si-lo

Nic Roeg

2008-07-23T21:15:00.002Z

It's been a while. I've been twittering for a bit quite badly. A busy summer. But the thing that's made me blog is Nic Roeg. He's got a new film "Puffball". If you you haven't seen a Nic Roeg film go and see some. "Don't Look Now", "Performance", "The Man Who Fell to Earth". I remember saying to someone 5 years ago what a scandal it is a. He's a living genius and he's not celebrated near enough b. He's not made a film for cinema release for 12 years. Time is a medium not a law in a Roeg film. If you want to learn about the art of the editing watch the Roeg.

Glass T-Shirt Competition Entry

2008-06-05T17:38:00.003Z

Glass Boutique are running a T-Shirt competition - my entry is below. Still time to enter but you must hurry.

Walter Murch - History of Editing

2008-06-01T14:12:00.002Z

MacVideo has a series of video interviews with legendary editor Walter Murch. The interivews are in five parts:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

YouthNet The Site Video

2008-05-21T16:48:00.004Z

Festival Survival Guide from TheSite on Vimeo.
A Glass production for YouthNet that I'm really pleased with has been released to the world. It's a short video promoting thesite.org's festival guide. You can catch it below:

Vimeo
Youtube
Facebook
Google

The project was covered in a Creative Match article

The Jones

2008-05-19T14:44:00.003Z

I've been real busy for the last couple of months. So after a bit of a gap - I'm uploading some new stuff I've been working on. I shot the Jones video a few months ago. Directed by Rick Lippiett and assisted by Andrew Telling.

The Jones from Simon Payne on Vimeo.

2008-04-15T14:49:00.003Z

A recent edit of fashion footage shot at London Fashion Week for TONI&GUY. This is also a bit of a Vimeo test.

Untitled from Simon Payne on Vimeo.

NAB

2008-04-15T00:14:00.004Z

Oh you mean the gorilla of all broadcast shows? No I'm not there - I sort of forgot about it - until this evening. But there seems to be some good stuff going on - checkout the NAB site

Stu Maschwitz is Twittering from Vegas and has an interesting looking key note

Red have made some announcements. 3K Scarlet and the 5k Epic. Wow. Lot's of people seem to be working themselves into a lather about this one.

Jonas Hummelstrand has a great Twitter and an excellent resource page on http://generalspecialist.com/

And Matrox announced the MX02

Sony announce a new camera Camera the XDCAM EX3 - Philip Bloom has a major review of the beast on his site. He gives it a massive thumbs up. Though I'd be a bit peed off if I'd just bought an EX1. YOUKNOWHATIMEAN?

After Effects Camera Controls

2008-03-27T23:26:00.003Z

The After Effect's camera can be an unwieldy beast unless a few less than self evident rules are followed. Firstly turn Auto Orient off. Layer > Transform > Auto-Orient. If you don't the camera has a mind of it's own. Secondly to really gain control you'll need to use null objects to control various parameters of the camera. To get the most out of the camera you'll need to build a fully blown camera rig. I've had one source for this knowledge that I found myself referring to again today. Camera Control, Basic 3D camera control tricks in Adobe After Effects By Trish and Chris Meyer Part 1 and Part 2 is an excellent resource at dv.com.

YouthNet

2008-03-14T17:33:00.001Z

Just finished shooting a promo for charity organisation YouthNet. It
was an outside shoot, thank god it didn't rain. We shot interviews with
under 25 year old festival goers at Roehampton university. I'll have a
rough cut ready for the end of March. This post is a test post via the
magic of emailing blog updates. Wow!

ThinkSync Short Film Competition

2008-03-11T22:52:00.004Z

ThinkSync Short Film Competition. Music to download and I think you get a Shooting People membership if you enter. Whatareyouwaitingfor?

Motion + MIDI

2008-03-11T18:56:00.004Z

Midi control in Apple's Motion! What really? Yes! I really haven't used midi control in Final Cut yet - for audio keyframing let alone midi in Motion. Great article on Motion + MIDI at ProVideo Coalition.

Phil Bloom and the Sony EX-1

2008-03-10T23:01:00.010Z

I recently had a conversation with some friends - John and James at Toast about the merits of the Sony PMW-EX1 and Panasonic HVX-200. I have to say that I seriously thought about buying a HVX-200 - given it's status in indie/DV rebel production circles but found the thing so clunky - when compared to the silky like quality of the Sony Z1 interface. I bought a Z1. Even though the HVX offered a Leica lens, 100mbit/s DVC Pro HD recording rates and the chance to go tapeless. Maybe I was wrong. The thought that I was wrong has been bugging me for a year. Then Sony released the EX1 - and I got the chance to be bugged about another camcorder I maybe should have waited for or chosen. Well now I can worry more and indulge my fears. You and I can compare shot for shot of each camcorder til our eyes bleed here. I have to say that the EX1 images in this not very scientific test look so much better than HVX.

I've been flirting with getting a 35mm lens adapter for the Z1. But given the rate of change in the camcorder market maybe I should wait? I was flirting with the Letus Extreme. Over at Philip Bloom's blog you can read about Phil - cameraman/editor/director/catalogue model (no that's not true) grapple with a an EX1 and a Letus Extreme. Always informative. He's off in Las Vegas at the moment shooting a documentary on two (read it and weep) Sony EX1's. Lucky lucky man...

Talking of 35mm for digital camcorders - who would have thunk it - Interesting article on testing 35mm adapters on the set of 24.

UPDATE 11/03/04
Article on the merits of HVX v EX1 at ProVideo Coalition. Adam Wilt turns the argument into do you want an HD only camera or do you need SD. If you need SD then of the two the HVX wins. However in some environments less encumbered by legacy HD only will do very nicely me thinks.

