They Call Me Petrolboy

Careful or You'll Cause a Prison Break

2011-08-16T10:32:00.000-07:00

It’s a daunting prospect when setting up a venue to be told that if you accidentally leave a roll of gaffa tape lying around a prisoner might steal it bind the hands of a guard and make his escape. This was just one cautionary bit of advice I was given as I entered Winchester Prison project to help the ‘Playing For Time’ theatre company set up another year putting on a play there.

Knowing that every tool had to be itinerised and kept locked away combined with the bleak understandably oppressive surroundings to make me a little apprehensive about meeting the prisoners themselves. When it came to the show days and I actually got to meet them they were warm focused only on the play itself.

This year the play was a Faust adaptation (‘Soul Traders’), an apt choice given the moral questions it provokes. The script was written by Phillip Glassborow and you can get some more information over here if you fancy. For those unfamiliar with the story of Dr Faustus, it’s about a man who sells his soul to the devil to possess worldly wealth.

Before the play started it’s run I was there to help rig and setup the projection elements but on the days themselves I was working with Launchpad Productions filming the show. They also provided all the background films you’ll see projected in these photographs.

This, like Winchester Film Festival, was another project started by Winchester University and as such had a lot of student involvement. Students and prisoners were paired up into mentor relationships collaborating on performances and helping coax the best from one another.

I’ll bring you some footage of Soul Traders when I get the final cut from Launchpad Productions. Until then you’ll have to guess whether the protagonist Danny decides to sell his soul or not.

P.S. that nifty effect on the lighting is bubblewrap :O, good little trick.

Photos courtesy of Farrows Creative

Steam Powered TV Stations

2011-08-03T15:52:00.000-07:00

So a bit quiet on the digital front of late, but it’s been a busy summer so there’s plenty I’ll be updating over the next couple of days including Eastleigh Festival, Blissfields, Goodweekend Festival and some video tidbits. Tonight though I’ll talk about how I managed to end up getting my work onto Lithuanian Television.

A few years back up in Liverpool I’d worked with Snorre Bergerud on Rasabasa in the LIPA studios. You may remember snorre from the many phalluses cropping up in Richard O Flynn’s photos (Freud might have something to say about this). As a member of Rasabasa he had footage of a gig they’d played at Tamsta Club.

Obviously there was a problem here with the 10,000 odd miles between us so getting the files over to the uk was the first problem. After some investigation it appeared the best method was skype as you can pick up sharing files where you left off after a days pause. Ge.tt was a good way to get the rushes back over, and I can strongly recommend it as A: there is no sign up process (making it both anonymous and quick), B: The upload limit is 3GB C: The files delete themselves after 30days (making sure you don’t inadvertently leave precious copyrighted materials laying about)

Getting the look right for the project took a little time as it was shot on a few different cameras and delivered in a few different formats. Colour balancing was done in premier using the 3way colour corrector to reign it in a little. After this though upon consultation with Snorre it was looking a little digital so I decided to take magic bullet to it.

This was my first time using it as a finishing tool so we optioned a few different looks which you can check out here:

Magic Bullet Screen Test from Corin Evans-Pritchard on Vimeo.

Picking out a 10 second two shot I set up a couple of different looks for the project that I thought might be appropriate. These ranged from subtle to ridiculous (the last Jean Pierre Jeunet nightmare) so I could gauge where we were headed.

The final decision was to go with the ‘old school’ look where I had roughly approximated the look of 1970s film. The outer most range of blacks and whites are pushed out a litte giving Rasa a slightly angelic glow while moving the overall palette away from greens toward browns. Popping on a slight vigniette and a little grain helped add that older feel. Amazing how just pushing something gently over the edge of visual distortion can make it actually look better.

The cut was then delivered in two formats (youtube ready, and TV ready) You can check out the finished edit here:

Been sat there a while in my absence so it’s well clear of the 10,000 mark.

The TV version was a little stickier. For a start my advice for delivery was, ‘whatever, but preferably an avi’, which leaves a lot of leeway really; fps; interlaced vs progressive; HD vs DV; pixel aspect ratio; leader. I’m pretty sure on UK TV you get a production pack where you have a very clear layout of format, legal broadcast brightness and colour range and a very specific description of the leader to be used.

If you’ve not come across the term ‘leader’ it’s basically what your clip has at the start to identify it to the television company’s studio. Normally it consists of colour bars and tone (so they can check and calibrate image and sound if needs be) and a production slate. This details who made it, the duration, the format and some emergency contact in case of any errors. This also should have a clock counting down so the gallery know when to cue the VT (video tape).

