*Guest Post* Day 1 - Arriving in Nairobi

After 3 hours sleep the night before, frantic packing and a strong coffee, I was ready for the journey to Nairobi and then on to the charity, Nyumbani.  Leaving a wet, cold England early in the morning, flight case and tripod in tow, I departed ready for an experience I already knew would be life changing and priceless (both personally and professionally) to have this opportunity to make a documentary of such a special place to help fundraise.   An entire day slipped past in an airbourne blur.  As my first day at the Nyumbani Children’s Home dawned bright and early, I was woken up by the sound of the children of Nyumbani, HIV positive and AIDS orphans given a place to live by the charity, playing before mass.  

In the subsequent Mass the atmosphere of hope and enthusiasm was palpable with the children singing tribal-inspired tunes as they danced the blurry eyes of a Sunday morning away.  They smiled with a happiness you rarely see among those in full physical health in the UK, let alone the severely ill.  As the day progressed, the other volunteers and I toured the Home.  It was almost possible to forget that these children were even ill as they raced around on their scooters and laughed in the dappled afternoon sunlight of the playground.  This thought that I had discovered some Kenyan utopia hovered in my mind as an infectious happiness spread over everyone until you saw the grim reminder of reality as we entered the grave yard; it stood testament to the destructive power of the AIDS pandemic and lasting courage of the children living at Nyumbani at the moment because they did not shy away from or fear this presence of the possible future and that these children need help.  This first day was an inspiration and I got some beautiful footage of how these orphans quality of life has improved so much due to the continuing efforts of all the staff, volunteers and sponsors at Nyumbani. Today was a ‘relaxing’ day and the real work of filming the art festival begins tomorrow.

- Will Stone

Arabella Clarke - Special Effects Make-up Artist.

At the Colchester Film Festival on the 6th of October Signals will be working alongside Arabella to lay on a morning of make-up and green screen filmmaking fun. Arabella has some great experience with all things gory and we hope that you'll come along get made-up and and star in a short green screen special effects film, It should be lots of fun and what's more the morning will be FREE!

Here's some more from Arabella...

"I started off with painting, sculpture, drawing and photography, and had a few exhibitions in London. While I was doing portrait photographs I thought it would be a great idea to learn how to do people’s make-up. I also liked the blood on the Cradle of Filth videos and magazines and was inspired by special effects in music videos. I did an I.T.E.C. Level 3 Diploma in Theatre, Fashion and Media Make-Up at City and Islington College and did a bit of freelancing and eventually I started getting paid work and jobs through word of mouth. I even did some freelance jobs for the B.B.C. I then discovered that I had been living opposite a very good make-up school for years, which was hidden round the corner in Hampshire Street in Camden. I had a full time and evening to fund my make-up course. I chose which modules I wanted to do which were special effects, prosthetics, character make-up, bald caps and period hair. I was taught by Stuart Bray who did Shaun of the Dead and Harry Potter and Jeanne Richmond, a BAFTA award winner and Raphael Fieldhouse, a champion body painter.

I like doing special effects make-up, small prosthetics, the blood pump effect and body painting and anything creative. I like having a brief which gives me room for creativity. I enjoy doing work for film, television and music videos. 

My favorite projects to work on have been through the B.B.C.  True Stories, episodes 1 and 2. I worked on the Florence Nightingale and Elizabeth Fry parts. It was great fun filming in Fort William in Portsmouth as it added to the whole atmosphere and excitement of the project.  I enjoyed doing a mixture of character and period make-up along with my favorite special effects and prosthetics make-up. I pre-made gelatin prosthetics for it at Elstree Studios, and worked as an assistant to Selen Hurer.  We had to do lots of special effects and prosthetic wounds on soldiers and had to dirty up the prisoners. I will never forget getting up at 6 am to watch it on T.V. with my credits on it. They gave me a copy to keep which was great.

Another favorite project I worked on was Phil Berridge’s music video for Paul Foster Dent for his band Basement Torture Killings. I enjoyed working on this project because I was helping my friend make his music video and which was a great thing to do and I also love metal music so it was great to be doing a metal music video. I also enjoyed it simply because the director absolutely loved my work and has given me good references since.

Another great project was a short film called Heartbroke Hitman. I had to create a bullet wound prosthetic, this turned out quite well and I got to work closely with armourers and learnt a lot about weapons and guns and how they create the types of wounds they do, which helped with my special effects creation. The crew was also great to work with.

