Mac User’s; I NEED YOUR HELP!

October 6, 2009 by oss237

MacDent Last night myself and AlanSla attempted to bring some life back to my slowly dying 15″ PowerBook G4. I bought it over four years ago, when I was starting college and it has served me well over the last few years despite a few knocks and spills.

I think my three-year commute to college was the first thing to take it’s toll; during third year and throughout my thesis I was using the PowerBook so much that the charger quite literally melted on itself. I replaced it with a Macally charger (I couldn’t wait) which broke a year later only to be replaced by the current Macally charger (which appears to be nearly dead already too). Due to my nasty habit of always plugging in my PowerBook; the battery became very unreliable and wouldn’t last long.

Despite the power issue, I’ve had no other major problems until about a year ago; when the PowerBook started going to sleep at random while in use. The first few times it would be easy to wake it up again by simply pressing Enter, but over time it began to go to sleep more often and it became harder and harder to wake it up. The worst case left the Powerbook asleep for nearly a week until it eventually shut down with no power. I charged it, turned it on and then it seemed fine for a couple of months until it started happening again.

When I bought my iMac; the intention was to clear everything off the PowerBook and reinstall OS X, which I was hoping would sort out this problem. I was transferring and doing backups of anything on the PowerBook I needed when I knocked it off the corner of the desk. The above image shows the nasty dent caused by the fall; but apart from just visible damage, my problems got a lot worse. Ever since the drop, the disc drive on the PowerBook doesn’t work; if I insert a disc it makes some horrible scratching noises and won’t read anything. It can also be very difficult to get it to eject a disc. And it fails to attach to our wi-fi network in the house (I’m told this may not be related).

Without being able to insert discs, I wasn’t sure how to reinstall OS X, until last night when we used the iMac connected to the PowerBook. We set the iMac in Target Disk Mode and used it to install OS X on the PowerBook. The first disc was fine, it took over an hour but it seemed to be working. We moved on to the second install disc and then the PowerBook went to sleep again, it happened a couple of times but would wake up and there seemed to be no problem with the install. Half way through the second install disc it went asleep and would not wake up.

It had to be something to do with the Power (didn’t it?)! After much deliberation as to what to do; we removed the battery. Nothing happened. So we pulled the power and of course it died. We then plugged it in again and turned it on without the battery, it seemed to be working fine and prompted to install the second disc so we did. It took about 45 minutes and then everything appeared to be fine, the PowerBook started from scratch and even managed to find the network. So I did a series of updates for the next few hours and still everything appeared to be okay. And then with no warning; the PowerBook died and can not be restarted.

I’m not much of a techie when it comes to computers (which is probably very obvious from this post) and at this stage I’m well and truly in over my head so if there’s any Mac users out there (or indeed anybody) who has any idea what the problem is here or have had similar problems then please let me know.

At this stage I’m not sure whether this is the end of my PowerBook or not!? Is it a power problem? Should I buy a new battery and yet another charger or is this just a waste of money? Would it be more expensive to repair the dent in the PowerBook (and the drive) than it would be to buy a new one?

Any advice or help would be very much appreciated!

Vultures Episode 7: ‘The Long Goodbye’ & New Promo Shot!

October 5, 2009 by oss237

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The final episode in the Vultures series went online yesterday; here’s the official Mycrofilm’s word on Episode 7 ‘The Long Goodbye’;

With Isabelle Vultour captured and the Pinkertons establishing their firm grip on the town, the gentlemen detectives of V.P.I. must concoct a plan to get Isabelle back, stick it to the Pinkertons and for Vultour and McGrain… avoid a threesome with Natalie Blaise? But in order to do so they must rally the troops. And the actions of the bullying Pinkertons has ensure that there’s plenty of volunteers. This is it. The final battle. The detective apocalypse. Who will reign supreme? Who will prove to the best detective force in town? Or will it all descend into a terrible mess? This is the long goodbye, where the goodbyes are long and the farewells are hard.

With the last episode now online, I’ll be spending the next few days getting to work on hundreds of photos taken during the 10 week shoot for episodes 5, 6 & 7. To avoid spoilers I’ve held back on uploading any of the images.

