Hello there blog readers, it’s been a while! I apologise for my absence, and as ever I will blame it on the increasingly heavy workload that I’m trundling my way through with my Design Council × Burnley Arts Centre project! Updates on that will be coming soon, but for now I’d like to talk about some spooky goings on here in Burnley…
Just the other night at work I spent over 12 hours as photographer, technician, matron, and leftover-pizza-eater at work – all in the name of fundraising, of course! Lots of young people signed up to our Fright Night event, subjecting themselves to an evening and sleepover of spooky stories in the woods, halloween-themed drama activities and scary films in the theatre – all of which included a few more spooks than they’d bargained for!
With the sound of a baby’s cry in the woods after a terrifying story about a lost child, an apparition of a woman dressed in white in the foyer and then the tech box, and the discovery of a young child’s toy with accompanying creepy music-box tunes, we had loads of fun setting the scene and coming up with crafty ideas of ways to spook the participants!
After a while, however, it was time to settle down for the night, however me and Jess had bagged ourselves the unenvious graveyard shift, 4am – 8am. After a couple of hours of light sleep in our sleeping bags in the office, we’d to get up and make sure everyone was asleep and surviving the night!
The event was loads of fun, and we managed to raise a great amount of money for the theatre – and everyone appreciated the unlimited toast in the morning! I, however, endured a day in the life of what it must be like for my mum after a night shift – which mainly consists of feeling sick and having a constant headache.
The day after this, and with a newfound respect for my mum, I decided to take my camera with me for a walk to work. The trees have begun to shed and I wanted to try and get a few photos of the beautiful colourful British autumn before they were fully bare! Here’s a couple of my favourites:
That’s about it for now – later this week I’ll be back with some even nicer photos from a stroll through my home village of Worsthorne (and Hurstwood), and an update on my Design Council project, with my new title of Branding & Communications Designer.
So just the other day I was inspired by a YouTube video of Americans trying to pronounce some Spanish words, and wondered what it’d be like if the British gave it a shot, seeing as we seem to clog up the shores of Spain every summer. I rounded up five members of my family, printed off some cue cards with some of the nastiest Spanish words I could think of, and began recording.
Have a look at some of the words (and resultant expressions pulled) that I subjected them to…
Ellie doesn’t like these wordsNo, it’s not pronounced ‘arse’My dad convinced he was ‘nearly right’One must be careful when pronouncing this wordEllie realises she just inadvertently threatened to get pregnantMy mum realising she just said that she’s ‘very pregnant’
After posting the video of The K’nex Castle that me and my dad collaborated to create last week, many people have fed back with positive reactions, however almost everyone has asked the same thing: how did we do it?
Well, firstly, time to clarify – this actually happened. No camera trickery, special effects or CGI were involved. The only post-processing was to restore the colour balance, add the soundtrack and overlay the titles. In brief: everything you see happened, and it happened in real-time.
So (and pardon the technical details here), the bulk of the lighting you see used was actually just IKEA’s LED “Dioder” range which I modified to be controlled by a series of DMX connected dimmers, which were accompanied by other speciality DMX driven stage lighting fixtures. For those not in the know, DMX is a protocol/system used in stage and theatre lighting to control all the lighting from a central control desk…
The lighting fixtures and their dozens of metres of accompanying cable were installed in the castle by myself throughout the afternoon, and all eventually connected to the lighting desk above. I had sat down and drawn up technical and wiring diagrams beforehand, so the system was already designed for a quick install.
All cables were routed through the castle to its rear, where we also installed a smoke machine for a pyrotechnic twist, and two floodlights for an eerie backlit effect for certain segments.
Other lighting installed included:
Front flood lights
Lower level red/green/blue LED strips
Mid and upper level red/green/blue LED floodlights
White mid level LED strips
Small spotlights under each spire roof
Large spotlights under the the two large spires
Large spotlights inside the two front turrets
Small spotlights on the three small turrets
Each of these different lighting types had its own “channel” on the lighting desk, which means that I could control each type of lighting separately. With a full desk of 48 channels, the lighting design I drew up provided a wide scope for different effects!
