SMILE - YOU'RE ON THE CAMERA(S)

Cameras are everywhere in our lives ... and no more so today than in the city of Glasgow. Mairi drove the children and I into the city centre to take advantage of Doors Open Day when the city lays on guides to various buildings and establishments to let you look around places that are not normally open to the public.

We had a great time in the Police Museum before we moved on to George Square and the Glasgow City Chambers building full of Victorian carved marble from the days when the city traded in tobacco, sugar, cotton and other things that people don't teach you in the history lessons.

Here are Alastair and I at the foot of one of the Great and the Good who adorn the main square of the city.

After they headed off I took advantage of the open access to the city's traffic control department. That is the place which monitors - all day every day - those cameras that are used for speeding checks; bridge, motorway and tunnel traffic flow; information signs; all traffic lights both road and pedestrian, The staff make adjustments to ease congestion and help buses (which are linked to a satellite) to keep to timetables by adjusting light changes.

The biggest screen in the room above was looking at something that was happening in the city centre and which happened to be, literally, right around the corner.

What is going on? Halle Berry is in town ... they have blocked off this (hilly) street to allow filming of the film "Cloud Atlas" for which this bit is supposed to be San Francisco. (The traffic people said that the blocking off of this particular fairly quiet area caused more congestion in adjacent areas than they had anticipated.) Can it really be economic to film half way round the world and not in California? (Brad Pitt was here a month ago ... weird!)

However ... I was fascinated to see the big American cars brought in for props, also a half-ton Chev truck and some sort of armoured vehicle, all of the 1950s or 60s. (Heavens! I used to drive one of those cars,.. oh yes, and Chev half-ton!) I mean ... do they ship these things in for the filming? Really?

So great numbers of camera crew are gathered - along with the public behind a barrier - to make the shoot. They even had water spraying up in the air. It must have been about the only time it wasn't actually raining!.

When Alastair first went to Canada he spent some time in the States working on the animation for Halle Berri's film "Cat Woman". I did see her in the distance, Ali, but I did not get close enough to say "Hi"!

And here are newspaper boxes with San Francisco newspapers "for sale" and another big black car used for the film - maybe it is for the bad guys.

So this is me taking pictures of people ... ?paparazzi? ... taking pictures of people taking pictures. Poor Halle Berry ... what must it be like lying on top of a "crashed" car waiting for the cameras to roll .... with zoom lens - both official and unofficial - homing in on you from every direction!

Oh dear ... filming in Glasgow canny be that much fun! Now if they would just build a roof over the city ....

EXIT ART

I was telling Alastair that I really like Bansky's street art. He told me to see Exit Through the Gift Shop which is a film made, I discover, by Banksy. I finally watched it on TV; I loved it! It spoke volumes!

What's it about? I am going to stick my neck out here because having read a few reviews of it and also the Banksy website for the film I have not found anything which, to my way of thinking, addresses what this film is actually about ... namely, how art in the form of painting, has become a commodity.

This really well-written Guardian article written when the film came out over a year ago (!) says lots of things about what goes on in the film and concludes that Banksy "could be an important artist or just a silly fad – either way, in the street and with this film, he's providing pleasure while he lasts." He just doesn't get it!


I love this artist's irreverence! To me his creations (let's be clear: the guy can draw and his work is highly original!) are about throwing metaphorical ... well, visual, actually ... custard pies at the arbiters of style and taste that are in our culture ... I suppose they could be any culture. He is like the wee boy in the story of the Emperor's New Clothes. (This Hans Christian Anderson moral tale is about an Emperor who loved beautiful clothes and was told by his weavers that the invisible ones they made for him were very beautiful. Everyone went along with this. This was fine until a wee boy shouted out upon seeing him "but he's not wearing anything!")

So who are these people who decide what is art, what goes into art galleries, what has value and commands high prices in the art shows and sale rooms? Who buys "art" by whatever definition you want to give it, and why? It's all in the story line.


The best bit of all is the title: "Exit Through the Gift Shop", i.e. viewing works of art are about "come and see stuff in the gallery and we have made sure you cannot get out of the building without buying a mug or a mouse mat en route".


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Images of Banksy website.






here


http://www.banksyfilm.com/press.html?reload

CD - 3D

Alastair has been working on this film:

A Christmas Carol 3D

FYI:
Production year: 2009 ... like this month
Country: USA
Cert (UK): PG
Runtime: 95 mins
Directors: Robert Zemeckis
Cast: Bob Hoskins, Callum Blue, Colin Firth, Gary Oldman, Jim Carrey, Michael J Fox, Robin Wright Penn

I have to go and see it, of course, but in the meantime apparently it is full of motion -capture technology (that is where Our Man in Vancouver [Alastair Macleod, Head of Animation & Visual Effects at VFS] comes in) and other high-tech cinematic stuff.

