Sometimes, you’ve got to shake things up. With the Twilight project, that often means dropping a new trailer—and here’s the latest! This one stands apart, giving a sneak peek into the storyline and the darker forces at play. It’s got more depth and tension than the earlier cuts, and I’m excited to see how it resonates!
Author: Anthony Pearson
The Archivist
New Tunes
Here’s some new tunes I’ve been doing on what is my first album of ambient tunes. Might develop some further down the road.
More live piano
This bittersweet melody was originally composed for the third series of comedy TV show “The League Of Gentlemen”
Sneaky peek
I have fought off posting any clips of the Twilight Ballrooms safe for the trailer. However, this year marks the 20th anniversary of me starting this website and I couldn’t let it pass without doing something.
In 2015 I posted a clip of an opening scene from the movie. It was chiefly my first attempt at playing four characters at the same time and the technical challenges that involved. Well I’ve decided that given the script hasn’t changed, I will post the same scene again but from the finished film, so you can compare the two. The accents are still dreadful but YES it’s a first glimpse of the movie and the weird animated world of Wits End! Enjoy.
And given this posts theme is “money for old rope” I guess I can plug the anniversary film I did 10 years ago for that anniversary too!
More AI – Stable Diffusion
In the last post, we took a look at AI image generator Firefly by Adobe. Now it’s the turn of Stable Diffusion which can be used at clipdrop.co along with a host of other features and, unlike Firefly, is free to try. And in my opinion, it is superior to Firefly.
Judge for yourself. Below is the latest episode of the Twilight Ballrooms Movie Diary which starts with the prompt I gave it and the result it produced. I will add that all of these pics were also enlarged using Adobe Photoshop’s generative fill and I have added a Lumetri filter to make it really atmospheric.
And finally, a Happy 100th Birthday to the Big Dipper rollercoaster at Blackpool’s Pleasure Beach. I took my family there last week and for my kids it was their first time on a rollercoaster. We also went for a cream tea dance at the Tower Ballrooms where we were taught the Charleston accompanied by, you guessed it, the Mighty Wurlitzer! Ah heaven! Thoroughly recommend it!
AI – A revolution begins…
The year 2023 will go down in history as the year AI was released on the general public. Social media is already awash with people’s efforts. I’ve enjoyed ChatGPT (the GPT stands for Generative Pre-trained Transformer) and have jokingly called it my new friend. I’ve given it old essay questions from college and it’s churned out such impressive answers in seconds. I’ve also tried to baffle it with hard and surreal questions such as “Using Peppa Pig as a metaphor, explain string theory” or “Using follow-spotting as a simile, explain fascism!” And it’s answered everytime with erudition. With such “intelligence” there have been many media stories of scholars predicting the eventual destruction of our species because of AI, some suggest in as little as two years. Others have voiced concern about the job losses it could also lead to. But I digress.
This post is to showcase my latest efforts with Adobe Firefly. Currently in beta and therefore free (although I do subscribe to AdobeCC) I thought I’d check out it’s picture generator and why not try some Twilight Ballrooms ideas. So below is the result.
These are the pick of the crop. AI is still in its infancy and even with these images you can see some whopping errors. But they’re still impressive. And these haven’t been touched up with PhotoShop (even though I was desperate to). I very much wanted to present them as they were originally generated.
Each image has been generated through prompts given by me. For example, I’ve typed “An abandoned seaside resort in Britain. Closed down arcades and fish’n’chip shops and stalls. It’s dusk and stormy. Almost black and white with specks of colour” – I can then also add the styles, colour and tone, camera setup etc…
All creative AI still requires a prompt, clarification, focus and finesse. That’s the art bit. And for that reason I’m not convinced by those who feel threatened by it. All art requires the human touch. It’s merely the tools that are changing.
As for the Twilight project, I can’t see me swapping to AI to complete the project, but it is a great tool for inspiration, rather like a generative Pinterest. And would be amazing if you just wanted to create storyboards!
Synthwave III
Meanwhile, in the background…
Detail is key to making something believable. Here you can see one of the many background buildings in Wits End. A closed down fish bar called The Golden Chip. And there’s a little story to this.
