The entire cast of Devious Theatre’s ‘Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay!’ have been branded public enemies!

You can read interviews with Kilkenny’s Most-Wanted over on DeviousTheatre.com and we’re also hi-jacking the airwaves on the Edwina Grace show on KCLR96fm this afternoon around 4:15pm.

Check out this awesome short film, Tokyo/Glow written and directed by Jonathan Bensimon.

It follows the journey of an illuminated man from a crosswalk sign as he embarks on an adventure. Shot on location throughout Tokyo using thousands of individual digital stills, the light suit was constructed using hundreds of feet of high-voltage LED rope and a translucent nylon outer shell to achieve the striking effect of the illuminated man.

Post-production included weeks of extensive roto-scoping and compositing, a colour grade, and once the effects were complete the thousands of still images were pieced together. Quite simply it’s amazing!

Make sure and keep an eye on DeviousTheatre.com for all sorts of behind the scenes bloggery, news and updates.

The group was set up late last year by local film makers Kevin Hughes, Pat Kenny and Damien Donnelly; to establish a network of local film makers with a view to enhancing film production in the South East.

They used the ArtLinks forum to organise weekly meetings and assembled a crew varying from first-timers to industry professionals, to work on two short film productions (BLACK and Bitche’s Coven) shot on a RED camera.

BLACK was my second opportunity to work as a Data Downloader with a RED and despite the technical nightmare it turned into and the fact that the crew spent a long cold day shooting in a muddy graveyard in the grounds of Shankill Castle in early December, it was a lot of fun.

The films are currently in post-production, I’m hoping to get a look at the early cuts soon and I’ll talk more about the shoot in the next few weeks.

For now check out the first batch of photos from behind the scenes on BLACK here on the homepage with links to the rest on Flickr. Plenty more photos coming soon.

For behind the scenes blogs and ticket bookings check out DeviousTheatre.com.

I’d never done anything like it before so couldn’t resist giving it a try. I met with Julie one afternoon, we had a great chat then she took some photos and sketches. Unfortunately I never made it to see the exhibition when it ran in the South Tipperary Arts Centre and so never saw the painting, until now.

Last week I got the above photo and despite being slightly weirded out every time I look at it, I think the painting is pretty awesome. Thanks Julie!

First up is a series of fashion shots with Carey Harte. I worked with Carey about two years ago on the cover for the Atrax Mantis debut E.P ‘Condemned To Hatred‘, we’ve talked about doing more shoots ever since and finally got around to it two weeks ago. With a lack of models available, Carey said she’d step in front of the lens to finally get things started.

I’m still trying to get my head around studio lighting set-ups and didn’t want to go for standard portrait lighting so before the shoot I did a lot of research into different techniques. I thought it best to start with a single light set-up; using an Espirit GM500 with a large softbox positioned just left of Carey throughout the shoot with various outfits (depending on the outfit and pose I moved the light closer or further away), with a large reflector positioned on her right to bounce some of the light on the other side (switching between silver and gold), shooting on my 18-135mm at F8, 125 shutter speed.

For a first attempt at this type of photography I’m happy with the results and instead of posting single shots I put together a large piece showing various outfits and poses, building the filmstrips from scratch, you can check it out here on the Oss237.com homepage and there’s also links to some of the individual shots on Flickr.

As we were finishing up with the shoot, Jonathan Doran arrived for a quick shoot he wanted to do. A cool but simple concept of a guy listening to headphones with blood trickling down from his ears. Carey quite happily let him take the spotlight and got her make-up kit out to create the trails of blood.

This time I went with three-point lighting using two Espirit Gm500’s and an L-400F all at half power, shooting at F8 shutter speed 160. We didn’t spend much time on the shots but again I’m happy with the results. I’ve played around with fake blood and earphones before, I really like the idea and I think I’ll return to it again soon.

We started with a trail of blood from the ear and then Carey added some blood coming from Jonathan’s eye for a series of shots I’m calling ‘The Sounds Of Suffering’ which you can check out here on the Oss237.com homepage with links to more shots on Flickr.

Thanks once again to Benny for letting me use the studio and thanks to Carey & Jonathan for stepping in front of my lens, I hope you like the results.

If anybody reading this is interested in doing a shoot then please get in touch, just leave a comment here on the blog or email me: oss237[at]gmail.com.

As always any feedback or comments on the shots would be appreciated. More new photos on the way soon.

It’s a low-budget fan-made feature-length, based on appendices from LOTR, shot over a period of six years with a cast of 400, and it was produced for only £25,000.

The film runs at 1 hour and 11 minutes and due to copyright laws it’s only available to watch online.

Given how it was made, it’s damn impressive. Make sure and check out BornOfHope.com for all sorts of production diaries, concept art and more.

The partial funding has helped me make my recent purchases; a Nikon Speedlight Sb-900 flash unit and an Epson Stylus Photo R2880 printer.

The Nikon Speedlight Sb-900, my second flash, will help me to develop my skills using the strobist style of photography. Using both my flashes through wireless remote triggers will give me a sort of mobile studio set-up.

Whilst I still need to get some softboxes and stands, I can’t wait to spend the next few months experimenting with double flash set-ups and coming to grips with the ridiculous amounts of settings possible between my Sb-800 and Sb-900. I really think it’s going to have an amazing affect on my photography.

Getting the Epson Stylus Photo R2880 photo printer means that for the first time ever I can offer printing services to anybody I shoot with, able to provide prints as large as A3 size. It also means I will finally be able to exhibit my work in print form. I’m currently working on a plan for my first ever exhibition, which will hopefully take place later in the year.

I began doing print tests during the week, I’m still trying to tweak variances between colour settings on my monitor and the printer, but it’s really awesome to see my shots in large print form for the first time.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be making some adjustments to the website to allow for print purchasing. Details on the exhibition will be announced in due time and hopefully the results of my new flash set-up will start appearing online soon.

All that’s left for me to say is thanks very much to all the staff in the local Arts Office and the independent members of the panel who approved my application, the support is very much appreciated and will be put to good use in the coming months.