DURAN Spring residency

 

It's just a job

 

Behold - The Bass God walks among us

Photo - Baranduin Briggs

Cold nights in San Francisco

 

A whole baseball stadium of AI software users get themselves a surprise Duran Duran show

A few highlights

 

Duran EU 2025

 

New Year - Casino Shows

A very short run to start the year off

Danse Macabre - Madison Square Garden

 

A complex and complicated one-off installation for a Halloween's evening in New York.

Sleeping Giant

 

He's gone.

Didn't even make it to 50.
The candle that burns twice as bright, lasts half as long.

BoardMasters - Land of Saints

13 hour days down in Cornwall.
Check out the band Bilk. They are the next big thing...

Duran Duran - Europe festival tour.

 

Roman Amphitheatre shenanigans with Duran Duran

 

Standon Calling Festival

 Live PTZ cams on the mainstage, putting in a 13 hour shift for 4 days..
I was a little burnt out by the end of it all

Eurovision 2023

 

Two days in Trafalgar Square with EMF for another projection onto this London landmark.

Client EMF

Duran Duran UK tour 2023

 It seems I got my old job back.

Blimey- Avant Garde Dance

 

I wanted to thank you personally for all your effort and hard work in Illegal Dance, you have been such a reliable, steady hand on the team and have contributed your outstanding expertise and experience to make the show a wonderful success, thanks so much.

Avant Garde Dance Company - Spring Tour - The Lowry - The Point - Storyhouse

More Qlab, this time with lots of reprogramming.
It's a great show...

Royal College of Barbers & Surgeons

 

Cams on two days of graduation ceremonies for AV Team

Pendulum - Alexandra Palace

Live PTZ cams for More Eyes.
Drum & Bass a go go.

Red Bull DJ Battel

An evening in Covent Garden doing PTZ cameras for Red Bull

2022

 

Wizkid - Ghana

 This was not a pleasant experience.

Wizkid didn't show up and I found myself in the middle of a small scale riot in a Stadium in Accra at 4am.

Avant Garde Dance

 Last time out this year with the AVD company.
I make pressing play look easy - (maybe it is)

Aylesbury Court House - Xmas 2022

 

Now with added tree...

Client EMF

What The Floyd - Petersfield - Wantage - Castleford

 

A 4 year flashback to that time when I used to do the lights for these guys..
I'd only asked if I could go on the guest list, next thing I know I am here again wondering why nothing works

Illegal Dance - Avante Garde Dance Company - Yeast

 

The UK shortage of skilled ops pushed my name up to the top of the list for this one.
Just as well as it was far from easy dealing with the complicated system.

But tbh, I really enjoy the show, it's profound and wild.

The Greatest Show -almost

 

Lots of last minute heavy lifting to get this one up and running, but run it did.
20 minutes, 6 projectors and way too many pixels. Blimey

West Quay Southampton.
Client EMF

Upcoming shows.

 More Qlab - the theatre's favourite..

NFL

Client EMF

 

UF Orb

 

Back on visuals with the Orb for a handful of shows

Up on the Roof

A structural survey of the Breathing Memorial at the BBC had me all dressed up like the Village People for some high rise rope access...

Client EMF

Fiddling about on set

 

A two day shoot for some chap called FaceSoul over in the darkest east of Silvertown

Horse Boat

 Fancied a change so I am now Helmsman/Tillerman and occasional Horse Wrangler on the Kennet and Avon

Projection Redux - directors cut.

 

I'm occasionally back out doing the odd projection job

Back on set - Park Royal Studios - photoshoot

 Park Royal Studios for a 3 day stills shoot.

Now with added projections

 Given up working on the river for a while to concentrate on honing my projection skills, which have sat idle for far too long..

Turbulence

 

Projection onto a wind turbine in Wales for EMF.

I'm now on first name terms with the local sheep

Accurate Projection Mapping

Accurate Projection Mapping..

There are 3 main ways to do accurate projection mapping.

The very expensive way - a LIDAR laser scan  of the building and a 3D based media server such as Disguise

The difficult way - drawing onto the building through the projector with an app like photoshop - usually means being outside all night

and then there is the way I do it..

Work from a photograph taken from the projector position.

I invented this approach myself back in the days when I used to do building projections with slides and needed to get it right first time every time. Sometime in the early 1990s if I remember rightly.

