Incredible Experience!!!

Last Friday, Laura Degnan from Writers Block NE contacted me and asked if I could possibly help out in a film that weekend. She needed someone to play a business man who attends a fancy dress party dressed as the Incredible Hulk and I was the first actor who came to mind (is that good or bad I wonder?!?)

The Ents department were, as usual, very helpful to me in terms of loaning us some rope lights for the party scene (and Norman Austick especially who gave me a lift back since my car was (is) still out of action (Grrrrr!).

The shoot was possibly the most professional I've been on as the entire crew (of four) were real-life film makers from Newcastle. This meant that the intricacies of every shot were tweaked to the point of perfection, and as usual, this was at the expense of time. We over ran by a couple of hours but it was worth it. We only stopped shooting because the camera packed up - not because the management at the Dickens Inn had asked us to clear out so that a birthday party could use the room (that they had hired!).

Here's a few shots from throughout the day:

Media Links from Grand Scheme of Things work

My work with Martin Wood over the past decade or so has seen me being a concept artist, model and prop maker, photographer, graphic designer and as of last week, film maker.

Here's a couple of links that flesh outthe backstory and give you a look atthe latest developments:

http://www.gazetteherald.co.uk/features/features/8873927.Local_artist_Martin_Wood/

http://www.appletonreadingroom.org.uk/

World Saved? Well, I saved the day at least...

Scarborough Coastival came and went without a hitch, although we were pushed to the limit of time for setting up the show.
Mickey and I were dressed up to the nines and acted as 'welcomers' for the audio-visual experience occurring within the bingo hall of the Grand Hotel.

We enjoyed the company of many guests throughout the day, special thanks go to Bill and his wife who gave us jelly babies to keep our energy up!

 Me, Suzy and Mickey

Pyramid sound system

Scarborough Coastival

Time to save the world again...

This coming weekend I'll be joining Martin, Maria and Mickey at the Grand Hotel Scarborough to take part in a Full Moon festival, during which the official launch of 'In The Grand Scheme of Things' will take place.

I have worked with Martin for over a decade, fleshing out the story of a near-future, mutated Yorkshire.

Last Saturday we went to the Grand Hotel for a last look around before the big event, Here's some pics:

Here's the press release:

A Rather Grand Idea

3rd Eye Pod and The

Art and film collective, 3rd Eye Pod, will be creating an intriguing installation in Scarborough’s Grand Hotel, as part of Coastival 2011.

“We’re a collective of Film Makers and VJs (video jockeys) whose events and work are inspired by a nature based spirituality” say Martin Wood and Maria Silmon, the creative team behind 3rd Eye pod. “During the day we’ll be using specific sound frequencies and colours combined with film, to celebrate the energy of the full moon that weekend. An audio-visual massage for your eyes and ears in fact!”

They will also be showing an extract from The Grand Scheme of Things, a blackly comic sci-fi odyssey set in Yorkshire in the not so distant future. This feature film idea started out as a graphic novel in which the people and landscape of North Yorkshire become bizarrely mutated when genetic experiments go wrong. As usual, it’s down to the good folk of Yorkshire to save the planet!  Over the course of 8 solar festivals and one seasonal year, a motley crew of local characters must band together to restore the balance of nature.

The cyclical nature of the seasons are often at the heart of the team’s work, as well as the eight solar festivals which punctuate the year. They chose the astonishing architecture of The Grand Hotel for their venue because when it was originally built in 1863, its design was based on the concept of 'time'.

“Incredibly the Grand has 4 towers to represent the 4 seasons, 12 floors for each month, 52 chimneys for the weeks and 365 bedrooms for the days of the year. We were looking for the perfect venue for our Coastival installation and I think we’ve found it!”

