Black Snake v Rattle Snake

From an email my Dad got from an old friend in Texas! lol

"I've been told not to kill black snakes because they kill poisonous snakes, but this is the first time I've actually seen proof.


The guy who snapped these photos said the rattler was still rattling all the way down!!! "

The King and I

Finally got the pics from my friends Daves wedding in Thailand. Beautiful!

Site Manager

Seems I have a new job! lol

But of course it is all just smoke and mirrors ;)

The Arcadia

We were filming down in Southampton for a couple of days. One of them was filming on P & O's flagship cruiseliner The Arcadia.

I've never been on a cruise ship before, and the Arcadia is a beauty. I could get used to that! lol

Low Loading

Had a great day the other day on the front of a low loader, which we got in for some driving scenes.

Had to work a route out where the truck could drive in a perpetual loop so the actors could say there dialogue over and over, and the camera could be moved to catch a different point of view without losing continuity in the background. Needless to say, I now know the roads of Hemel Hempstead rather well now lol

Loads of fun! :)

Paris Hall

Miles the DoP, and his step son David whos 3rd AD put me up at their amazing home Paris Hall last night. Apparently the oldest building in Essex, it was a fantastic place to spend the night. Bags of character in the house.

On a convergence of ley lines (which Miles demonstrated by showing me some divining rods going berserk), it was certainly the coolest place I've had the pleasure of spending the night. Fine cognac by a roaring fire. I could get used to that ;)Thanks gents!

Updating the Rubins

Its been another busy week, but loads of fun. I've seen a lot of the rushes, and although I'm biased, we seem to have a very good film on our hands :)

Found myself moving a 1200cc motor bike today, and reversing at speed our Chrysler into the road on camera lol.

Just another day at the office ;)

Liquid Mars and Rainbow Clouds

A (fairly) nice and straight forward week so far. One of the joys of being in the same location for so long is that I dont have to worry about getting the trucks in and out on a morning and evening, so can just have a more caretaker role, which involves sitting and watching, with occasional shouting bursts lol, like the poor grip who just chucked an apple core outside right in front of me. I pointed him towards the bin ;)

When does Mars act like a liquid? Although liquids freeze and evaporate quickly into the thin atmosphere of Mars, persistent winds may make large sand dunes appear to flow and even drip like a liquid. Visible on the above image right are two flat top mesas in southern Mars, where the season is changing from Spring to Summer. A light dome topped hill is also visible on the far left of the image. As winds blow from right to left, flowing sand on and around the hills leaves picturesque streaks. The dark arc-shaped droplets of fine sand are called barchans, and are the interplanetary cousins of similar Earth-based sand forms. Barchans can move intact downwind and can even appear to pass through each other. Over the past few weeks, winds on southern Mars have been kicking up dust and are being watched to see if they escalate into another of Mars' famous planet-scale sand storms.


Why would clouds appear to be different colors? The reason here is that ice crystals in distant cirrus clouds are acting like little floating prisms. Sometimes known as a fire rainbow for its flame-like appearance, a circumhorizon arc lies parallel to the horizon. For a circumhorizontal arc to be visible, the Sun must be at least 58 degrees high in a sky where cirrus clouds are present. Furthermore, the numerous, flat, hexagonal ice-crystals that compose the cirrus cloud must be aligned horizontally to properly refract sunlight in a collectively similar manner. Therefore, circumhorizontal arcs are quite unusual to see. This circumhorizon display was photographed through a polarized lens above Dublin, Ohio last week.

WALTHAM ABBEY: Movie stars in town to shoot film

From Epping Forest News: http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/efnews/4350694.WALTHAM_ABBEY__Movie_stars_in_town_to_shoot_film/

By James Colasanti »


MOVIE stars are in Waltham Abbey to shoot scenes for a new British comedy.

Award-winning Timothy Spall and screen-siren Honor Blackman - who famously played Bond girl Pussy Galore in Goldfinger - are among the actors on location at a farm house off Sewardstone Road.

