10-10-24 / ‘OSTRICH THEORY’ ROTO PEEK
A few days ago I attended Nottingham’s Short Stack short film screening, in which Ostrich Theory was included. I hadn’t seen it for a while and couldn’t shake the flashbacks. What a thing that whole experience was.
Had I shot it in a decent enough resolution to make use of assisted techniques like After Effects’ rotobrush, things might have been so different. Tackling everything manually - admittedly loving the seemingly impossible challenge - meant almost three years work, the real cost of which was being pipped to the post by a pandemic and real lockdowns.
While watching it I remembered I’d made a few clips for Instagram showing a peek at the process, so I dug them out of the archive and compiled them into this here clip -
28-09-24 / MUSIC VIDEOS
Did those pickups in the nick of time, during the only overcast day between extremes of sunshine and perpetual piss. Could’ve done without the wind but rain would have been impossible. I’m pretty much done editing and it’s been a ton of fun. It might even be released before the butterflybang extravagonzo.
06-09-24 / MUSIC VIDEOS
Last summer I filmed a mad spontaneous orgy of competitive pollinating between bees and a ton of Red Admiral butterflies in the garden. It all unfolded over three days so I captured what I could, with no particular purpose. Now it’s a music video, out of archive-limbo where gems with no home go to die. Will post when the band’s release schedule permits (UPDATE: Looking like January 2025)
Since that one I’m straight into another, halfway though and waiting on an overcast day for pickup shots. Typical to get a load of lovely sunshine just when you need the opposite.
01-09-24 / ZOMBIES
Back when I started using Instagram and Twitter for the purpose of posting festival guff for Stew & Punch on a more immediate basis, this ‘blog’ started slowing right down and sometimes slept for ages. I just didn’t see the point in repeating myself, which was an utterly daft way of thinking. Fast-forward a few years and Instagram got gobbled up by Facebook. It sucked hard on the poisonous teat of its parent company and wasted no time transforming into an ad-driven shop. Infuriated by a feed of 80% unsolicited content and admittedly addictive algorithms, I just got annoyed with it. I discovered like-minded practitioners who are doing great work but there’s just too much dreck. The platform also inherited all the worst traits of Twitter, that original cesspit of sanctimonious mudslingers telling others how to behave and why they are wrong. What happened to just sharing images and videos?
None of this is breaking news. By now I think most people know moderation is key, lest we be zombies. All this to say it’s time to restore the balance and post what I’m up to right here, which I shouldn’t have stopped doing in the first place.
10-06-24 / HAMBURG SHORT FILM FESTIVAL
Some shorts I liked at the festival this year were Maryam Tafakory’s Mast Del (Iran), Saleh Kashefi’s And How Miserable Is The Home Of Evil (Switzerland), Frédéric Doazan’s Picus (France), Jonatan Schwenk’s Zoon (Germany), and for a touch of the disturbing, behold the French/German collective Neozoon’s MY BBY 8L3W (France) here.
10-05-24 / LAPLAND AURORA VIDEO & PLOT TWIST
Finally able to catch up on the backlog and preparing to get stuck into the Texas data, but first I had some fun with this little nutshell of the Lapland aurora trip two months ago (British respect for the queue). It’s been hot and sunny these last few days so it’s been odd putting this video together of frozen landscapes, feeling so utterly detached from the chill. Just as I finished with the aurora work and prepared to start on Texas - PLOT TWIST - the Sun burped a massive X-class flare at Earth and there were high alerts of Aurora activity all over the U.K and beyond. A massive ejection on a scale not seen since 2003. I headed out to a hill with a couple of chums and we didn’t half get a treat. Apparently it was even visible in Spain (update: every single U.S state experienced it A big trip to Lapland then two months later it happens on my bloody doorstep.
20-04-24 / TEXAS IN TARDY DETAIL
Better late than never. Another fruitful U.S trip that I didn’t want to end. The night before leaving I spent so long trying to get my main case below 23kg that I got to bed only 90 minutes before leaving. No idea how I then went through the 9 hour flight without sleeping, even without in-flight entertainment. By comparison, travel pal Karl watched a few films and also managed to kip so I was obviously just in a mad daze.
