a "cloud tank" (big glass aquarium). A scale model of the castle was dropped into this cloud tank and hazy optical effects were created which was then filmed. It looked pretty good - not like a model at all.

Over the years I discovered that cloud tanks have been used to create the special effects responsible for many famous scenes in well known movies.

There is fascinating explanation on how that mountain cloudy scene was done in Close Encounters.

And then there is the smoky rocket effect in Firefly, a TV series made by Josh Whedon.

I'm planning to use a cloud tank on a film project early next year.

Using Lightroom

2010-09-30T13:20:00.007+13:00

I recently discovered the joys of using Adobe Lightroom 2.1 while cataloging several thousand photos for Bush Telly.

Most of the pictures were on Cd's or hard drives in folders named after the photographer along with a note. As the pile of images grew rapidly, it was getting chaotic pretty fast.

So a good bit of
Digital Asset Management (DAM) was needed.

The DAM Book by Peter Krough found in the local library explained a clear method of naming digital photos and what directory structure to use. I had to post a few queries on The DAM Forum to clarify what structure might be needed to deal with fifty different photographers instead of only one. Peter and friends were very helpful.

After the images were sorted, I used Lightroom to add metadata to each image and then exported them as a master DNG files named using this format;

<PhotographerFirstNameLastName>_<YYYYMMDD>_<SequenceNumber>.dng

So an example would be SashaShamilov_2010227_02.dng

Lightroom was a real pleasure to use especially with twin monitors. It made the whole job easy and it looks beautiful too - I'm hooked.

The Fattest Man in Britain

2010-09-28T11:25:00.004+13:00

Most weeks, I don't watch any TV, cos there just so much rubbish on the box. And if there is anything decent it's usually ruined by ads at dramatic moments.

But there was a real treat on TV1 last Sunday night. The Fattest Man in Britain was so well done. Timothy Spall played the lead part. Loosely based on something that actually happened, it's the very human story of a big man who realises his self worth through finding friendship. It also takes the piss out of all the exploitive TV shows that invade peoples privacy. Very funny and touching at the same time and well worth watching - hope it comes out on DVD.

Spring cleaning my studio

2010-09-26T12:38:00.003+13:00

I took advantage of this beautiful weekend to spring clean my studio. After the Bush Telly filming at Ellerslie earlier this year, returning stuff just got dumped everywhere, and the door locked - "out of site out of mind". I then spent months over winter editing the footage and planning for future filming, so this was the first opportunity to finally sort the mess out.

I have changed the layout so that I can easily make props, miniatures, small table top sets, and film equipment. Pride of place at the moment is a ride on dolly which is nearing completion. It will take a tripod or pedestal camera support, and can be used on track or flat ground or board walks in the bush. I also want to make a cable cam for filming high up in forest canopy, or vertically up a tree trunk or cliff, plus a table dolly.

There should be enough room to set up to film time lapse or miniatures for later compositing.

I need to put a lot of unwanted stuff on Trademe, to make room for future film projects. Should be a ball this summer.

Life is trouble, only death is not

2010-09-22T21:22:00.003+12:00

If you want to watch a film about a living force of nature, Zorba the Greek must be up there. Directed by Mihalis (Michael) Cacoyannis, and wonderfully filmed and acted on location in Crete, all the characters are very authentic.

I think this must have been Anthony Quinn's most outstanding work. He was also in Lion of the Desert, which I really liked and have seen several times since 1981 when it first came out. Lust for Life is another film he was in that I must get out on DVD. I think he was one of those great actors that improved with age.

The inspiring set design's of Tony Geddes

2010-09-19T16:38:00.019+12:00

About 13 years ago, I came across an exhibition in the Christchurch Arts Centre of the stage set designs of Tony Geddes. Here are some photos I took at the time.

Tony, the genius set designer at the Court Theatre was to become a great inspiration to me some years later, when I finally meet the man.

The exhibition contained dozens of models and drawings of Tony's work. I was completely taken by the rich imagination and fantastic worlds created for stage plays on display.

Some years later, I ended up working at the Court Theatre workshop building these marvelous designs. There were other set designers as well but Tony was my favourite. Each of his set's had a life of it's own and had a richness that added to each play.

During each production week, Tony would rapidly finish off each set with fantastic paint effects. He had excellent instincts based on natural ability and honed by the impressive experience of 200+ productions. It was pretty amazing to be there and watch.

As the set workshop engineer, I often got to meet Tony in his design office to help figure out the underlying metal structures required to bring his ideas to fruition. All around the walls were these models which are a national treasure just like Tony. One day it would be great if they could go on permanent display somewhere to inspire future generations.

Life is beautiful

2010-09-18T18:56:00.010+12:00

I watched the great Italian film Life is Beautiful from 1997 a few weeks ago. Roberto Benigni directed, co-wrote and played the leading role.

Both tragic and very funny at the same time, the film is about a father who uses his wacky imagination to protect those he loves the most, his wife and son including when they are sent to a Nazi concentration camp during WWII.

The whole film also mocks the insane absurdity of the Nazi rationalisations during that time.

Slowly by slowly

2010-09-16T17:53:00.016+12:00

My mate Sasha Shamilov has a new web site.

Sasha has lived the life of Indiana Jones many times over. His parents and grandparents were Chechen, a people who were deported en mass by Stalin's murderous thug's in 1944 from their homeland in the North Caucuses to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

Sasha ended up in New Zealand in 1994 and has been a stateless person ever since. He has worked and paid taxes, but successive governments have refused to give him NZ residency. They have tried to deport him three times without success including some months of unjust imprisonment. Despite all this, Sasha has shown great strength of character. You can read Sasha's story on his web site.

Sasha is a highly skilled welder, wonderful photographer and shares my love of natural beauty. We are both part of the Bush Telly film crew and spend many hours designing and making camera equipment to film nature. My wife adopted him as a brother so he is now family.

Timelapse from BBC Natural History Unit

2010-09-15T10:34:00.003+12:00

Ask David Mullen ANYTHING

2010-09-14T14:37:00.004+12:00

David Mullen ASC is an American cinematographer with a bevy of credits under his belt.

He is also very generous with his time answering questions on a number of web site forums.

I often follow his thread on Red User and listen in on the discussion. Its a great way to learn from the pros and always sparks a trip to the library to get yet another book out or searching on the Internet.

I really love this shot from Manure which he worked on.