Once the lighting was installed, it was time to wait for sunset and begin programming “presets”, which is basically one chase sequence of lights. We used 2 – 4 presets for each song in the sequence, and all the switching, speed adjustments and manual sequential lighting changes were done live by myself. Here’s photographic proof…
Once I’d set up, focussed and began filming on my camera, it took us five run-throughs to get the final shot in the bag (like I said, no camera or editing trickery involved), and by the time we’d finished it was 1am! Time for a photo alongside the castle for size comparison…
Then came the ghastly task of cleaning up the jumble of cables, very securely fasted lights and other nonsense that had accumulated over the day’s preparations and filming, all before the dew of the early hours set in and began to ruin my collection of lighting!
So there you have it – that’s how you illuminate and film a mini light show on a 12ft castle in your back garden. Don’t try this at home. No, seriously, don’t – I was exhausted the day after, and the music mix I created days before filming will be stuck in my head until the day I die.
Note to self: try not to end blog posts talking about death. Anyway – I hope you enjoyed seeing how it was all done! If you have any more questions or just want to get chatting, drop me an email using the link now at the bottom of the page!
Beware that this is a very long post, so grab some sangría and settle down, and pop on this terrible Spanish cheesy music to get into the spirit. Done? Fabuloso. Let’s boogie…
And so, following up from my previous blog post on my trip to the Spanish Province of Murcia, I finished off by revealing that I’d headed to the town of Balsicas to grab a train up to the capital city of Madrid! This I did indeed, spending a good few hours in the comfort of one Spain’s lovely Renfe trains.
After a rather cosy yet uneventful journey (except having my passport checked by the Spanish police), I rolled up in Madrid Atocha Train Station at about 10pm, and headed straight for the Metro – only I didn’t, because my eTicket wouldn’t open the station gates. Good start.
After some confusion and some terrible Spanish in the panic, I managed to get through and found myself on one of the spacious tube trains, which to my delight was fully air conditioned. Upon finding my way to Gran Vía, the large artery road running through the centre of the city, I resurfaced and took my first glimpse at Madrid.
10pm it may have been but the city was buzzing – with cars flittering around and swathes of people milling around a large square and up and down the streets. I wasn’t in the mood for taking in such niceties, however – I was tired and wanted to sleep. To this end I whipped out my phone, paid EE a ridiculous £5 for 24hrs of internet and followed Google Maps to my hostel, Hospedaje Dolce Vita.
However I was in for a shock – I rocked up to an unlit sign and a blacked out, locked door. Uh oh. Panicked, I wandered around the block to try and find another entrance, but with no other option I had to turn to the trusty Spanish – asking a guy on the street corner if he knew if the hostel was actually still open and how I could get in. Luckily, he tapped an intercom on the wall, I spoke with a guy on the other end and I was in.
The hostel was as lovely as I’d seen on the online photos, and I was shown to my cosy room, where I made a beeline for the balcony and took a photo overlooking the street – a street which was an offshoot two minutes from Gran Vía itself. The location was excellent!
The following morning, like in Berlin and Stockholm and Copenhagen before, I decided it would be beneficial to take a free walking tour of the city just to orientate myself a little and get a feel for the place. Having picked up a Sandeman’s New Madrid leaflet in the reception upon arrival, I headed down to Plaza Mayor (Madrid’s main large square) and met up with our Scottish tour guide, Naomi, who’d been living in Madrid for over 5 years.
The free walking tour, it turned out, was a crash course on the history of Madrid and Spain in general, which was super informative and enjoyable. I even got chosen to act as King Carlos II, which was fun, even if he did turn out to be infertile “bewitched” result of inbreeding who lost his family the throne. Better than nothing, I guess.
Anyway, Spanish history aside (if you want to read up on that, you can visit Madrid and take the tour, or you could just grab a cup of tea and do some Googling), the tour was an excellent first look at the beautiful sights of the historic city, and provided some great context for the coming days snooping…
Sooner or later we’d arrived at the Palacio Real, the Royal Palace, and I’d gotten chatting to two girls from Argentina and another who was from Thailand and studying in London. A larger copy of the palaces in Versailles built by the royal family from France, the area was a breathtaking break from the little streets of Downtown Madrid.