After Effects CS3 Professional Studio Techniques

2008-03-08T12:32:00.002Z

I've been wanting to read this book (well previous versions anyways) for a while. I finally ordered a copy off Amazon last week (order from the USA it's a lot cheaper). I've only managed to grab the odd 10 minutes here and thee to read it before I pass out at night. When will I get more time to read it? Not this week but soon. It's not aimed at the new user and it's aimed firmly in the effects area of AE work - and not the design - too many books try to do both and do them badly. I highly recommend After Effects CS3 Professional Studio Techniques. Mark Christiansen also writes the blog Flowseeker

The joy and pain of a wide angle adapter

2008-03-06T12:33:00.003Z

So I got hold of a Schneider / Century Optics Fisheye Adapter for my Z1 camera. I've used it on a few shoots so far and it's been great. Yesterday however I managed to put the thing on wrongly. You have to match yellow dots - and I matched the wrong ones and I don't know my own strength and the result is I now have a permanent adapter fixed to my camera. I'm hoping somebody somewhere can fix it. Fingers crossed.

UPDATE: Alan at PEC on Dean Street and Debbie managed to get the thing off. Thank you. ! was abusing the thing and not putting it on properly. I have learnt my lesson. I hope.

Brand X

2008-03-06T12:17:00.002Z

I've been working on a project off and on for six months. It's a one and half minute promo for Glass Partnership. It's nearing fruition and will be going live soon. Here are a couple of grabs for a design I put together for an animated every brand "Brand X". It was rejected.

Mainstage 08

2008-03-03T15:24:00.003Z

Promo for T&G event - 30 seconds

London Fashion Week

2008-02-29T16:54:00.002Z

Ok been a bit silent but some stuff is happening. Titles and bumper for 17 (!) London Fashion Week shows. Images below.

Win 20 grand for 15 seconds!

2008-02-14T17:59:00.001Z

Adobe's "See What's Possible" challenge has been announced and the prize is a $20,000. Compose an aesthetically pioneering 15-second or less animation or motion graphic video that illustrates the theme of �See What�s Possible.� Don't forget the Adobe logo though.

New Wyld Stallions

2008-01-29T18:26:00.000Z

Wyld Stallions - those motion graphics designers extraordinary have a new version of their site up and running. There's also some new work - really good- though I kind of miss the old site - can't beat a bit of HTML.

After Effects and Quicktime 7.4 don't go!

2008-01-20T00:15:00.001Z

Yes it seems that After Effects and Quicktime 7.4 don't go together. Reports are that some users get an error when rendering to quicktime. Workarounds seem to include - render to image sequence or if you do get the error render from where the error popped up. But the best advice is don't do quicktime 7.4!

UPDATE 14/02/08
All is well Apple released a 7.41 update which has cured all the problems (supposedly). I'm waiting a while - see what happens. Know what I mean?

Face of...

2008-01-04T17:49:00.000Z

No I don't really get it either. But I did it. It's more punk than it should be. After Effects and some dodgy DV footage. Titles for a 3 min vid of the competition to find the 'Face of Hampshire'

Front Row

2008-01-04T14:08:00.000Z

A new in salon magazine launched by Wella - needs an in salon on screen promo. 30 seconds of lights camera action. All put together in After Effects by me. I also wrote the music.

5th London Short Film Festival

2008-01-04T07:56:00.000Z

5th London Short Film Festival - starts today! It runs from the 4th - 13th Jan 2008.

Guardian Interviews at the BFI Southbank

2008-01-04T06:14:00.000Z

I'm up early and found the Guardian Interviews at the BFI Southbank. I missed all the actual live interviews - even though I'm often in the Southbank. Shane Meadows - Guillermo del Toro -David Lynch can be found here. Guillermo del Toro's interviews shows that even without a microphone that works and formatting the video incorrectly - a good bit of chat an interview makes.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-02T18:29:00.001Z

I was cutting my hair with some clippers on New Years Eve - and noticed an article in the copy of the Guardian my hair clippings were being collected on. It was an article on a project by Iain Sinclair/Stephen Gill.

Iain Sinclair - walker, writer and psychogeographer. I'd received a copy of Sinclair's 'City of Disappearances' for Christmas. A collection of writing about loss in London. I'd read Sinclair's 'London Oribital' - which I'd really liked. Some of it traced walks through the Lea Valley - I've lived on the edge of that area for a while - first Walthamstow then Leyton and now Hackney. It's a weird location. An area where country gets roughed up by the urban sprawl of East London.

There's a video - 'London Orbital' by Iain Sinclair and Chris Petit. ~~I've not seen it.~~ I didn't know it existed until this week. But Chris Petit I had come across.

Chris Petit is director of 'Radio On' - another movie not watched but I've wanted to see for a while. An English road movie with Wim Wender's as co-producer. You can see the trailer here. Petit is also author. Noir London thriller 'Robinson' sounds good.

So returning to the clippings and the paper - Stephen Gill is a photographer. I know nothing. Debbie my girlfriend had to fill in some blanks. He's been doing various things but some of these things include documenting bits of Hackney.

Gill and Sinclair plan to document some of the area currently undergoing 'regeneration' as part of the Olympic development. Large parts of the Lea Valley have been fenced off and penned in as the builders and bulldozers go to work. They're taking to boat and using the Lea itself as a means to traverse the barricades.

BBC DNA Collective : Iain Sinclair Video Interviews
Iain Sinclair - Londonist Interview
Chris Petit Interview
Stephen Gill's Website