My family used to own a holiday chalet in Scratby (the original name for Wits End) in Norfolk. But my visits there were often with father, off season, so he could carry out repairs and decorate the chalet. I would often be left to my own devices and (this was roughly 1980 when this film is set) I’d wander off on my own and explore. Hence my love for closed down, off season seaside resorts. The weather was often hostile, the holiday facilities were often run down, shops were closed, many boarded up for the winter. I guess it was my own UK version of the Overlook Hotel. It was creepy, empty but at the same time exhilarating.
But unlike the Shining, my father didn’t turn into a psychotic axe murderer. My father was a quiet gentle man with a great, often dry, sense of humour. And at the end of the day, he would treat us to fish and chips which would be the highlight of my day. We’d buy them in Ormesby St Margaret which was a 10 minute car ride away. Despite it being called Ormesby Fish and Chips, my father would always refer to it as The Golden Chip.
Great memories. Miss ya dad xx
Wireframe and why!
I’m working on a big sweeping shot from the foyer of the Twilight through to the auditorium. It’s one of my biggest shots so far in one take and brings with it a variety of challenges and workarounds.
The biggest challenge involves the strain I put on my computer. The greater the strain, the longer the rendering, the longer it takes to complete. Good workarounds can not only radically reduce the time it takes, but it can also open up more possibilities and options in your post production workflow.
For example, the video below shows the shot I have in mind. At this stage I’m refining the movement of the camera shot as it pans around. This is easily done with keyframes – you do a start and end position and then tweek the journey in between making adjustments. However, seeing if it works is a challenge as the scene is so object heavy, its hard to get a smooth preview – it just jutters from frame to frame. One really needs to render it to see it at proper speed. Rendering in Wireframe is a much faster option.
I think when it comes to full rendering I shall use lots of object buffers and perhaps do two versions of the render, one of just the lobby and another just the auditorium. Stacking them together on After Effects will allow me to control the two rooms separately in post production – allowing for greater control on the final edit.
STOP PRESS
My recent work on the Twilight’s auditorium now confirms it as a 98 seater!
Liminal Space
My latest enjoyment is “liminal space” defined as “the physical spaces between one destination and the next.”
Since 2019 /liminalspaces has been a popular thread on Reddit
This is a clip of an animation I’ve been working on, based on a “creepypasta” called The Backrooms.
In my version there is a little twist at the end.
The Twilight Backrooms from Tranquility Base Presents on Vimeo.
Quick tip for keying
I ran into a problem trying to key out the greenscreen on a character who already had bits of green in their costume. There is actually a simple solution and I share it here on this, the latest episode of the Twilight Ballrooms Movie Diary!
Psycho The Clown is official
As you know, the Twilight Ballrooms film has been a labour of love for me for the last 10 years and will continue to be so for many years to come as I’m only half way through. The reason it takes so long is because I am doing everything from writing, acting, directing, scoring, grading, compositing, 3d art, editing etc… this list goes on.
However there are one or two bits in the project which are not me. Buster Cristo’s car comes from a royalty free 3d object online repository. The sweet wrappers used in Mrs Kepelwicks shop (which I don’t think are in view anyway) came from a lovely fella called Jason Liebig (who collects sweet wrapper images on Flickr) and who gave me permission to use them. And this week I got kind permission from JP Pirie. Users of Snapchat may well have used his masks on their snapchat pics. It was one of his masks, Clown O Freaky, that I used (along with my face of course) to create the posters of Psycho The Clown. Not only did he give me his permission but even had a quick butchers at the website and was really encouraging with his comments. So, many many thanks JP Pirie!
Wits End Archive
This unique archive footage taken in 1979 shows the dilapidated state of Wits End. The footage was kindly donated to us by the Tour Guide of the closed Twilight Ballrooms.
Of course Wits End is fictitious. And any sharp eyed seaside fan would realise straight away that it’s Blackpool. And naturally it wasn’t filmed in 1979 but over 40 years later. Effects to degenerate it include saturation reduction, augmented green and red channels, white noise, dust and specks (created using fractal noise and random seed at 25p/s). And not to forget the fantastic Video Copilot Twitch plugin (the only plugin that WAS used mind) plus various other tweeks here and there. Weird, I used to dream of having a good HD camera 20 years ago and here I am with great footage degenerating it. Funny ol’ world.
