Hot off the press - well, not 'press' but editor's computer I guess - is the first 'full' video production I've been involved in to date. I did all the lighting and a lot of the camera work too, over a mere two evenings. Editing - lots of chromakey work - took a week.

YouTube - Anticipation trailer contest (Mydeo, Canon, Digital Video)

Its up against some stiff competition, though, so I have no idea it if will win. This is the competition it was entered in.


Technorati tags: video trailer cinematography chromakey effects lighting camera

The Firefly/Serenity world gets another boost, this time from UK daily broadsheet The Guardian on Wednesday this week in an article on how SciFi and Fantasy has changed over the years. The author lists Firely as one of his five best shows, thus:

"2. Firefly (2002)
Set in the year 2517, when America and China have joined forces to become the somewhat sinister Alliance, a band of rogues, smugglers, criminals and reprobates - diamonds, the lot of them - struggle with existential problems more than they do with warp engines. Created by Joss Whedon, and often described as a western in space, it's more Deadwood than Bonanza. Cruelly cancelled after 14 episodes, it spawned the feature film, Serenity."

The Guardian | Sci-fi has never been more now

Play.com (UK) : Serenity : DVD - Free Delivery

play.com are currently offering the DVD of Serenity (the movie that Joss Wheedon got made against all the odds after the TV series Firefly was cancelled) for a mere 2.99 including postage. No excuses - get yerself a copy now!

Play.com (UK) : Serenity : DVD - Free Delivery

BBC NEWS | Technology | 'Day of silence' for US web radio

"'Day of silence' for US web radio
Web radio broadcasters across the US will hold a 'day of silence' on Tuesday in protest at plans to hike royalty payments when music is played online."

These new fees are yet another knee-jerk reaction by a tierd and old-fashioned US music industry to new technology, desparate to hold on their massive profits. When will they wake up to the fact that people end up bying music that they hear online - just like broadcast radio? All Internet radio stations should just stop broadcasting for a month to make the record companies realise how they help sales.

BBC NEWS | Technology | 'Day of silence' for US web radio

Was very lucky with the weather at today's motocross from the Northampton club at Whaddon near Milton Keynes. But unfortunately there were a couple of accidents in the morning, one of whic resulted in a rider loosing a finger. A full gallery of the day's photos is online now.

UniversalHD Boards

"Browncoats Unite! Join the Independent Militia"

Universal Studios (rather than Fox) appear to be gauging audience opinion on the continuation of the outstanding cowboys-in-space sci-fi series Firefly having launced a Firefly section to their HD message board.

UniversalHD Boards

Lisa (my niece) and Casey's wedding went off ok yesterday, despite the best efforts of the weather to spoil it. Personally I'd rather it rain than be baking hot, which is what we all expected for mid-June. I had been asked to be the official wedding photographer, but as I don't ever do weddings, of course I declined. Which was just as well, going by the 80 or so shots I did manage to take with one of the borrowed-from-work Ricoh 500SE-W cameras which was having trouble seeing its SD card.


Just emerged from the service - we had about 10 minutes before the rain started again; fortunately the reception was just a short walk.



Left to right: my eldest brother and father of the bride, bride Lisa, Lisa's mum, and Lisa's two grandmothers.



Left to right: groom Casey's grandmother, Lisa and Casey, and Casey's parents.



The cake.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Microsoft to reflect UK dialects

"Microsoft to reflect UK dialects
A Microsoft project to create downloadable dictionaries to reflect the UK's rich local dialect heritage is drawing to a close."

The next release of Vista will therefore include the following phrases:
"Windows is shite" - Northern England
"Windows is pants" - Home Counties
"Windows is crap" - Essex
"Windows is tawdry" - Kensington

BBC NEWS | Technology | Microsoft to reflect UK dialects

Apple - Safari 3 Public Beta

Apple have now made available a Windows version of their Safari web browser, touting speed as one of its prime attractions. Frankly anyone willing to put up with the time Windows takes to start up, shut down, or do pretty much anything, would probably put up with a web page taking the odd few seconds extra to load.

Apple - Safari 3 Public Beta

Some students at the Open University have made a 23 minute video, now hosted on Google Video, on their perceptions of Milton Keynes. Its a very impressive production:

MK - at first sight

BBC NEWS | England | London | MPs call for Olympic logo rethink

"MPs call for Olympic logo rethink
MPs have signed a series of Commons motions calling for a rethink of the 2012 London Olympics logo. In one, the Conservative MP Philip Davies described the design as 'childish and ridiculous' and 'a pathetic attempt to appear trendy'."

The biggest tragedy of this farce is that it has wasted £400,000 of Lottery money that could have gone to sport centres around the UK, currently crying out for money, to train the very altheletes who should be looking to compete in the 2012 Olympics.

BBC NEWS | England | London | MPs call for Olympic logo rethink

"US rejects German G8 climate goal
Washington says it will not agree to a deal on slashing greenhouse gas emissions at the G8 summit in Germany. A top US climate official [briefly removed his head from the sand and] said the G8 should not dictate members' policies..."

Well, what a surprise - not.

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | US rejects German G8 climate goal

Technorati tags: climate Bush G8 Washingon greenhouse gas CO2 emissions

"US urges new greenhouse gas goals
US President George W Bush has urged countries to agree on long-term goals for greenhouse gas emissions."

Sorry - who? I thought for one moment, you said George W Bush...

"He said he would hold meetings bringing together the US and 14 other major emitters, including developing nations, to set targets by the end of 2008."

You're sure you're talking about the right guy here?

"BBC environment analyst Roger Harrabin says Mr Bush's speech was short on details, and White House aides have made clear Mr Bush will oppose demands for the US to cut emissions and join a global carbon trading system."

