Sunday, July 22, 2007

Stage 7...


...of Fox Studios Australia.
(ha; and you thought it was going to be a continuation of that whole Stage 3 : performing thing...)

Anyhoo, Stage 7 at Fox; is an old exhibition hall. It’s not specifically designed as a sound-proof Shooting studio. At first glance it has all the regular features - lights and bells, sound-stage roller-doors, a lighting grid, LOTS “o” POWER, etc); One thing that is definitely NOT on the list of regular features is a silence that could let you shoot whispering dialog from a wide camera set-up; especially if it’s blowing a gale outside...

I mention the wind, because it seems as though Stage 7 has a teensy problem... it Hums...

Not an electrical hum, mind you (that would be easy enough to fix...) the BUILDING hums...

My best guess, and remember it IS a guess (since I haven’t been up in the rafters); is that the walls are being moved ever so slightly in the kick-ass-breeze, and the resulting vibrations are travelling into the lighting grid-pipe (rigid), which is transferring into the rigging that holds the space-lights (6 x bulb lighting fixture – very common for ambience lighting from above in sound studios). This vibration manages to hit a frequency that is audible, and you start to get “waves” of humming


Space-lights

I’m making these conclusions, because the noise is most definitely coming from those sections of the lighting grid that are under load, and it only seems to occur with a large gust of wind (that you can also hear whipping over the building’s structure).


Blue-screen is fun.

Anyhoo, as nice as Bowen and Darwin are; it’s good to be back in a major city (even if it is Sydney, with its bat-shit insane roads and traffic. :) )
Here’re are a few shots of the flight from Darwin



For 1000’s of kilometres there’s pretty much NOTHING...



Every-now-and-then, there’s a road or two.



The landscape starts to look like a coastal reef (even though it’s bone dry)


And sometimes it looks like it’s you’re viewing photos from mars...



Back in Sydney for a few weeks... good thing I bought a Sat-Nav system for my car...



Cable patching can be a tricky business...


Time for the regular PHOTO FROM THE ARCHIVES...
In honour of my MISSING one of the most Kick-arse Australian ski-seasons in living memory;

I present...


Artistic-ski-rack-shot circa 2001, Whistler BC, CANADA.

Okey-dokey, I guess that’s it for the moment.
See you all later;
Ian

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

DARWIN Harbour...



...is BIG.

Seriously, the Tides change by 4m or something ridiculous.

The water is an amazing colour too.

I can’t think of what to write right now as I’m still recovering from a bit of motion sickness. go figure; I’m FINE on the boat for more than 3-days below decks for music-cue-playback, then on the last day, in the late afternoon I start to get VERY wobbly... Had to lie down later on that evenings shoot... still feel a little like I’m rocking (and I’ve been on solid-ground for more than 12 hrs).

Ok more photos

One of the many magical sunsets we bore witness to on the wharf.


Darwin is where the paparazzi came out to play... check out that Lens!


Sunset... rigging... if it weren’t for the motion sickness on the last day/night, I’d think Sailing is pretty cool.


More sunset shooting.

Ok, I fly back to Sydney tomorrow morning.
See ya

Ian