The Planets
My first co-production with my (7 year old) son. He came up with some truly beautiful names for these fictional planets.
The music is called “Endless Time” and is by me.
Planet textures
Hope to publish soon a montage of planets I’ve been working on with my son. But I thought I’d share any easy tip today for making your planet look unique. Go to Google maps and, in satellite view, screenshot an area of terrain. The one shown below here was around China!
Now the only drawback of using this as a texture is the poles won’t be seamless and you’ll see the join. But the easiest way to solve this is to just not show those sides of your sphere when you do your composite. Then using After Effects, make the image black and white and then using levels tweak the image to something as shown below. This will become your bump map.
This will be a desert planet so no need for glossiness or reflection. And this is the result!
Stay tuned for the montage coming soon. Still have to do the music for it too!
Fadr
There are many ways to isolate vocals from a song. The results vary and can rather depend on your source material. For example if you have an instrumental of the same track you can “invert” that against the original. Mathmatically speaking, it’s the original (with vocals) minus the instrumental (without vocals) equals the vocals. And this effects can be done easily on open source (free) software such as Audacity
If that fills you with dread then don’t be put off – there is a much simpler way. Whilst the result won’t be perfect, this method will certainly allow you a rough separation of vocal and instrument without the need for the instrumental track and as easy as clicking a button. The algorhythms (yes deliberate misspelt pun) on Fadr.com are pretty impressive. Not only can it split vocals from drums, guitar and keyboards into 4 different stems, it also tells you the key of the chord being played and attempts (far from perfect mind) to convert them into midi tracks to help you get started on your DAW (Digital Audio Workstation)
If you’re a budding amateur muso like myself, you will be fascinated to listen to the accompaniment of many tracks without the distraction or noise of the singer. Also perfect for remixes. Free to sign up. Have a play and try not to get addicted.Fadr
I love a good instrumental as one of my Spotify playlists demonstrates.
Bit o’live piano
This is “Dexter’s Tune” by Randy Newman – from the film Awakenings (1991).
It is the only time I’ve ever watched a film and had to return to the cinema the same week to rewatch it.
Latest Twilight Trailer
For more info visit The Twilight Ballrooms official website.
For behind the scenes news click here
You can listen to the original music by me on Soundcloud click here
Synthwave Art
Wikipedia says “Synthwave (also called outrun, retrowave, or futuresynth) is an electronic music microgenre that is based predominately on the music associated with action, science-fiction, and horror film soundtracks of the 1980s. Other influences are drawn from that decade’s art and video games.”
So, think Tron meets Bladerunner. The colours are usually neon lit or based on old computer graphics. There is quite a nostalgic sometimes melancholic quality about these graphics. Themes usually promise adventure and reward in a brave new electronic world whilst using quite basic shapes and perspectives. The accompanying music is almost always synthesiser with artists like Vangelis, Tangerine Dream and Jean Michelle Jarre. Indeed I listened to the entire Equinoxe album by JMJ recently (listen to Part 5). For electronic escapism it simply can’t be beat.
I hope to try and compose some original tracks in the future of this style. But in the meantime I’ve used a two minute excerpt from an apt song by Pet Shop Boys called “This Used To Be The Future” – a great song featuring Human League’s Phil Oakey and vocals from BOTH Pet Shop Boys. The song was never released as a single so I’ve created an unofficial video using a montage of some of my Synthwave Art clips. Enjoy.
Covid 19
Farewell to Flash
In the early days of the worldwide web many sites looked, by today’s standards, ridiculously simplistic. Text and pictures displayed often with little style design and using default fonts from the computer they were showing on. Video was almost impossible to show. The competition was on to fulfil peoples webdesign needs and it wasn’t long until one serious contender came up.
Adobe Flash, with the release of a language called ActionScript, allowed people to embed their designs in a swf (shockwave flash) This opened up a world of possibilities including video streaming, animation and embedded fonts. It wasn’t long before any site looking to the future would embed an swf on their html and boom….a great looking website. And Tranquility Base was one of those sites.
