scatterdrum

Great shot of a sunny Manchester City Centre full of Rangers fans for the UEFA Cup Final 2008

gill moore — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:32:47 +0000

This is from Getty Images on show @ the BBC site. What a brilliant image. This is all the fans without tickets gathered to watch a specially constructed big screen showing live the UEFA Cup Final 2008 Rangers vs Zenit St Petersburg at Albert Square, Manchester. Let’s hope it is a good match with no trouble after final whistle. I wish they listed the photographers name alongside the Agency’s.

It’s always sunny here in Manchester you know

“b.TWEEN” event @ Museum of Science & Industry, Manchester. 19th/20th June 2008.

gill moore — Mon, 12 May 2008 12:08:03 +0000

Things are getting a little frenzied as I prepare for the Opening Night of “The Chorlton Bench Project” this coming Friday, but I wanted to give some air to something called ‘b.TWEEN 08‘ a 2-day event which sounds like an interesting gathering of the great and the good @ MOSI, Manchester. With a leaning towards New Media, Advertising and Creative Technology, the sponsor’s are pretty high profile including Channel 4 and the BBC.

The website is worth a visit, the Interactive Gallery page gives the opportunity to view and vote on interactive new visual work, the winner will be shown @ MOSI during the event. You can also book onto a personal One-2-One Session with some of the speakers. Featuring representatives from amongst others; TwentyTwenty TV, Bebo and Fluorescent Media lots of talented specialists in areas such as branding, audience engagement, trends and digital strategy.

Despite all those sponsers, I am sad to say it ain’t free, it is quite expensive from £60 for a one-day student pass and £95 freelancers/micro company rate but could be worth it for the quality of speakers and networking/advice on offer. The website is free to browse though and many of the presentations will be available on YouTube after the event. Click here for some of the talks from “b.TWEEN 2007.”

A Word to the Wise

gill moore — Wed, 07 May 2008 22:55:43 +0000

A bit boring but useful. One of the best links I’ve ever been given www.saynoto0870.com. It provides a geographical alternative to those really expensive 0870 and 0845 numbers used in the UK which cost a fortune to call from a mobile. The alternative number provided is usually cheaper to call from a landline or free if you have a mobile and minutes left to spare. This was provided by the Money Saving Expert site (which itself is a goldmine of information). I hope you agree, well worth bookmarking.

A Genuine Bicycling Photographer

gill moore — Wed, 07 May 2008 22:34:36 +0000

I’ve just got to promote this guys site, I do my best to be eco-friendly but just look at this blog from a genuine bicycling photographer based in the United States. His enthusiasm for pedal power is infectious, of course it does help matters when you are based in Long Beach, California

Cardboard Toys Anyone ?

gill moore — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 13:48:20 +0000

Paperpod are a new and pretty innovative company based in East Sussex, UK. They take a well-known fact; that children actually have far more fun playing with the packaging their presents arrive in than the actual toy, to it’s natural conclusion. They produce kids toys and furniture made completely out of cardboard such as a den, a rocket and a dolls house. All items are lightweight, low environmental impact, easy to store and decorate.

It is not clear whether the cardboard is made from recycled sources, nor how outdoor products like the playhouse are waterproof. Maybe someone can enlighten me there? Nevertheless, it seems an interesting angle to approach the normally horrendously wasteful kids toy market. Do you think one day they will do an adult teepee, I like the sound of that?

The fight to protect everyone’s right to take photographs continues ….

gill moore — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 13:12:46 +0000

One of my most popular posts has been regarding photographer’s rights in the UK : “Photography rights grabs, erosion of freedom, the fightback begins and blogging helps.” This topic is moving so fast I think it is worthy of a follow-up post. The Pro-Imaging website now has a separate page dealing with good and bad photography competions. This now makes it incredibly easy to check on which photo competions are just rights-grabs lurking behind the banner of a prize. Pro-Imaging are having good success with raising awareness and making information freely available, often getting some organizations to actually change their Terms and Conditions to something more palatable.

Sadly it is not all good news. The farce that was the “Olympic Torch Relay” took place in London at the start of the month. Inevitably the event was crashed by protestors wanting to focus attention on China and the situation in Tibet. We then saw a heavily guarded Olympic flame; a symbol of peace and unity, being protected by a massive security operation involving 2,000 members of the Metropolitan Police Force bolstered by Chinese security officers.