But, as I say, all that was in my production pack was that it should be ‘preferably an avi’. For some reason I’m imagining this TV station to be steam powered and the tape machines triggered manually by pulleys.

I crossed my fingers and hoped that the format was alright for delivery. And then it went out, on ‘Labas Rytas Lietuv’ on the LRT channel to approx 1 million viewers. The name translates as good morning Lithuania so it’s left me with both an image of a manic robin williams and a grumpy unshaven Richard Madeley. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to take part it watching due to the time difference and a very limited knowledge of Lithuanian television schedules. I’ve since found out that you can watch streaming live international television here, worth a look if you fancy playing cross continental TV roulette.

Since getting the Ošia video out on TV and up around the web I’ve worked with snorre again to cut together a new live Rasabasa performance. The song is a new one being recorded in Vilnius as I write so you should follow the progress here. But first off, check the new edit, it’s very colourful:

That's all for today :). Back tomorrow with more summer projects I've been busying with.

C

Spinney Hollow - Evil Dead

2011-05-26T07:43:00.001-07:00

Spinney Hollow - Evil Dead by Corin Evans-Pritchard

This is a little submix of some sound design I did for the Winchester Film Festival's showing of Evil Dead in the woodland setting of Spinney Hollow (Fair Oak). Originally mixed and reproduced in a spaced quadrophonic setup it sounds a little more cluttered than when coming out of four speakers.
Hope you like :)

Winchester Film Festival 2011

2011-05-24T14:42:00.000-07:00

So again, a pledge of increased prolific writing dishonored. But hey it's been the busiest time of year for me as I've just finished this year's stint of working the Winchester Film Festival.

There's lots of boring stuff I could ramble on about like transcoding videos and the like. Fortunately that's about as boring to write as it is to read so I'll skip on to the pretty pictures:

Winchester Cathedral - I Confess/Le Confessional

One of the first showings we did was at Winchester Cathedral known for among other things being a location for The Da Vinci Code. More fascinating perhaps is that at in the 19th century the whole building was sinking into ground and a deep sea diver had to swim under in pitch blackness to reinforce it's foundations (more here if you're interested).

We we're showing a double bill in the cathedral of Hitchcock's 'I confess' and 'le confessional'. As the latter was a rather rare import and required switching regions on the day nobody had seen it yet. Thankfully despite being a little at odds with the preceding film (two stripclub scenes, drug abuse, profanities, suicides and male rentboys in questionable saunas) we had no complaints.

Chesil Tunnel - The Third Man

A few days later we were set up in Chesil Tunnel. This is a large abandoned railway tunnel running under st. catherines hill. It's been out of use since the 60s and is rather tragically filled with thousands upon thousands of redundant council bins.

After creating some space we set up a good hundred meters into the tunnel (that screen you see is over 4 meters wide) and ran some festoon down so people could see enough to walk but without bringing to much attention to debris. The chilling, dripping brick tunnel was perfect for that evening's screening (the third man) but I shalln't dwell for spoilers sake.

Yavington Barn - Witness

The following day I was sat at home sorting out the short film award showing if I'm honest but I thought this showing in Yavington Barn both looks lovely and was very apt. The film... Witness. :)

Winchester Great Hall - Nosferatu

The next day and the next site specific setup was Werner Herzog's 'Nosferatu' in the Great Hall. The 13th century hall was as deep and darkly gothic as the film.

Spinney Hollow - Evil Dead

Which brings me on to the screening that Winchester Film Festival is known for, the one where the tickets go shortly after they're up. Evil Dead in spinney hollow.

SH - A survivor waits for the first bus

Visitors arrived by bus and were shepherded through a zombie infested woodland by a lone shotgun wielding survivor (from theater company ‘The River People’).

When they eventually reached the safety of the campsite they settled down in front of the fire provided with hot chocolate and popcorn served by tethered zombie waiters.

SH - Spooky lights

The Spinney Hollow showing also gave me the chance to flex my sound design muscles as buried in the blackness were several unseen speakers pumping out shrieks, clatters and hushed chanting. I'll put up the full mix once I've mixed it down to stereo for your enjoyment.

SH - Pre Show

With the audience settled around the fire I began the preshow of horror shorts and fake trailers lulling them into a false sense of security.