Note the site was going through a name transition
What you saw was what you got and animation was made possible with a timeline in the swf builder Adobe Flash (now Adobe Animate). Video files were often in .fla format and if memory serves me right, early YouTube used this format. For a novice such as I things got more complex than I thought necessary with the introduction of ActionScript 3, but for game designers it was a necessary evolution.
As a webpage format on desktops, Flash Player was a great asset. But by the birth of the smart phone and tablets, cracks were beginning to show. Flash players weren’t battery friendly and many companies opted not to include the player on their operating systems. In an open letter in 2010, Steve Jobs pretty much sealed the player’s fate saying that Apple’s iOS had and would never use the player, opting for HTML5 as the way forward. And that was that.
It’s now 2020 and Adobe has announced the End Of Life for Adobe Flash Player, even for desktops. Safari stopped using it a while back and after the New Year, we’ll witness its demise.
Can’t help feeling this end of an era is a shame. Nothing has really come along since that has given the amateur web designer so much possibility and dynamic. Everything since 2010 has felt like a big step back and even Adobe Muse was shortlived. WordPress and Drupal are good but slow evolutions and again don’t offer the wealth of style that Flash did. Maybe I’m just getting set in my ways which isn’t good in such a fast evolving environment like the internet. And I’ll always be sentimental for yesterdays.
YMCA
Tranquility Showreel
“Tunnels & Spheres” – This year’s showreel, much of it courtesy of a lockdown and extra time on my hands. Everything here is by moi, including the music!
Moving clouds tutorial
This is the first movie diary entry where I actually share a good tip in post production. And it’s an effect I use a lot in the Twilight Ballrooms movie. Parallax with a 2d photo. Making a static pic of clouds come to life with a good 3d optical illusion. And its simple. CC Slant.
I do mumble a bit when I don’t have a script so I hope this isn’t too dull an entry, but if you’re a PostProd nerd like me I think you’ll love it.
The Sun Always Shines on TV
I was extremely late to the party with this song, only hearing it for the first time ever in March 2018 (The radio was seldom on in my childhood house) and I fell in love with the track.
Two years later at the start of lockdown I was trawling through YouTube and found the isolated Morten Harket vocals. I couldn’t resist the opportunity to unofficially team up with such a great singer (whether he wanted to or not) and decided to try my own version of the accompaniment. And this is it. Best listened to on headphones.
The track is the first to be mastered on my new DAW and took about 3 months, which seems long but was not helped by the new iMac arriving over a month late, increased parental duties caused by lockdown and learning how to use Logic Pro. Also I started subscribing to Roland Cloud which is a MASSIVE library, yet amazing value for money. Another post on that later but for now I will say this track includes among others a Roland D50, Juno 106, TB-303, an Emulator II and a Korg M1 – all classic 80’s synths!
If you’ve found this page by chance and you happen to know me back in the 1980’s or 90’s, then this track is dedicated to you!
Literally, a blast from the past!
Movie Diary ep8
A demonstration on the wonders of stabilising footage from handheld cameras using motion tracking. Who needs a tripod on location when you’ve got a 4k phone and stabilisation software? This is taken from my jaunt to Blackpool, just before lockdown!
When baking goes wrong
We are currently in Week 8 of the Covid 19 lockdown and on a more optimistic note, I’ve made about three years worth of progress in that time on the edit. But it’s not without it’s trials and tribulations. Here below we see the Box Office I drew a good 7 years ago. I’m now at the point where I need to use the model for some shots and am tidying things up. One of the tools I’ve been using recently to speed up modelling was importing from C4D into Element 3d – the excellent plugin from Video Copilot – which can handle basic 3d models much faster in After Effects than C4d and is excellent for constructing the final composite of the shot you wish to use.
But sometimes it goes awry. And when it does, it can go almost surreally awry as seen below. Use the slider below to see how it should look and how it looks using C4D’s bake feature.
