He's back, and he's got a new trick....

Goodness me, how time flies eh?
Here is a loooong overdue update to the life and times of myself...

Last time I wrote on this, I was facing the depression of a summer with no plans in sight. And now I am at the end of that summer, but on reflection I do have at least some things to show for it.
I started instructing at the Glasgow Climbing Centre in June, and after 3 months I'm still enjoying it (a rare occurrence for me!) It's a great job, and it allows me to impart my climbing wisdoms on the next generation of beasts, as was done for me so long ago. The pay is helpful and the free climbing even more so.
Working in a climbing centre has other perks too. I'm constantly in a climbing environment, which allows me to focus on my own climbing goals and also to get as much time trying to achieve them as possible. And so it follows that a little over a month ago, I climbed my first 7c on my third attempt (never did get that tan....) and oh so sweet it was! However, I quickly set my eyes on bigger sights, 8a.
Been working it for a few weeks now, have come frustratingly close many times, but again it's just a matter of time before the imposing number falls and I can have written in my epitaph: "Euan Ryan - Once climbed 8a dontcha know?"

Film-making and such! Done quite a fair amount over the summer, be it small personal projects to slightly larger (paid!) work. As part of my connections with the Glasgow Climbing Centre, I made another short promo for them, focusing on climbing in schools and education. I was pretty pleased with the outcome and it was really nice to work closely with the client to produce exactly what they're looking for.
Another project was with James Wright of 5th Floor Cycling. Myself and Paul did a promotional video for him, as part of a new sponsorship deal for the company. A short piece showcasing James as a cyclist and as a fasion guru... (nice shades!)

Last month, Andrew, John and myself attempted the West Highland Way. Despite not making it to the end (blisters, heavy rucksacks, knackered knees and crohn's disease) we had a great few days out in the wild of Scotland which despite the physical toll, was really quite enjoyable. And as any good film-maker does, I took my camera along for the ride...


GCC Schools Promo
https://vimeo.com/48828108

James Wright: An Introduction
https://vimeo.com/45846444

The Way Ahead:
https://vimeo.com/47674476

The Great Depression

So I finished college last week, had the showcase on Thursday. Got a decent amount of my work shown which was cool, then drank copious amounts of cocktails bought for us by the lecturers. All in all not a bad end to the year!Alas, I am now left with the conundrum of what to do this summer. I've recently left my job at Tiso and soon will be starting a job instructing at the Glasgow Climbing Centre. This is a major bonus. This also means I'll be spending a lot of the summer climbing, which could not be better!
And yet, I'm a bit fed up.
Apart from some small projects with Dualfan (https://www.facebook.com/DualFanProductions) and some even smaller personal projects, I have nothing big to look forward to. It's looking increasingly like I'll spend another summer in Scotland which means I won't have been abroad in 3 and a bit years. I was really hoping to get away this year, be it climbing or just chilling by the pool, however due to a few friends' finance situations and such, I'll have to wait another year...
And to cap it all off, I've now fallen a total of 7 times at the last move of my 7c project at GCC. Frustrating does not even begin to describe it...

Recently did a short promo for the GCC Youth team, check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ripVZhfrpGI

DIY Film Making

Long time no speak. Time flies when you're pre-occupied with college work and other such jobs.
So here is the long awaited (by who exactly?) update on my life and times.
I've been putting in the hard graft in college recently, mainly finishing off paper work and touching up bits and pieces of my edit. Colour correcting out my nut! Que massive renders and a lot of time spent messing around and drinking coffee waiting for it to finish.
The final graded unit bits to be handed in are coming up and after that I'll be sorting out a show-reel for the end of year showing at the GFT. Should be a laugh looking through all my work throughout the year and the (hopefully good) progression in the quality of my work...

I've been filming quite a lot of gigs recently, all un-paid despite the clear monies being made by the promoters. Also invested in 20 pairs of ear-plugs to prevent my ear-drums being pounded to an early grave.