SH - Showtime

We were perhaps a little cruel when it came to their journey home. As the
audience walked back through the forest surrounded by my spooky noises
zombies lunged out of the leafy darkness and attacked. This came to a head
as the guide (the survivor) was torn apart in front of the bus home as
zombies set about piercing the intestine filled blood pack he’d been
wearing throughout the performance.

SH - Post show

If anyone has ideas for next year's showing do let me know. We did blair witch last year so I've personally exhausted my supply of wood based horror. And no we will not do cabin fever... because it's rubbish.

Railway Inn - Live Sound Tracking

The final night was a perfect end to the festival. We were in the railway inn and as a gig venue the setup was very relaxed (so the previous day's 9am - 5am shift wasn't felt too harshly). The films soundtracked were 60s cult sci-fi’s La Jetée (the inspiration for 12 Monkeys) and Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB (George Lucas’s first film), plus (Six Men Getting Sick) by David Lynch and (The Big Shave) by Martin Scorsese. On the melodies were Jayetal and the Limes.

Perhaps most ambitiously the night ended with the limes soundtracking the PS3 game Red Dead Redemption that allowed a fantastic chance for improvisation (particularly where an unplanned horse fall occurred).

The night was filmed so I'll post any videos as and when they materialize.

Well that's it for now, hope your eyes found the photos delicious. I'll be back soon with some videos I've shot recently.

Stay Tuned

Composition/Sound Design Showreel

2010-10-26T05:47:00.000-07:00

Hi there.

While construction of the site rumbles along I've been building a few different showreels of some of the stuff I've been working on. It's going to be a trilogy, composition/sound design, recording, and video work.

Here's part one:

Composition/Sound Design Showreel on Vimeo.

Back soon with part deux.

C

RICHARD O'FLYNN Releases "Albiet Nothing"

2010-10-09T06:39:00.000-07:00

What!!! Where did May - September go??? Ok, well, no they weren't erroniously deleted, I've just been busy. Anyway bigger news:

RICHARD O'FLYNN HAS RELEASED "Albiet Nothing"

"Dedicated to brothers, sisters, cities and lovers, Richard’s debut album is titled ‘Albeit Nothing’. The album is a reflection on life, loss and society and is an interpretation on how it is to live in this world. His songs (which are both joyful and tragic) are based on Richard’s personal experiences and observations of other people’s lives.

The songs have been heavily influenced by Liverpool and the raw energy, life, joy and pain that is apparent everyday on its streets. The result is a melancholic reflection on the ways in which this world can both create and destroy, carrying some people forward and leaving others behind. This album is about the contrast of light and dark, joy and pain, hope and despair."

Read more

I'm very happy this project has come to completion it was great working with Snorre and Rich to engineer it to such a high standard. Props to Christian Hildebrand & Robin Schmit for mixing and mastering respectively.

I know Richard is very happy with it:

And Snorre has expressed his joy in the only way he knows, through the phallus...

"Are you not suitably impressed?" says Snorre. To which I say:

Anyway once we got all that tedious recording and musical prowess out the way we did what we came here to do:

Richard O'Flynn Sessions Part 8

2010-04-07T18:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our final day tracking and proved to be another fruitful one. Rich got down another three vocals tracks over the course of the day which, given the layers of harmonies and since we’re tending to double track many of the parts as we go, is no easy feat.

Fortunately as Rich is a strong singer we got these three done before Rich began to tire and look a little bleary eyed.

We’ll do the last few vocals in another session towards the end of the month as it’s better to get the takes dead on and with the O’Flynn performance they deserve. Also this gives us a chance to have the cello player down who had unfortunately damaged her arm before this week’s tracking. With recording done for the evening we had a chance to listen the tracks so far

The night then descended into drunken revelry as we brought in Snorre’s birthday with Modern Warfare 2 and Black Sheep Ale.

In the morning after a fry up and after Snorre was chased by a trio of neighbourhood dogs we took a last chance to explore Carmarthenshire.

Rich and snorre bottom left

It’s sometimes easy to forget how beautiful Wales is. Having had this session in such a pretty environment has really been good for recording giving us an easy way to take breaks and unwind.

Snorre has been particularly fond of the surroundings which are more akin to the open planes of Norway than Liverpool. Left unattended the mountain man clambered onto the first large stone to remind him of home...

...drank from mountain streams...

...and finally disappeared over the horizon.

Upon returning we loaded the last of the gear up into Rich’s car and said our goodbyes for now, It has been a great experience working with Rich and Snorre on this project and I’m really pleased with the results so far.