I have done some Colchester based work on a project called the Waking Witch, which was at Colchester Institute, with members of the film club. I did some gothic make-up, beauty make-up, a black eye a scratch and burn special effects. The burn special effects took a lot of sculpt gel to create and I made it with this and bruise gel and charcoal by stippling with my stipple sponge and a little bit of purple grease paint.

I am organising and running Firstsite Horrormakeupfx workshops at 15 Queen Street for the 16^th September, 23^rd September and 14^th October. I am doing a special effects workshop, a prosthetics, prosthetic appliances and life casting workshop and a zombie and Halloween special effects make-up and prosthetics workshop. They are workshops for beginners, or anyone wanting to update their skills or build up their portfolios or anyone wishing to take up a new interest."

Check out more of Arabella's creations at:  www.horrormakeupfx.com

LED there be light!

When packing your lighting box you'll probably check for gels, spare bulbs and clips but unless you're intending to hide your identity for a crime spree your fingertips will definitely be pleased to find some sturdy gloves hidden away in there.

Lights get hot. Really hot! So there's nothing worse than having to fiddle about with the barn doors or clip on some more diffuser whilst hiding your fingers under the thin protection of a handy piece of costume. 

So what's the solution? Get someone else to do it of course but if that's not possible why not try out our new LED fixture?

That looks cool! And it is, very cool. No more singed fingers with this little chap in your kit bag. The other big bonus with LED fixtures is that they draw very little power so this light can also be powered with a V-lock or even Sony NPF battery. That means handheld fully directional lighting in any situation. Put it in a car, stand with it in a field or shine it through the trees - you'll never need a cheap noisy or expensive quiet generator again!

If that sounds too good to be true then it is unfortunately. Whilst LED lighting is by no means brand new, incorporating it into affordable and practical video fixtures is still troublesome. LED lights are bright but don't have much throw. There is a diffusion cover which is perfect for interviews if you're using this as a key light. Careful positioning should mean that your interviewee isn't seeing stars by the end of it but they certainly won't be sweating buckets either - unless your questions are particularly probing.

For dramas and music promos this won't light your whole set but it will work great for closeups and difficult situations and, being fully daylight balanced, should cause you a bit less work in post.

To find out more or see it in action give us a call on 01206 560255 or email paul@signals.org.uk

Hello! 


We have a guest blog from the Dead Rat Orchestra.  They will be at the Colchester Arts Centre www.colchesterartscentre.com/gigs/dead-rat-orchestra-cloisters on Thursday 12th July. This give a bit of a background to their work in composing sound tracks:

Mike Day, (Director of The Guga Hunters of Ness) and Dead Rat Orchestra first connected in 2008 at performance at London's Cafe Oto. The last song of our set was a ten minute epic, comprising of gritty fiddle reeling to an undulating wash of harmonium drones and peeling bells, whilst I sung an intentionally indiscernible vocal line that navigated the depths of the music. After the performance an enthused Mike approached us, he introduced himself as a filmmaker and proclaimed that we had just composed the soundtrack to his next film! The piece was to be a short film about a ship lost at sea, curiously, and unbeknownst to Mike, the obscured melody I had been singing was traditional sea-ballad called The Cruel Ship's Captain: We were all struck by the synergy of the moment; a collaboration was born.

I began writing compositions for Mike's short films, and throughout our dealings I heard snatches of his adventures, filming, sailing, his past-life as a lawyer and a string of other brushes with death. Soon enough I began to hear accounts of the Outer Hebrides, of its crofting traditions and treacherous waters, of grinding down giant waves in a tiny boat and of daredevil climbs up cliff faces with a video camera. These were the tales of Sulas Sgier and his documentary film the Guga Hunters of Ness.

DRO were Mike's first port of call for the Guga Hunters soundtrack. We soon realised that within the film he had captured something truly special, and potentially fleeting, as such we wanted to carefully craft the soundtrack in honour of the men who had allowed him to film their tradition. We hired a decommissioned LightShip in Colchester (TS Colne Light) and installed our own recording studio in the great red vessel. For a week we entrenching ourselves (with Mike) in its bowels to focus on the task, working closely to imbue the music with the qualities of his experience of the island, the men and the tradition. We created something of which we are all very proud.


Click here to hear an exclusive MP3 from the Guga Hunters of Ness Soundtrack:
http://soundcloud.com/criticalheights/05-dead-rat-orchestra-the

You can see extracts from the "making of" films of The Guga Hunters of Ness here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/nature/the_guga_hunters_of_ness_creating_the_programme.shtml

Colchester Carnival Photo Competition

Are you a budding photographer with an eye for something different? We are inviting you to capture the individuality of Colchester Carnival on 30 June 2012.