Naomi was a great tour guide, and when she mentioned that there was an afternoon tour round the creative writer’s district of the city, I signed straight up alongside the three girls I’d met. For the time being, though, we’d headed to Puerta del Sol, (literally meaning “Gate of the Sun”) and had a chance to stand right in the (geographically inaccurate) centre of Spain. As incorrect as it may technically be, it’s the spot from where all postage was calculated and from which all road signs are measured, and so I didn’t pass up on the opportunity to stand on it and bag myself a photo souvenir…
After a tortilla española sandwich (yes, really) and some juice it was time to head back to Plaza Mayor and regroup for the afternoon tour. Heading to the creative district, I learned of poets and playwrights and bullfighters and scandals and much, much more, all before ending in an area known as Majestic Madrid, with it’s array of fountains, beautiful buildings and parks, all centred around the Museo Del Prado, Madrid’s world-renowned art museum.
Finishing in Parque Del Retiro, the city’s main park, I had no time to mill around as I had to dash back to the hostel to get ready for my third tour of the day – a tapas tour I’d signed up to earlier on also! I bid the girls farewell and grabbed a tube back, donning a fancy shirt and some shorts for the evening, before heading back once again to my now-second home, Plaza Mayor.
Meeting the new group, we wasted no time in speeding on down to the first tapas bar, where we had paella, patatas bravas (roast potatoes in a spicy tomato-based sauce)and croquetas, all washed down with a lovely mix of sherry and lemonade from Andalusia called rebujito.
I got chatting to a girl who was visiting Europe from New York, but we were soon whisked off to the next tapas bar, which turned out to be the infamous Museo De Jamón (literally ‘ham museum’), where we indulged in some Spanish Manchego cheese and delicious Iberian Ham, with the drink of choice being a Sangría-like bottled drink who’s name I have totally forgot – email me if you know (fancy new link now on top right of each page).
As the night wore on we were taken to the final tapas bar, where we had a selection of more tapas, and engaged in the tricky art of pouring red wine from a leather sack directly into our mouths. Caring way too much for my immaculate white shorts, I decided to give the risk of stains a miss, and opted to just drink mine by the glass!
All too soon, though, it was time to head back home for a good night’s sleep after a super busy first day in the city.
The next day I had myself a custom itinerary written up, based on what I’d seen on the tours and what had been recommended to me. I headed off back to the Puerta Del Sol and visited the brand new hugeApple Store, which had been fitted to a gorgeous wood and steel finish much unlike any other Apple Stores I’ve ever been to.
After a nosey round looking for new Apple Watch Straps (read my review here), I headed back towards Majestic Madrid and Parque Del Retiro now that I had some time to fully appreciate the sights. Passing by the Puerta De Acalá, I headed into the park and spent a good few hours nosing around and relaxing in the sun.
Wandering past the large man-made lake, I found another fountain at which to relax, and then set out to find the much discussed world-first statue devoted to the devil. Called The Fallen Angel, the sculpture sits atop a column at 666 meters above sea level and is very controversial in the city, as one must look up at the devil to see it – I was unsurprised to find that there were no plaques or signs announcing the sculpture’s subject.
I also took some time to wander over to the Palacio De Cristal (Chrystal Palace), a slightly smaller but not-burned-down version of the English counterpart, which was much more impressive than I though it’d be.
I then visited the Museo Del Prado, as I have always loved Goya’s Pinturas Negras (black paintings), which he created just before his death as he was ravaged with illness. I spent a particularly long period of time gawking at my favourite, Saturno Devorando A Su Hijo, (Saturn Devouring His Son), but unfortunately no photos are allowed within the museum, so I leave you with a Wikipedia link to have a nosey instead. I also had a nosey at the most famous of Velázquez’s paintings, Las Meninas, which I studied in Design Theory – it’s huge!
That afternoon I decided to make like a true Spaniard and headed back to the hostel for a siesta. Before jumping into bed, however, I took a trip up some (very narrow) stairs to the roof of the hostel, to take in the breathtaking views from their roof terrace. I then had a rest for a couple of hours, before heading out in the evening to appreciate the city in the darkness like a true Spaniard.