Regular members of the public and press photographers tried to record the event in pictures and reported some of the most heavy-handed policing seen in the UK for many a year. Quite brutal incidents of physical assaults, some on horseback, sent out quite a sobering picture of how easily rights can be waved aside when the time demands.

This comes on the back of a number of highly reported incidents involving community support officers and the police both seemingly unaware of UK law and challenging people’s legal right to photograph in public places. Austin Mitchell MP for Grimbsy has taken up the baton and tabled an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons condemning police action against lawful photography in public spaces and has urged the Home Office to agree a “photography code” to be drawn up and used by police officers and UK citizens as a guide to what is and isn’t possible for street photography. Click here for a link to the EDM wording in full. The link also lists every MP who has signed the petition, if your local MP hasn’t, then find your local MP and send them an email here.

If you want to show your support for this cause then you can sign a petition on the 10 Downing Street website.

For some links to some of the recent problems affecting members of the public trying to take photographs in public places, then Amateur Photographer has some good links.

And on the EPUK site they have a list of incidents affecting press photographers. Another one here @ photorights.org.

UPDATE : Further discussion on BBC Radio 4 blog on the current confusion regarding the law and photography, also on the Manchester Flickr group regarding contacting their MP’s.

Free Intellectual Property Advice for creative businesses in Northern England

gill moore — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 10:30:32 +0000

Are you based in North or North West of England and work within the creative industries?

Do you want some excellent free advice on Intellectual Property (copyrights, trademarks, patents, and related rights)?

If the answer is YES, you should visit www.own-it.org/north.

Own-It was originally launched online in 2004. Devised by the London Development Agency, it delivers free advice on IP for the creative industries in London. Now they are spreading their wings to create Own-It North and expanding to support creative businesses in the North and North West of England. This is a pilot project, they are testing the water until July 2008.

You can access free legal contract templates.
Get a free DVD (“How Not to Get Ripped Off”)
You can get free legal advice.
Book onto this workshop: “Creativity and the Law, Understanding IP” @ CUBE, Manchester on Wednesday 28 May 2008, 6pm til 8.30pm.
Book onto this workshop: “How not to get ripped off: Enforcing and protecting your Intellectual Property” @ CUBE, Manchester on Tuesday 24 June 2008, 6pm til 8.30pm

This is a fantastic opportunity made available due to support from Salford University and the Northern Edge Group of Universities, Skillset NW, and the North West Development Agency.

Seonna Hong : Fine Artist and Animation Art Director

gill moore — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 20:55:30 +0000

Seonna Hong is a US-based artist and animation Art Director. I think she has a wonderful eye, especially for capturing nature, I love her colour choices and the ability she has to evoke atmosphere with such deft simplicity. Her background is originally in teaching art to children, she then migrated to the animation industry and in 2004 received an Emmy for her work on “My Life as a Teenage Robot” for Nickelodeon the US Cable Channel. Her most recent exhibition was in New York “Our Endless Numbered Days” (2007).

From her bio :
“Hong’s paintings continuously reflect her exploration of personal evolvement and how environment such as family, friends, and society can shape one’s existence.”

In May 2008 she will be showing work at a group show in Tokyo, Japan organised by Kaikai Kiki Co (Toyko & New York-based organisation dedicated to showing and promoting young artists). This will be Seonna’s first show out of the US. She has a great blend of steady animation commissions together with a prolific output on the art front including books. I am not surprised at all to discover there is a waiting list to buy her work, she is represented by sixspace a gallery based in California, USA.

Mike Leigh and his film “Happy-Go-Lucky” @ the Cornerhouse, Manchester

gill moore — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 23:58:16 +0000

Last night I joined a sell-out crowd for an early peek at Mike Leigh’s latest film “Happy-Go-Lucky” at the Cornerhouse in Manchester. Not only that, the director himself sauntered into the bar prior to kick-off and in his softly spoken way chatted freely with anyone who wished to say hello. A rumoured appearance by Ken Loach never materialised (though he is in the area shooting his latest film) but we were treated to a surprise guest in the form of one of the cast namely Kate O’Flynn.

“Happy-Go-Lucky” was premiered a few months back at the Berlin Film Festival and was generally accepted to be one of the hits of the fortnight. The light and sweet tone surprised some of the Director’s usual critics and the film gained lots of coverage when the main star Sally Hawkin’s scooped the Silver Bear for Best Actress.