Yesterday, in preparation for Tuesday's shoot, Paul and I took a trip in the clio-mobile to B&Q and set about testing the structural integrity of various poles and pipes for use in the construction of our jib. Spent a good few hours (manly hours) sawing, hammering and drilling and have come up with a pretty decent camera slider and most of a jib, which I hope to complete today after a trip to the builder's mecca that is Bill's Tool Store.

Stand-by for some aerial madness....

Lucus eat your heart out!

Yesterday's events in college took a turn for the geekier as we decided to set up a green screen and have a Star Wars duel. Unfortunately the green screen didn't work too well, the blankets aren't very good and the lights we have to hand are not brilliant for trying to get an even colour.
Despite all this, we persisted, and after about 4 hours of pain-staking editing (moving lightsabers and bullets frame by frame) we had 10 seconds of this heart-racing, jaw-dropping, adrenaline fuelled clash of titans! https://vimeo.com/40485413

Music Videos, Graded Unit and Bicycling

Well, here is a long over-due blog post. Tied up between Graded Unit work and various other projects recently, I've not had many oppertunities to sit and write.
So the filming for my music video went really well last Friday. Got all the shots I needed, brilliant weather yet again, and a healthy dose of directing power!
I've been editing the footage over the past week or so, watching it over endlessly and tweaking bits and pieces. Still not very good at colour correction but I'm learning gradually, I think I'll need another masterclass from Paul. I've quite enjoyed editing the music video, fitting cuts to music beats etc has been quite challenging and interesting.

Had a few changes to the bike recently, most notibly a new set of wheels. 700c deep-rim Weinmann jobs improve the look of the bike, the weight and most impressivly, the speed! 23c slick tyres, just perfect for powering about town.

Been playing Polo quite a bit too, getting better day by day. However obtaining the nickname "Do a Crash" probably best describes my playing style.

Also went to Ratho with Jessica on Friday, her first visit to the mammoth climbing arena. A good day was had, Jess managing to complete a pretty big lead climb, easily her highest to date. I also had a few shots on the new comp wall, testing my stamina to the limit on the ever increasing over-hang...

^Photo belongs to James Watson

Sunshine

So the last week in Glasgow has been glorious sunshine and record-breaking temperatures. Had 2 shoots so far, one involving a picnic and one a tennis match, both perfectly suited to a warm sunny day! My shoot for my graded unit music video is tomorrow and the weather forecast looks like we'll be able to hold on to the sun which is brilliant news! I was afraid I'd have to postpone my shoot if it were raining as it wouldn't fit the feel and mood of my film at all. Currently have a UV filter glued to a coffee cup by my side ready for the in-mug shot, hoping it'll hold the liquid this time! Last time I tried it I ended up with a DrPepper soaked 550D....

S.H.I.T. (E) 3

So on Saturday I braved the early start and arrived in Newcastle at 8.11am. As the city cleaned up from the night before, I rolled around with Brian looking for somewhere to have breakfast, finally ending up in the most nasty greasy spoon you can imagine....set us up perfectly for a day of sport!
After meeting the other Glasgow folks later, and the Edinburgh crew too, we headed through the maze that is Newcastle town centre, and over to the polo court for the tournament.
My team played ok I suppose, but we seemed to lack the ability to score goals, a major issue in a tournament! Still, 3 excellent games of polo were played, and we spent the rest of the day lying in the sun watching the other games and drinking Sainsbury's finest Biere De Flandres.
Team Sensible took the victory at the end of the day, congratulations to them!
On my way back to the station on my own - I'd foolishly booked a fairly early train home - I managed to get lost again, only finding the station by pure luck. As I came through the ticket barrier the guard was getting ready to wave the train off, but I managed to jump aboard just in time for the long journey home.
Here's an edit I made of the day, Cheers to all the good folks of Newcastle for the time and effort they put into making it happen!


http://vimeo.com/38751698

Graded Unit and silly old bike polo

So I haven't updated this in a while, the reason (main reason) for it is the Graded Unit work I've been doing for college. It's basically our end of year final piece, the only piece in the year that we get an actual grade for and not just pass/fail. Currently wading through paperwork, which ammounts to 40% of the grade. Hopefully have it all done tonight ready for tomorrow's deadline, only a few little bits and bobs to clear up. Once that's done, I can start getting ready to actually film something!

