Tales of Two Cities
With an OCD fury not seen since the woman in the Shake 'n Vac advert ground her Valium and mixed it with a glug of Bacardi, I've been plugging the cracks in this site and pasting up former production duties with a vengeance. My personal favourites A Wall is a Screen now have a page to themselves, as do the rapidly expanding MegaPhone team - flying the flag for those of us who see no reason why computer games should progress beyond the Atari era. Once upon a festival, The Light Surgeons conjured up a storm in a Gothic salon and The Royal Opera House treat us to no fewer than twelve outdoor relays in the past five years.
Bella Bella!
Thanks to old friends, new friends and the generosity of An Outlet and staff in providing a snug location for our festive re-staging of one of my favourite projects from this year, Scratch 'n Sniff Cinema presents Gregory's Girl. I'm still not tired of it and laugh all the harder for silently mouthing the script in advance. The Tunnock's range of Scottish playground snacks were enjoyed by all (well, me), whilst the experience was enhanced by my friend Maria knocking over her drink as I shouted the cue "Number six!", which she followed up by loudly exclaiming "Sh*t!"
It turns out she wasn't too far from the truth..!
Wave Your Hands In The Air
Thanks to friend and collaborator Sam Meech for riding to my rescue, a blonde knight upon his horse Isadora to deliver title animations for Unsilent Night tomorrow. I have blisters on my hand from carrying the 'portable' AnyCast vision mixing desk over from Manchester on the train (the approximate weight of a drowned man wearing flannel pyjamas) and just over 24 hours to remind myself how it works again.
Inspire Mark
After sitting on this like a constipated hen for the past few weeks, I can now go public that Unsilent Night is one of the projects granted the London 2012 Inspire Mark which recognises exceptional and innovative projects inspired by the 2012 Games.
In this case, the association is through our work in throwing open the cupboard upon a wealth of archive film, pulling off kid gloves in fusing old with new and encouraging investigation of early cinema by stepping outside (literally) of the multiplex experience.
Unsilent Night
The Great Train Robbery / image source BFI
I can now reveal that following the great response to last year's relay of Nosferatu accompanied by a live original soundtrack, similar plans are far advanced for what we hope will be an annual recurring event: Unsilent Night. In conjunction with Liverpool Music Week and BBC Radio Merseyside's PMS show fronted by Roger Hill, we'll be taking a foolhardy step forward from the single-film format to screen six silent shorts - many from the BFI archive - that will be treated to new and in some cases entirely improvised soundtracks by North West musicians a.P.a.T.t, Fonik and Frakture, in a one-off event on Thursday 29th October at 7pm.
Invaluable support comes from the brave and perhaps a little flummoxed folk at Liverpool City Council, Northwest Vision & Media and Liverpool City Central BID. The line-up will be revealed over the next few weeks, but will include arguably the first narrative film, The Great Train Robbery (1903), directed by Edwin S. Porter and 12 minutes in length.
This includes a now iconic final shot of a gun being fired at the camera/audience, said to cause those present to leap and squeal in fright. But will modern audiences well-versed in staring fear in the face by riding the upper deck of the night bus on a Friday night even bat an eyelid? At least we'll be well-ventilated should anyone backfire.
Addictive TV
Last weekend I trotted over to support my colleague Louise Angell at the Big Screen Derby, which occupies a key spot at the heart of the Market Place adjacent to QUAD where much of the landmark activity for the three-day street celebration that is Feste 09 was taking place. Saturday night culminated in easily the LOUDEST big screen event I have ever seen or heard as Addictive TV fused a unique blend of classic and contemporary film, dance music and visuals for a spectacular VJ remix at the base and above.
Hopping between classic archive footage of Jazz greats coupled with Laurel and Hardy, they segued effortlessly into remixes of The Fast & The Furious, vintage Star Trek (oh, for a repeat burst laser button of my own), a mash-up between New Order and Franz Ferdinand and a finale involving The Italian Job that supplanted a caffeine drip as I nearly keeled over with sensory-stimulation. I had to be led shaking to the nearest pint before I could begin to make sense of it all.