As of yesterday filming has begun on Vultures episode 3: ‘The Mystery Of The Night Time Refuse’ and as of last night the BRAND NEW VULTURES TRAILER went online over at www.VulturesPI.com.

Vultour, Tennyson and McGrain, the three hapless detectives of VPI are back with a brand new mystery. After moving into a new office the trio are accused of dumping rubbish outside the new premises, and threatened with eviction. With time running out, they must get to the bottom of… lots of bin bags.

Are they being framed? Is someone trying to get them kicked out of office after office? Why are their belongings in this new rubbish? And does Eddie Hobbs actually write his own books?

All will be revealed in Vultures Eps 3: ‘The Mystery Of The Night Time Refuse’. The new trailer acts as a bridging point between Episode 2 and the forthcoming episode; with the evicted detectives forced to set up shop in a very familiar looking public park.The third installment in the series will see the return of Noah Hennessy, Sarah Black, Inspector Leeson, Fred Bass, Isabelle Vultour, Tom Moriarty and I’ll be returning as “urban preacher” Jack Street. There’ll also be a few new characters including intense rubbish-hating Litter Warden Ned Savage and Matt McLoughlin the hard-partying, hen night loving V.P.I lawyer.

I’ll also be working as 1st A.D on the production and providing behind-the-scenes shots along with some P.R services so plenty more to come…

For now WATCH THE TRAILER for Vultures Eps3: The Mystery Of The Night Time Refuse’.

I’ve been flat out the past two weeks, working on several different projects, PR work, shooting several gigs including the Hype Entertainment Battle of the Bands (I’m an official sponsor and also a judge) and of course with Devious Theatre’s 4th production ‘Smitten‘.

Only weeks after our highly successful production of Irvine Welsh’s ‘Trainspotting‘, people thought we had gone a bit mad deciding to put on another play this soon. And I have to admit at some points we thought they might be right, with very little pre-production time and early casting difficulties, we hoped we weren’t going to “drop the ball” with this one.

This time around we also wouldn’t have the big name selling power behind the show, ‘Smitten’ is a brand new play, written by our very own John Morton (who also wrote Heart Shaped Vinyl), you can read more about the play here. We were hoping that at this stage, we had established Devious Theatre as a reliable source of entertainment in Kilkenny. If of course people could actually find the little known location of Church Lane!?

In the weeks towards the show, Devious Theatre once again kicked it up a notch and began our onslaught. Rehearsals were hectic but hilarious, the local media were bombarded with press releases, photos and promo material, the set was designed and built. Window displays, signs and maps to the venue went up around the town and people were on the radio talking about the show. Once again I had the pleasure of working on some photo-shoots with Paddy Dunne, who once again produced an awesome series of posters. Props, rostrums, sets, seating, costumes, lights etc were all assembled in the Barn and Wednesday the 20th (opening night) approached.

As I walked up Church Lane that day I was kind of disappointed, despite Devious Theatre’s best efforts, there seemed to be little interest in the show, tickets sales were poor, it looked like it was going to be a quiet week. Would it have all been worth it, everyone had worked so hard!? I walked into the Barn just as the phone call from Rollercoaster Records (our ticket-seller) came through… it was around about that moment that the week took off like a rollercoaster and Devious Theatre are still a little shellshocked (once again). The phonecall was brief, the message spread throughout the cast and every time it was met with the same open-mouthed, wide-eyed face; “am?…we’re sold out tonight!?”.

The lights came up on the first ever performance of Devious Theatre’s ‘Smitten’ by John Morton, with a full house staring at us (yet another Devious moment I will never forget), and I can easily say that the entire cast appreciated this moment and in return gave it everything they had. Afterwards, everyone was slightly stunned by the reaction we received. Rumour had it, it was going to be a quiet one, but the official word is “we went to Morrissons!”.

I walked into the Barn on Thursday, around about the same time that the next phonecall from Rollercoaster Records came through… the call to tell us that the entire run of Smitten was now sold out. People loved it, they laughed at the funny bits and tears welled up at the sad bits, John Morton had written an awesome show and the Devious Theatre Company did what they did best, entertain. Crowds varied from teenage metallers to 92 year old grandmothers. Some people had gotten in early enough to get tickets so they could come every night. And John said it best with “All the while we stood by quite amazed.”

To be honest, it still hasn’t really sunk in yet, but two things I’m certain about is that it was more than worth it (and Devious throw awesome after-parties!). I’d really love to go into more detail about the show, it really deserves it but between shooting Vultures Episode 3, the Battle of the Bands, several gig shoots to sort and other projects, I’m backlogged with work. You can check out all my behind-the-scenes shots from Smitten rehearsals and live shots of the show here on the Devious Theatre Bebo Page.

All that’s left for me to say is a long list of thank you’s; firstly to director Colm “No Notes” Sheehan and John “Apollo Creed” Morton for your awesome work. To the amazing and friendly people at Barnstorm for allowing us to move into the Barn and endlessly helping us throughout our stay. To my fellow Devious Committee members, once again you’ve made me so proud of what we can achieve (I hope we do that photo-shoot with the monacles). To Paddy Dunne, for once again using my photos in your awesome work. To Eddie Brennan for another awesome set, and to all those who helped him. To Gerry Taylor for the lights.