I’ve also got hours of behind the scenes footage from the shoot that I might use for a bit of editing practice, I haven’t really decided what to do with it yet. Now that it’s all come to a close I’ll also be able to talk about the shoot in detail.

For now I’ve uploaded yet another promo shot of the hapless detectives of V.P.I, which you can check out here on the Oss237.com homepage. I’ve already got some great feedback about the final episode and as always I’d love to hear people’s comments and feedback.

Promo Shoot: Stephen Colfer – Comedian

September 30, 2009 by oss237

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I’ve just uploaded a bunch of new promo shots of actor/comedian Stephen ‘Pip’ Colfer taken in the Hotshotz Photography Studio last month.

For those of you who don’t know Pip, here’s a couple of facts; he’s an actor, I once dropped him on his head whilst attempting to direct him as an actor, he can’t see purple, he assures me he couldn’t see purple before I dropped him on his head. He’s really into computer games, he recently began podcasting about computer games, he also writes game reviews for Culch.ie and has a growing collection of game related t-shirts.

Over the course of the past few months he has gotten into stand-up comedy and it came as no surprise to me that when we discussed doing a promo shoot; it would somehow be game related.

We did however want to keep it simple; so we hit the HotShotz Studio in Callan (thanks Benny) on a Sunday afternoon, bringing every kind of console controller we could get our hands on, joined by Aileen Johnson whose job was to “make Pip look good” and play his Nintendo DS in the background all day.

This was my second shoot in a studio and my second Canon shoot using an EOS 5D with a EF24-105mm zoom lense, I did try some shots using a 70-200mm but didn’t use any of them in the end. The studio is now set up with a wireless trigger system so hopefully next time I’ll be able to use my own gear and avoid all the frustration of not knowing where buttons and settings are.

We played around getting various comedian-esque poses and expressions with the mic stand and then the mic on it’s own; including my favourite “mic in the air” shot. Then we moved to the shots with console controllers, I was hoping to get more of a twisted perspective on these shots but the lens just wouldn’t work with me.

We also tried some Johnny Cash style shots using guitar hero instruments but they didn’t quite work out. I think they’d work better outdoors so maybe it’s something we’ll re-visit in the future.

Post-wise; as I worked on the photos, they were still looking too much like portraits so I added a vignette just to add to the promo shot feel. You can check out my comedian promo shots of Stephen ‘Pip’ Colfer here and here on the Oss237.com homepage where you’ll also find links to the rest of the shots.

As always any comments or feedback is appreciated and don’t forget to keep an eye on Pip’s blog for announcements of upcoming shows.

The Terrific Three Trailer & Behind the Scenes Photos

September 28, 2009 by oss237

A Blast From The Past & Coming Soon!

September 25, 2009 by oss237

Vultures Episode 6: Attack Of The Pinkertons

September 20, 2009 by oss237

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Following last night’s premiere of the final two episodes in the series; Vultures Episode 6: ‘Attack Of The Pinkertons‘ is now online!

The official Mycrofilms’ word on the new episode is this;

“Unemployed and underground (well, in Tennyson’s house), Vultour and McGrain are intent on eluding the clutches of their old friend Natalie Blaise. Tennyson however is looking for a peaceable resolution, no doubt with a strong mug of scald and a chat involved. However, Natalie Blaise doesn’t seem to be open to dialogue. The Pinkertons are making their presence felt. And people are getting hurt. Can V.P.I. regroup and fight back? Will Natalie Blaise emerge from the shadows to explain herself in a long winded villainous fashion? Or is she merely just misunderstood? And what will Tennyson do to fill in the unemployed hours?”

The new episode is essentially a two-parter, with the final installment of the web-series going online in a few weeks time. I got a lot of really great feedback last night and I can easily say that this episode contains my favourite scenes from the series (to avoid spoilers I’ll talk about them at a later date) but I’m very proud that some of the more ambitious scenes worked out they way they did.

Given that this episode was shot over the course of 10 weeks along with episodes 5 & 7, I’ve so far held back on uploading most of my photos from behind the scenes. As the series comes to a close I’ll soon be getting to work on literally hundreds of photos, for now I’ve uploaded a brand new character portrait ‘Meet Brickman‘ to the Oss237.com homepage and rest assured there’s plenty more to come.