It is the story of a London primary school-teacher Poppy whose character must surely have shot to the top of the charts as one of the most cheerful film inventions ever. Through her eyes we see a modern, busy, angry and occasionally lonely world. Leigh shows Poppy doing her best to cope by spreading a little happiness and the first half of the film has some cracking funny lines, delivered by some well crafted characters.

The film’s tone then shifts somewhat as the pace slows, the audience laughter wears thin and the characters we laughed at start to reveal their many problems. The ever-so-slightly unhinged Driving Instructor was maybe bullied at school and the riotous Spanish Flemenco Teacher is coping with a breakdown.

As often is the case with Leigh’s films there are no answers but he challenges the audience to think about the big topics; life, the world and the methods we employ to deal with it. This film is really a tour de force for the lead actress Sally Hawkins. She almost literally fills every frame with her energy. From starting out as being slightly too nice and therefore annoying, she eventually reels the audience in by revealing Poppy is not what we first thought. We learn to love her and cannot help but hope her quest for a happy life is granted.

After the screening Mike Leigh talked a little on film-making, his actors, the importance of education and the merits of tripe. He finds collaboration inspiring and the making of a film is both a journey and a test, the director’s job being to move things forward “what’s the point if it’s fixed at the start”. His notorious method of working often involves no script to begin with, just a rough idea. Things are then fleshed out over the following months with the actors all contributing to the characters development and mapping things out to the smallest details. Shooting can then begin, the script having evolved and become complete. “Good Film=Good Script”. From pre-production to final edit this film was made in 6 months.

Depressingly, despite being nominated for an Oscar and winning numerous prestigious awards, he still finds gaining finance for his films difficult. Money is tight. He shoots in London as it is cheaper and the Pulp track which features in “Happy-Go-Lucky” was donated for free by Jarvis Cocker himself as he is a huge Mike Leigh fan. The Director mentioned Terence Davies was also in town last night. He is another British film-maker of the highest order who cannot get backing for his work despite”Distant Voices, Still Lives” and “The Long Day Closes” being hailed as masterpieces. One wonders will new technology and new distribution methods help film-makers create and show their work more easily in the future, as we are seeing with some music nowadays.

The final question from the floor was probably the most interesting. “Did Mike feel like his films have a feminist agenda? Given that the male characters in much of his work (Naked, Secrets and Lies, Happy-Go-Lucky) could be categorized as “men in crisis” he agreed he probably was taking a feminist viewpoint, “that women just tend to get on with things and that he was finally glad to be of service to women in some way!”

Oh yes, and to the tripe. Well it was a running gag throughout the making of the film, talk of this unique Northern delicacy united many of the cast members and encouraged each to talk in their broadest Oop North dialect. Sad news for the tripe-sellers though as Mike Leigh confirmed last night he’s kicked the habit.

For more reviews of the film click here and here. “Happy-Go-Lucky” gets its UK release on 18th April 2008.

Abbas Kiarostami, “Trees in Snow” inspiration for a challenge.

gill moore — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 09:50:22 +0000

I have a long-standing project I began years ago, a mission to photograph my favourite trees. Sadly, I am nowhere near finished, in fact by it’s very nature I probably never will reach completion. One thing it does do though, is really get me thinking. How can I make my work original and capture the subject with beauty and simplicity? One series of shots from photographer Abbas Kiarostami is etched in my mind as a kind of benchmark.

The work featured here is from the series “Trees in Snow”. Kiarostami is an Iranian photographer. He is super-talented and may be better known to many of you as an award-winning film-maker; “The Wind Will Carry Us” (1999), “A Taste of Cherry” (1997) and “Ten” (2002) are three from his impressive archive. He wrote some words to introduce this series at the V&A, London in 2005.

“Snow descends from

the black clouds

with the whiteness of snow”

The “Trees in Snow” images were borne out of Kiarostami’s long, solitary walks to search for film sets, sometimes covering thousands of miles in the Iranian landscape. Photographing these landscapes allowed him a spontaneous immersion in nature. When travelling alone, he sees his camera as a way of sharing moments which would be torturous if not preserved. The scenes became the equivalent of emotional states and the trees almost human, echoing the saying of the Islamic mystic Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi (born 1165 died 1240): ‘the tree is the sister of man’.