I’ll take this point to also give a shout out to two very useful free plugins for C4D – SteadyBake was very useful for exporting my 3d Fuse/Mixamo characters from C4D to After Effects. Also worth a mention is DropToFloor plugin which does exactly what it says on the tin – levels selected polygons/models to ground zero so to speak – a big timesaver and essential for avoiding glitches in later import/exports of your model.
Doris Kepelwick
A bit of casting today – of the virtual kind.
Stay Indoors: A Message from Twilight Ballrooms
An important message from the Twilight Ballrooms – released at the start of lockdown.
More can be seen at www.thetwilightballrooms.co.uk
Or check out the Chinese Man Edit here
Test titles!
Play the video below to find out why these titles got the boot!
Twilight Online
Get a flavour of the new film from Tranquility Base Presents by visiting www.thetwilightballrooms.co.uk – listen to some of the music, check out some of the scenery and read about its blighted history.
Then thank your lucky stars you’ve never been there for a holiday!
If you check the site out during the Christmas period you’ll see a festive looking Ballrooms.
Virtual studio
With both kids at school I’ve recently got my mornings back, which has meant that I’ve been able to have some time for myself and indeed the project. And when they went away for a week during the Summer holidays, I was also able to get some filming done. Currently I spend my precious free time working on the pub scenes in the film.
Working with a virtual set has many benefits. It’s cheaper which given my zero budget is always good. And the pressure to shoot on location and get everything right first time is also eliminated. A virtual set allows you to take your time to experiment and play around when it comes to camera positions and angles.
You can take your time getting the lighting right, take down walls if your camera angle requires it, take multiple retakes if necessary, takes care of props and continuity and so on. And, as I discovered, you can rebuild the set as can be seen here with the entrance door reset between the two pews opposite the bar.
Orientation has changed too. The Twilight was originally positioned outside the left windows but this too has been rejigged and now appears over Mundesley’s shoulder at the right windows, making it more haunting and menacing for him as they appear over his shoulder (he is sat on the pew on the far right by the toilets) I think I will also add a porch with side entrance to cover the entrance door in the pub.
For the edit I have files dynamically linked between After Effects and Premiere Pro. I am still developing a good workflow for both with much scope for improvement, but more of that in a future post.
Tranquility Base is 50 today
And yesterday it was 50 years since they landed and uttered the (unofficial) phrase “Tranquility Base” for the first time!
The Tripods
The Tripods is a cult BBC sci-fi classic from the mid-80’s, a Satuday teatime tv trilogy which sadly got the boot after series 2. I, like many, was gutted and years later I’m still not quite over it. In fact only the cancellation of Channel 4’s Utopia has equalled the feeling. So as a kind of therapy I’ve recreated the opening titles using the brilliant original theme music by Ken Freeman
Sneak preview
If you’ve happen to stumble across this, I hope you enjoy this sneak-peek trailer of the project I’m currently working on.
Introducing my latest character and protagonist in “The Curse Of The Twilight Ballrooms”
Stranger 80’s
Did this today on After Effects. Simple really.
But add the Stranger Things music and it suddenly pops!
T Logo just there as a Watermark as this clip is currently on sale at Pond5.com
Old door to Ballrooms
I found the old front door of the old Twilight model today. Question is, should I incorporate it into the New Twilight on the pier or is it not in keeping and too ornate.
I’m stumped cos I quite like it. The original was not my drawing btw but from a royalty free library and then tweaked by me and placed in situ with the rest of the Ballrooms.
The clumpy stairs are definitely me though 🙂
Doctor Whittaker
To celebrate the news that the next Doctor Who is Jodie Whittaker, I’ve extended what I did back in 2014 and have produced my version of the Doctor Who titles. The new time-tunnel is essentially a donut in Element 3d
More exterior shots
The history and evolution of the Twilight Ballrooms concept. From a house shaped theatre perched on top of a crumbling cliff to its final incarnation, a crumbling variety hall on a pier in Wits End.
This video will show the real life venue that inspired it – a venue that sadly burnt down almost 100 years ago!
POSTSCRIPT: This week, the end of Colwyn Bay pier collapsed into the sea. Eerily similar to the story. Full story here
Its hour will come…
Things may seem shut down and deserted round here but the caretaker is still around! Just no-one knows where!