This coming Saturday, I board the 6am (6am!) train to Newcastle to play in the Scottish Hardcourt International Tournament (S.H.I.T.). I'm pretty psyched to get a chance to play in a tournament, and even more so in another country. I recently finished my Rasta polo bike, and yesterday I fitted new brakes and fixed my duel lever, so she's ready and raring to go! Next stop, Newcastle (wheyey man)

In the Studio

As I mentioned in my last entry, on Friday I cruised down to Greenock in the Stow College minibus to spend the morning at James Watt College in their TV studio using the multi-cam facility. Due to the poor turn out of students, we had to have some assistance from Fiona and Archie who kindly stood in as interviewer amd interviewee (they did indeed provide some fantastically hilarious improv).
I was floor manager first, which was a fun job, if slightly infuriating having Calum laughing and howling through my headset and not being able to hit him!
I then took a turn as sound engineer, however past turning the mics on, there wasn't much involved in that. Next I was vision mixer which was good fun, but I wasn't brilliant at sticking to the instructions from the director and got slightly carried away adding my own cuts. Finally I took another turn as floor manager which I enjoyed again.
However I'd have liked to have taken a shot on the cameras but again, due to the lack of students, we were forced to keep the static on the studio floor.
All in all it was a brilliant morning and a good laugh, even if I had to endure a tired early morning bus ride. I'd like to go back with more of us and do it properly so that I may take a turn on the cameras, as it is ultimately my preffered carrer choice!

Early bird

So today, I'm up at 6.15am to go to James Watt College to use their multicam studio facility. To say I'm not excited would be a lie, however I could have done with the extra few winks. I don't mind getting up at silly o'clock when going winter climbing for example, the excitement usually having kept me up all night anyway, but today I really lack the motivation to mount my bike and pedal sluggishly into college to get the coach at 7.45am.
That said, my chosen career will see me up at ungodly hours on a fairly regular basis. Hauling cameras and gear about while the birds sing their morning chorus. Bottemless cups of tea and coffee being my only fuel source. Bloodshot eyes from lack of kip. Grumpy, sleep deprived co-workers.
It's going to be awesome.

In The Family Video

So after a week of fiddling with various technical issues and upload issues, my edit for the screening of "In The Family" (See below) finally made it's way onto the interwebs yesterday!
We had various synching issues when outputting and uploading but it all seems to be sorted now!
Hope you enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8Zan_V0DM8&context=C31a4d13ADOEgsToPDskIJEwxEK6nKxG-AWTzRwIYR

Macro

I recently bought a wide angle attachment for my camera, which came with a free macro lens. I didn't expect much from it to be honest, but I must say, some of the images I've taken with it have been pretty decent! The depth of field is amazing, and being able to perfectly focus on something 2cms away from your lens is quite cool!
Here's a few I've taken:

In the Family

On Monday I headed along to the Glasgow Film Theatre for an evening of film related shenanigans. We were to make a piece for the Glasgow Film Festival's video blog about the evening's showing of the film "In the Family".
We had an interview set up for 4 o'clock and so we were there in good time to have a quick recce of the place and set up our kit. Unfortunately after the kit was set up in the GFT press room, a crew from STV arrived and had us take down our kit so that they could conduct an interview with someone. This pushed our shedule to breaking point as 4 o'clock came and went with no sign of them finishing any time soon. Our interviewee, Patrick Wang (director of the "In the Family"), arrived and was kept entertained by Colin in the GFT's café while we hummed and hawwed outside the press room.
Eventually at half past 4, the STV interview finished up and the let us back in to the room to set up our kit again. Patrick was brought in and the interview went ahead. Despite some minor sound issues, the interview went very well and I was very pleased with the footage we took. It was then another dissmantling of the kit, before heading down to cinema 2 to set up for the recording of the introduction to the film and Q&A session after the showing.
The film was very good, very well shot and very moving indeed. It was however 2hrs 49mins long which to my mind is far too long for any film. I felt there was a lot that could have been easily cut out. That said, the story was fairly gripping and it didn't drag too much.
As soon as the credits began to roll, it was action stations to get the cameras rolling before the start of the Q&A. We had had very bad sound issues with the line-out from the microphones when setting up earlier and so were relying on the onboard mics and my Zoom H1 recorder placed on the table they sat at. When it came to editing later however, this turned out to not be such an issue as the Zoom proved itself very well and took some great audio!

I spent yesterday editing the footage, along with some stills and clips from the film, and it should be up on the GFF's video blog later today. My first piece of published work!

Festival

So as part of my course, we're heavily involved in The Glasgow Film Festival, unfortunately not in making the films, but producing recordings of the introductions and question and answer sessions that take place before and after the screenings. Occasionally we can arrange an interview with the Director.
I'm filming my piece on Monday evening, a film called "In The Family", a story based round custody rights in Homosexual relationships. We are very fortunate in that an interview with the Director, Patrick Wang, has been arranged for before the showing of the film.
I'm quite excited to be involved in the Festival, it seems like a good place to be when you're trying to get your name out there and prove yourself as a film maker. I'm hoping to meet others in the industry who can perhaps offer guidance or just advice on a few things. I've never actually attended any showings during the GFF in the past so hopefully this will be the first of many to come!
And if all that weren't good enough, I also got a free GFF crew t-shirt and tickets to the showing of my choice. Perks of the job, eh?

Hold still while we stab you in the eye

Well today saw the draining of my Chalazion cyst on my eyelid. Google it and you'll appreciate the pain and discomfort I've been experiencing over the past few weeks! Over to Gartnaval nice and early for a 9.30am appointment with the nurse. A quick stab with some local anaesthetic, a metal clamp turning my eyelid inside out and a scalpel and hey presto - Cyst-be-gone!
Still quite swollen and tender, but I did get the novelty of wearing an eye patch and looking somewhat of a pathetic pirate. I like to believe I looked hard and rough, like I'd been in some bar room brawl, when in fact my pain was all my own decision...
On the plus side, it is now significantly smaller and less painful, and it still has the swelling to go down, so I'm hoping for a decent result!

Managed a TCA session with Jess this afternoon, her first time. Thoroughly enjoyed and a good few problems well and truly crushed.
However plans for a trip up north tomorrow could well be down the pan, I'm not sure it's a good idea with my eye as it is, sorry Willis! I'm as gutted as you are, believe me!

Pollock Park and a bit of DIY

Yesterday I dragged myself out of bed nice and early to drive the crew over to Pollock Park in the southside of Glasgow to film Paul's "3 Minute Film Project."
Filming went quite smoothly I thought, despite us missing the monopod and Lisa as an actress! Alex got nice and cold lying on the wet grass in his underwear, but the shots were good. To passers by it must have looked a tad odd. Also worth noting, leaf blowers are not acceptable background atmos for a spooky forest scene...
After filming, we headed to the Burrell Collection for some lunch in the cafe and a quick poke round the exhibitions. Oh and we couldn't resist the siren call of the play park.

Today, I had to spend the day in the flat waiting on a painter, so I decided to make use out of my free time and construct a boom pole. Made out of an extendable painter's pole, foam bicycle grips, electrical tape and a tripod screw, it works very well! Cost me the grand total of £9.50 too, which isn't too bad of a poor student on a budget. Quite chuffed with my craftsmanship, and can't wait to put it to use on my next production.

Can we do that again?