Bridget Jones-star James Callis, Underworld actress Rhona Mitra, and Hugh O'Conor, who appeared in the Oscar-nominated Chocolat, are also cast in the film which is being directed by Bafta-nominated Yoav Factor.

The stars' trailers are parked in the Premier Inn hotel's car park alongside a film crew working on Re-Uniting The Rubins, which will feature the story of a dysfunctional Jewish family.

Lenny Rubin, played by Spall, is about to retire and take a cruise around the world when he is roped in to fulfilling his mother's last wish to heal the rift between her squabbling children who are made up of a megalomaniac businessman, an eco warrior, a rabbi and a Buddhist.

"The atmosphere is very good on set and we are hoping this movie will join the ranks of some of the other fantastic Brit flicks we have seen in recent times, said publicist Nicole Gregory.

Six weeks of scheduled filming started on Sunday (May 3) and other scenes will be shot at Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire and in South Africa.

Families

We're now in one location for the next 10 days (which makes my life easier lol). Got a lovely big carpark to shove my now huge (for me) unit in. Had a few days with loads of extras, so costume and make-up got super big trucks each to do everyone in a conveyor style. Plus an extra dining bus too ;)

Filming has been great, with Timothy and Honor Blackman doing some fantastic stuff together, and Sunday was James' last day for a few days. He was on form again, even though he became a dad again a few days go! Congrats to him and his family!

Got the whole cast plus loads of extras in the next few days. Should be interesting....... lol

But seen some of the rushes. Absolutely brilliant. There is something good shaping up here. Swings from hilarious to heartbreaking and back again. Can't wait to see the whole thing. Stay tuned!

Mr & Mrs Pitts

Congratulations to my very good friend Dave, who got married in Bangkok to the gorgeous Art (short for something a lot bigger that starts with a K, lol!).

Totally gutted to not have been able to make it, but really pleased for the pair of them.

As the Jewish would say "Mazel Tov!!" ;)

Huff Houses

We just spent 3 days filming in a Huff House. These are beautiful houses that are shipped over from Germany and constructed in just 3 weeks.

It was a beautiful place and a pleasure to film in. The perfect place for James Callis to be a flash git rich business man in lol.

There has been some quality acting going on with James, Tim Spall, and Rhona Mitra all bouncing brilliantly off each other. Ad libs and all sorts going on :)

My bloody unit is getting bigger and bigger, with 3 trucks all over 40 feet, plus 5 others over 30 feet. I managed to get them all in an Premier Inn car park. Got a few locations in central London coming up. Not looking forward to parking this lot in Golders Green and Elephant & Castle.

But end of first week and all is good. Sleep in tomorrow!

Today I met Pussy Galore, Wormtongue, Gaius Baltar, and Sonja the Vampire

All is good :) Although getting used to 4am starts is not good for the soul!

My job is usually hectic from about 5am to 9am, then eases off once the cameras start rolling and no-one else can have mini dramas that I need to be fixing. Power and Water. Power and water, and bloody parking so they have access to power and water! And hot food! lol


First day was in the swanky Radisson New Edwardian Hotel in Canary Wharf. This was the stand-in for President Baltars swish offices (and was a most suitable location, if I dont mind saying so). Here's a couple of pics of the location plus my mates Nigel and Quinney aka Team Sound. I'll try and post some others when I can be sure the producer wont tear me a new one if I do! lol

All is good (ish!) ;)

Action!

We start shooting tomorrow on Reuniting The Rubins. I'm to be at Billsgate Fishmarket for 4.45am tomorrow lol. Got to park the Unit vehicles, with all the catering, costume & makeup, and stars trailers lol

Should be great, but wish me luck! And some sleep! lol

St Aidans school trip to Bologne, France 1987

These have been posted by a friend on Facebook. I was 12 lol. So much is the same, yet has changed so much! lol. All I can say is...... Oh My Fucking God!! lol And poor Amanda. Little did she know lol. And yes, my technique has improved LOTS since then lol