some more Bjork

Mr Rob Coley just reminded me of Gondry's video promo for Bjork's 'Hyperballad'

Beautiful stuff as always from Gondry. Using mixed media, live action, projection, graphics to produce forming and flowing landscapes.

bjork - hyperballad from DJ DEADEYES on Vimeo.

Vimeo inspiration

Vimeo is so much better than youtube ain't it?

Content just looks crisper, cleaner and professional there.

Here's some things that I've found:

First up a few from Username: Peter Root

Car park (Sound-reactive drawing) from Peter Root on Vimeo.

Harbour (Sound-reactive drawing) from Peter Root on Vimeo.

Landscape Section from Peter Root on Vimeo.

Sound reactive drawings. Similar to my work, taking 2D images and breaking them up in 3D space. Not sure if I want my images to react to the soundtrack, but I might give it a go and see what the results are.

Username: Lee Arnold

Alpinia from Lee Arnold on Vimeo.

A graphical approach to the same idea. I want my movement to be less obvious, so you think you're looking at a still image. Glacier pace.


Username: Marie Lamonde

photo en 3D from Marie Lamonde on Vimeo.

Again, pretty fast animation, too fast for my liking, but a nice example of the technique.

And finally an epic masterpiece, which I must have missed the cinema release of.

Username: Exceeds

photo montage '3D OBB' from EXCEEDS on Vimeo.

Briliant!! I hope they're very happy together.

Question about the Sketches....

Those original drawings that I made as a guide to the images I planned to take, yeah? remember them?

Do you think they should play a role in the final installation?

Comments please kids.

RJD2

This is a Music video that I've been showing my students for a couple of years now, as a fine example of photo compositing and 3D space using 2D elements.

As this is now where my project is at, I thought you might like to see it too.

RJD2 "1976" - leftchannel from leftchannel on Vimeo.

So many exciting things

A lot of things are going on right now, and a lesser man would be struggling to keep on top of things.

I am struggling to keep on top of things.

This time of year is always rather stressful at work with deadlines approaching for my students, only this time round I have my own deadlines to contend with too. However, I'm always up for new challenges and projects to keep me on my toes, so in the last couple of weeks i've also taken on a couple of freelance projects. Both I find truly enthralling, challenging too, which is something I've been enjoying putting myself through this year.

The first project is called 'Yarris' A film maker from London has been working on a film for the past 3-4 years, a powerful documented interview with Nick Yarris. A man who was charged with a crime he didn't commit and found himself on death row for 23 years. Eventually he was released as new evidence was discovered.

My role in this project is to complete the trailer for the film, with the goal being to then use it to find funding for the completion of the feature. Whether or not I'll play any role in the project after this initial work is unknown, but the opportunity to be part of this project is something I just couldn't turn down.

Here's the trailer so far:

Yarris - trailer from Chris Riley on Vimeo.

Strong stuff I feel.

The second project is even fresher in it's creation process. A student who studied on the Media Production MA at the University of Lincoln about 3 years ago got in touch with me on monday this week. I taught him for maybe 3 hours during his time at the uni, but back then we clicked as we shared the same goals in terms of production, plus he's a thoroughly nice chap. Well he remembered me, and the things i'm capable of producing and wanted to bring me in as a Visual Effects supervisor / creative mind on his next short. He now runs his own film production company based in Lincoln called Red Dog Film. I met up with him for an hour yesterday to talk through the idea and to see what I could bring to the project. It was all very positive, and the timeframe of this works really well for me, as the bulk of the work will take place during the summer after all my deadlines.


Oh and I've got a few mini photography project ideas on the go too. Nothing that is related to this course at present, just some practice and portfolio potential. Things that don't require too much research and development. Just an idea and a camera.

Yet I find myself loving this process, so there is always R+D somewhere in all the work I produce.

Moving Landscapes

The eerie eye awry

With the photograph I have of Hotdog hill, I had an idea of playing around with 3D space in AfterEffects. The plan was to bring the image to life, but without it being video. Quite a simple technique but with an effective result.

I also placed a sample of the audio recorded on site and rendered them out together.

The first render I made lasted for 1 min, with the animation almost unnoticeable to the eye. (is this good?)

The second, I made a 20 sec version, where the movement is much clearer. (is this good?)



The idea was to try to explore these places, the still image sometimes isn't enough.

Whilst this test animation was rendering I went off for my weekly lecture, this day it was by the guest photographer Richard Page.

It's again one of those moments that seem to keep happening during the course of this project, where every other thing that was said during his 2 hour talk had strong ties and relevance to my work. He spoke of Dioramas, cutouts, models, voyeurism, landscape photography.

A key point was his workings was this the notion of "the eye awry." The concept where if you stare a problem straight in the face you become consumed by it, blinded, and will never find the answer. If you take a view from a different perspective, from the side, from above, from within, suddenly things become a lot clearer.

As these words were spoken I thought back to my render taking place a couple of rooms away.

These locations I have chosen, by impulse more than anything, leave me a little lost as to why they have been selected. Locations that are important for me for the sole reason that i have no photographic evidence? is that it? or is there something else going on that i haven't been able to grasp at yet. Or maybe i never will. But either way, that whole pursuit of understanding is the main focus of my work right now......


i think

Sound of Silence

A couple of weeks ago I had a 45min tutorial with the photographer Peter Robinson. We ended up chatting for nearly an hour an a half, about childhood memories, youth, parenthood. It was really good to get the perspective of someone who doesn't know me, who wouldn't humor me in any way. And I came away with a lot to think about.

One of the things Peter suggested was to NOT use a camera to capture these spaces. An alternative would be to capture the sound.

So i had a go at this, i borrowed some equipment from the university and took it along with me to my parents' place.

I visited 4 or 5 different locations, and have 4 mins worth of atmos audio bed from each.

Hot-Dog Hill

Whilst at home, I also went out alone for a walk around the village and housing estates on which i grew up. I hadn't done this for well over 10 years.

I headed for Hot-Dog Hill, one of the locations i sketched my memory of a few weeks back.

I was a little unsure as to whether or not i should photograph the place, as it might somehow be too simple and finite. The act of capturing this space before I'd worked out why it is so important to me might be the wrong move at this stage.

Another part of me though realised that as i approached, after 15+ years of being away, i saw the sketch that i had drawn, live in front of me.

Box Construction - Part 1

I went to visit my parents for the weekend and began the design/makings of a prototype box.

It was a great experience, doing man things with my dad. Hanging out in the garage. Mugs of tea perched on saw-dusted sides. Lots of hands on hips, and nods of heads, and vocal inhales of thoughtful breath.

Essentially, we spent most of the 4 hours outside chatting about design and running through a number of ideas. Drawing sketches (not on paper with pencils, but on random pieces of wood and plastic with big marker pens), planning everything before making any moves. My Dad is an engineer after all.

So I/we now have a good idea of how we're going to make this thing, but on the day we only got as far as cutting a hole in a plastic tub. But both agreed it was a success.

Part 2 will take place in the next couple of weeks.

Production Week

Week 6 of the semester on the undergraduate degree is reading/production week. A time for the students to get on with some work without the regular timetable schedule.

This meant that I too had some more time out of work to be working myself.

I did this

stand by for the update