Time is ticking on in lovely wexford. Suddenly the massive tent has been built, the scenery is turning up, the boys have nearly finished building the seating banks. Now the forklifts and cherrypickers have all gone away, the bar marquee has been erected. Now there are just a few of us (the stage crew and a handful of others) who have the castle and big tent all to ourselfs. It's really rather nice, quite peaceful and relexing (despite the heavy heavy lifting and general scen related engineering). On lunchbreaks and tea breaks I get to lie in the baking sun surrounded by a big park, looking over the lake, watch the tourists and various newlywed couple wander round and get their photos taken. Then if I want then I can go and sit on the roof and sunbathe. Not a bad way to make a living.
Tonight is the meet and greet night, so all the noisy singers and musos turn up, along with god knows who else (around 250 people involved with the festival) so we get the first of the free booze and food nights - wheee, free Moet and Chandon, Guinness and wine all night. Marvellous, who needs a liver with all that around the place. Ha ha
OK, gonna go now, I'll have some photos up soon.
all the best
29 Apr 2007
21 Apr 2007
Timbo is back in blogtown
Howdy all, sorry I've been unable to update my blog for so long - you must be bored of the petronas towers by now. The problem is that every time I've tried to add a new post to my blog then life has suddenly got really hectic andI've had to abandon it. But there we go , I've got ten minutes to try and catch up quickly.
So I flew back from KL about a week ago, felt like crap for several days due to accidentally getting very drunk on whiskey on the flight and therefore ruining my chances of avoiding jetlag.
I had a proper fly-by-night trip to Kilburn, whereby I managed to see loads of people, all the family, have a few beers, walk about 30 miles in 5 days, lop some branches off trees and shred them, dig a load of horse manure into the vegetable patch, buy steel toecap boots and then pack my bags and get on a plane to Dublin. Did I forget anything? Probably, oh and I did all of these things with jetlag, whilst also fitting in a few minutes her and there for relaxing like.
Then I spend the night in Dublin (well, Sandymount) and got to catch up with jenni, brian and thomas for the evening. Which is always lovely, I even got to have a little stroll aling the beach on my way back from the petrol station with beers. It's a bizarre thing going from one of the worlds cheapest countries to 2 of the worlds most disgustingly expensive countries - but there we go, it's why I'm back here. Exclusively for the cash.
And there we have it, I took a long and dull train down to wexford (but the view was pretty excuisite because the sun was beautiful and the scenry along the east coast is really magnificent at this time of yeah) and returned to the grey and backward land that is the sunny sounth east.
I'm in a new house this time, however it's only just around the corner from my old one. Basically nothing has changed here, exept there is a new mega tesco up the road and the new theatre is looking a lot more completed.
The site of this years opera festival is a real improvement this year, however. We're in a proper amazing spot called Johnstown Castle. It's a proper little castle, situated in miles and miles of old gardens, it's got peacocks, ancient gorgeous trees, an ornamental pond (large) and lake (larger), towers, turrets, the remains of a Norman Keep in the forest, it' s got the lot. We're allowed to go anywhere inside the castle, so we spend time sunbathing on the roof, and exploring all the rooms. The general public have never been allowed in, I've talked to guys here who've lived in wexford all their lives and never been throught the door, let alone climbed out of a window onto the roof.
Well, that's all I have time for now, cos I'm in an internet cafe and racing against the clock - But I'll have lots and lots of very tasty looking photos for you soon enough. And plenty of jolly tales of climbing high, lifting heavy and hopefully not getting attacked by peacocks or irishmen.
Love to all
So I flew back from KL about a week ago, felt like crap for several days due to accidentally getting very drunk on whiskey on the flight and therefore ruining my chances of avoiding jetlag.
I had a proper fly-by-night trip to Kilburn, whereby I managed to see loads of people, all the family, have a few beers, walk about 30 miles in 5 days, lop some branches off trees and shred them, dig a load of horse manure into the vegetable patch, buy steel toecap boots and then pack my bags and get on a plane to Dublin. Did I forget anything? Probably, oh and I did all of these things with jetlag, whilst also fitting in a few minutes her and there for relaxing like.
Then I spend the night in Dublin (well, Sandymount) and got to catch up with jenni, brian and thomas for the evening. Which is always lovely, I even got to have a little stroll aling the beach on my way back from the petrol station with beers. It's a bizarre thing going from one of the worlds cheapest countries to 2 of the worlds most disgustingly expensive countries - but there we go, it's why I'm back here. Exclusively for the cash.
And there we have it, I took a long and dull train down to wexford (but the view was pretty excuisite because the sun was beautiful and the scenry along the east coast is really magnificent at this time of yeah) and returned to the grey and backward land that is the sunny sounth east.
I'm in a new house this time, however it's only just around the corner from my old one. Basically nothing has changed here, exept there is a new mega tesco up the road and the new theatre is looking a lot more completed.