Four Men in a Pub – Twilight Movie Diary
Since becoming a dad, the Twilight Ballrooms project has ground to a halt. That’s parenthood, there’s just no time to engage in the work required. So to sate your appetite and in a rare entry for the Twilight Ballrooms’ Movie Diary these days, I’ve decided to release this rough clip of an experiment I did a while back with a genuine scene from the film. The acting is rough, the cuts are crude but it was fun to explore the green screen environment (the set is CGI by me). It also explored the feasibility of playing all the parts myself – if I can brush up on the accents that is! (which, if you hadn’t noticed are English, Irish and Scottish for the pub regulars and American for Buster Cristo) This would certainly help save money as I can’t afford to pay anyone being a zero budget project, nor do I wish to exploit anyone’s talent for zero pay.
Also on a practical note, it would be easier for reshots and dubs! When I did A Life Of Brian (my first half hour project) my friends all worked for free. It was their 30th birthday present to me. However I only had them for a few days and in the proceeding months, during the edit, I was frustrated when I found I needed a link line recording or a clip redoing. I remember having to edit a conversation together from two recordings I’d recorded in different places and revisiting the location with my partner to shoot more clips. All of course without the actors. So this project, given its virtual environment, I’m rapidly coming to the conclusion that life would be easier and more flexible if I just play all the parts myself. Well, not ALL the parts, but more on that anon!
PramCam is here!
At the start of this year I became a father! As any parent will tell you, the new responsibility is a full time job. And that’s as well as the other full time job that pays your bills. Naturally, progress on my film projects and posts to this site have become few and far between. That is, until I realised on my walk in the park the other day that the pram I was pushing would make a terrific dolly. So I purchased a Joby Grip Tight and Gorilla Pod stand – basically a tripod for the pram and my iPhone. Then using the Instagram Hyperlapse app, had a go. The result below has been speeded up and stabilised even more with After Effects.
Sad day for Eastbourne
I visited Eastbourne for a photoshoot back in 2011 – for the Twilight Ballrooms project. I took many photos including many of the historic and famous Victorian pier.
Sadly the amusement arcade caught fire yesterday and completely gutted the first section of the pier. Many have said that it’s a relief the fire only took 30% of the pier but it will put the entire pier out of action for a long time and this includes many small businesses. It will also be a concern to many that, as has been the case with piers like the West Pier in Brighton, that follow up disasters can occur as the pier is effectively unmanned in the following months. Fingers crossed this doesn’t happen.
Doctor Who time tunnel
This is my first attempt at a Doctor Who time tunnel with thanks to Crawlerz and their excellent tutorial. (The music is from the actual TV programme to help it along!)
Solar Flares
The sound is from a YouTube video of an actual NASA recording of the sounds of Jupiter
New arrival
Post Office Tower Time Lapse
I do believe I put this on Facebook but for some reason completely missed the blog which, T-Base fans, really won’t do!
So here it is in it’s full, unashamed Koyannasqatsi rip off! Some of my first time lapses!
Creating a spooky theatre
True to form
What if…?
Have entertained the notion recently that the Twilight would look like a pavilion and it and the Rubicon rollercoaster, essential parts of the film, would be on a rotting pier rather than on the edge of a cliff. Radical I know. To help illustrate this I’ve done a rough mock up of what I mean. The Rubicon is at the back of the pier with the end part missing as per accident in 1973. The pavilion is a basic 3d model I’m working on based on the original pavilion at Victoria Pier in Colwyn Bay which itself was destroyed by fire in 1922 (the actual pier still stands but sadly has fallen into ruin). The pier structure used in this composite is a photo I took of the pleasure pier at Eastbourne. Click on the picture to enlarge.
Let me know what you think and whether the new look Twilight could be the way forward. Is it spooky or dangerous enough? Does it make you want to know it’s story, especially the collapsed roller coaster at the end? Feel free to add comments below. More composites to come!