So here’s a brief walk though of the latest mapping project that I did for EMF onto a town hall in the UK

First, photograph the projection surface from the projector position

To get this photo, I had to put the camera on a light stand and wind it up to 20ft - the final position of the projector on a scaff tower in the square..

I then pop the photo into photoshop and make a template that acts as a map for all the content and I also use to generate a line up for the individual projectors. In this case using a 1920 x 1080 pixel template that matches the native resolution of the projector.

Then you just do all the content - I drop the .psd template into after effects and do everything there..

finally I generate a lineup - using the original photo + find edges, invert & levels. which is projected back onto the building to bring the projected image into a perfect fit for the actual building.. 

Of course there is bound to be a small amount of final adjustment but it’s usually just an inch or so off - all down to manufacturing tolerances in projector lenses, accuracy of projector placement and so on. I use Resolume Arena for playback. On this particular job the lower centre was off by around 4" so it just needed a tiny nudge in advanced output. If you can't afford Resolume, take a look at Qlab, which is free so long as you don't save, or you can rent it by the day.

here’s the end result..

projection 3 x 18k lumens Christie HD projectors
Playback Resolume Arena

Here's my original how to vid from 2007, ignore the bit about comparable lenses.. seems I was mistaken about that bit of the process..

Have fun

Aylesbury Court House - Xmas 2021

 

Finally regained my video content mojo finishing a 5 minute bespoke vid for EMF that runs dec-early jan

Bye Bye Boaters

 All things shall pass, and my delightful sojourn as a Lock Keeper on the Upper Thames has come to an end for now.
I have to say it was a thoroughly enjoyable time and a simply delightful way to spend the summer.
Even though the job is gone, I still have the occasional money spider hanging from the brim of my hat and I can always find a swan to talk with should I have the need...

Saatchi Gallery - Holotronica

 Yet another gig - soon be into double figures...
It was odd in a lovely sort of way to be away from calling in boats and wrestling with geese and be back doing something that is second nature to me. 
I pulled at least 6 rabbits out of hats on this one..

Beautiful Daze - The Orb

Finally did one of those gig things...

Almost did some work

 Had a projection job whose success hinged on the English ball kicking team winning which they didn't. So that was that. Probably just as well as it was raining..

EA

 

Taking a 6 month break from not doing anything for a whole year.
I'll get to wear a uniform and I won't have to say 'would you like fries with that'..

Vaxed

 The best part of two days in bed with a high fever after a dose of the AZ vax.
Not an ideal way to spend a weekend.. Oh hum

2020 - Greatest Hits..

Sadly, like most people in showbiz there wasn't much in the way of great achievements for deepvisual in 2020.
Beyond having Covid in Jan and not even knowing what it was.
If anything special happens, I'll let you know.

The Orb - live

Back with my boys for a live stream event.
Oh how I've missed my job...

Special guest appearance by Stuart Warren-Hill on live holograms

Back on set

Back on dry land for a promo video shoot.
Even got to use my IPAF.

Diwali 2020

 

No audience, but Diwali goes ahead in Central London

client EMF

Wind Turbine

Finally got a gig - Projecting a poppy onto a wind turbine in the middle of a cow field in Leicestershire. 

client EMF

 

Lockdown

 What you might call a bit of a show-stopper.
England is now closed until further notice.

23 weeks later...

My 35 year career, like a bubble floating on water, was there and then it was gone..

I've currently got two projects confirmed. One has the lead performer unable to attend indefinitely due to a serious health issue, the other is on the brink of being shut down by Covid regulations..

Oh my..

Boat Life - Serengi

No more Adelante as we swap being narrow-minded for something a little wider in scope..

Boat life

Back on Adelante for the summer.
I even found some Liverworts.

VDMX based video synthesiser

Dug out an old unfinished project and finished it..
I'll be using this a lot as it has waveclock built in.

Godzilla - MIA

Sadly, my ToysRUs Godzilla that I bought in Fukuoka on my first visit to Japan over 20 years ago has now been missing for 6 months.
Godzilla came to every gig with me for 2 decades or more. As well as protecting my equipment while I was at lunch, Godzilla also doubled as a sound level indicator - if it was too loud, Godzilla would fall over..
Last seen prior to my moving out of the last house. Hopefully now living on Monster Island..