So what does this mean, exactly? That he just wants other countries to reduce their emissions?

"In his speech on Thursday in Washington, Mr Bush said his administration took climate change seriously."

Can anyone say "U turn"? The only thing the administration has been doing to date in relation to climate change is trying to deny that its happening.

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | US urges new greenhouse gas goals

Technorati tags: Bush climate emissions G8

86 Mac Plus Vs. 07 AMD DualCore. You Won't Believe Who Wins

"86 Mac Plus Vs. 07 AMD DualCore
If you think that Americans are getting fatter, take one good look at the operating system (OS) your computer is running right now. It gets larger and more weighed down with every update.

System 6.0.8 requires 1MB, Windows XP requires 1.5GB and Windows Vista 15GB. Yes, Vista needs 15,000 times the hard disk space as System 6.0.8."

A very interesting comparison, and not really unfair as it compares real-world tasks. The Mac Plus was one of the first computers I ever used.

It just underlines how bloated modern software has become and how much emphasis there is on bells-and-whistles rather than actually doing work. Sadly, Apple are just as guilty in this areas as Microsoft.

86 Mac Plus Vs. 07 AMD DualCore. You Won't Believe Who Wins

"Banking on green gesture?
Within the headquarters of HSBC, the UK's largest bank was announcing that it was to split $100m (£50m) between four environmental groups and charities, chosen for their involvement in addressing some of the global causes and effects of climate change.

The scheme marks a doubling of HSBC's previous $50m environment investment project, Investing in Nature, which ended in 2006 ... However as a percentage of HSBC's 2006 record profits of $22.08bn the sum represents less than 0.5%."

Now, now, don't be so cynical BBC - that's my job.

"After showing a short HSBC-branded film featuring imagined scenes including London under water and the Amazon being transformed into a huge motorway, the bank's chairman Stephen Green said that withdrawing from so-called 'sensitive sectors' - including energy, water, forestry, chemicals or mining, would not be the right thing.

HSBC would remain committed to clients across these sectors, Mr Green said, 'as long as we are confident that they are engaged in a journey towards environmental sustainability'."

Perhaps HSBC could offer preferential rates to business that show a commitment to reducing their carbon footprint?

BBC NEWS | Business | Banking on green gesture?

Technorati tags: HSBC environment charity green carbon climate emissions

BBC NEWS | UK | Reaction to 'stop and question' plans

"Reaction to 'stop and question' plans
Home Office proposals to give police the right to stop and question anyone in the UK have provoked a barrage of criticism."

And quite rightly too.

BBC NEWS | UK | Reaction to 'stop and question' plans

The expanion of our Police State continues:

"Stop and quiz powers considered
The government is considering giving police officers across the UK 'stop and question' powers under new anti-terror laws, says the Home Office. The proposal, allowing police to ask people about their identity and movement, is among measures being considered by Home Secretary John Reid.

The measure is so far used only in Northern Ireland. Police elsewhere have to have 'reasonable suspicion' a crime has been committed before they can stop people."

And the real kicker, bearing in mind the people stopped may well be completely innocent of any crime:
"Anyone who refuses to co-operate could be charged with obstructing the police and fined up to £5,000, according to the Sunday Times."

BBC NEWS | UK | Stop and quiz powers considered

Technorati tags: Government police state civil liberties

Lord Puttnam

Lord Puttnam,
originally uploaded by hockeyshooter.

Lord Puttnam, the recently-installed Chancellor, gave a speech today at the Open University Strategic Forum entitled 'Ethics in Real Life'. Got myself positioned well in advance to get the big OU logo in the background and concentrated so much on the angle and background I forgot I'd left the flash on. I had the lens on f5.6, it was very bright, so the ISO was on 200, but with the flash turned on the camera had to restrict the shutter speed to the sync speed, thus over-exposing the image.

Loca - About Loca

"Imagine that you are walking down the street when you hear a beep from your phone. You see a message reading: 'You were in a flower shop and spent 30 minutes in the park; are you in love?'

How would you react to this message? How would it make you feel?

Loca is an artist-led interdisciplinary project on mobile media and surveillance; exploring the shifting boundaries between art practice, the event and data systems. Loca is grass-roots, pervasive surveillance; tracking the trail of digital identities that people leave through physical space."

"Its all right - we know where you've been" - Pink Floyd, The Wall, 1979.

Loca - About Loca

Britain - a Police State? Surely not? Well, in the last three days, we have:

"Police chief's 'Orwellian' fears
A senior police officer has said he fears the spread of CCTV cameras is leading to 'an Orwellian situation'. Deputy chief constable of Hampshire Ian Readhead said Britain could become a surveillance society with cameras on every street corner."
BBC NEWS | UK | Police chief's 'Orwellian' fears

...then we have:

"Brown will not block secrecy bid
Gordon Brown has rejected calls to block a controversial move by MPs to get out of freedom of information laws. MPs pushed the plan closer to becoming law earlier in what critics called a 'shameful day for Parliament'. The MPs say they want to protect private letters from constituents - but critics say the move would also allow them to keep their expenses secret."
BBC NEWS | Politics | Brown will not block secrecy bid

...and now we have:

"Staff asked to 'snoop' for police
Council staff, charity workers and doctors could be required by law to tip off police about anyone they believe could commit a violent crime. The Home Office proposals, leaked to the Times newspaper, insist public bodies have 'valuable information' that could identify potential offenders. Possible warning signs could include heavy drinking, mental health problems or a violent family background. The Tories say the plans would require staff to 'snoop on their customers'."
BBC NEWS | UK | Staff asked to 'snoop' for police

And people wonder where all those ex-Stasi members disappeared when the Wall came down...

Technorati tags: police state Government secrecy freedom of information