Eric Arthur Blair’s (better known as George Orwell) birthday and the 10th Anniversary of the 1984 Symposium, a gathering put together by Christian “Documentally” Payne to bring together some like (and not so like) minded people to discuss issues surrounding civil liberties, surveillance and the current political climate. (And this year quite a lot about Hammocks and barefoot shoes…)
Christian always holds his gathering on George’s birthday regardless of what day of the week it is, this year it happened to coincide with the Orwell Society’s visit which happens on the closest Sunday. That meant that as well as our merry band, a number of Orwell Society members were in attendance including Richard Blair (Orwell’s adopted son) and Archie Blair (Orwell’s grandson), who both gave readings from Orwell’s writings.
Christian also had a special treat for those of us in attendance, a specially brewed bottle of “Wallop”, a “mild” beer brewed to the same recipe as the beer Orwell himself was fond of, with custom designed labels by Jess Payne. (“Wallop” is rhyming slang – Wallop the child, Mild:)
I’m, of course, a long time fan of Orwell and in particular “1984” (though arguably Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” is closer to our current shitshow situation – The oppressive state does not need to force data collection etc upon us we submit to it willingly (Facebook et al) in exchange for shiny things…..) so to celebrate his birthday at his graveyard was a great honor and one I hope to repeat, along with Documentally and the other participants for many years to come (until such gatherings are illegal of course :)
You can hear the full readings by Richard and Archie Blair HERE (Audio recorded by Me and edited by Documentally)
Plenty of other #1984symposium content over on the Twitter hashtag HERE
Technical mumbo jumbo:
Video shot on Sony A7sII with Sony FE 28-70 lens, CameTV Optimus gimbal, Rode Video mic pro and RodeLink wireless filmmaker kit.
(Photo courtesy of Christian “Documentally” Payne, tattoos and receding hairline all mine)
Additional footage from Documentally’s Livestream of Richard and Archie Blairs readings.
Music “Diffusa Est” by the Soli Sisters (used under a creative commons license)
Well…We’re here again, the end of another rotation around the sun.
This is a year I will never forget as it was the year I finally escaped Japan – after 10 years and 1 day exactly.
5 months in to my rehab/recovery and I can honestly say ….. well I could write a book on how I feel about the whole thing, but I won’t for everyone’s sake….Let’s just say, so far, it feels 99% like the right decision.
As I settle into my new life the only things I miss from that god forsaken set of islands off the coast of China are my dear friends (that was always going to be the hardest part) and natto, and I’ve found a natto supplier close by…
I’m splitting this years end of year look back into 2 pre and post Jexit (see what I did there? Topical :) posts to make them less ridiculous to read and because that’s how the year has felt.
A big thank you to the friends (new and far away) and colleagues who made it as always an interesting, productive year.
Thanks also to the clients who hired me and gave me the opportunities to work on some interesting and diverse projects and a pre-emptive thanks to all the new clients who are going to hire me in 2017 to do amazing work for them…
So settle in for part 1 of the run through of the bastard that was 2016……
January
Whilst I was hiding my scary tattooed body away from the poor easily frightened Japanese people in a private hot spring bath 2016 started the way we were soon to understand it meant to go on, with the death of David Bowie closely followed by actor Alan Rickman…
I published my collaboration video with calligrapher Nakajima Hiroyuki promoting his upcoming aptly named “LIFE” exhibition. (All shot on an iPhone 5s by the way…)
In what was to turn out to be the beginning of a great friendship I interviewed legendary calligrapher Koji Kakinuma for the documentary I’ve been DPing and producing in 2016, “Traces of the soul” about calligraphers worldwide…
The awesome talents that are Eiichi & Atsuko “Scart” Miyamoto finally (seriously Eiichi….finally!!) opened their gallery in Tsukiji and I was lucky enough to get riotously drunk with them at the opening party…
I interviewed super lovely guy and talented calligrapher Hiroyuki Nakajima for the second time, again for “Traces of the soul”…
After a shoot for his “Strangers” fashion label (All the product and look shots over on the site where shot by me) I grabbed a quick portrait of my dear friend Kevin Mullin and his writer/editor soon to be wife AnneMarie Luck…
I went to CP+ 2016 with Matt Allard from Newshooter and even ended up with my first cameo of the year in the video:)…
We published the 2nd and what turned out to be final episode of the “You’re not from ’round here” podcast this time with the awesome Anthony Davis…
Spotted a great paste-up in Shibuya alongside a new 281_Anti nuke sticker…
And I was enjoying taking pictures of the fucked up-ness of Tokyo again thanks to the low-light capabilities of my recently purchased Sony A7SII and having my hand firmly on the exit door…
Matt Allard and I also went to NAC in Tokyo to test out some $1300 Arri Sky Panels and while we were there we tested my $70 Pergear light with some interesting results…
Underworld played a secret gig in Shibuya and I was at the soundcheck and got to meet Karl & Rick…
Sometimes it snows in April, and this year it most definitely did prompting me to write my 1st (and probably last) blog post on a celebrity death…
I half killed myself trying to keep up with Koji Kakinuma on another shoot for “Traces Of The Soul”
I did the motion graphics for the new News Shooter ident which plays at the beginning of every video…
I spent several hours a day with my head in After Effects working on my short film…
I held a $20,000 paint brush at a secret shoot…
My good friend the talented and lovely Laura Liverani was in town and she had an exhibition of her Ainu photographs at a sneak peak of the Ainu documentary she is working on…
I had given up not trying to frighten people when I went out…
I was filming with Icelandic DJ/Producer Arni Krisjanson for his crowd funding campaign…
There were some interesting parties…
Most days I wanted to scream this at the top of my lungs…
There was brief respite from losing people…(obviously thats not true, but there was a brief respite in losing people who had touched me in some way)
June
I went to Bali for “Brightening horizons by paying it forward” and directed/shot & Edited a video promoting the Banyumala Jungle Waterfall Trek in Wanigiri village.