We would like submissions from everyone so we have three age categories: 11 years and under, 12 to 15 years and 16 and over. The winning photo from each category will be published in the Colchester Gazette. We are looking for photographs that show the carnival from a different angle: the fun, quirky, strange or beautiful. Show us something new or different. We want to see images that capture the mood, excitement and colour of the day.

Photographs must be digitally uploaded to http://www.flickr.com/groups/2018843@N22/ by 11.30 pm on the 8th of July. Representatives from Signals, Colchester Carnival and Gazette will judge all entries, in all age categories.

If you are interested in entering the Colchester Carnival Photo Competition, here is a little bit of information on how to take the best photo possible and upload it to our photo pool. The following photography tips should help you take a good picture regardless of what camera you are using.

1. Get close – try to take your photo so that the subject fills the frame.

2.  Be quick – keep your camera on and ready so you’re not fumbling around with buttons whilst the action happens or your subject moves. 

3. Think about composition – there are lots of tips and tricks in photography to help your picture look aesthetically pleasing and balanced, generally your horizon should be level and you can utilize the Rule of Thirds. You can read more here: http://www.betterphoto.com/exploring/tips/thirds.asp

4. Move around – try to take your photo so the bits you may not want i.e. overhead cables, streetlights etc are not in your shot. Crop out the bits you don’t think are interesting or don’t add anything to the photo.

5. Focus – Make sure your camera is in focus. If you’re not sure how to do this, most cameras have an ‘Auto Focus’ setting. If you can play around with it manually, try to take your photo so your subject is crisp and sharply in focus, but the background looks very soft and blurry. Playing around with the depth of field will add drama and a sense of perspective to your photo. You can read more here: http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/depth-of-field.htm

6. Shutter Speed – if your camera allows you to play around with the shutter speed manually, this can produce some interesting results. From capturing a moment in a fraction of a second, to creating long exposed shots, you can read more about how to achieve good results by adjusting the shutter speed here:
http://digital-photography-school.com/shutter-speed

7. Lighting – how is your subject lit? If the sun is behind your subject it might mean they come out very dark in the photo. Being mindful of the light will help you to get good results first time around.

8. Look at the weather -  if it’s very overcast, it’s best not to take a shot so that a lot of the sky is in the picture. If it’s sunny, make the most of it!

9. Keep it simple- sometimes you don’t need every lens and accessory in your kit to take a good photo, the best photos are the ones that capture the immediacy of a moment. However, if you have one, a tripod will solve any camera shake issues.

10. Be brave - try to take a photo that seems original to you. Ask permission before you take someone’s photo and be careful photographing wildlife.

Terry Rawlings on the 'definitive' Blade Runner

Film editor Terry Rawlings came to Colchester on the 19th of May to talk about his career and answer questions from the audience. Terry has worked on some very successful films over the last 50 years after starting off as a sound editor. After working with Ridley Scott on Alien, Terry went on to edit Blade Runner.

Here Terry describes how audience demand led to the release of the definitive cut, closer to the original edit and without the infamous commentary.

Film editor Terry Rawlings talks about editing Alien.

Film editor Terry Rawlings came to Colchester on the 19th of May to talk about his career and answers questions from the audience. Terry has worked on some very successful films over the last 50 years after starting off as a sound editor. Alien was actually his first full credit as picture editor and in this clip he describes how he landed the job and went on to work with Ridley Scott to create the terrifying atmosphere of the film with a perfect marriage of image and sound.

Young filmmakers we need you!

You could be a Film Director on the 6^th of July, as Colchester comes together to celebrate the arrival of the Olympic Torch.  A documentary will be created by the people taking part in the celebrations and watching the Olympic torch relay.

Signals Media Arts Centre is co-ordinating this unique film project. And are looking for young people, youth groups and schools from across Colchester to contribute to a film that will document and celebrate the Olympic torch relay in Colchester.

The film will follow on from other films that use community created content such as ‘Life in a Day’ http://www.youtube.com/user/lifeinaday and BBC’s ‘Britain in a Day’ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00kqz5p.  By having participants shoot the footage themselves we hope to create a many-faceted film that really captures this very exciting once in a life-time event.

Young Colchester residents aged 11 to 19 years will be able to film the event or preparations for the event using their own cameras and camera phones.  The film footage will then be passed to Signals and will be edited in to a short film. 

The finished film will be made available on-line and on DVD.   A special screening in Colchester is also planned and will be organised by Colchester Borough Council.  The film will also be archived.