Left the plane and got punched in the nuts by Texan humidity. Then came the zappy racket of Grackle birds, seemingly resident all over the airport. Car hire didn’t have our booked motor and gave us an SUV instead. Bonus for potentially rugged terrain. Karl drove from Austin because I’m a scaredy cat and braking distance doesn’t appear to exist here.
A mere 90 minutes sunset drive to a basic motel in Hondo. We arrived under a silent electric storm which was smart enough, but the barn swallows (I think) playing sentinel outside the rooms cheered me. This place was officially our base for the whole trip, snagged before everyone got wise to the eclipse, therefore avoiding the extortionate mark-ups that all accommodations since started applying. Attempts to truncate the booking by phone so we could spend some time elsewhere resulted in the staff magically not speaking English (until we arrived, when they magically could). Then there was the threat of inflating the price to shorten the stay so we decided to keep it yet spend some nights elsewhere.
A quick bite to eat in a local Taco Bell while a violent downpour caused an instant cooling of temperatures. I then fell into a solid night's coma after two days awake. Excellent.
Complete reset. Up yours, jet lag. Karl was less fortunate, waking at stupid o’clock, unable to continue sleeping. Three hours westbound took us to Alpine for a few days near Big Bend National Park. Birds of prey circled overhead all the way, obviously knowing we were almost out of fuel. Just as I started to imagine being pulled apart by vultures we reached a gas station. The guy serving drawled “How’s your day, sir? I’m all good, but the day is young and there’s still time”.
We arrived in our Alpine neighbourhood as the sunlight was low and fancy, to the sound of more mad Grackles. Within view at the end of our street there was some kind of wild pig casually mooching up the hill. A Javelina, it turns out. As we went to investigate, a curious neighbour hollered from his doorstep “Everything alright boys?” and even though he wasn’t sitting on a rocker with a shotgun across his lap he was wearing a wife-beater vest and that’s the next best thing.
I loved our little house, despite getting electric shocks off everything from light switches to door handles. And the sound of the train horns passing through was magic. That long, spectral phooooot of U.S trains is a close second to the foghorn for me. Between that and the birds it was Christmas for my ears. A quick eclipse weather check before bed wasn’t looking promising, but it was still a week away so... long range forecasts, meh. Talking of bed, those beloved train sounds quickly lost some of their appeal when they woke me up at grr o’clock.
Next morning we chatted about the eclipse forecast and, checking again, it was even worse. Still, absolutely everything can change in 6 days. For now, Big Bend was only 90 minutes south and we had a couple of days to play there.
I saw my first (and last) Roadrunner as it scooted across the road on our way into the park, plus all manner of critters that were new to me. Those ubiquitous birds of prey suggested we still might reek of imminent death.
The hour following sunset for the next two nights promised an opportunity to capture comet Pons-Brooks just before it fell below the horizon. I’d already attempted it days before at home – where it was much higher up - but crap Nottiham skies don’t compare to the desert. Bortle 1 for the nerds! We found a good spot close enough to Santa Elena Canyon (my main target for the night) with a low enough horizon, then tried to ignore all the little Tarantula holes in the ground. Karl spotted one diving for cover earlier, then we saw our first snake casually crossing our path not long after. So, trying not to overthink vulnerable ankles, the comet turned out to be a treat. Less of a treat was the horrific number of Starlink satellites all around it. A thing of beauty vandalised by billionaire crayons.
The night’s main target was Santa Elena Canyon on the USA/Mexico border. So stunning in the day, and creepy AF by night. While Karl stayed in the car park to set up his scope rig near the car, I walked down to the canyon where it was pitch black and managed to hop across a makeshift bridge of piled stones to the other side of the parched Rio Grande. So in theory I was now in Mexico while Karl was in the USA. No moon and it was properly inky out there so every single sound stood to attention. Nocturnal animals I’d not heard the likes of before, and a big splash in the river. I couldn’t shine my torch to see anything because I was shooting in that direction. Brrhhh it was eerie, but also exciting and very much my happy place.
Karl’s jet lag caught up with him at 2am while we packed up to leave and he fell unconscious for the 3 hour journey back while I tried to stave off my own tiredness. Jackrabbits and foxes who insisted on leaping out in front of the car demanded extra focus. There was a moment at some temporary traffic lights in the middle of nowhere, when I finally got a moment to find a flask of coffee as the radio pumped out Village People’s Macho Man. I couldn’t really say why it counts as a moment, but there you go.
