'Tis the season

Every month or so I make a few videos for an event called Alchemi. Working on a format that is used by many larger churches, the sermon or talk is superseded by a short title package whose function it is to introduce the topic that is to be covered in an entertaining, informative, provocative or otherwise thought-provoking manner. The video sometimes poses questions to be answered in the talk, or may just set the scene and tone, providing continuity for a series of talks.

Even though I make teasers, trailers and intro videos for these events, I don't tend to showcase them beyond their intended audience. This is usually because I don't think the videos would fit when taken out of context or just aren't good enough to be widely broadcasted. The intro video for tonight's event is one of the few exceptions to this, as it doesn't need a context and I think can hold it's own.

So instead of waiting until after the event to show off the video, I've published it early.
I hope you enjoy it.



Soundtrack: Instrumental cover of "My Almost Lover"
Performed by Iwillbot http://www.youtube.com/WillTingMusic
Original by A Fine Frenzy http://www.afinefrenzy.com/

Cli-clunk, Whrrrrrrr

Thanks to the wonders of modern digital photograph, merely a week after finishing Little Match Girl and performing at Alchemi, photographs have arrived on my virtual desk of the two events.

As LMG was my first proper foray into theatre lighting (using all my own design and programming) i feel particularly proud that nothing went monstrously wrong and i even enjoyed the experience! Anyway, a picture is worth a thousand words, so here's my dissertation.

LMG in a dream world

Drunk old crone

Cast singing the main theme song

LMG being wrongly accused

Tart singing about poor people enjoying a drink

LMG threatening a rich man for not giving her any money

If you've made it this far, well done! Usually after sifting through a bunch of photos of theatre I tend to blank anything else that happens after them and i imagine others may do likewise.

December'd Alchemi happened to fall on the evening of the church christmas play, which allowed us to tart up the room with lots of expensive things. If it pleases the court, may I present Exhibit A:

Photo by Ceri Herbert

I didn't have the foresight to take a before picture to go with this after one, but the church itself looks VERY different from the picture above.

Theatre, dahling?

Two weeks of almost solid theatre work and it's over! I've acted in three different capacities on three different plays, but surprisingly I'm not worn out by it all! 

The first production was "The Tentmaker" with Going Public Theatre Company, where I was a one-man technical team, squeezing every last drop of performance potential out of Microsoft Powerpoint to try and make it all appear as professional as possible.

The second was a week-long run of "The little matchstick girl" with Pukka productions where I was lampie. Once we had got past the halfway mark, I had refined all my lighting cues, and the actors managed to remember all their lines and cues, making the whole thing very enjoyable and fluid. On the last day of performance we had a matinee, but none of the windows in the church-cum-theatre were blacked out, which meant scene transitions were visible to everyone in the audience, but they all went off without a hitch!

The third and final production was a play based on the nativity story at temple baptist church. Having a bunch of current and ex-glamorgan technical students, the christmas play is always a very technical effort, with lighting, staging and video all being squeezed into a little space. For this I helped program the lights, made a few of the videos and played in the band during the performance. It was probably the most haphazard and sketchily-prepared of all the productions but from where I was stood it all seemed to go as well as a typical church christmas play goes, with kids not knowing how to hold toy sheep, forgotten lines and some managing to turn off their microphones before going on stage!

To help round off the week, the techs kept the christmas play rig up so we could use it in the evening for the second of our Alchemi events. After giving one of the non-technical helpers a crash course in intelligent lighting for events, I hopped up on stage with the rest of the band and played our little hearts out with modern twists on christmas songs and modern worship songs. There was a talk by Hedd, talking about what our "nightmare before christmas" might be. hopefully there will be some photos coming up soon of the matchstick girl, christmas play and alchemi, ill put them up when they appear.

For now though, here is the title video that was played just before the talk to help people get into the right frame of mind for the challenging talk that followed. (Soundtrack by BRIGHTLIGHTS)

In a world...

Christmas is approaching thick and fast my friends, for some this is an exciting prospect, the tree, the carols, the presents, for some this is a daunting time of worry, debt, and slippery roads. Apart from the slippery roads this would be the same for christmas no matter what time of year it fell (Australians have christmas in the middle of their summer so they're living proof!)
We all know the nativity story, about the teenager who becomes pregnant with the Son of God, she journeys with her betrothed to his home town, give birth in a barn, get visited by rich men and poor shepherds (what happened to that gold in the end...). It's every little girls dream to be cast as Mary, every little boys dream to be cast as Herod. But if you think about the story, if it were to happen today it would seem like the start of another doomed relationship that forms part of a broken society.
It's probably likely that even if you've thought about this scenario you've given it more of an overview and never delved too deep into the role of each character in its conception.
On Sunday 12th December, Alchemi presents the most famous birthday in the world through the eyes and mind of Joseph, the "other" guy.

The art of Alchemy

I've got myself involved in a new event being held at my church, it's a sunday evening event with contemporary worship and speakers with bits of multi-media goodness dotted around to keep it all varied. It's name is Alchemi, slightly altered from "Alchemy", in which gold is attempted to be obtained from common metals.


Here below is one such piece of media-wizardry that will be shown in church this sunday morning to help advertise for the evening. It was meant to be shown with "short skirt, long jacket" by Cake playing in the background, but the vocals came in too early and I couldn't be bothered to cut it up into an instrumental version. Enjoy!



Sunday morning promo from Paul Lewzey on Vimeo.

Video, but not the VHS kind

I've been playing around with After Effects and came up with this little teaser for an event I'm helping with soon. I gave the embed code to another webmaster exactly as it appears here but its appeared completely differently, so this is partly a "look at me!" and partly a trial to see if blogs change things when they're not told to.