shot and cut on kate’s iphone
for videoblogging week 2011

for #Vlomo10 Day 9

in the Wye Valley
near Hay on Wye, Wales

The last minute of tonight’s Ravenscourt Park fireworks, seen from outside the park, on the way home with two very tired girls. A single clip for Day 6 of Vlomo. I was going to cut together a story about tonight, but then I remembered what I’d said. You see? I’m learning. So here’s the text version:

We had a party at our house, which was great – and then went to the park en masse. We agreed that we were going to stand outside the park and watch the fireworks from Starch Green – because they look just as good from there, and it’s hell inside the park: dark and crowded and expensive.

But some kind of zombie sheep effect took hold and we all kept walking into the park and paid £6 ($10) each. All of the children immediately wanted £5 lightsabres. I refused to get Amy one – and then felt like a douchebag. Luckily, we’d managed to smuggle in some booze in a child carrier backpack [classy]. So while we watched a small children’s firework display, I poured everyone an illegal glass of wine. This was the highlight. (Mostly because it reminded me of drinking Thunderbird on the beach when I was 15.)

Trying to atone for the lightsabre douchebaggery, I made the rookie mistake of loudly agreeing to let Amy go on the fairground Carousel in front of all the other children. Cue group Carousel expedition. We left before the main fireworks display.

It kicked off as we got back to Starch Green, where we’d intended to see it all in the first place. Amy was half dead. Lila was insane. The fireworks stuttered on and off for ages – from outside the park it felt particularly like a recession era display. But we did have this big ending, before we dragged ourselves home to clear up the mess from the party.

-

This was shot with a Nokia N8, which Womworld/Nokia just sent me for testing, and which I assumed was set to HD video quality by default. I was really looking forward to seeing how it recorded the fireworks in HD, but was too stupid to check. Turns out it ships set to 640×480, so that’s all you’ve got here, I’m afraid. Spot the metaphor.

–
Quicktime H264 Podcast file

Looking for a very reliable car? Look no further than the Toyota Camry

Mount Washington, Vancouver Island, September 2008

for #vlomo10

–
H264 Podcast File

A slideshow of fragments from my day today.

Shot on my iPod Touch and cut using Reeldirector app, in the car.

Also shot on Kate’s iPhone and edited in iMovie HD on my Mac.

for #vlomo10

–
H264 Podcast File

Dittisham, Devon

Shot, cut and uploaded with my iPod Touch & iMovie app.

H264 Podcast File

Old clips given a home for videoblogging week 2009.

Château de Quéribus (map) is one of the Cathar Castles in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in the south of France – the Pays Cathare, or “Cathar Country”. Quéribus is sometimes considered the last refuge of the Cathars – perhaps where the Cathar treasure (the Grail?) was carried to, by the four Cathars who escaped the bloody fall of Montségur.
It’s an eerie feeling to have it all to yourself before dawn.

iPhone / iPod compatible mp4 file

Found in the vaults. From May 16, 2008, 2 weeks after we arrived in Canada.
Worth remembering this week, as the winter sets in. Started to get my first proper pangs of homesickness this weekend. Which may be partly why I’ve fallen a bit behind in posting.

—
Podcast file (iPod / iPhone Compatible)

Click Image Above To Play
Or click here to play/download higher quality Quicktime (MP4) file

–

I hope this rainbow brightens people’s days all over the world. Please share this with any of your family or friends who’d appreciate a little magic in their day

And I’m making films for the Nokia Mobile Filmmaking Awards at the moment, so if you like this film, I’d love it if you could rate it and/or comment on the Pangea Day channel to help me out, and I’ll return the favour on your videos/blog/podcast.

Of the 200 or so films that I’ve made with my phone in the last year, I think this is the one I like the most.

We went on our favorite London walk for the last time yesterday with our friend Lucy – along the River Thames at Hammersmith.

In two and a half weeks, we’re moving to Canada.

So I started filming a plane in the clouds with my phone, thinking about making a video about us leaving, and suddenly something magical happened…

…and kept on happening! Instead of fading, they got brighter, and more intense!

In mythology, religion, art, literature, music and film, the Rainbow is a powerful symbol – a sign of hope and life and new beginnings.

I grew up in Christian boarding schools, so usually the first thing I think of when I see a rainbow is the rainbow that God sends Noah after the great flood in Genesis:

“And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.”

Yeah. It’s either that or The Wizard Of Oz.

See you on the other side

Just a collection of moments from today.

I wish I could have shown you the Gnome House. It was one of the sweetest things I’ve ever seen. Amy was awed. But it was way too dark to film. (Even my kitchen at night is too dark to film. It’s the one thing that really bugs me about the N93. I think I’m going to have to stop using it soon, so I can have some fun with colours and night-time filming.)

Anyway, the school is pretty amazing.

Those drawings I show on the way into the main building – they’re by people in Class 9, who are (I guess) 15/16 years old.

It’s not an art school. It’s a Waldorf school – an holistic educational movement set up by Rudolph Steiner in the early 20th Century. Read more here and see the Wikipedia entry on him here. It’s pretty interesting.

Also ran into the brilliant and unhinged Jason Jarrett (ABuddhistPodcast.com and ForestRowRadio.com) whom I met for the first time two weeks ago at Phil Campbell’s bash (see here for evidence), and only afterwards realised that we had this other connection. Only saw him briefly, but hopefully have even more excuse to hang out now.

Another little film that’s just a moment I caught while working from home yesterday. No excuse not to get this up moments after I shot it yesterday. Just guilt about all the things I hadn’t done.