A really important thank you to my fellow cast; Stephen Colfer, Amy Dunne, Ken McGuire, Kevin Mooney, Lynsey Moran, Niamh Moroney, Maria Murray, Suzanne O’Brien, Jack O’Leary, Annette O’Shea and Geoff Warner Clayton. It was awesome to spend time with all of you and I look forward to working together again.

Finally, thanks to all of you who came to see the show, for showing your encouragement and support for something that we simply love doing. Keep an eye on DeviousTheatre.com over the next few weeks for announcements on our next production (no, we’re not mad, we’re taking a break first!).

Roll on the reviews…

L-R: Paddy McQuinn, Carey Harte and T.

Kilkenny based grindcore metallers, Atrax Mantis, have just released the artwork for their upcoming debut E.P ‘Condemned to Hatred’. Which means I can finally reveal my conceptual promo-shots for the inlay of the E.P, and behind-the-scenes shots from my first time working with MakeUp/Special Fx artist Carey Harte.

Last year was my first time as a judge and official sponsor for the Hype Entertainment Battle of the Bands, I offered a photography package to the winning band, who turned out to be Atrax Mantis. I also offered a photography package to runner’s-up, Decadation (more on that soon). Following the competition, Atrax hit the studio to record their debut offering and when it was near completion, we met up to discuss the artwork. Much to my delight, the lads had a very clear idea of what they wanted on the E.P and we had several meetings and brain-storming sessions to work out the concept.

Around about the same time, I had been chatting to MakeUp/Special Fx artist Carey Harte, about working on some projects together and this seemed the perfect opportunity to get us started. Sticking with the concept of “Condemned to Hatred”, myself and the Atrax lads had come up with a sequence of shots portraying two characters, I’ll call them “the prisoner” and “the guard”. We’d need bruises, we’d need blood, we’d need Carey! She said yes.

After a short search for models and locations; Paddy Mc Quinn stepped up to be “the prisoner” and Atrax voKillist T would play “the guard”. We found the perfect location, a dead-end corridor in a warehouse that was currently under renovation on an industrial estate, we got permission to shoot there and we were good to go.

On a Sunday in early May, we all met in my house. This would be the first time I would get to meet Carey in person, and on doing so I pronounced her name wrong, she secretly thought this was funny and allowed me to further embarrass myself all day. I was apprehensive about introducing her to Atrax Mantis!? They’re not called the “foul as f**k” metallers for no reason! And they also had “the merchanDykes” with them to add to the madness. I introduced Carey (as Carrie), everyone began chatting and soon it became clear that we were all going to laugh quite a lot that day.

Carey got to work on Paddy, covering him in bruises, slashes, missing teeth and general battered-ness, soon we were on our way to the warehouse. The corridor looked perfect for the shoot, but with all the construction work there was a heavy layer of concrete dust, meaning a nightmare trying to keep my lens clean and keep the dust out of my camera.

The next problem being that the only power source in the building was several floors upstairs, meaning we’d have to run adapters the whole way down to a set of construction lights, quite a stretch, meaning the lights would barely come to the end of the corridor. We stood the lights on top of a large construction table, they filled the darkened corridor with light but I’d have no room to move them and it would cause huge shadows. In the end, I climbed a ladder to the ceiling, and gave the lads from Atrax various jobs.

Dylan held the ladder, “Fuzz” stood on the opposite side of the corridor shining a large heavy-duty torch at a reflector held by Guilly, I told him where to reflect the light to brighten dark areas around Paddy and T’s faces etc, Carey re-did any necessary make-up, the “merchanDykes” supervised, the dust flew around. After initial test shoots with my 18-135mm lens I changed to the 50mm (cheers Ken), which limited my depth of field but meant I could shoot as low as f1.8. We moved around the corridor, I tried out various different angles, shutter-speeds and colour temperatures, the dust continued to fly. Sooner than expected we had a huge collection of usable shots, alternative angles, and the dust had gotten everywhere.

You can check out all of my behind-the-scenes shots from the shoot here. You’ll also find the finished artwork for the E.P, with design and photo-shop work by T.

Quite happy with the results and with time to spare, we decided to move around the warehouse and get some promo/press shots of Atrax Mantis as well. The results of which I posted several weeks back, the only problem with this shoot was trying not to make Fuzz laugh or smile, it’s “not very metal!” and it’s very easy to make him smile.

This type of conceptual shoot was another first for me, and I’m really happy with the results. I’m eager to work on more stuff like this very soon. At this point I have to say a huge thank you to the very lovely and talented Carey Harte. It was awesome to meet you and work with you. I hope you like the results. Hopefully we can get to work on our next project very soon!?(Later that night Carey txt me to tell me I that had pronounced her name wrong all day. She still finds it funny, I still find it embarrassing.)

I’d also like to say a huge thanks to Paddy McQuinn and T, for their patience throughout the shoot, especially when Paddy was standing on T’s face, I was playing with settings on my camera trying to get it just right, and dust was flying everywhere. Finally a huge thanks to Atrax Mantis, I’m proud to have my work featured on your debut offering (which I’ve already heard and it’s awesome!).

Atrax Mantis will release ‘Condemned to Hatred’ at the Hype Entertainment Battle of the Bands 2007 Winners Showcase gig in the Zoo Club on September 14th at 4pm. Don’t miss it!