 Check websites below for more info

http://coastival.com/events/details/223-chakra-show.html

solarfestivals.com   

CELEBRATING AND PROMOTING SOLAR FESTIVALS SINCE 1988

grandschemeofthings.co.uk  

A BLACKLY COMIC SCI-FI ODYSSEY, SET IN YORKSHIRE IN THE NOT SO DISTANT FUTURE

Grand Scheme Of Things  - in the Grand Hotel, Scarborough Saturday 19 February   10am – 4pm  

Thanks for the interview practice 'world'

Wow! As a result of snowballing events relating to my Regent Cinema film school project, I gave an over-the-phone interview to TFM radio yesterday.
I'm sure it will be edited down quite a bit, I do try and cover every single detail but that's probably three times more time than I'm allowed.
So, if you don't make the final cut, here's a list of thanks:
Tony Shaw and students, Entertainment Design Crafts
Di Scott, Mike, Richard and students, creative film and moving image production
CCAD marketing dept
Rachel Meeks, publicist
Neil Bates, Regent Cinema
Laura Degnan, Writers Block
Mum and Dad, catering, quartermasters
Martin and Jen, right hand persons,

Thank you one and all!

Tune in to TFM, 96.6fm some time today - when I know, you'll know!

Live studio project happened!

I've only just realsied I'm finished with the live studio project, it's been with me for, well, since last year!?!

I thought I'd nailed it in early rehearsals but come the monent of truth, I forgot a line, that is, I missed my cue.

Fortunately I was working with The Greast James Harris who seamlessly covered my line and brought me right back into play. Our section played out well, including the H&S baiting 'throw knife into audience' part.

If we'd have been on time, the show would have ended with me shooting into the camera lens, alas, in the melee at the end, the judge wasnt fed his line, so I wasn't fed my line, so it just ended on the 'zombie-as-posh-bloke' payoff - still funny but just not quite right - 30 seconds can make all the difference some days, ey?

Same time next year?

Not a chance - there will be no more studio and no more live projects.

It's bittersweet to have taken part in the last of something and always a pleasure to work with the students of CCAD FdA TV and Film Production, and, of course, James 'Saved the day again' Harris - many thanks one and all.

Well I didn't see that one coming - TWICE!

I was acting again this week, not surprising since we're in the rehearsal stages for next weeks 'live studio' project, and I've known for some time that I'd need to record a cutaway ahead of the night. Well last Wednesday it happened, and I couldn't have been less ready...
I'd turned up for another rehearsal but was whisked away and asked to perform one little speech - just a part of the whole scene I've been working on.

I was rubbish again. I couldn't remember more than 2 lines in a row and having a script was no good as it was to be performed direct to camera!

I was a little demoralised by this, wondering if I'm nothing more than a show off, not an actor.

Thursday night I went to the Arc in Stockton to see an art installation by local artists Dave and Michelle Allinson.

http://www.wireframe.org/

As I arrived at the Arc however, I landed on a brand new class being held by Writers Block, preperations for an open sketch show for Easter...
Well, I took everyone to see the art first - it was fantastic and mesmerising: projector screens layered into cubes with dynamic water animations projected 'into' them whilst sounds of the ocean played quietly. Excellent, I could have stayed for hours there... Rehearsing my lines!

At the writers block event, following introductions and ice breaker exercises, we finished the night by creating short sketches in groups of four. It was exciting to work with strangers and have to trust them and yourselves based on very little prior knowledge; since we were largely improvising, should I play it safe or was it time to let Bad Johnny out of the bag and push the boundaries a little?

If you know me, you already know the answer and we all had a lot of fun! It wasn't recorded mind, so for those who weren't there, it's been lost in the night just like a mummy's tomb in the sand - maybe it will be revisited one day but for now it has gone.

And that was improv.

Acting from a scrip: I suck
Improv: you can't go wrong!

Food for thought.

It's my birthday tomorrow, I can't afford to many more false starts in life. Depending how the live project goes, I may decide to stay behind the camera for a couple of years, get good at that without the distractions of acting...

As always, watch this space.