When the time came to have some tea, something got lost in translation and I ordered two burgers instead of a double, but with the second one being free I resolved not to moan and to attempt to eat both, which was a great idea at the time. They were (two of) the most delicious burger(s) that I’ve ever had!
By this time it had gotten pretty much fully dark, and I headed down Gran Vía to grab a view of the other government-protected neon sign in the city, the huge and beautifully colourful animated Schweppes billboard which is visible from all along the huge street. Also, being as obsessed with lighting as I am, I found my paradise in the form of a shop dedicated solely to specialist lighting.
Heading down into Puerta Del Sol once again, I was delighted to find the place abuzz with street performers, locals and tourists, all soaking in the ambience and having a few tapas and cañas (small beers). I stayed a while, observing a protest pass by and watching a couple of guys playing an instrument unlike anything I’ve ever seen before, before heading down to Majestic Madrid to see what was going on down there in the moonlight.
Majestic Madrid looked beautiful in the evening, with the buildings all lit up brilliantly. I was drawn to the fountain from before in all it’s bright green glory, and stopped for a while to take some photos and watch the traffic pass before I headed back up Gran Vía to turn in for the night.
On my third and final (boo) day in the city, I spent a couple of hours packing and checking out, before heading to a rather interesting sight I’d heard about, the Temple of Debod, an Egyptian temple which was donated by Egypt to Spain and moved brick-by-brick to it’s new home in the centre of Madrid. I grabbed the tube, wandered through the Plaza De España, and found the temple perched atop a hill overlooking Madrid’s suburbs.
I didn’t initially realise that you could go inside, but once I’d gotten up close and personal, I noticed the automatic glass doors and headed inside. Covered from floor to ceiling in ancient Egyptian art and hieroglyphics, it was pretty neat to be able to appreciate some African history in the middle of Europe. I soon had to bid the temple farewell, however, and head back to Downtown Madrid to eat some churros and buy some souvenirs.
Needless to say I didn’t go to the churrería (churro café) above, I headed for the Chocolatería San Gins, the oldest churrería in Madrid, and apparently the best. I had a delicious snack (okay, large snack) of churros with chocolate, before heading out once again to buy some traditional violet-flavoured sweets from La Violeta, another Madrid institution.
With just a few hours left until I had to pick up my bag and head for the airport, I decided to head back to the Royal Palace and the huge cathedral which stands in front of it, as I remembered that Naomi had mentioned that the old “once you’ve seen one cathedral, you’ve seen them all” phrase does not apply to this place. Began in 1879, the Catedral De La Almudena fell victim to the Spanish “mañana” attitude (leave it ’til tomorrow) and was only finished in 1993, and the different styles of the generations which passed have left their rather beautiful mark.
Inquisitive, I grabbed my trusty Canon and headed inside…
Everything in the cathedral is huge and massively impressive, but my favourite thing was the colours and style of the roof some 70 metres above. After wandering around for a considerable time with my eyes towards the sky, I lost track of time and ended up having to rush out and head back to pick up my bags!
I wound up back at my hostel, and after picking up my bag and a few tube stops, I arrived at Madrid Airport for my flight back to Manchester. After some confusion finding my gate and the gate which they subsequently changed us to, I settled down to a Burger King (oh yeah) overlooking the airfield.
With the news that my mum’s flight back up from Murcia had been delayed by three hours, I settled down for the journey and took some photos of the city as we ascended into the night.
I say hasta luego (see you soon) to the city with good intention, as Madrid has been my favourite city I’ve visited so far in my many travels (travel section coming soon) around Europe and beyond thus far. With my Spanish in tow (Spanish site launching soon also) and with portfolio updates ongoing, I plan on applying to work in this amazing city in the new year!
And now for something rather different (and I think rather exciting!)
Just the other week, me and my dad were up until a chilly 2am in the morning setting up, lighting, filming and de-rigging a huge 12ft castle that he has spent months constructing out of K’nex in our back garden!
Inspired by the huge lighting shows I saw in Florida last year, I set about designing a system of lighting (using tonnes of LED and professional theatre lighting which I’ve amassed over the years) which could be hooked up to the DMX lighting control board that I bought a few years ago.