I’ll skip a load, suffice to say that our second shot at the comet was crapped on by hundreds more satellites. My second attempt in the canyon was troubled by gear problems and two other astrophotographers who turned up with their headtorches on while I was shooting across the river IN MEXICO.
As the Alpine booking ended and we were supposed to leave Big Bend behind, we decided to book a couple of extra nights even closer to it. Boring Hondo just wasn’t calling. So we found half-price Dallas Cowboys duvets in Alpine’s Family Dollar store and ‘glamped’ in a desert tent.
I dropped my phone while getting out of the car and it fell face down onto a teeny tiny stone, which was enough to shatter the screen. My first ever phone casualty. It still worked though, bar any pinch/zoom functionality. The campsite location promised Wi-Fi courtesy of those piss-offy Starlink satellites. It didn’t work but I never really expected it to.
On the journey from Big Bend to Hondo (booooo) we slowed to gawp at Turkey Vultures feasting on a deer, and pit-stopped at… Sheffield! Only 2 days to the eclipse, and the weather forecast was worsening. A huge front of cloud building from the gulf of Mexico seemed to be clinging precisely along the path of totality, as if by design. Many started taking domestic flights northeast to Maine for clearer skies (but only half the duration of totality compared to Texas).
The night before was time to pay real attention to the forecast. It looked like the clearest option - 35% cloud - was a couple of hours’ drive north of Hondo, near the town of Brady. We left at sunset and aimed for a parking refuge just south of Brady, to spend the night in the car and avoid the morning’s predicted traffic, and almost got trammelled by a speeding juggernaut moments before pulling off the highway. I can only guess the driver didn’t see us from their height.
The place was some sort of riverside nature reserve. Other vehicles were dotted around and one had already polar-aligned their setup for the eclipse outside a van. A car of lively girls pulled in, spotted us, leaned out and shouted “Ecliiiiiipse!” into the dark, then closed the door again.
No sleep for me because the passenger seat didn’t fully recline. At 8am I got out to stare at the clouds. A couple of others were skulking about doing the same, checking forecasts and making decisions whether to stay or move on. Some left but we took our chances and stayed put. The sun broke through and we set up under patchy clouds.
Karl’s scope rig was next to the car and I - easily distracted by a crowd - moved further out among the wild flowers and cacti. Intermittent clouds persisted from first contact onwards. Then, at around one thirty, minutes before totality, it cleared beautifully and blew everyone away. I had heard all about these eclipse emotions but didn’t expect it to hit me quite like it did. A hell of a thing seeing the moon up there as a huge, black, heavy looking rock. It gives an impression of mass that feels very different to the familiar moon reflecting sunlight.
When it was over and everyone else left, I checked my spot for anything left behind, and noticed a particularly lovely wild flower. “Oooooh” I thought, squatting to take a picture, and promptly planted my arse onto a cactus. For a good while this changed everything. Many splinters pushed deep into my cheeks, right near cracksville where I couldn’t see to extract them. It was most undignified hiding behind a bush with my strides down trying to blindly remove spikes while Karl chatted to a couple of curious Christians only metres away. I did my best not to push them in further while sitting for the journey back to Hondo then bought some heroic tweezers.
I was pretty pissed off to discover corrupt, unplayable video files from the Sony camera used with Karl’s scope. Long story short, if a battery fails or the camera overheats during recording the Sony files get screwed. No such issue with the Panasonic equivalents so an appalling tech fail by Sony. The main 30 minute file from Karl’s scope - including totality - was inaccessible, and a trawl through internet forums revealed many other disgruntled Sony users with the same issue. Thankfully, one YouTube tutorial revealed a free, manual technique that salvages playback. It isn’t quick, and doesn’t result in a 100% stable fix, but you can then salvage the file by re-encoding.
Eclipse mission over it was time to relax. A plan to put the cameras aside and experience a bit of urban culture was dumped in favour of capturing the day-old super-thin crescent moon setting just after the sun. At the same time, an exciting Texan storm approached from behind. I tried filming it as a huge dark blanket crawled over us and Karl wisely decided to pack down. When it hit I managed to scramble my gear into the car just (!) in time.
