One Week To Go!

Today marks one week until the opening night of Devious Theatre’s production of Dario Fo’s ‘Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay!’.

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

Canada’s Shame

Behind The Scenes on BLACK (Photos Part1)

I’ve just uploaded my first batch of photos from behind the scenes of SAW Films first short film production BLACK.

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.

Supermeat For Dogs!

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

A Painting by Julie Moorhouse

Two years ago I got an email from artist Julie Moorhouse, asking me if I would pose for a painting for an upcoming exhibition ‘Ecce Homo’.

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!

Fashion and Fake Blood – Studio Shoot

I’ve just uploaded two new batches of photographs from a recent shoot in the HotShotz Photography Studio in Callan.

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.

Born Of Hope

If you’re a fan of Lord Of The Rings or a low budget film maker then you have to check out ‘Born Of Hope’.

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.

Funded By The Local Arts Office

Back in November, I was delighted to receive financial assistance from the local Arts Office in the form of partial funding towards the purchase of equipment as part of the Arts Act Grant 2009.

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.

Devious Theatre’s ‘Can’t Pay? Won’t Pay!’

Tickets available from the Set Theatre and RollerCoaster Records. For further details and online ticket bookings check out DeviousTheatre.com.

Evolution Of A Dream – Photo Sequence

I’m pretty much addicted to sequences lately, trying to put together still images more like a scene than just a photo, if that makes sense!?

The other night I had one of those awesome flying dreams and it gave me the idea for the above sequence. Now, anybody who knows me, knows for sure that I can’t fly… so the sequence was more a nightmare for my legs than it was from the technical side (which was also a bit of a nightmare!).

Shot in the HotShotz Photography Studio in Callan (thanks Benny) using my 50mm on auto-focus, four-point wireless lighting, with my D80 set on delayed-timer triggered using remote.

The main problem was being in the air at the right time, whilst staying in the frame and then trying to make the movement of the jump progress. I didn’t have a tripod so I had to rest my camera on a large stool and prop it up with a blanket.

I had to try frame my shot on an empty white backdrop, move into where I thought I should be, trigger the delayed-timer then count not three seconds… not four seconds… but three and a half seconds before jumping into the air just as the lights and camera triggered.

I repeated the process while adjusting my movements in the air to get the progression. Afterwards I added the film strip, did a bit of playing around with colour and varied the opacity through the jumps to make it look like a sequence you’d see in a skate magazine.

The result is an image sequence I’m really happy with, some very sore leg muscles that I never knew I had and the firm belief that jumping is over-rated (Martin Bridgeman agrees)!

You can check out a larger version of the image here along with a link to an alternate sequence. As always comments or feedback are appreciated.