So sit back and enjoy Vultures Episode 6: ‘Attack Of The Pinkertons’ and as always any feedback or comments are greatly appreciated.

‘Remember Me In 1983′ (Exhibition Video)

September 14, 2009 by oss237

Clive Barnes – The Ghost Country – Promo Shots

September 11, 2009 by oss237

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CliveGhostCountry5 Today marks the release of Clive Barnes fourth studio album ‘The Ghost Country’ and in line with that release; I’ve finally uploaded my shots from a promo shoot with Clive (taken last March).

For my second promo shoot with Clive, we returned to Woodstock in Ennistioge, where we had shot the promo images used for his 2008 tour with Jeff Lang, but it quickly became apparent that anything we shot there was just going to look too much like the previous photo-shoot.

So the following Friday morning, thanks to the lovely people in Rothe House, we did another shoot throughout the 17th century merchant townhouse. With no real solid concepts or ideas, I played around with different styles.

At that stage the name of the upcoming album was hanging between ‘Window West’ or ‘The Ghost Country’ and so myself and Clive moved throughout Rothe House trying different things; from extreme close-ups of hands playing the guitar to headshots and full body shots.

Using the various large windows throughout the buildings to shoot in natural light; my favourite area being the attic room in the back building of Rothe House, with two small windows back-lighting Clive and a large window to the right of the room providing nice light to the front. I played around with textures on these shots.

The result of the shoot was a staggering amount of shots that I was very happy with, but I’ve uploaded the top 14 shots selected by Clive Barnes which you can see here on my flickr (my favourites are on the Oss237.com homepage).

Clive Barnes ‘The Ghost Country’ is out now and available from iTunes and AmazonMP3. You’ll also find four tracks from the album, reviews of the album and a long list of upcoming tour dates here on Clive’s MySpace.

Turn Around! (A Short Film/Special Fx Test Shoot)

August 10, 2009 by oss237

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Following on from my first special effects test shoot, The Game, I was eager to try shoot some bigger effects stuff, this time collaborating with evil genius Dave Minogue to produce another short film/special fx test shoot; ‘Turn Around‘.

Myself and Dave have talked about working together for quite some time, we’re currently working on scripts and fleshing out ideas, but we were both eager to just get out and shoot something quick and simple. I have a growing list of effects shots I want to try out so we decided to try shooting somebody getting hit by a speeding car.

The first attempt was pretty much a disaster, shooting in an industrial estate on a Sunday afternoon, the weather turned against us and the battery on the camera began to die in the middle of shooting. But more importantly, the car-hit effect itself was awful. Given my lack of green screen or After Effects I had to be able to create the effect in Final Cut Express 4, the first attempt involved reversing footage to make it look like the car was speeding towards me and it just didn’t look good enough.

The second attempt went a lot better, although the weather continued to be a pain in the ass on the day making the continuity of shots a bit rough. We started by shooting all of my sequence in the car park, running through “my lines” and then me reacting to the car hitting me. Then, using the same set-up, I cleared the frame and Dave drove the car through the shot.

Whilst the sky provided an awesome cloudy backdrop in the shot, continuity would prove a problem later when I tried to put the shots together for the car-hit effect. For anybody else trying it, I recommend using a background that will not change. There was also the problem of cars moving from the parking spaces behind me and poor sound due to the main road beside us. But we didn’t worry too much about it, that’s the joy of test shoots.

As we began shooting the car sequences we had to move quickly as the weather got worse, meaning most shots had one take. Dave insisted on being beside a lake polishing his car so we shot that first. This sequence is the only one shot on my Canon HG10, using my MiniDV Steadicam to track in for Dave’s dialogue. Everything else was shot on a Canon XA H1 (thanks Sla). We’d pick a spot of road, I’d set up and Dave would drive by, then he’d turn around, pick me up and we’d move further down the road and repeat the process until we made it back to the car park. Then we shot the car interior.

When it came to editing I began with the effects shot; using the master shot where I turn and react to the speeding car then cropping that shot, matching it with the shot of the car so that it all happened at the same time. I pulled a screen shot from FCE and using Photoshop I removed a still image of me reacting from the background. I then replaced the background with green and imported the image back into my timeline.

