Christmas Travelling – Getting There

And you thought Santa had it tough, well if he existed I would definitely be respecting his December air miles.

We are spending this Christmas on the west coast of Wales with Lucy’s family and looking forward to it a lot. Rather than being straight-forward we’re taxi’ing Ruth and her Uni friend Leike from Coventry so lots of driving is going down. We’ve been fortunate so far with traffic and weather and hopefully will arrive this evening pre-11pm, currently cruising down the M42 and I am making the most of having Lucy drive by telling you all about our adventure.

I think I may well do one of my infamous mid-afternoon lie-in’s tomorrow if my current state is anything to go from – we’re changing over at Welshpool and I shall be duelling up on RedBull or something similar to keep my eyelids apart and the car safe.

Here’s Ruth just awoken by my camera!

Essie Baby Birthday Video

28th November last month saw my sisters 24th birthday so rather than giving in to the mainstream card and a gift I decided to create a music video for her bringing together a few great things: upside-down chin heads, animation, in-jokes and quickly produced music! We have had a bit of a long running joke about some of the content in the video (foot spa, tony blair and the pronunciation of Essie baby to name a few) so don’t worry if it all seems a bit nonsensical.

Here is another clip from the same birthday video, this one features a bit more variety than the preceding clip and lyrics that are “sick spitting, rhyme ripping, lyric lashing, beat bashing, super smashing flowtation” as I head some of the local “it kids” say.

More Time-Lapse footage of Liverpool

As a follow on from my last (much shorter) time-lapse video post, I have edited a minute of the footage and added extra shots that were taken last night in Huyton and over the M62 footbridge. After a quick “me and Dave have had an idea for some more time-lapse filming locations” phone call, Steve and myself headed to a M62 footbridge in Huyton. Sadly Dave was cooking chicken casserole and time was of the essence so while he was enjoying a home-cooked feast, we were in the cold staring at traffic from a bridge. Next time the Weaver will bring his own magic to the video i’m sure!

Amusingly we noticed that our presence may have been not dissimilar to that of a Transport Police officer with a speed camera and cars were slowing down on their approach to the bridge, much to our amusement. We used a tripod (obviously) for the static motorway shots to keep the light-trails long and straight with a static background and 3/4 second of open-shutter for each shot on my EOS 350d. I was actually pleasantly surprised by the quality of the shots and slightly mystified by the pulsing sky (I assume this is related to headlight bloom somehow) either way a nice effect. As the DSLR shot a frame bigger than you would achieve normally with a camcorder I was able to sequence the images and pan the frame within the edit.

For the wobbly street shot, I set a slightly shorter exposure and kept clicking as we walked through the housing estate, capturing a few Christmas lights and the odd car – although more abstract than the other footage I definitely have a place in my heart for the randomness of the wobble and the way in which some of the shapes created look well … cool.

We’re planning on shooting more of the same over the next few weeks as preparation for the “Salt & Light” video which will be on the Sunday Roast blog as soon as it’s ready, should be pretty cool if things continue as they are going currently.

Lovin’ from Mr Scruff

Everybody loves a bit of self-referentialism don’t they – if you’ve been a regular blog reader you’ll remember the review I wrote for Mr Scruff’s latest album “Ninja Tuna” well he’s only gone and linked to this very blog from his hallowed news page. Check it out here. Preparing for mid-street hugging!

Liverpool Time-Lapse Video

You have to love early sun-sets, especially when you’re after some dark footage and don’t fancy waiting until midnight to get the shot right! This is why I decided to pop out into Liverpool city centre with Steve (The Sunday Roast Blog) and shoot some traffic on my DSLR. The footage has been sequenced, treated and graded before uploaing for all to see. The plan is to use this footage in another upcoming video for the Sunday Roast blog with Steve and Dave Randall which is taking shape quite nicely.

Dave Weaver Day 2008

It’s with us again, Dave Weaver day was celebrated around the world (probably) and people go on Tea crawls in celebration of the tea master of Yorkshire, the patron saint of Tea, the haiku with a maiku, the professor of dark leaves, the brew builder, the bag stirrer of Selby…David Weaver!!

We celebrated with a variety of teas at home (myself and my mum in the photo with Lucy behind the lens). If you’re reading this and it’s still 8th of December then go on…get the kettle on!

Cheese & Wine

As far as Christmas parties go last night was a good’n. Rather than a microwave fresh plastic roast turkey surprise from Wetherspoons or a homeburned Christmas dinner with crackers and cranberry our group (church small group) decided to go the cheese and wine route and what a choice. There is nothing quite as satisfying as a plate stacked high with cheeses from every continent, wines of all colours and the good old age-old tradition of Secret Santa with a credit-crunching £3 limit. So what sort of gifts did we receive for such a meagre amount I hear you cry, please read on:

• Mug, pair of socks and bath salts
• Mullet top-trumps
• Ghostbusters DVD
• Thorntons chocolates
• Slipper socks
• A BIG bag of bubble wrap
• Mug and sweets
• Champagne
• Jack Daniels
• Toy car, grooming kit, cards & dominos
• Tin of fairy cakes
• Plus more (i forget)…

But of course with such a night comes heated debate on water types, pronunciation of butter and which is better Mum or Dad when you’re suffering heart-break. Really you had to be there. In true festive style I thought i’d share with you a very important question:

Please vote if you’re reading my blog, the results are of much importance!