This project is supported through funding from Colchester Borough Council, Essex County Council through the Essex Legacy for the 2012 Games, and Essex Carrying the Flame.

If you are interested you should check to see if your school is participating, if not you will be able to contact Signals directly to see how to get involved or download a pack from our website http://www.signals.org.uk/links-and-resources

Production packs are now available via our website: http://www.signals.org.uk/links-and-resources

Under 'Colchester Torch Relay'.  You can download information and release forms

Signals Media Arts Centre is a charity based in Colchester, specialising in media education.  Website: www.signals.org.uk

Email: info@signals.org.uk

Tel: 01204 560255

Colchester Borough Council see this and other events:

http://www.colchester.gov.uk/torch

Film editor Masterclass/Talk

Blog update July 12th 2012 - 

In May Terry Rawlings gave a talk to a sell out audience at Signals. If you were there you may want to relive the day.  If you were not, this is your chance to see some of what you missed.  Use this link to see the first part of his talk.

https://vimeo.com/45239409

Sadly if you were not there you will still have missed the full talk and having a look at the 'Alien' shooting script he brought along.
Terry wanted everyone to know he really enjoyed meeting the enthusiastic audience and thought Signals was great.  You are welcome back any time Terry!

----------------

Original Blog:

Signal Media Arts Centre is honored and delighted to announce that Film Editor Terry Rawlings will be coming to Colchester to give a talk on Saturday the 19^th of May at the Signals Studio.

Terry Rawlings edited a number of great films in his long career both the UK and Hollywood, some of the best known are: Blade Runner, Alien, Alien 3, Watership Down, Goldeneye and Entrapment.

Terry Rawlings was nominated for an Oscar and a BAFTA for best Editing on the 1981 film Chariots of Fire (which is due to be re-released on the 13^th of July to Celebrate London 2012).

Chariots of Fire was one of five BAFTA nominations for Terry Rawlings, the other nominated films were; Alien, Blade Runner, Women in Love and Isadora. He is a member of Academy of Motion Pictures, which means he votes in the ‘Oscars,’ and in 2006 he received the prestigious American Cinema Editors Career Achievement Award.

This is an amazing and rare opportunity to hear from one of the great British craftsmen in cinema. Terry will be providing insights in to his career and methods. The talk will be in a small and informal environment where the audience will be able to ask questions about Terry’s career and work.

Terry Rawlings, A.C.E. began his work in the film industry in 1955. In 1957 he got his first editing job on with Town on Trial as a Second Assistant Sound Editor. From then he worked for several years as a Sound, Music and Dubbing Editor. During this time credits included The Great Gatsby, and The L-Shaped Room. In 1977 he had the opportunity to picture edit The Sentinel, that started a 27-year editing career.

A love of music can be seen though out Terry’s career; his choice of film work includes musicals The Phantom of the Opera and Yentl, as well as working with the most famous Vangelis film scores.

Terry Rawlings will be giving this rare talk about his career and experiences as an editor to a small audience at Signals, Colchester on the 19^th May at 3.00pm Signals will then be screening the original Alien at 5.00pm

This talk and screening comes just 2 weeks before Director Riddly Scott’s long awaited Alien prequel Prometheus, due for Cinema release on the 1^st June.

Tickets for Talk and Alien screening are £9.00 (only talk £6.00) and available from Signals Media Arts Centre www.signals.org, info@signals.org.uk or 01206 560255

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Rawlings

New film course

Calling Colchester Film Buffs

Signals Media Arts Centre is delighted to announce a new course for film lovers.

‘Introduction to film’ is a six-part film evening course where you can learn more about the history of film, each week students will be able to watch a great all-time classic of cinema and learn more about the film’s stars, director, context and genre.

Dr Lance Rickman will be leading the course, he teaches film studies at the University of Essex and the Open University and has a real passion for the subject. The course will begin in the silent era and travel though the musical, film noir and British cinema to come up to date. There will be lots of opportunities to discuss the films and ask questions.

The course will be informal and fun and will be great for budding critics or filmmakers and anyone who wants to know a bit more about the language of film.

‘Introduction to film’ starts on Tuesday 15^th May at 7.30 pm and will continue once a week for 6 weeks it will cost £50 for all 6 sessions including film screenings.

For more information or booking please call Signals 01206 560255 or email info@signals.org.uk

You can also book though our website (booking fee applies) www.signals.org.uk

Bollywood Colchester

Signals has come over all Bollywood this month. The colour and energy of a good Bollywood film is enough to get you through the dullest of February days.

