Found this little gem from the Tranquility Base Archive. Kylie Vilcins plays “Adelaide” in the rather weird monologue shot around the same time as Starmaker (in which she can also be heard singing “I’ve got a lovely bunch of coconuts”) Although uncompleted, there is something appealing about the character. She reminds me of an Australian …

Bought 2x85W softbox lights and stands to use with my green screen from Amazon. There is a slight problem with fluorescent flicker but at the moment I’m putting that down to having a cheapo camera. It’s not too much of a problem at the moment anyhow as you can see in this demo below. The …

Well, I have finally purchased dedicated web-space for this website and have spent most of the week moving files. Like any move you find items that you’d completely forgotten about. Here is one example, a trailer I did from 2006, to the Star Trek theme. Reminds me of the projects that were hot at the …

A blog worthy of mention, Greyscale Gorilla This one covers all my favourite subjects on Post Production, namely After Effects, Cinema 4d, Photoshop and others. Some great video tutorials (video tutorials are always the best) and a competition called the 5 Second Project which is very entertaining, check out the superb entries, inspiring stuff. All …

Well, the Twilight script has now completed it’s first draft and is being re-written and tweaked as we speak. Am now exploring the feasibility of various things I would like to achieve in the film and that may take several months. I feel it is vital to tackle however – it will determine not only …

This year I hope to be able to incorporate mattes into my videos, especially with the Twilight project. For this I realise I will need to swot up on Photoshop and what it can do. There are plenty of good sites such as psdtut+ which I’ve mentioned before on this blog. Here is another. Nothing …

An impulse find led me to purchasing the domain www.actormusician.co.uk Not really got any use for it at the moment other than I thought it was a bargain for £6. Just got it pointing to the music part of this website for the time being. My dream URL of course would be www.tranquilitybase.com or tranquilitybase.co.uk …

There was a picture of me on the telly tonight. My girlfriend spotted the blink and you’ll miss it moment. It was on BBC2 doc celebrating 25 years of Les Miserable with Matt Lucas. There was a peripheral mention of “Oliver!” and up came this pic! It was odd as I’d never ever seen this …

Richard Leigh’s production of the live show wot I wrote “The Twilight Ballrooms” had a successful run at Jermyn Street last month and there is more to come in 2011. Michelle Roberts who plays what’s left of the “Roger McGuffin Holiday Dancers” took some great photos. These will be appearing on the Twilight Ballrooms website in …

Had a little learn and play with the Daylight System in 3ds-Max today. Made a little weathervane from scratch to render in it that I imagine would probably sit well aloft the Twilight Ballrooms main tower. Maybe we’ll see this shot again someday in such a context, though hopefully less plain looking (Come on, I …

Not only a great selection of post-production software and add-ons, the website also has a great selection of videos and tutorials on how to get the best out of these products. From Grading software with fabulous presets, to lens flares, text effects (including the ubiquitous Matrix generator), vintage effects, state of the art video noise …

Took a break from scriptwriting this afternoon and played with a picture I took (with just a camera-phone) last year whilst in the Big Apple. Would usually have just deleted an experiment like this but thought that now I’ve got a blog, I should post it. Principally Photoshop with a dash of After Effects to …

Give your movie poster a touch of class by using that font Hollywood uses on the base of all of its posters.Download it free from www.abstractfonts.comThe small credits “Directed By, Written By, Produced By” etc… are all achieved using one lowercase letter shortcuts. There are also extras like DVD and Caption logos and much more. …

Get visitors to your site to subscribe to your mailing list. This is a great and FREE site. Mailchimp is the answer to your mailing list needs. It can help you set up a variety of forms such as mailing lists or questionairres; it’ll help you customise these forms with your own design and provide the …

Did this spoof trailer to take a break from web designing and also to revise what I’ve learnt so far with post-production. And also for a bit of fun! Thanks to everyone who was game for getting involved!

Congratulations to Welsh actor David Garland Jones who was booed off the stage at Goldie Lookin Chain’s gig in Newport last Saturday. They chanted “Who are you? Who are you? Who are you?” If they had checked the poster or bought a  programme they would have known. He’s David Garland Jones.

And I mean everything. Had to dismantle all my equipment to deal with a burst radiator pipe in the wall. Dust and debris everywhere. And during the repair process, the face of Christ appeared in the wall, presumably in time for the Pope’s visit later this month. Shame its been plastered up. If I had …

Working very hard on a few things. Have been redesigning Richard Leigh’s False Impressions website and still, yes still, been working on the the new Twilight site. I’m very pleased with how its turned out and can’t wait to show it off, hopefully next month. And have purchased www.actorcv.com All in all a busy month. …

In working on the new Twilight website, the topography of the Twilight had to be devised. Here is an early blueprint of the front structure of the building.

If you’re wondering why this could be good news then you probably have no reason to be on this website. It’s fantastic news. Actually, it’s better than that.Yes, for nerds like myself we will spend the next few months playing with the various demos which are free to download off Adobe’s site – And if …

Christpoher Cazenove passed away last month. I was priviledged to have worked with him, albeit 25 years ago on the American TV miniseries “Kane & Abel”. I featured the clip in last Octobers blog (click here to see) This clip contains a small scene when the Abel family, en route to the church to baptise …

Richard Leigh has persuaded “Malcolm Marvelle – Master of Mystery and the lovely Rita” to return to Jermyn Street Theatre this November 2010. Ticket information will soon be available on their website.It’s a show not to be missed. But don’t just take my word for it. Click the video here to get a brief glimpse …

What this site hasn’t got for the serious movie maker isn’t worth knowing. It certainly has a comprehensive collection of external tutorials covering a wide array of categories, including many Adobe products, specific camera equipment and the main 3d modelling programs. And when you’re on a tea break have an explore of the rest of …

Have you ever wanted to create your own CGI graphics but thought it out of your price range and ability? Think again. Ever heard of Blender? What?! It’s been round for years, c’mon! Check out the website. Basically, its open source software which means its free to download and use. And like most open source …

Tutorials for photoshop, webdesign, after effects, vector graphics, cg, audio and much more. Regularly updated, the tutorials are either on video or on well illustrated instructions. They are also in plain English. So whether you’re an expert or a novice, you’ll pick up some handy tips and tricks on this site. Visit tutplus.com

In the mid-nineties, central Europe was gripped by the biggest thing in music since Michael Cretu’s “Enigma” stormed the charts in 1990. Swiss-born Robert Miles released “Children” – a style of music that would later become known as Dreamhouse/Trance. It was to be played in clubs and caverns all over Europe for the next 35 …

Have started learning the basics of 3ds Max and there’s still the new look Blender 2.5 Alpha version to learn. I’m in geek heaven. Production is currently underway also for another episode of Insomnia due in the Spring. I think its the best one yet and will be the first one in WideScreen. Widescreen is …

Video FX guru Andrew Kramer and his team run this website that sells their own VFX products and After Effects plugins including Action Essentials 2, ProScores, Twitter, Optical Flares, Riot Gear and more. These are very professional looking products at a snip of a price that you’d expect to pay elsewhere. But it is not …

That time I was in an American mini-series in the mid-80’s

This clip shows my recent experiment with a Vocoder. It basically takes an input such a vocal wave and sends it through the modulator of a synthesiser. Then when you play a chord on the synth, the input can be heard mixed with the chord that your playing on the synth. On a monotone level …