The Rubicon
The latest photo of the Rubicon rollercoaster. If you don’t know the history of the Twilight Ballrooms and the dreadful accident that happened involving this rollercoaster on Saturday 26th May 1973 then I suggest you visit the history section on the website, www.thetwilightballrooms.co.uk and brush up on your knowledge!
Seasons Greetings
Wishing you all a very wonderful Christmas holiday. This pic was taken in practical darkness using an 8 second exposure. The bright orange glow in the background is the light pollution from Eastbourne. Love the droplets of water on the bush on the left – very festive I thought! Click on the pic to enlarge.
Pre-production photo shoot
Had a marvellous few days in Eastbourne. Fought off the temptation to spend my time at tea dances and instead headed off across the South Downs taking in Beachy Head and a fab National Trust hamlet called Birling Gap which, for me, is the nearest thing in real life to Wits End I’ve seen so far.
The Downs were excellent, though you are reminded of it’s links with suicide (3rd highest suicide rate in the world). I met one of the chaplains, a group of volunteers who patrol that spot looking for lonely quiet individuals and offering to chat! Thought it best not to mention Wits End!
Now it’s back to the drawing board as I try and use the footage and photos I’ve taken to augment the project.
2011 – More than a dream!
I have been working hard, honest. The thing about pre-production and/or learning anything new is that at the end of the day, you don’t really have anything to show for it. Well, I thought I’d change that and have edited a quick montage of all tester clips and stuff generally marked on my hard-drives as “CANDELETE” – that’s all files that I create just to experiment and test an effect or process that I’ve just learnt. Other than that, the clip is usually redundant. After all, when am I going to need a tube train on the New York subway, unless they script a film called “The Taking of Balham 123″)
That is until now, where, before the files ARE deleted or permanently archived in that warehouse where the Arc of the Covenant also lives, they can have pride of place in this montage. Enjoy.
New character, new video!
I’ve had a new video released today on David Garland Jones’ YouTube channel. The video features a new character called Scott Mowbray – Actor/Electrician. Watch as he pontificates on such matters as beards, the Minack Theatre and Welsh actors. Enjoy.
Latest from Wits End
Pre-production on the Twilight project has now taken half a year and may take another year or so at this rate. It’s slow but I’m learning so much. However, I am going to have to take some shortcuts, especially with the drawing, which ain’t necessarily a bad thing. Have found a new website called http://www.archive3d.net/ which has a huge repository of models and shapes which will help me in leaps and bounds. And they’re all royalty free and free to use commercially, which means I can use and adapt them for the set in my film.
Thanks to this I have made excellent progress drawing the managers office in the Twilight (complete with rehearsal piano). I had already made great progress with the auditorium and stage (including the Wits End Mighty Wurlitzer), Mrs Kepelwicks Village Store, The Severed Arms and the front gates. I still have corridors, fire-escapes and the main entrance/box-office to do and no doubt other bits and pieces which I won’t go into now. Once that’s all finished there will be fine touching, painting and compositing to do, not to mention experimenting with the greenscreen and finding the look and feel of the film before I return to the script.
Looking forward to watching the LIVE show of The Twilight Ballrooms – I will be there on 7th August. Good luck to all those involved. The image of the exterior of the Ballrooms (above) wot I drew, appears on the poster of the live show! Yay!
On a downside, I’ve decided to loose the URL www.alifeofbrian.co.uk which finishes today. But don’t despair Brian fans (either of you) as the film will still be viewable on this site!
My first cover version!
Check out this cover of the song I wrote for David Garland Jones! They’ve even written some new lyrics!
