how to re-use a building

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE?

I've worked for a few productions with a local Am-Dram Society from Barry called Pukka Productions, and this year they've got big plans for their big yearly performance in december.

Porthkerry Methodist Church is up for sale in barry, and a local community arts group want to turn the church into the two-storey "Canolfan Porthceri Centre", incorporating galleries, a theatre and some various other arty rooms, a bit like The Gate in cardiff.

This year Pukka productions decided to utilise the space that the church offered, and use it for a week long run of performances.

The view in the panorama is what the audience will be seeing. The pews will have been taken away by December, but the heating pipes that follow the lines of the pews in a zig-zagwill most likely stay in place(above the floor!). This means that the whole area the pews now cover will have to be covered in staging a foot off the ground. 

The balcony at the back of the room is pretty treacherous to say the least, and i'm not sure about hanging fly bars from the roof beams, so back and top lighting will probably not be happening.

The first thing the Director said to me was that the play included lots and lots of complicated and drastic lighting changes! So of course I'm looking forward to seeing the script and finding out just how drastic these changes are meant to be!

It's going to be an interesting few months leading up to this play, I'll be sure to let you know what happens along the way, whether you like it or not!

Don't look down!

It's a new craze sweeping the photographers of the world!!!
Well, no actually, it's not.
But I like it.

Some good friends of mine decided to take it upon themselves to smarten up my roguish appearance and buy me a monocle for my birthday, I think it's working.

                      

Feel the burn...

Quick! the last of the summer sunshine is outside, catch it before it escapes until May!

Thank you Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm thrilled to be here

I haven't been outside much in the last few days, trying to get some work done and prepare for the coming term. Yet again I bagged a bedroom that only gets about an hour of direct sunlight so I had to venture out into Le Jardin to get some rays.

I've been playing about with taking photos holding one end of a tripod so that camera is looking down the tripod at me. When I find one I like I'll post it up.

Five go camping

Dear me, the summer times have flown by!

Cardiff's students have buggered off, so the union's been dead and I there hasn't been much else on locally. 

So, with nothing else to do I decided to go and work at Soul Survivor weeks B and C in Shepton Mallet as a video editor for the Seminar recording team. I was promised a shiny new iMac and fun times, both of which came true! It was like christmas in a field.

Although the office had no windows we were allowed out into the big wide world two or three times a day to eat and pick berries. 

This year was the first year that seminars were being filmed, so we had a whole bunch of new problems to overcome, like a 4Gb record limit on the cameras, cheap tripods that are held together with PVC tape and renders that took 4 hours for every hour of footage!

The team had a team leader, a deputy, editors and camera/sound ops, with some ops having a go at editing. Over the two weeks I got to share the office with these monkeys

Sorry if you're eating...

The office was split up into three sections, audio editing, video editing, and the cinema (with surround sound system) and that is where I lived from 8.30am to 12am every day for two weeks.