It was awesome…
Last week we finally managed to make it down to Cornwall to see my dear old friend and amazing artist Mr Muju and his equally awesome partner Miss Muju in their beautiful little country cottage. A blissful week of epic Cornish scenery, lovely veggie food, reggae tunes, travelling in style in Miss Muju’s VW camper van and even a day of body boarding! I couldn’t just have a holiday though, where would the fun be in that? So with my new CAME TV Optimus gimbal (a great excuse to put it through it’s paces) and trusty Sony A7SII I filmed loads of stuff for my documentary in progress on Team Muju and put together this little film of our week.
Found a great tune to use under a creative commons licence for the soundtrack by DuBoLoGy – “Xylo Riddim + Dub (Yellow Dub)”
I am proud to present my latest short film “Not With A Bang” (Title stolen from T.S.Elliot because I have delusions of grandeur) the result of months of work and what amounts to a final parting shot to Japan.
I advise watching it full screen on a reasonable sized monitor or it won’t make a lot of sense and you’ll miss most of it.
I’ve had the general idea for this kicking around for ages but it was only after a conversation with my good friend Sean Lotman a few months ago that the idea finally crystallized into something I thought I could attempt.
I knew roughly how to realize it but I also knew it would involve a LOT of work and the learning of some new software (Mocha for all the motion tracking) and getting much better at compositing in After Effects.
I had no idea when I started just how long it would take!
Motion tracking 30 signs into one shot and compositing them so they look like they are part of the scene and not just tacked on is a laborious process for very little pay off in some cases but I knew if I was going to do this I had to do it to as well as I possibly could.
Cue days of watching tutorials, trying things, refining them and frame by frame motion tracking. Rinse and repeat and repeat and repeat…….
In total it has taken more than 2 months of work…..for 3 minutes of film!
The end result isn’t technically perfect but…..in my humble opinion it’s pretty damn good. I doubt if anyone other than other motion graphics and composting people will even see most of the imperfections.
I have a new respect for the guys & girls that do it full time for a living because it makes your brain hurt and some parts of it are really fucking tedious!
That said it was a really interesting learning experience and a great way to improve my skills and for that reason alone it was worth all the time.
For the record all the statistics are from reliable sources.
Big thanks and respect to my sometimes collaborator and good friend Sean Bonner under his new alias //delay(5000); for making the music that adds an extra level to the soundscape.
Thanks also to the mystery girl (you know who you are:) who I filmed for the people disappearing shot.
On a windy day last week I went to my local park to do some test shooting with my new A7SII in 120fps slow motion mode.
I shot handheld with Picture Profile off and the Neutral setting with auto white balance. I used a Pentax 35-70mm K-mount lens on a Fotoga adapter.
The footage was conformed to 24p in Premiere, black and white levels adjusted, some saturation and a touch of sharpening added.
My take aways from this are:
It looks pretty damn good.
120fps is not really slow enough for this kind of stuff, it looks great for people but the leaves were moving so fast in the wind that 240 or 480fps would look better.
I over exposed quite a few of the shots. I didn’t use an ND filter which I really should have. No built in ND’s is the A7SII’s biggest downside IMHO, well ok that and no XLR audio inputs unless you buy the expensive XLR-K2M.
Steady shot is pretty impressive but even with it this would have been better with a tripod, I was getting blown around by the wind. Luckily slow motion makes it look ok.
Even in this mode the footage is head and shoulders above 24p footage out of my trusty old 5DmkII. There is definitely a skin tone advantage to the 5D (if properly white balanced) but that obviously wasn’t apparent in this case.
My old Pentax K-mount lenses are surprisingly good. The 35-70 is prone to a little flaring but hey that’s cool right?
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Spotted a great paste-up in Shibuya alongside a new 
