Big Brother, No One Is Watching You!

I notice with some ranting smugness that nobody is watching Big Brother at all this year.


A long time back, Channel Four had built itself a hard-won reputation for edgy, innovative and unpredictable programming; they even used to fund lots and lots of film and animation production. Yet witness the endless freak-show of wife-swapping makeover reality programming they carry these days.

Well, it seems the game's well and truly up now. Lets hope there's anyone left at Channel Four HQ with some new ideas they're going to need something to fill that rather large void...

Awards Night Report

Well a fab night out with some TANDEM friends at the Rushes Soho Shorts Awards night last Thursday (July 30th). This year, the event was at the Curzon Cinema, a much classier event than on previous occasions; the change of venue being a definite plus. It was great to get an invite as a finalist director. 'TXT ISLAND' was up against two other animated shorts, 'This Way Up' and 'This is Where We Live'.

After the jury deliberated (and probably cogitated too) they chose 'This Way Up' as the winner. Well done to Smith and Foulkes, congrats to all the folks at Nexus.

1.0

Not a whole lotta blogging for a while eh? Some good news today though, TXT ISLAND will be showing at the onedotzero festival at the BFI cinema here in London in September, with international tour dates to possibly follow.

Foam Sweet Foam

I'm making a few models out of foam board and other bits and pieces. Maybe these will become the sets for another stop motion film, maybe not; fun to do anyhow...

TXT ISLAND : The Trailer

TXT ISLAND seems to be getting some nice responses out there. I've just re-cut the trailer to refer to the film's YouTube home over on the Tandem Channel.

It's Official!

The news embargo is now lifted; My short film "TXT ISLAND" has been selected for the 2009 Rushes Soho Shorts Festival.
Also, tonight (June 1st 7:00pm) we're off to the "Short & Sweet" short film evening at cafe 1001, Brick Lane to see it play there.

see TXT ISLAND now on YouTube!

TXT ISLAND : Featured by Shots

My short film 'TXT Island' is the front page item on Shots magazine website. For a treat this bank holiday weekend only, you can go over there to see the whole film!

TXT ISLAND : The Trailer

I know it's a little bit indulgent to make a trailer for a film that's only three and a half minutes long anyway, but I couldn't resist it, could I? Click here to see the TXT Island trailer.

The A to Z of TXT Island

Here's a still of the plastic alphabet I used to make the film. I've got some titles and maybe another project in mind for these...

'TXT Island' wraps !!!

TXT Island is finished !!! TXT Island is my stop-motion animated short film featuring animated letterforms; it's made using those plastic pegboard signage panels you sometimes see in bars and cafes etc. The film is currently featured on the news page over at www.tandemfilms.com. There are a few stills and an extract of the film viewable there.
This blog will be updated with further news about the release as it happens...

Nizo 4080 in Camera Hospital

This week on camera hospital, take a look at this fella... That's right, it's another German Braun Nizo, a younger one this time and would ya look at that gorgeous black coat... But he came in to the hospital with a dodgy trigger and couldn't run anymore... We had to operate...


Well, it was touch and go for a while, and to be frank there were bits all over the place, but it's good news. He's back together again and whirring like a contented puppy... bet he can't wait to go out and play...

Sensors And Sensitivity

Working late in the lab again! I'm trying to detect the film sprocket holes for my DIY cine film scanning project and in the process finding out quite a lot about photo-transistors. The plan is to mount one of these into my film transport mechanism to give feedback to the stepper motor. With some great support from Archie over at PC-control.co.uk I've made a little circuit to test the sensors and measure the high and low voltages they give.



By placing a bit of card or some white super8 film leader next to the sensors I had the circuit tuned quite well (using the salvaged Epson printer proximity sensor) to the point where I thought this to be a viable route... However, tests with actual film strips gave a very curious result... Though seemingly black to the naked eye, movie film seems to have little or no opacity when seen by the phototransistor.
Realising that the Epson photo diode/phototransistor device uses infrared light, I thought I'd take a look an infrared look at some movie film with my miniDV camera in nightshot mode...



Bingo! The cine film is pretty much transparent under IR lighting. There's no way an IR photosensor will detect the sprocket holes when the film base itself is rendered almost completely transparent. I'll be looking at sensors in the visible light range next...
(Also of interest here, notice how the film looks so scratched under IR lighting; some film scanners use just such an IR pass to enable infrared cleaning of scanned images.)