On the Saturday the 25th of February we will be screening ‘Main Hoon Na’. This modern classic was the directorial debut of choreographer Farah Khan, the film was a great box office hit and won numerous awards.

The film was ground-breaking in many ways, it was among the first to look at the Indian Pakistan conflict and also presented strong female characters. Director Farah Khan help lead the way for a new generation of woman working behind the camera in Bollywood. http://nyti.ms/oyVJ7b

The film stars the ‘King of Bollywood’ Shahrukh Khan, who has made scores of films in his long career including ‘My Name is Khan’ in 2010, which became a international success and is the highest-grossing Bollywood film of all-time in the overseas market.

See Bollywood legend Shahrukh Khan interviewed last year for the BBC Asian Network here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qp0tr

Before the film there will be a talk by Nina Ludgate who worked on the film as Effects Producer. She took a multi-camera array to Bollywood to create the frozen-arc effect that is seen in action movies and commercials around the world. Nina will be sharing her experiences of working in Mumbai and shedding some light on Bollywood production methods, as well as letting us know all about the films stars and Director.

Free screening of ‘Main Hoon Na’ on Saturday 25^th Feburary 2012 at 7.30 Signals Media Arts Centre. Call To book a place 01206 560255

Camera comparison

Signals has several different cameras for hire and we thought it might be useful to tell you a little bit more about them.

Our cameras fall into two categories - camcorders and video DSLRs.

Our Sony camcorders will be familiar to most filmmakers and students and are very easy to use. They can be operated handheld or via a tripod and have standard sound recording features such as XLR mic inputs and headphone monitoring.

Our video DSLR cameras offer more cinematic potential but are trickier to master. Due to the larger image sensors they can produce wonderfully crisp HD video and enable the shallow depth of field that many filmmakers love to use.

The images below demonstrate the difference between the camera sensors when it comes to depth of field.

Sony Z1 camcorder - f5.6

Canon 5dMKII DSLR - f5.6

As you can see the Sony Z1 has a deep focus (bricks in far wall) whilst the Canon 5D is focusing all attention on the plant in the foreground. This ability is a great tool for filmmakers but comes with a downside - losing focus when the camera or subject is moving!

The other main difference between the camera sensors is about scale. The video DSLRs can be fitted with a wide variety of stills and cinema lenses whilst the Sony camcorders feature a fixed zoom lens. The camcorders have some useful features like ND filters (good for sunny days) and a long focal length (you would need a huge paparazzi lens to emulate this on the DSLR).

The images below show the difference in framing that can be achieved on the cameras at maximum width.

Sony Z1 camcorder at f5.6

Canon 5dMkII at f5.6

This may all be suggesting that the video DSLRs are superior and in many ways they are. The problem of sound monitoring can be overcome by recording sound separately using our digital audio recorder.

For ease of use and to ensure focus during event filming such as weddings we would still recommend our camcorders. If you want to be a bit more creative then try a video DSLR, we are open Monday to Friday if you want to try one out.

Time Report - Filming in the Set

Last week was very exciting here at Signals as we constructed an amazing futuristic TV Studio gallery in our workshop space! It's taken many weeks for the children at Perryfields Junior School to collect all sorts of recycled bits and bobs and turn them into wall panels and boards for our TV Show gallery. It took two days for the set to be put together and we think the final result looks fantastic!

Four children from the Time Report group were asked to come to Signals on Tues 17th Jan and film some of the last scenes for their film about a news show set in a space station 80 years in the future. The children were Jacob, who plays 'Trent', the ever-exasperated director, James, who plays 'Sparky' our trusty technician and Lewis, whose character 'Max' is our news anchorman. Jack (who is James' twin brother) was also asked to come along and be our camera op for the day and got some great close ups of Sparky tinkering around with the set.

Below are Lewis and Jack who were setting up where Trent the Director would be sitting. We used an old edit suite as the control panel which Trent uses to cue up different clips and adjust sound levels. The idea of using old equipment came from the children who decided that in the future, we will have run out of oil to make plastics. Therefore, all technology will have to be run on old machines that have been upgraded.

The children worked really hard to get all the shots done in time and we all had a lot of fun building and filming in the set. We only have two more sessions of Time Report now to:

• Film any last minute 'pick up shots',
• Record the sound for 'Bubbles' (the pike that lives in the filthy River Thames during the Industrial Revolution)
• Record the sound for the Seagull that lives on the rubbish tip.
• Put together an 'assembly edit' or 'rough cut'
• Complete post production on the green screen sequences, add VFX and SFX

So there's still a lot of work to do!

See you on Tuesday 24th Jan everyone!