Having not done this kind of lighting for a while, it took me a bit of time to get used to the method of setting up, linking in and programming in the lighting sequences, but by 1am we were all set up and ready to begin filming.
If you read my previous blog post very thoroughly, you’ll know that last Friday I jetted off to the south-east coast of Spain for a few days before heading on up to the capital, Madrid! (A blog post for which will be coming very soon, stay tuned!). After a smooth flight down to Murcia Airport, me and my mum found my auntie and uncle who’s apartment we were staying at, and began the journey to their place at the Hacienda Riquelme.
Taking a few days out, we settled down for a few days of doing as little as we could get away with – but as ever, we ended up cramming quite a lot in. First up, we visited Torre de la Horadada (named after the tower which stands on its coast) for a stroll down the coast and some dinner overlooking the sea…
Sitting down in a restaurant which seemed to hang over the beach below, the good ol’ Spanish came in useful as the area doesn’t seem very tourist heavy, and I ended up having the nicest chicken salad and lamb shank I’ve had in a long time!
If anyone is interested in learning a bit of Spanish, I shall soon be launching some introductory bits and bats on my website. To be kept up to date with the progress follow me on Twitter and like my Facebook! Anyway, here’s a couple more photos from Torre de la Horadada, featuring my feet.
After a night basking in the breeze from the fan, the next day came I requested that we revisit one of my favourite Spanish ports, Cartagena, after I visited a few years ago on a college-run trip with Danni. We drove up, stepped out of the car and I didn’t know what to photograph first in the pretty little town. We ended up clambering up onto the old wall, where panoramic views of the port, town, and surrounding landscape could be found…
We soon headed down the rather fancy looking set of steps as seen above and headed out to the puerto, stopping for a few snaps along the way – I had to justify looking like a typical trashy English tourist with my camera swinging round my neck, you see.
We then came across a bronze statue of a hunched young man which my auntie had talked much about, and were told we’d to have our photo in between his legs… Yeah. Anyway – here I am, looking really comfortable:
Soon we began to head inland somewhat, up the slight slope of the land towards the town centre. We soon passed through my favourite area; the old town hall, the port authority building, and the pretty green square which they border. My mum and auntie took the opportunity to get up close and personal with one of the statues, and I spent way too long translating every useless and uninteresting plaque and sign in sight…
Wandering further into town, I spent what time I didn’t waste buying sunglasses on taking photos of the architecture in the rickety narrow streets. We eventually settled down for some tapas y cañas (small food dishes and beers) at a little café in the centre, and spent plenty of time people watching and observing the locals as they went about their daily lives. I settled down to some non-alcoholic beer, unidentifiable-meat croquetas (croquettes, obviously) and tortilla española (Spanish omelette) – delicious (even the mystery croquettes).
Sooner or later, however, it was time to amble back to the car (no rush in Spain, naturally) and head back to the apartment. Climbing back up to the old town wall once more, I took some more photos in the late afternoon sun before we headed back along the gloriously smooth autovía (motorway) to have some tea.
The next day it was time to meet up with some of my auntie’s friends from the resort and head up into las montañas (‘mountains’ which were more like hills, truth be told) to have some traditional home-cooked Spanish food at a little cafeteria run by a little feisty old Spanish lady. I opted for calamares (squid rings) and pescado (it literally just said ‘fish’, I still don’t know exactly which fish it was), and then to finish off some arroz con leche (literally ‘rice with milk’, akin to a cold rice pudding covered with cinnamon).
All three courses were delicious, especially when washed down with some vino tinto (red wine), which it turned out was on the house. Never doubt Spanish generosity – especially when it comes to food and drink!
After our slap-up meal and a quick chat with mama herself, we returned to the apartment and I crashed out and had a small gluttony-induced nap before dipping my toes in the pool and doing some sketches for some new parts of my website – however my clipboard was used more to swat flies away than it was to actually do any decent design work. Sigh.
The next day it was time for a quick Chinese Buffet (traditional Spanish cuisine, naturally) and then to head for the train station at Balsicas for my journey alone up to the capital city of Madrid – which shall be the topic of my next blog post!
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