25.05.10

Edit polish

So that is the last polish of the edit done before Andy gets a shot at the music.  The changes that made were a few compositional changes, timing changes for a couple of camera moves, order changes so Roddy felt happy with the juxta position of images, and a few additional images.  I can’t wait to see what Andy will do with the score.

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17.05.10

rough edit

Based on discussions with Roddy I put together a rough cut of the piece.  I also did a short test of just presenting the photographs for a couple of seconds punctuated by a second of black.  Roddy liked elements of both approaches so I made another cut using the roaming camera as well as the still photos separated by black.  This seemed to have a variety and texture that worked well not only to display the photos clearly but it also provided interesting visual rhythms that the composers could work with.   The next stage is to polish the edit…

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15.05.10

beginning editing

I have worked with Gaia before so she contacted me about the job.  I had an initial meeting with Roddy and Gaia to discuss what was needed and how I could contribute.  On the strength of that meeting I was made responsible for the editing and motion graphics side of the tattoo project.  I began by putting together some ideas for animation and transitions.  I explored a few techniques on how to present the photographs and how to transition from one to another.  Roddy and I discussed them and although some of the ideas were interesting, a simple approach seemed to work best.  Roddy wanted the camera and editing to be as objective as possible so how the camera acted needed to be unostentatious.

Next stage: rough edit…

To go into a couple of the reasons for taking up the project?

I’d been hearing a good deal about the connectivity provided by social networking sites and reasoned that since Facebook hadn’t worked out for me, I’d give Central station a go.

Re: ‘Composer Wanted’

I’m going to quickly sketch in the make up of our teams to offer you the route map to where we are now. First contact was made through Trisha, who’s a visual arts consultant for Central Station. She introduced me to Paul who started off as the producer then graduated to executive producer once things were up and running. He did the pitching and dealing which led to the offer of a budget to take on the project. He then linked me to Giles who had his own long creative history as a composer and now has a studio that can do almost anything (think of the All Spark in Transformers) . These were all real time introductions involving coffee and handshakes and that sort of thing. At this point my analogy’s going to shift to Charlie’s Angels because like Charlie you never knowingly met these next two, they just sort of started to talk to me like disembodied voices in my head, these were Yvonne, and Genny. Like big brother they were always there and ready with helpful prompts ‘What about…?’ , or ‘This is how you can do that’. I floated the idea of offering ‘Out’ and ‘Traffic’ to Giles, as templates for potential collaborators to play with, tempting new composers on board, and with that ‘Composer Wanted’ was launched.

After the great response, Gaia was brought in on board as the line producer and shortlisted candidates where considered and a collaborator selected.  Hello Fear Wasabi.

So currently we’re running with two productions that have risen up through a series of creative meetings.

I started to generate ideas the way I always do and rummaged around for pieces that were just waiting for budgets to come along. This is how my studio works these days. I have big projects, small projects and everything in between, half articulated to myself, lying consciously and unconsciously around me. Exactly as messy as it sounds. Artschool taught me a good sketchbook practice but I lost it somewhere along the line and now I’m left with this.  I have books lying by my bedside and photocopies in a box that prompts towards unprocessed ideas.

For ‘Composer Wanted’ I reached for a good spread. I had projects that I’d like to make, ones I thought Central Station would like me to make and a couple that I knew I could make.

Speaking to Paul and Giles I wanted to have a go at their world. Like Mr Tibbs in ‘The Heat of the Night’ (which I just watched up here on Film club’), ‘I just couldn’t let an opportunity like that pass me by.’ This is what drew me towards making ‘Paddy’s Lament’. A  5 minute drama that uses technics old to Paula and Giles, but new to me. The subject for this drama; the juntaposition of two moments in time that spark off one another to talk about the nature of control. The settings are 2 found sources, one from the 19th Century the other from the  21st century. I’ll leave it hanging there….

The other work has more clearly come from a larger body of work that’s occupied my brain since 2005. This is the work I’ve been making with the Imperial War Museum on my developing relationship with active Loyalist and Republican groups in Glasgow. The title of this work hasn’t been announced yet, because I haven’t decided on it yet, but the visuals are just about in place, so I’m happy to open up to all comers now.