I just can’t wait till the next session when we get to finish vocals, track cello and mess around with reverb. It’s going to be great. I’ll keep you guys posted as to when the next time will be.

Tara for now

C

P.S. shouldn't be too long till EPAV.co.uk us live

Richard O'Flynn Sessions Part 7

2010-04-05T21:49:00.000-07:00

Today is the penultimate day of tracking and we could not have had things go more swimmingly. Rich finished off tracking acoustics this morning giving his voice time to warm up for a full day of vocal recording. As Snorre and Rich headed into Lampeter for a shop break I stayed behind to construct a baffled corner area to give us a slightly deader sound that could eliminate the river outside.

Upon their return Snorre helped me put the finishing touches to my creation as Rich took a moment to warm up.

(bonus points available for spotting a lumbering giant)

Rich was of course very happy with his new home.

We took a further hour to get exactly the sound that we wanted for the tracks testing mic choices against one another. We settled on an AT4040 for a warm but clear tone and a D190 for the backing vocals that gives a lovely old school lo-fi sound. When happy we ran the vocals into a 1960 Drawmer Comp/Pre which gave a bit more warmth which enriches Rich’s rich voice.

Technical nonsense aside, I have to confess that often tracking vocals for me can be a slightly tedious process. This is simply not the case with Rich. The tonal quality and soul of his voice are unique and very heartfelt. Honestly the tracking on ‘What in the World’ today brought tears to my eyes… In a good way obviously.

We’re about half way through at the moment having recorded 5 vocal tracks leaving 6 for tomorrow. We’ve jumped in at the deep end and tacked the ones that are harder with more harmonies so I think we’re making good progress. The arrangements are very well thought out and show off Rich’s vocal prowess featureing a fair few layers of harmony.

yes that’s all vocals

Back tomorrow with the last of the O’Flynn session blogs

C

Richard O'Flynn Sessions Part Six

2010-04-04T19:51:00.001-07:00

Happy Easter everybody. Today we’ve inducted Snorre into our traditions by setting an Easter hunt that he gruffly lumbered through and also introducing him to the concept of Egg rolling. I think the idea is to throw your egg around as much as possible without it breaking, the last to fracture being the winner. Snorre excelled much more at this than the Easter hunt through brute force, clearing the garden, river, and road with barely a scratch.

Left to right: Rich, Emily (the budding artist), Snorre, Corin

Aside from egg sillyness we have been doing some real work. Rich has been soldiering on with the acoustic guitars completing all bar one track.

So happy with the guitar sound, it’s a touch like The Bend’s acoustics (which is not a bad thing).

We’ll be finishing the acoustic tracking off in the morning tomorrow before moving on to get our vocal sound. It’s been a welcome change to have brighter sunnier weather so we can take breaks in the sunshine appreciating the environment we’re recording in. Snorre and Rich are slowly falling in love…

…with Wales.

With Pro Tools backing up the session we’ve gorged ourselves on a fantastic Easter spread. Snorre is full of meat and we’re all struggling to move so we’ve parked ourselves infront of modern warfare 2. We are all a lot worse at this than we had thought ( "I'm bleedin' out") .

Happy Easter!

C

Richard O'Flynn Sessions Part Five

2010-04-03T19:02:00.000-07:00

Day four and Sindre sadly is no longer with us. Rich has thankfully survived this early morning delivery trip to Carmarthen and is back with us today looking only slightly worse for wear. Here is an Easter themed artist’s impression:

Today was originally to be the day for Snorre lay down bass for the tracks. In a controversial move we’ve decided to save this for later and lay the more complicated acoustic guitar parts first. This makes sense as they very much drive the tracks and Snorre possesses the orchestrational talent to pull this off with flair. What can I say the man’s a genius

As the acoustics are so important in these tracks we spent a great deal of time getting the sound just right. We’ve gone for a nice stereo pair that gives a lovely spacially broad bright tone. Of course this is helped by having a lovely martin guitar to begin with and such a skilled player as Rich.

Once we’d got the sound just so we took a little stroll to explore our surroundings and give our ears a breather. Here sheep whisperer Rich coaxes over a young lamb who naively hops towards us to be petted:

Little did he know what we had planned for dinner.

Delicious

C

Richard O'Flynn Sessions Part 4

2010-04-02T18:23:00.001-07:00

Day three and the robot drummer Sindre has begun to adapt and become in touch with his so called human senses. He has discovered the joy of taste and has been eating everything in sight like a ravenous squirrel. Here he is discovering the joy of nuts.

