The late Barry Smith was a tireless preacher of evangelist/conspiracy rhetoric, and I can tell you now that he sure knew how to spin a yarn and hold an audience.
I have here a special treat for Barry Smith enthusiasts; a 2 hour lecture by Barry that was unavailable online until today:
You may think that you don’t have the patience to listen to over 120 minutes of fire, brimstone and assorted argle-bargle, but I can assure you there will be plenty of envelope-pushing to pique your interest, pretty much from the outset.
The audio is a bit shaky (the volume was very high and muddy on the VHS source) but from about 90 seconds in you’re going to start to forget about all of that, and be transported by Barry’s many insights and certainties about signs of the Occult, and indications that the End Times are upon us. Enjoy.
#Lolitics is a project by Chris Coltrane inviting comedians and campaigner/activists to step out of their comfort zones for a little chat about politics. Stand-ups are invited to engage with more political material, and people like me are invited to bring what they know to a stand-up audience.
It is a nurturing environment. There is cake. I’d been to an earlier event and was blown away by an entire set about Nadine Dorries from Nadia Kamil.
Encouraged by Chris, I brought these good people what I knew about Page 3. The following is an audio recording of the exchange, along with the relevant slides (old-skooled onto cardboard for this event, but pixelled in glorious web colour here for you).
If you would like to share this video with others in Twitter, please use the http://bit.ly/page-3 link (because it will send sweet, sweet link-love to the main project page, where this video will headline from today).
After a last year’s failure to get off the ground using helium, this year I sought to get above the fire using a (10 metre high) Clark PU 10 Telescopic Mast roughly 40m away from the fire. Footage from all three cameras was then sped up digitally and set to Mercury, the Winged Messenger (The Planets, Op. 32) by Gustav Holst.
It’s very pretty, if not as dramatic as Year One (more).
Of course, this is an Art, and subsequently I am forbidden by law to explain any of it outside of a wine and cheese party, but I will provide some production background for the ‘DVD extras’ crowd.
Cheers all.
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I know there are already campaign videos with this song in it (even one with this cover by Ben Folds, Joe Jackson and William Shatner from the album Has Been), but I stuck with my original* choice of soundtrack as there wasn’t anything fresh on the field that conveyed the emotional intensity of the original. I’m hoping that now there is.
Below is a picture of the device that made most of the footage uniquely freaky; the camerambulator (or, if you prefer, ‘wobblecam’).
The document box attached to the special extended shaft (steady!) contains the hands-free mask used for most action shots, which allowed me to drop in and out of disguise very quickly (making things like the supermarket shot possible). The teeny tiny camera no bigger than my thumb that captures up to 40 minutes of 640×480 .AVI and dances so delightfully on the end of the 8mm sq. pine upright is a Micro Digital Video Camera from Maplins; car’s convex ‘blindspot’ mirror served as a proxy viewfinder.
Most of the special effects in the video (aside from the speed, direction, a basic zoom and two minor incidental effects) are organic special effects that are a direct result of the camera’s software attempting to interpret anything from vibrations from ridged/rough surfaces to a range of wobble types (that were easily prompted and controlled, especially when the unit was strapped to my waist… it’s all in the hips, baby).
The ‘walkabout’ footage was shot in London with the help of Soho Politico using a Samsung VP-MX10 with monopod.
#freefilm is a project designed to prompt discussion of the Digital Economy Act 2010 [#deact] and politics in general
Members of the public are invited to join the project by editing their own campaign videos using the following as kit pieces (should you not have the time/resources to make your own material):
Music: This moneyed mix comes to us from (and is available via) Alastair Cameron: Download the music here
The choice of music is quite deliberate, and could be defended any number of ways as fair use, if the system didn’t favour the moneyed studios to such an absurd degree. But that’s kind of the point.
So that’s it, really. Use the materials and play with the formula as you please.
I’ve made the following film to kick things off. It tells the story of little grey men who just don’t get the web, but tinker on regardless with expert guidance from the good people in the showbusiness. I hope you like it.
In the past I’ve made my share of videos about Tony Blair (and this one is my very favourite). I’m quite busy at the moment, but I’ll be damned if that’s going to stop me from making a video or two in time for the next General Election.
Hopefully, you can chip in with some much-needed footage featuring you, some mates if you like, and David Cameron’s head on a stick.
1. Make mask(s)
2. Film yourself using mask(s)
3. Send your clips to tim [at] bloggerheads [dot] com
– Only short clips, please (30 seconds, max.)
– No emails/files above 25 megabytes (MB) in size
– AVI, MPG, MP4, MOV, WMV files only
(*Yes, there may be more faces later, but I want to get David Cameron done first. I have to put his Big Giant Head to music, so the circle is complete.)
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NOTES
– Like most of my past projects, this is a music video project, but I’m keeping the soundtrack(s) to myself at the moment.
– Yes, I am serious about compulsory nudity, but ONLY if you film yourself using a webcam. Yes, you may get naked anyway if you don’t own a webcam. Yes, I do plan to use the nude clips, if there’s enough variety to warrant a separate video. No, this one probably won’t be hosted on YouTube.
– If you don’t use a webcam, you don’t have to ne naked, and how/where you film yourself using your mask(s) is entirely up to you.
– Yes, you can send in clips of more than one person using more than one mask. But no real faces if you can avoid it, please. real faces complicate matters and dilute the creepiness. I want to build a virtual world populated with Cameron clones, and set it to music.
– Certain parties are banned from participating on the grounds that they are sock-puppeting gits (and have therefore done more than their fair share of prancing about behind a mask). They know who they are, and 99.9999% of the population can safely ignore this message.
– Yes, you will retain copyright for your raw footage, but by submitting it you give me permission to use it as a component of a larger, transformative work, and once it’s installed/live, there’s no going back.
I’m sure you’ll be delighted to hear that – even before the first broadcast – Tory Muppet has provoked not one but two humourless* outbursts from the two biggest sock-puppeting gits in the country, both of whom would love to accuse me of the same thing, but seem unable to recognise a joke when they see one (and/or are simply unwilling to do the in-depth research required to read a damn user profile). Bless.
(*Obviously, I’m being unfair; sometimes it hard to properly appreciate a joke when you’re likely to be the butt of it. Oh, and the less said about the ‘loon’ comment, the better, but Harry Cole is to be commended for persisting with this particular brand of personal attack well past its use-by date.)