Then it was a matter of replacing myself with the still image, just as the car hits me and chroma-keying out the green in the image. Then using key-frames I moved the still image with the car as it drags me out of the frame, adding motion blur to the still image to make it blend in. I deliberately kept the framing of this shot pretty tight, standing near the edge of frame so that once the car hits me it all happens very quickly.

The only problem was that in the time between shooting my reaction to the car hit and the shot of the car speeding through, the clouds had changed dramatically in the background. Once the car entered the frame, it caused a ripple as the skyline jumped from one shot to the other. At first I attempted to crop the shots but it was still noticeable. I then tried to use key-frames to move the crop as I moved and the car moved but again it was still too noticeable, as the crops created little boxes around myself and the car.

To solve the problem (like all my editing problems) I asked Alan Slattery, who gave me a crash course in “nesting”. To be honest I don’t really know how to explain the process but it involved pulling sections of one skyline and layering it on top of the effects shot to eliminate the changing clouds. To add more movement to the still image of me being hit by the car, we distorted the shape of the original green screen image and then added it a couple of frames into the effect; the result gives that impression of me buckling and hitting the bonnet of the car.

I added some sound effects to add to the viciousness of the impact and used a royalty free orchestral flurry as the music used when Dave is driving. It’s a bit repetitive (the loop is only 13 seconds long) but I think it adds something funny to the whole thing.

I sat in with Sla as he worked his colour correcting magic and then used Magic Bullet to add a cooler look, bringing up the blues along with the contrast and saturation. Having viewed ‘The Game‘ on several different monitors over the past month, I noticed there was quite a big difference in the overall look, depending on the computer I was using. In some cases, the footage was a lot darker and a lot more saturated so we were careful not to over do it this time.

As always any feedback or criticism are welcome (bear in mind that this was a practically improvised test shoot) with the emphasis more on the effect at the end than the dialogue making sense etc. If anybody has any questions on the effect then feel free to ask.

Also check out whatsdaveminogue.blogspot.com for Dave’s version of how the shoot went. We’ll soon be getting to work on our next collaboration. But for now, please enjoy: ‘Turn Around!‘

South – Insula: Front Cover Shoot (Photos/Video)

August 3, 2009 by oss237

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Following the launch of South’s debut album ‘Insula’ in Whelan’s with The Lions Mane & Sticky Digit last Friday, I can finally upload the cover shot used on the album, along with a strobist shot from the test shoot and a behind the scenes video from the studio photoshoot.

First up is the shot from the test shoot in my sitting room; having spent a lot of time in the Mill studio with the lads during recording, we had worked out some ideas for the cover; the main ideas involving the band, a couch and a big old television.

With the recording finished and the tracks in the mixing stages, we met up for two photo-shoots on the last weekend in May. The first on the Saturday night, I re-arranged the furniture in my sitting room and used every lamp and light I could find around the house to try different lighting techniques, while the lads chilled out on the couch finding gross things on the internet.

Most of the lighting set-ups were a disaster but the set-up for the finished shot is as follows: there’s a household lamp positioned behind the couch to back-light the lads, another lamp positioned to the right of Ken as a side-light and another lamp lighting the back of the television. The glow from the television wasn’t bright enough to light all three faces so I used the screen from my Powerbook G4 and my Sb800 positioned on the floor (I can’t remember the setting).

The resulting shot was the best thing I got on the night but wasn’t exactly what I was going for or suitable for the album cover, but that’s the great thing about test shoots. The following afternoon we drove to the new HotShotz Studio in Callan (thanks Benny) and having a better idea of what we were now going for, I set up the studio for my first ever shoot on a Canon (EOS 5D with a EF24-105mm Zoom).

My first proper studio shoot was a lot of fun, I spent some time spotting the lights and we spent the afternoon tweaking positions and poses as you can see in the behind the scenes video from the photoshoot (above).

If you haven’t got your hands on a copy of Insula yet then the video features the awesome track ‘Acid’ and a look at the finished front cover design by Ken McGuire.

The album will be available online in the next few weeks through SouthOfficial.com but until then if you want to purchase a copy of Insula then just get in touch with South on MySpace.