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of interest…….

  • Lost In Berlin

    Its been quite a while since I last posted on here…blah blah blah etc….who cares, heres the madness which has happened in-between!!!!  Again I’m not going to talk much about work as we have been going over scenes constantly each day refining reprogramming and rehearsing it all. We finished tech-ing the show were working on Al Gran and are now up and funning with only 2 more performances left to go (as of 06/03/12). We also made the front page of the newspaper.

    Prior to the show opening there have been many hours of work and may hours of socialising with friends to balance things out. I was Betinas birthday on the 12th, bet inis our show caller/ASM and has been doing a stunning job of calling the Cues, lighting cues in german and video cues in English, AMAZING. We all meant in Monarch for her birthday (134, Skalitzer Straße ) which we never would have found as its the most unassuming entrance. The socialising continued on the ubahn Jack making sure Megan knew where she was going…….

    Right next to Kraftwerk where we are working we discovered the most amazing side of a building pained. I still really don’t understand it, but, I believe, the cow is spoking a pipe whilst the sky is licking the sun like a lollipop and a strange looking cat like creature is appearing out of a hill, double pause,  FANTASTIC!!!!!!!

    Thomas who has been our technical contact front the Staatsoper came and cooked us all a magnificent meal called Käse-Spätzle which was ace, it was fantastic to see the making and cooking process, thank you Thomas!

    Jonathan also cooked some mega meals and made the most fantastic vinegary onion sauce stuff which made Megans eyes sweat. We watched all of the episodes of the TV remake of Sherlock Holmes even if we didn’t get in from for till late which made Jack jump. and occasionally we had some phalic like deserts, ahem…….

    It was Jacks  birthday so Megan and Momma Megan cooked a cake, unfortunately the chocolate didn’t dry quick enough before we had to leave to go to work. This it travels open top style gaining strange looks of passers by. Ubahn Cake, Reichstag Cake, Cake by random advertising board.

    Not the greatest photo but i think Jack was pleasantly sup prised when he was presented with the completed cake, topped with creme fresh and berries!

    We visited the Reichstag with Family Warner, Family Kearney which was a great couple of hours seeing one over Berlin’s magnificent buildings. Im not quite sure why but Jon and myself are looking particularly pleased in this photo whilst leaving the Reichstag, who cares, it was a fucking great day!

    There are many other things which have happened, far to much to put there in one post, saves me right for not keeping on top of this blogging malarky! So currently I’m now alone in 254 Hermanplatz planning some adventures on the days off!

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  • AL GRAN SOLE CARICO D’AMORE with 59productions

    Mid February 2012 and I’m in the great city of Berlin working in a old power staion ontop of the cult techno club Tresor  with 59productions for the re-mount of the Opera “Al Gran Sole Carico D’amore“. This is a technically intricate opera, live video show consisting of 5 live roaming cameras filming the scenes acted out live onstage and reprojected onto a huge screen above. Alongside this we have a full orchestra all inside the space of the old Kraftwerk Mitte building Berlin.  I’ve been here just over 3 weeks now and it has been a steady working regime and lots of fun working, and having fun with friends. So, lets get the classic work photo out of the way ……….. I push buttons.

    And onto Berlin…….

    On the first sunday off, (were working every day apart from Sundays), we (we, as in family Warner, Bruno, Megan and Myself) decided to have a walk around Berlin ad see the sights. First of all, it was frikking cold, and I mean really cold, we left the apartment around midday and headed toward the centre. Getting off the train at Alexander Platz  we walked by the river towards the Holocaust Memorial which was recommended to see,this is well worth a visit a very grand but tasteful memorial.

    Following on from here we continued wandering round taking in the sights and trying to keep warm we ventured towards the Brandernburg Gate. The buildings around Berlin are ‘ace’ , everything is so big and grand which is quite deceptive, as quite often something places look closer than they actually are!

    Heading back down the away from the gate, being the gown ups which we are, we passed the a bin which looked like the cookie monster and only thought it right to take a photo. Maybe we were the only people who found this funny…….

    I think it was later in the week when Leo suggested that we try and get everyone together for a meal somewhere. Chris one of the camera operators on the show suggested a pizza place close to where we were living in Hermanstrasse. We eventually found our way there that evening ordered and were presented with the biggest pizzas I have ever seen, Jon took the challenge of cutting this up.