Doesn’t rain but it pours
We have recently had a heatwave in London and along with the great weather comes other extremes, namely thunderstorms. Having not posted much of late, I thought I’d try and win favour back from my readers with a freebie. Here is a royalty free clip (not for resale) of it raining heavily to add to your sound library. Wow I hear you cry, but that’s not all! At 31 secs into the clip there is also a cracking piece of thunder (literally)! It happened right above my head and I thought the distortion would be too great, but it’s actually turned out nice. Download file here
Every great day has its end!
New Pope elected – Exclusive!!
As excitement builds with the election of a new pope this week, Tranquility Base presents exclusive behind the scenes footage of this historic moment.
Happy 10th Anniversary
Happy New Year, but also Happy Anniversary. Yes can you believe it, 2013 marks the 10th anniversary of Tranquility Base Presents. To mark this milestone, I’ve put together a short film documenting the slow but steady evolution of this, my film making website! From the first ever shots with a webcam up to todays experiments with computer graphics and post production and the bits in between! Plus some previously unseen footage (lucky you!) I’d like to dedicate this film to all those who have got involved with the projects! Enjoy and Happy 2013!
Let it snow!
Twilight Movie Diary – E05
Recently got into a new site called Pinterest. I found the app version and downloaded to me iPad. Now I’m hooked. It allows to pin most (more or less) pictures on the internet into a folder on Pinterest. So if, you’re doing some compositing on FOG (see below) you can collect a folder of other peoples images to inspire you. Just inspire mind, no stealing! And I was inspired, though it’s your decision whether I actually got a decent foggy composite, rather than just a bleached effect!
Experiment in 3d Importing
This was done by importing 3d objects into Photoshop.
What Time Is On Their Minds?
Been on holiday and, having spent all my savings on Pro Tools have naturally spent my time trying to get to grips with it (who needs to get away like I did this time last year)
I’ve always thought the KLF’s “What Time Is Love?” sounds rather like Lloyd Webber’s “Heaven On Their Minds” so have used this opportunity to let the two clash! Vocals are Jerome Pradon’s taken off YouTube. I’m very pleased with the result of this experiment, not least Pro Tools elastic sound editor which allows you to stretch samples to fit the beat. Marvellous. Other samples used here are Wanda Dee’s infamous sample from “To The Bone”, Mantronix’s “King of the Beats” (also used on Snaps classic “The Power”), Shed Seven’s “Disco Down” and more from Jesus Christ Superstar as well as Apple and ProTools samples and instruments.
Also worth a mention here is a great site I’ve found called Who Sampled – here you can find the sources of most samples from Kanye West to FatBoySlim. Very interesting AND educational!
Happy Halloween
Happy Halloween from Tranquility Base!
10th Birthday in 2013
Next year Tranquility Base will celebrate it’s 10th Birthday! So if I find anything of historical value from the archives I shall stick it on the site. First up is the original T-Shape which was designed by Alex Treadway. Here are some of the original photos used. The plan (oh so many plans!) had been to do a short film about a stand-up comedian who bombed. As he took his bow it would become the logo. So earlier plans had been of this ilk, until towards the end of the shoot we tried the now infamous “Tadah!” shot which won the day! I also like its shadow, reminiscent of the Nomads who make unnecessary cameos in ALL my projects!
I was in my late twenties when these were taken, long before I decided to dye my hair grey and deliberately put on weight!
Twilight Movie Diary – E03
Artwork finally makes it home
The day has finally come! Now the works have finished in my flat I could finally collect and hang the picture I purchased earlier this year from Uli Meyer, pride of place above my telly. Indeed, I imagine many a TV program is now doomed as it will inevitably steal my gaze.
The piece is called “Trashed”
First ever make up test
The lead character in this movie will be played by yours truly naturally. Have taken time to start creating the character in the flesh and this included a trip yesterday to Charles Fox make up in Covent Garden. I was dreading the visit, knowing nothing about makeup. But the staff could not have been more helpful. I bought a moustache and have just tried it on. Here’s a quick vid. Have also darkened the eyes to give a jaded cynical look to the character. The moustache requires special makeup glue. I was surprised how strong and flexible it is. To take it off you apply special thinner. The whole lot came to about £30. But I think it’s essential the character has a moustache because it helps him look creepy, slimy and manipulative.