On the drive back to Austin airport we stopped at a Denny’s to eat. Hovering around the flowers right outside our window was my first ever real-life hummingbird. Superb. By the time we reached the airport we drove a grand total of 2250 miles. Mad when you consider the flight from Austin to London is 4900.
Film of the trip coming “soon”.
13-04-24 / SOLAR ECLIPSE IN TEXAS
Back from the USA and feeling wiped out. Have to hit the ground running on a job so I can’t post anything just yet. Suffice to say that we :
Managed to find a cure for the dreaded jet lag that crippled the last trip.
Saw (and avoided running over) many exotic desert critters, including a little roadrunner.
Got three brief attempts at comet Pons-Brooks before it set below the horizon, bombed by hundreds of satellites.
Smashed my first phone screen in unspectacular fashion, courtesy of the smallest stone ever.
Got all emotional nailing the eclipse after a week of crap forecasts that caused many to flee north.
Got an arse full of cactus splinters while snapping a pointless pic of a wild flower.
Got caught in a dramatic Texan storm while shooting the fresh baby moon the day after the eclipse.
Watched a handsome hummingbird zip about like a winner outside the window of Denny’s after ordering lunch.
Clocked up 2250 driving miles, which is almost half the 4900 air miles from London to Texas.
Will chop up and post a film of this lot and more when I get through everything else.
10-03-24 / LAPLAND
Back from a trip to Finnish Lapland on a mission to film the northern lights for the new short. I wasn’t feeling too optimistic after five nights of constant cloud cover, but then everything changed. I was at the edge of a frozen lake and didn’t know how far out was safe, or even where land became water under the thick snow, but it turned out I needed to be further away from all the car headlights that repeatedly crapped all over the sequence. Overkill LED beams reflecting off snow created a perfect storm of problems. Talking of perfect storms (sorry, had to), later that same evening on a quiet country road, immense geomagnetic activity rained down in every direction. A truly stunning and rapid show of colour and light writing patterns in the sky, it lasted so long I was able to fully wallow in the spectacle between and during setups. My phone kept pinging with alerts that it was visible in the UK, such was its magnitude. Talk about being in the right place at the right time.
The following day it was all clouds again, with one more appearance on the final night, albeit lower and less hectic. I captured that one from the edge of another lake where passing car lights weren’t too much of an issue. Then the fog rolled in and every passing light suddenly made the entire scene glow, resulting in a sequence beyond repair. But let’s not be greedy, I’d had my fair share. The temperature only went as low as minus 11, which wasn’t as cold as predicted. It actually feels colder back here at home, which I can only put down to the increased humidity.
20-10-23 / ANNULAR SOLAR ECLIPSE IN UTAH
No matter how many words I write here it’s going feel incomplete. This was an absolute treat of a trip to the USA, filming the annular solar eclipse and a load of night sky goodness for my upcoming short film about the solar system (for which The Terminator was a test run).
Things started with an unexpectedly warm welcome in Salt Lake City. I say “unexpectedly” in comparison to the icy boggers at the likes of JFK NY. The passport control guy chuckled “Ahaaa my first eclipse guys. What is it with you guys? I don’t get it. It’s not even that spectacular”, which may not sound particularly warm but his droll AF indifference cracked me up.
Picked up the car and spent the first night at a local hotel before leaving Utah for Ely, Nevada. Stopped for some supplies en route and I’d forgotten how MASSIVE everything is in the US. Enormous Halloween pumpkins, gargantuan bags of popcorn, and toilet cubicles that could house a whole shitting family. The jet lag was mental but considering I was set to shoot all night and sleep in the day I hoped it might work out alright. The first couple of nights’ work were scuppered by clouds though, not to mention freezing temperatures and even a dash of snow at one point. During the day my body woke after 3-4 hours no matter what.
After a few days came the first crystal-clear-all-night forecast but I wasn’t functioning properly. Fear of burn-out before eclipse day forced some rest. Well, rest of a sort. My sub-optimal back-up workflow with slow USB drives was painful so I took the chance to keep on top of that while staying in.
Choosing the right location for the eclipse had taken weeks of planning. While it’s standard to have plans B and C in case of shitty weather, one particular site located up a dusty road about 100 miles away back over the state line in Utah was too excellent to pass up as the absolute primary choice. The hope was that the dusty road, which turned the car from black to grey, would deter all but the most dedicated chasers. Plan B was off the main highway a further 45 minutes on but it was sure to be busier due to the ease of access. Nor was it in the zone of annularity (in red below) where the moon passes through the very centre of the sun’s disc, and that was a dealbreaker for me.