The thing I look forward to most on DVD extras tends to be the blooper reels or the outtakes. In some cases they are funnier than the original feature!
What I like about them is the small insight into the acting and filming world, a reminder that the characters are played by actors and are not real people. Some people find this shattering of character wholly unpleasant and ruins the illusion for them, but for me I think it's quite refreshing to hear a bit of on-set banter and general mess-ups.
When I film anything, I always keep the duff takes and the banter caught on film, it provides a good laugh when you come across it in the editing process, a welcome break from the monotonous splicing and rendering of clips. I've also recently come across messages recorded on the Zoom H1 by my crew during shooting, random little funny sound bites that cheer me up to no end!
Anyway, today was a rather fruitless day in college, we were briefed on our graded unit which we will be staring soon (music video), then spent the rest of the day watching music videos on Youtube and tying up loose ends of editing.

Love Flaps

Today saw the filming of Calum Bryce's masterpiece "Love Lapse" (lovingly re-named "Love Flaps" by the crew).
As part of the classes "3 Minute Films" project, we bailed on our law lecture, which incidentally was cancelled anyway,  and headed down to George Square to start filming. We did however hit a slight snag when Calum overlooked seeking permission to film on the square and we were asked to move along by a council worker. The situation was soon sorted after a quick phone call to the council, and filming was able to start again soon after.

It's hard to swap lenses when you can't feel your hands. And feet. But we're professionals (or at least we try to be), so we battle through it. We completed the filming in good time, with some really nice shots (thanks to Paul's new 50mm prime), packed up the kit and strolled up to Alex's flat to film the last few scenes. (N.B. Volvic works well as fake tears)

Managed a short session this evening at the GCC with Jessica, got a few wee crimpy top-ropes done and a quick bouldering session after. Jess is coming along well, good progress, even if she doesn't feel like it. Reaching the top isn't everything when it comes to beginner rock climbing.

More editing tomorrow, maybe some test shots, then shooting Paul's "3 Minute Film" on Thursday. Psyched!

Moving pictures

How animation falls into the category of Television production is beyond me (surely if i wanted to be the next Matt Groening I'd have gone on a specific animation course?), but alas the SQA says it does and if I'd like to gain my HND at the end of this course, I have to partake in the animation of my sub standard drawings.
That said, I actually don't mind animation. Despite it being quite time consuming, it's fairly satisfying to see my creations come to life and move across the screen, unconfined by the boring old laws of physics. My animation (based around Narwhals, don't ask) turned out ok I suppose, although it's safe to say it's not my forte.
To pass the animation unit, the student has to produce a 30 second animation of original art work put to music. I drew a few characters, that wouldn't look out of place on a nursery wall, scanned them in, cut them into layers on Photoshop and spent countless hours playing god and giving them life. I wrote a short guitar backing track for it, and hey presto, I had something to hand in: http://vimeo.com/36273302

Blogging and other assorted nonsense

Morning all (it's the evening)
Decided I'd like to write a blog today, record my various exploits and mishaps. I'm going to focus the blog around my videography and photography, with a few climbing and mountaineering adventures here and there.
It'll be mainly drivel and such plucked from the depth of my consciousness but bare with me, I might be going somewhere with this.
And with that, I say this: Weclome and make yourself at home.

Breaking my teeth, the Dumby way..

Although I started climbing at Dumbarton Rock a little over 2 years ago, I never really projected anything untill last summer. Currently on my plate is the mighty Persistance of Vision (my sport project) and Mestizo Traverse (my boulder nightmare).
As it's now winter, my sport climbing prospects have taken somewhat of a back seat position and given way to cold, hard bouldering sessions.
I headed down the west coast trainline to Dumbarton East a few weeks ago with Michael Jeans after a nice bout of cold and crisp weather. I made small progress on Mistezo, managing to extend my previous highpoint, now being able to stick the move to the arete on every attempt. No more progress was to be made however, so I got out the camera, took some snaps, fannyed about, then filmed Jeans crushing his first 8a of 2012, Pongo Sit Start: http://vimeo.com/35133750