The site of this years opera festival is a real improvement this year, however. We're in a proper amazing spot called Johnstown Castle. It's a proper little castle, situated in miles and miles of old gardens, it's got peacocks, ancient gorgeous trees, an ornamental pond (large) and lake (larger), towers, turrets, the remains of a Norman Keep in the forest, it' s got the lot. We're allowed to go anywhere inside the castle, so we spend time sunbathing on the roof, and exploring all the rooms. The general public have never been allowed in, I've talked to guys here who've lived in wexford all their lives and never been throught the door, let alone climbed out of a window onto the roof.
Well, that's all I have time for now, cos I'm in an internet cafe and racing against the clock - But I'll have lots and lots of very tasty looking photos for you soon enough. And plenty of jolly tales of climbing high, lifting heavy and hopefully not getting attacked by peacocks or irishmen.
Love to all
6 Apr 2007
Back home in less than a week
Well there we have it, time flys by when you're having fun doesn't it. I now have less than 5 days before I land in the cold wet and rainy place once more. I must say I'm really looking forward to working outdoors in April, in Ireland. I'd better pack my sowester.
This week has been one utterly preposterous week indeed. In fact I'd rate it right up there in the marvellous land of the utterly insane and ridiculou. Where oh where do I begin??
So, we've shot another TV movie - this time I was the sound recordist for the whole thing, instead of dubbing mixer (something that, sadly I'm unable to do because of coming home). I've never been a sound recordist for a TV shoot before ok, I've recorded sound but not for a long time and mostly in studios before now, and I've always had help to hand. Not this time.
Basically I was given a mixer, a sennheiser gun mic on a stick, 3 broken radio mics and one that worked - yes, you heard me, just one mic, for an hour long TV movie with a cast of several - a few cables (but not enough in case any broke) and no help.
I asked for the job because the company have produced such poor quality audio in the last lot of stuff they've done, I tried to push the point that audio is paramount - equally as important as picture, sometimes more so. I tried to make the point that you can't ignore audio and sideline it and I wanted to show how it should be done. All I ever asked them for was an assistant. Did I get one? Did I 'ek.
So there was me, having to run around like a blue arsed fly, for 6 days, changing the mic (singular), all cabling all checks, headphones on with mixer on my shoulder holding the boom and mixing at the same time as having to check that I wasn't getting into the shot and ruining everything. The equipment was so poorly serviced that I was constantly battling hiss and crackles, as well as battling the schedule and peoples lack of knowledge about the importance of good quality audio. Most TV companies over here are quite happy to settle for abominable audio (and picture, story, acting and everthing else for that matter) for the sake of getting the job done by the deadline.
We tried our best to push the bar a little on the production quality, to show that it really can be done if you only try, but were forever being hampered by budget (i.e none) and time (same) constraints. All the same we managed to produce enough footage for an hour or more TV movie for less than £8000 all told (or less than the catering budget for a very low budget, half hour long BBC pile of poo plops) and with less than a month from pre-production to broadcast. Mental.
This week has been one utterly preposterous week indeed. In fact I'd rate it right up there in the marvellous land of the utterly insane and ridiculou. Where oh where do I begin??
So, we've shot another TV movie - this time I was the sound recordist for the whole thing, instead of dubbing mixer (something that, sadly I'm unable to do because of coming home). I've never been a sound recordist for a TV shoot before ok, I've recorded sound but not for a long time and mostly in studios before now, and I've always had help to hand. Not this time.
Basically I was given a mixer, a sennheiser gun mic on a stick, 3 broken radio mics and one that worked - yes, you heard me, just one mic, for an hour long TV movie with a cast of several - a few cables (but not enough in case any broke) and no help.
I asked for the job because the company have produced such poor quality audio in the last lot of stuff they've done, I tried to push the point that audio is paramount - equally as important as picture, sometimes more so. I tried to make the point that you can't ignore audio and sideline it and I wanted to show how it should be done. All I ever asked them for was an assistant. Did I get one? Did I 'ek.
So there was me, having to run around like a blue arsed fly, for 6 days, changing the mic (singular), all cabling all checks, headphones on with mixer on my shoulder holding the boom and mixing at the same time as having to check that I wasn't getting into the shot and ruining everything. The equipment was so poorly serviced that I was constantly battling hiss and crackles, as well as battling the schedule and peoples lack of knowledge about the importance of good quality audio. Most TV companies over here are quite happy to settle for abominable audio (and picture, story, acting and everthing else for that matter) for the sake of getting the job done by the deadline.
We tried our best to push the bar a little on the production quality, to show that it really can be done if you only try, but were forever being hampered by budget (i.e none) and time (same) constraints. All the same we managed to produce enough footage for an hour or more TV movie for less than £8000 all told (or less than the catering budget for a very low budget, half hour long BBC pile of poo plops) and with less than a month from pre-production to broadcast. Mental.
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