To set up the tracker, which enables the camera to follow the sun over the whole 3 hour eclipse duration, it ideally has to be aligned using the stars. This necessitated sleeping on-site and leaving the tripods set and aligned before dawn. We arrived at the location around 17h the night before and I ran around shooting the last fiery light before the dark set in. The forecast was cloudy at night, clearing by the morning, but it remained magnificent with stars in all directions so I shot a few tests with the tracker to verify alignment, and eventually attempted sleep in the car. Managed an hour or so, waking at 6am to a blanket of cloud as the sun started to rise. Agh. First contact was due just after 8am (and we almost failed here because crossing the state line back into Utah pushed the time zone back 1hr). Below are images of the night before and the morning after (click to enlarge) -
At around 7:30, from my perch up on the hill I spotted the dust cloud of a distant vehicle approaching and when it got closer I saw the word SHERIFF emblazoned on the side. Then it turned up the track and started roaring up the hill. When he finally pulled up, talking into his radio, I was sure he was going to say this was sacred ground or some such, thus explaining why nobody else was here. Instead he got out of his car, hitched his trousers like a proper sheriff, and immediately exclaimed that we were “the smartest guys around”. Which felt pretty good to a thicko like me. Turns out everyone else had crowded out the other location by the highway, including four private aircraft. This real-life sheriff turned out to be an extremely nice bloke, congratulating us on choosing his favourite spot, just as another car rolled in with a solitary chap inside, shortly followed by an retired geologist lady in an SUV. So, a grand total of only four in this prime location. The sheriff left to do sheriffy stuff and the clouds were starting to thin but still played hell with the exposure for the first half of the eclipse. It more or less cleared by the moment of annularity and could have been a LOT worse. We captured it in both white light and hydrogen alpha (quick frame grabs below) and I even got to experience a small dust devil popping into life and noisily whizzing right past me. Proper desert stuff. Better desert stuff than being bitten by a rattlesnake and collapsing onto a cactus while drinking my own piss and being pulled apart by vultures, at least.
Following the eclipse the climate basically turned into summer and the lonnnnnnnng roads were a treat to cruise along, despite the cumulative fatigue of almost no sleep. The evenings remained chilly but the skies were constantly clear and full of tasty astro treats.
ADDENDUM - I since cut up this wee video diary of the trip, below.
03-09-23 / ‘LIDL MADAM’
This supermarket tantrum could be heard from the moment I entered the shop, right down at the opposite end of the building. In reality it went on for a LONG time before I decided to start capturing it, mostly consisting of the same repeated phrase. It was cute and strange and downright baffling all at the same time.
16-08-23 / DOKUFEST, KOSOVO
Just returned from jury duty at the mighty Dokufest in Prizren, Kosovo. There’s so much to love about this important festival and I’d been itching to go back since my last visit in 2016 so I was buzzing to be invited back. Big thanks to ‘cyclopath’ Eroll Shporta for going out of his way to show me some hiking routes so I could sneak away to film the night sky when weather permitted, and much gratitude to Samir Karahoda, Eroll Bilibani, Veton Nurkollari and the rest of the team, including all the enthusiastic volunteers.
Massive congratulations to winners Douwe Dijkstra with Neighbour Abdi (Netherlands) and Christian Avilés with Daydreaming So Vividly About Our Spanish Holidays (Spain). Finally, no thanks at all to Wizzair for a truly dreadful flying experience in both directions. Here’s a quick mash of random moments from the trip -
13-06-23 / ‘THE TERMINATOR’ WINS AT HAMBURG SHORT FILM FESTIVAL
This time of year seems to come around so fast - yet also never fast enough - for I love visiting Hamburg Short Film Festival more than most places in life. I took some stress with me this year and unfortunately it increased with accumulating insomnia, plus I burned my head (that sunshine!) BUT… my film The Terminator won the Triple Axel competition. This award is voted by the audience, which is extra satisfying when a previous film of mine rated so poorly in this same competition. But bollocks to that time - this time was much better :)
The Terminator is a truncated version of a longer short that I’m still filming. This year’s competition had the submission topic ‘AT NIGHT’ and almost all of my filming over the last year has been under the stars, meaning this opportunity to test the waters became a no-brainer. This first audience response made all the chilly nights of filming feel worthwhile while there’s still so much to do for the full version. An encouraging shot in the arm from lovely Hamburgers. There’s something you don’t get to say every day.
