A Shaun-sized Land Rover

My (not so) little brother spends a lot of his professional life dangling from ropes and crawling around dusty theatre spaces for the brilliant people at the rigging experts, Unusual.

Now, I’m very proud of a lot of his work, especially the weirder stuff such as Fiona Banner’s Harrier and Jaguar at Tate Britain, but a recent link he sent me impressed me greatly.

Knowing how I have a bit of a fetish for Land Rovers, I absolutely loved this work by The Scenery Shop.  Just click on the image…

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Canon XF305 vs. the Alps

A month or two back I was filming a training expedition for two fellas who are undertaking an unsupported trip to the North Pole in 2011.  Since one of the main reasons for their trip was to trial and familiarise themselves with some of their kit, I thought I was also the perfect opportunity to put the Canon XF305 to the test.

Now, before I go on to tell you how Canon’s new baby coped, I have to say there are far better written and more technically in-depth posts out there for which I’d advise you have a bit of a search.  You can do a lot worse than starting with the likes of Mark Moreve and his short test filmRobin Schmidt’s detailed Sony/Canon comparison as well as The Luminous Landscape’s full review.  My post is less of the technical and more of the subjective in relation to the use of the Canon in some of the more demanding environments I visit.  Although this post isn’t about how to shoot in damn cold conditions (that may come …

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Expedition Media

I am delighted to report I have been accepted as a member of Expedition Media.

Run by Richard Farish and Paul Mungeam, Expedition Media specialises in providing crews, production and specialist services for adventurous and remote projects.

Since launching in 2007 they are one of the world’s top directories, and it’s a real pleasure to be listed on their pages alongside some of the most intrepid and talented production teams and presenters available.

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OUTRACE at Trafalgar Square

A quick (and overdue) entry on Clemens Weissharr and Reed Kram’s OUTRACE installation in Trafalgar Square as part of the London Design Festival.

In a nutshell, participants are invited to type a message of up to 70 characters, some of which are then selected and lightpainted by 8 industrial robots from Audi’s production line.  Each movement is captured by a series of DSLR long exposure cameras, the resultant images from which are strung together to create a 8fps video message.

The OUTRACE website itself is clean and simple, but as ever with these very clever mergers of art and design (and technology I personally like), some more dymanic content would have been nice.  The online ‘paper‘ is a nice touch though.  Although, I have to say the intigration of a live webstream (sadly now defunct) which also cuts to the completed message is very cool.

Anyway, brilliantly ostentatious and gimmicky.  You can see my own facetious OUTRACE message here:

Personally, I thought the graffiti-esque letter forms were a slight missed opportunity …

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The World Cup means a new focus on Africa…and the big issues

So, the World Cup has kicked off, we’re in to the second round of matches and frankly the spectacle is keeping me sane as I tackle the mounds of paperwork that have been neglected in the last few months.  In truth, I’m much more a fan of the oval ball game but I’ll take wall-to-wall coverage of South Africa’s tournament over Cash in the Attic any day.

As my pre-paperwork procrastination continues, I came across Rudd Elmendorp’s latest dispatch from Tanzania about mothers in Tanzania opening their own bamboo workshop.

Now, in the hoo-ha surrounding the football, broadcasters (and in particular the BBC) are airing programmes extolling a refreshed (read: more positive) view of Africa, with Dimbleby The Younger’s An African Journey an excellent example.  As someone with a deep love of the diverse continent (only a comparative fraction of which I have experienced), it’s great to see a thawing in the hidden but still evident post-colonial ‘Africa-as-a-single-country’ (sic) permafrost I feel can underpin a lot of stories about Africa.

Amidst the optimism however, we shouldn’t …

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