What do the critics say?

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times: "Disney's A Christmas Carol by Robert Zemeckis (and Charles Dickens, of course) is an exhilarating visual experience and proves for the third time he's one of the few directors who knows what he's doing with 3-D," he writes. "The story that Dickens wrote in 1838 remains timeless, and if it's supercharged here with Scrooge swooping the London streets as freely as Superman, well, once you let ghosts into a movie, there's room for anything."

Wendy Ide of The Times: "Like it or not, almost from the very outset, chimney pot-skimming action is what we get. At times, it's like zapping through a Dickensian version of Google Earth. We are whisked from Stepney to St Paul's in the blink of an eye, leaving our lunches somewhere near Bow."

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Photo: Wikipedia with some input from Photoshop.

CHIAROSCURO

John took this photo in Ayrshire last week. I am not sure of the location. Perhaps early morning on the River Girvan? I really like it! So different from his other outdoor photos!

It made me wonder "Is this not a fine example of 'chiaroscuro'?

I always understood the word to be related to light and dark. In English we use the Italian word to express this rather enigmatic term. It means light-dark. (In French it is clair-obscur.)

The word is mainly associated, and, indeed, comes from, the world of painting. It is to do with the artistic distribution of light and dark in a picture; how light (and dark) are used for dramatic effect.

I see that there is even a sub-category called 'landscape chiaroscuro'. This is by Jan Both called Italianate Landscape with Travellers (1646).

It was Rembrandt (and also Caravaggio* among others) who developed this special use of light in his painting. Indeed, there is a technique called 'Rembrandt lighting' which the above self-portrait illustrates.

There is an illuminated triangle under the eye, on the less illuminated side of the face. One side of the face is lit well from the main light source while the other side of the face uses the interaction of shadows and light, also known as chiaroscuro, to create this geometric form on the face.

In paintings dark subjects were dramatically lit by a shaft of light from a single constricted and often unseen source. The painting above is A Philosopher Giving a Lecture on the Orrery' by Joseph Wright of Derby (1766). It depicts a public lecture about a model solar system using a lamp.

Film-makers (and photographers) use chiaroscuro to indicate extreme low-key lighting in order to create distinct areas of light and darkness, especially when working in monochrome.

And for my fans ... well one fan, at least:

Pioneering movie director Cecil B. DeMille is credited with the first use of the term chiaroscuro. He explained in his autobiography that while shooting The Warrens of Virginia in 1915 he borrowed some portable spotlights from the Mason Opera House in downtown Los Angeles and “began to make shadows where shadows would appear in nature.”

When business partner Sam Goldwyn saw the film with only half an actor’s face illuminated, he feared the exhibitors would pay only half the price for the picture. After DeMille told him it was Rembrandt lighting, “Sam’s reply was jubilant with relief: for Rembrandt lighting the exhibitors would pay double!”

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* Why many of Caravagio's subjects were left-handed is looked at in light (oops... sorry about the pun ...) of his dramatic 'chiaroscuro' style of light and shadow. It was based on "a whole set of techniques that are the basis of photography"! Here.

All fine art photos are in the public domain.

THE MATRIX ET AL

Alastair's country is the west coast of North America. By that I mean it expands from the northern border of British Columbia to the southern border of California. This forms the Western Frontier of the (North American) Film Industry.

Our Man in Vancouver, aka One Cool Dude, has been doing Great Things in this country.

Like his dad it was: Go West Young Man! That was 9 years ago.

Alastair on the shores of Loch Lomond

This photo was taken exactly 2 years ago (Heavens! It hasn't been!) at Mairi and John's wedding.

Well this week he has taken the High Road. Alastair is moving into a new job and we are thrilled for him. The official announcement of his new appointment here !!!!

Described as "a veteran", the Vancouver Film School says that his appointment marks "the beginning of an exciting new era ..."

Are you impressed? (Remember, this is Scotland!) "Ach, I kent his faither* " !

Well, we all know he's wonderful and, anyhow, what are sons for if one cannot brag about them a bit?!

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* The Scots Dictionary: I kent his faither is a derogatory phrase used to remind those who have achieved success (especially if achieved away from Scotland) that they are no better than anyone else.

LE STYLE C'EST L'HOMME

Our Man in Vancouver (see link on the right) is our son, Alastair, who works in the film industry. He is a Minimalist whose life is measured in boxes of CDs and DVDs. While the rest of us think of Canada and U.S.A. in terms of latitude, Alastair's 'country of residence' is defined by longitude, i.e. land west of the Rockie Mountain Cordillera. Life for him is either in California or 'Hollywood North' (Vancouver).

A man of few worldly possessions, he is now gathering film memorabilia as seen in this poster which hangs in the stairwell of his apartment.

Film buffs will recognize the icons. Me? As someone who judges books by their covers and wine by the label it's all about colour(s)!