DIY Film Scanner : One Small Step

This grey and blue thing might not look like much, but it's my very first Windows application! The StepForward and StepBackward buttons tell my StepperBee card to move the stepper motor forwards and backwards. A strip of Super8 film sitting in my DIY film transport moves accordingly... Up until now, I've always been sending instructions to the StepperBee using the controller application that came with the board, so this represents a fairly dramatic development. For a long time I've wanted to make things and control them from the PC, so this is a real first.

To produce this exciting code, I downloaded Microsoft VisualBasic 2008 Express Edition, then pasted in the code found at the StepperBee website.



Unfortunately the middle 'Snapshot' button doesn't do anything yet. Triggering the Sumix camera and saving the images was something I hoped to do within the Sumix camera application, but this doesn't seem to be possible. I think the camera will have to be triggered by my application somehow, and I suspect that a whole other can of worms lies therein.

Next up also I need to find out more about the optical proximity sensor I've recovered from an old Epson printer... can this be hooked up to one of the StepperBee's input channels and if so, how accurately might it pick up on the tiny film sprocket holes? Stay tuned...

Up To The Wire...

Up late again... Still trying to finish the short film 'TXT Island' hopefully JUST in time for submission to the
Rushes Soho Shorts Festival 2009. 2 days time now... Russell over at Shrooty is taking care of the music/sound and doing sterling work too. A few wee picture fixes, a few more renders, then the submission DVD could just make the closing date...

The DIY Film Scanner Adventure Continues...

Here's The Sumix camera in DIY cine scanner mode. The lightbox and big tripod are rather cumbersome but temporary necessities. The stepper motor here does advance the film, but unfortunately a random amount each time! Still, both stepper motor and camera are under USB control from the PC. A milestone of sorts but redesign of film transport needed.

Another Super8 Frame Sumix Capture

Another early 90s Super8 cine frame. I've got a stepper motor advancing the film under the camera now, but the drive is uneven, so not much use yet for any automated capturing. Making a film advance mechanism is proving to be a VERY demanding task indeed!

This image is captured at 1280x1024 using Sumix 150M monochrome camera with macro lens tubes, Super8 film backlit by lightbox. Some DeNoise and Levels applied in After Effects.

Super8 Frame Sumix Capture

Above is one of the Super8 frames (seen in previous post) imaged by the monochrome Sumix 150M camera. The 35mm lens with 60mm worth of extension tubes lets the image fill the frame. The end of lens is about 30mm away from the subject; again this is shot on lightbox. Some Photoshop de-noise and levels applied.

Until I try combining three RGB filtered images or buy a colour USB camera like this one here... maybe I'll just have to colour these in by hand :)

Macro Super8 Rephotography

I'm back scratching the 8mm itch again... This still taken with canon350d, standard 18-55mm kit lens and Raynox macro adaptor attached. Super8 film strip is backlit by lightbox and held flat with edge of plastic ruler (note the millimetre markings).

These frames happen to be some peacenik badges on a stall at the Beverley Rainbow festival, Humberside circa 1990.

TXT ISLAND is almost here

The picture is almost ready for my new short film 'TXT Island'. I'm hoping to finish this in time for the Rushes Soho Shorts Festival deadline, but that's the 23rd April, only about three weeks from now! It'd be nice to make it; I recall using the deadline for the 1996 Soho Shorts festival as a self-imposed target to finish work on 'Evo'... was that really 3 years ago?

Cardboard Engineering

Messing about with bits of card to make some kind of geodesic structure...

Awestruck

Just seen this music promo for Röyksopp's 'Happy Up Here'. The director is Reuben Sutherland; I've been watching anything he does for a while now, somewhat in awe...


Happy Up Here from Röyksopp on Vimeo.

Architecture

Gotta love the tiled-arch eco house on Channel 4's Grand Designs this week.


Channel 4 © 2009

Move Along, There's Nothing To See

Did anyone spot this little change to the UK law introduced earlier this week? Seems like it's just become that bit more illegal for citizens to take photos in public places. If the photos include pictures of the police, the photographer can be arrested under anti-terror laws!

Two-Faced Turnaround

I know, I know... after several years of derision I really did join FaceBook this weekend...