Yesterday we covered the louder more aggressive drum tracks leaving more restrained and muted patterns for today. Through retuning, brushwork and re-micing we captured a variety of different sounds from the floating cymbals of sigur ros to the snappier moments of rainbows. Above all else it was Sindre’s flawless grasp of dynamics and rigorous mechanoid timing.

Some of the drum parts for today Snorre and Rich rearranged along the way adding little nuances and altering beats. It’s been a very enjoyable organic process being able decide elements as we go and is a testament to both good orchestration skills and Sindre’s single-minded concentration.

Thankfully today is a little warmer. No snow or hail and a few more heaters. It is still a bit nippy and Rich has taken to warming his shoes up on the radiator as we track, a move that has been reassuringly odourless.

As we draw to a close the drum tracking a sad face occurs. Now, just as he has acclimatised to our ways and performed such a sterling set of drum tracks Sindre must leave us. Rich will be driving him to Carmarthen at 04:10 where he is to embark upon his vessel for home.

Tomorrow as Rich sleeps off this appreciated morning mission Snorre and I will make minor edits to the drums and get us a good bass sound to work with. If this is anything like the makeover Snorre imposed upon me earlier the bass will sound monstrous.

Don’t have nightmares,

C

Richard O'Flynn Sessions Part 3

2010-04-01T18:20:00.000-07:00

Day two and the definite impression is that the Welsh weather system is broken. As we got up and ready for the studio a five minute blizzard hit us, settled and in a further five minutes melted. It was quick enough for Die Mensche Machine Sindre to miss it entirely, but for his and your benefit here’s a snapshot.

It is Sindre’s special day. It’s all about the drums. Since we took a while giving the drums a preliminary tune up, getting them into position and trying some mics yesterday I could get in early to do what I do best and gaffer tape microphones precariously from the rafters.

Using a combination of close micing and various room mics we managed to get a lovely drum sound. It’s both snappy and reverberant making it something I’m very excited about.

With a fantastic grasp of dynamics and a robotic mentality Sindre’s been performing as good as ever. Currently we’re 3 songs in and set to finish drums on the remaining half a dozen tomorrow. Progress was slightly hampered today by a blown fuse possibly caused by the wall of heaters that we have installed to counteract the conditions. Rich swapped fuses in a second while I took a little longer restoring orphaned audio tracks.

Moral : Always save

C

Richard O'Flynn Sessions Part 2

2010-03-31T18:37:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day of our recording week. While Rich has fought the icy conditions to get down with Snorre and Sindre I’ve been on the road travelling to get us a bass amp. My directions led me to a theatre in a shopping centre in Cwmbran which was mysterious enough.

Upon receiving the ‘bass amp’ things grew even more mysterious. Are you a bass amp really?

Well I’ve just finished having a play and I think we can get something good out of it if we keep the DI as well.

Conditions here are fridgy cold and hail has been coming down the size of my fingertips. We’ve shivered and shuffled all our gear into place in the studio to set up for tomorrow.

We’ve prepped drums for tracking in the morning. We’re going for quite a snappy sound which is great but our drummer sindre seems to be an evil plastic clone so we’ll have to see how things pan out tomorrow.

Would you trust this man?

C

Richard O'Flynn Sessions Part 1

2010-03-30T17:53:00.000-07:00

Hi there,

Today is to be day one of the Wales sessions with Liverpool based singer song writer Richard O'Flynn . Do sample his lovely soundings here :

The band are going to be heading down tomorrow (/today) and we'll get the bass and drums set up ready for recording on thurs. Very excited to be working with Rich as I think we can do some interesting stuff with these great demos I've been hearing. While I slowly fill in the content for the website www.epav.co.uk this is where you can follow all the latest news from the session.

On the downside though I my tumbledryer broke today so my clothes have been sat in a box full of greyish water during the long journey here. Here's hoping I don't smell of cabbage all week :S.

C

New Blog/Site

2010-03-24T18:45:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the EPAV blog. Over the coming months this is going to function as a news feed exhibiting my upcoming projects. In keeping with the new online presence I’ve finally gotten round to registering a website domain. For now you can find the minimalist website holding page over at: http://www.epav.co.uk .

Hopefully it’s not going to take me too long to get everything up online as I’m fleshing out all the component pages at the moment. On the other hand web design is a relatively new experience to me (no idea what MySQL is :S) so we’ll see. Follow my frustrated witterings at: http://twitter.com/epavstudios

Catch y’all soon

Corin Evans-Pritchard