    After getting through some nice wine and great food, Chris, who had suggested the Pizza place recommended we went to his mates bar in Kreuzberg. In the end 5 of us went to the bar which was a very cool old building stripped back to brick with smoothly sanded individually crafted tables. We spoke to Duncan who owned the bar and his plans to open it up during the day soo to sell teas from around the world, the place doesn’t have a name just T, or Tea, or Tee. Anyways we sat round chatting drinking Rum and ginger beer out of jam jars till late. You wont find this pace via a google search but if you go to the corner of Kopischstraße at the top of the hill on the corner you will find it.

    So thats a very slimmed down account of the past couple of weeks, more work, fun and frolics to follow.

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  • From Universe of sound to Al Gran Sole!

    So!………. Another roller-coaster of a week starting with last Saturday 21/01/12 spent my last weekend at home for a while catching up with friends and family. Thnkyou James & Charlie for a pleasant lunch on saturday and Dan for a funny night of Beer and mysterious shots (Coffee Tequila!).

    Sunday night I traveled down to Watford to spend a day with the Philharmonia helping prepare for the new video installation Universe of Sound following the success of Re-rite. This was a 36 camera shoot of the Philharmonia Orchestra and Esa Pekka with the installation due to go into the Science museum later this year. The rigging had been done the day before and Lighting were making a start with a load of Spacelights!

    We started early 08.00am, and began plugging up the kit, multi-viewers, SDI camera looms till we had a controll station with 4 plasmas several smaller monitors and lots of cable.

    Mark from the Philharmonia had been working on a recording skeletal tracking data from the Kineckt to track Esa conducting but was having trouble with the amount of light around the place from the space-lights which was tricky. Erick may have solved the issue using some F:Stop Gel but I’m not sure if the conditions made it possible to capture this data as I wasnt there for the shoot. Hopefully he managed to capture something but sometimes its impossible to anticipate these things which crop up now and again.

    We worked quite late, until we had all of the cameras out and a signal running through, at this point the whole room looked quite techie and rather matte black.

    Callum, Ana’s fella came around to lend a hand and he showed me the GoPro Hero2 camera and some footage he had filmed and cut with it which looked great check out his Vimeo here: Callum Cooper. I headed back to the hotel arround 0:30 whilst Richard, Marina & Mark stayed a little later to finish off with the audio guys.

    The following day I was on the train back to Newcastle at 08.00, at around 09.00 i had to call the police station as my card had been broken into on Sunday night, the window smashed and the police had had to take it away. Lucky James had my car keys so he helped me out HUGELY by traveling to where I had parked it dealing with the police on Sunday eve. Between 09.00 and 10.20 on the train travelling back I spent ages on the phone to get my car released from the compound. I was passed between departments so many times and to so many different people it was a chore to say the least! I very much dislike the 101 service to call the police, when you just want to speak to a duty sergeant at one police station it is nearly impossible to do this at ant speed! I finally got the answer to ay my car had been released, and Iain had offered to pick me up from the station so i could pick up my car, take it to auto-glass to get the window repaired then I had to leave for the airport at 15.00, to catch a flight to Berlin for 7 weeks. Thanks to Iain, i managed to get sorted and was set and in a taxi to the airport mostly on-time!

    A short flight, a switch at Amsterdam and then a short flight to Tegal Berlin, I landed, grabbed my bag, and followed Jon’s directions on how to get to the apartment. i managed to get off the buss one top early and found myself a little lost until I got on the next one to Jacob station.

    I was then to get the train from here to Hermanplatz, i got so far then we were transferred onto a replacement night-bus, thats what I assumed at the time and thankfully I was right! After a quick call to Jon after i got lost again, (my sense of direction can be somewhat terrible on occasions)  I was in the apartment which is to be home for the next 7 weeks.

    Im working video programming for 59Productions for a remount of an opera called Al Gran Sole Carico D’Amore which were staging inside a disused powerstaion on-top of the famous Tresor Nightclub which was still going at 10.00am this morning (28/01/12) as we came into work. The opera directed by Katie Mitchell is hugely complex which involves 5 live cameras filming actors acting out the scenes and this being projected and cut live above the stage where the action is happening. As well as this there is an orchestra playing a score written by Luigi Nono, Opera singers and a full choir bringing music and atmosphere to the production.

    Its big, complex, geeky and exciting!

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