I usually dodge awards ceremonies and only went to this one because I was asked to snap some pics for my mate Andrew Brand’s moment receiving a well-deserved Special Mention for his film Buzz. My body almost fell out of my arse when they announced my win. I was a bit embarrassed to take the stage in my last and scruffiest clothes, complete with dried splashes of food down my back after a waiter had a little accident with a bowl of ramen a couple of hours earlier. Oh the glamour.
It was frustrating having to miss a unique screening of my 2001 film Bass Invaders, which was projected on an outdoor ceiling in the city centre for the anniversary edition of A Wall Is A Screen, but I had to choose between that and the open air screening of The Terminator under the stars. Too appropriate to miss. Quite a few people generously sent me images from Bass Invaders as it happened and it looked like loads of [loud] fun. I do regret not risking the effort to attend both events because in the end I think I had just enough time to make the dash between them, but you can’t have everything and I’d have probably thrown up my falafel in the rush. Maybe even during my Q&A.
A customary shout to some favourite titles from the handful I got to see between the International and Mo & Friese children’s competitions – Douwe Dijkstra’s Neighbour Abdi (Netherlands), Enrique Pedráza-Botero & Faye Tsakas’ Alpha Kings (USA), Christian Avilés’ Daydreaming So Vividly About Our Spanish Holidays (Spain), Shuli Huang’s Will You Look At Me (China), Masoud Moein Eslam’s Tehran (Iran), Jorn Leeuwerink’s Pig (Netherlands), Sammy Sidali’s P.D.O. (France), Natalia Chernysheva’s Sunflower (France) and Buzz by Andrew Brand (UK) who became something of a star to the kids (and took most of the photos featured here).
And a massive THANK YOU to the British Council Travel Grant Scheme for helping fund the trip!
UPDATE : The Wall Is A Screen team just sent me these lovely images below from the Bass Invaders screening I missed. Click for full size. All pics by Peter Haueis.
09-05-23 / CJ’S MIRRA MAZE - SELF MEDICATE
Got my best scissors out for this one. A proper rabbit hole of intense late nights and obsessive precision madness. There’s an article on both the music and the video here.
20-04-23 / NEW FILM ‘THE TERMINATOR’ SELECTED FOR HAMBURG SHORT FILM FESTIVAL
Pretty damn delighted to say that the film I’m currently working on, truncated to a three-minute version and titled The Terminator, has been selected for the Triple Axel competition at the Hamburg Short Film Festival. Those utter champs!
31-03-23 / PANCHIKO - UNTIL I KNOW
Official vid for new Panchiko single UNTIL I KNOW, pairing the band as roadies with avian family shenanigans. Obviously.
Muchos to the ever-reliable Television Workshop for providing the talent of Ozzy Dilks and Alexander Eggleston.
From the band : Until recently ‘Until I Know’ was just half of a 20 year old unfinished doodle of a song. The demo version featured on our album called Ferric Oxide, and has evolved through live shows into its current state of genre defining ‘top down cruising misery pop'!
16-03-23 / ARCHIVE DISASTER :(
It really doesn’t matter how vigilant you think you are when it comes to backing up data. At some point old man Lady Luck will be caught napping. I back things up in triplicate and yet still I suffered an archive corruption that has wiped out (in triplicate) a fair bit of unused material and a few short films in their entirety, leaving only the heavily compressed MP4 files intended for the internet. One film might be coming back to me in the shape of a festival DCP, from which i can extract a decent quality master, but the others are goners. Once I became aware of the trouble I had to comb through a considerable archive checking everything one folder at a time like the sweaty chump in films who has to snip the correct wire on a bomb. This exercise would have been fun were it not for the utter dread that accompanied it.
09-03-23 / PANCHIKO - FAILED AT MATH(S)
Offical vid for the new release by Panchiko FAILED AT MATH(S) using footage I shot 20 years ago, which seemed appropriate considering the band's unreal [re]origin story. Said story is nicely documented online by the likes of Vice or The Guardian if you’re interested.
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