Coming Soon?

I'm working on a new short animation film,
maybe this is its title...

Merry Christmas 2008

We sent out family xmas cards with 2 designs this year...

Finn's 'Still Life With Tree and Presents'
2008 felt-tip pen and rubber stamp on paper.

Freya's 'Abstract Study in Shiny Thread.'
2008 perforated paper woven with shiny thread.

Oliver Postgate R.I.P.

Shame to hear the news that animation pioneer and storyteller Oliver Postgate died this week aged 83. Last July I heard him on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs and was prompted to check out his website. I read his essay Does Children's Television Matter? and then felt the urge to email him with my supporting views. I'm not in the habit of sending out unsolicited fan mail, but to my surprise I got a brief but encouraging reply from the man himself.
The worlds he created were as original as they were charming and will be fondly remembered by many.

Getting Closer With Tubes

Using extension tubes of various lengths with the Sumix camera and f=35mm lens to get macro close-ups of familiar desktop objects. The last shot of a ruler shows a subject 5mm wide can be captured; this is about the same width as a Super 8 frame.

Nuts!

Teeny Weeny Camera

First pics. from the Sumix 150M camera I'm playing about with now. Though it's strictly black and white only, this little industrial CMOS camera makes 1280x1024 images, has a 2/3" sensor and can be triggered from an external source. My hope is that this can be integrated into my cine projector for frame by frame super8 film capture. The lens I've got with this c-mount camera has a focal length of 35mm; I've ordered some extension tubes to see if this might go macro enough to capture the movie frames straight from the film.

The DIY TK Set-up

Here's the set-up used to digitize the 'California 08' super8 film.

1: Modified Chinon 2000GL projector. Adapted to run slow (around 3 fps with pulsed motor control circuit) also with low voltage cooler-running light source to prevent film burning. A magnet attached to the rotating shutter disc triggers a reed switch every time a frame is stationary in the gate. A hacked mouse circuit provides a USB click to the host PC to trigger capture of each frame.
2: 120mm diameter plano-convex condenser lens to capture aerial image thrown by projector. Lens held in place by home-made foam board mounting.
3: Borrowed Canon XM2 3CCD mini DV camcorder captures images at PAL resolution, connects to host PC via IEEE1394 (Firewire).
4: Host PC (Windows XP) runs Cinecap software. Incoming mouse clicks from projector ensure frame by frame capture to hard disc.

Super 8 Film: 'California 08' (on Vimeo)

California 08: super8 film from project on Vimeo.

Super8 Film: 'California 08' (on YouTube)

Californi8

Well the Kodak 64T film I shot in California has come back from the lab in Germany. The first cine film I've shot for a very long time. Mixed-results with the 'new' Nizo S800 camera though; there's just too much jitter in the footage and a big fat hair in the gate. Still it's an early '70s era camera and probably hasn't had a service in a while (if ever.) The old footage I've been looking at from my student days is way steadier than this, so stumping up for a camera servicing is probably the next step.

On a plus note, these stills show some results from my DIY telecine set-up. (modified Chinon 2000GL projector, Condenser Lens, Canon XM2 DV camera, Cinecap software). I'll probably show some detail on this system soon, but meantime, enjoy the holiday snaps.

Further Adventures in Telecine

After around three months research at the extreme edges of DIY film-making, technologists in Enfield have today switched on a machine that captures some of the tiniest and most elusive sub-atomic images known to man ; the so-called 'Super 8 frames'...

Following in the esteemed footsteps of of Roger Evans, Fred's Telecine and with guidance from the extensive notes published at diy super8 telecine the UK based team have extensively modified a Chinon movie projector to create a home-telecine unit for 8mm film.


Jeff on Bridlington beach 1992

We can reveal that the initial tests have been quite promising. A single 50ft reel of super 8 film was digitized frame by frame at PAL resolution at around 3 images per second. Slightly higher speeds may be obtainable soon, and upgrades to the camera and optical elements will surely follow...

Happy 3rd Blogday

Hey! This blog is celebrating its 3rd birthday. Was it really Monday, August 22, 2005 when this thing started?

16x9.tv

One of the domain names I'm selling over at sedo.co.uk has received an offer and is thus now up for auction this week, ending this Thursday 28th August 2008. The sale page for www.16x9.tv can be found here