#73 – Stick McDonald’s straws into a turd!

Fork in the Road

Broken Dreams Part 11

Wrap Torn

This picture taken during the Vietnam war was seen all over the world. I seem to remember seeing it on the news at the time in 1972 – it shows a family running from a napalm attack. the girl at the centre was running naked because the 1200° C heat caused by the napalm burnt the clothes from her back.

Today on Radio 4 there was an interview with the girl, Kim Phuc, who now lives in Canada. She was interviewed by former ITN reporter Christopher Wain who was there with a film crew on that day and who along with Nick Ut, the photographer who took the iconic picture, helped to save her life that day and in the days that followed. She was taken to a Vietnamese hospital but she wasn’t expected to live and the men from the international press who witnessed the event organised getting her transferred to a better hospital.

As I mentioned on Saturday my first reel of film came back after being developed by Blue Cine Tech. the first thing I did was take it out of the envelope, wind the leader off the spool and check that there were some images on the film! Thankfully there were and they looked as if they were nicely exposed, not too dark or too light. I couldn’t wait to watch it.

Unfortunately we were just on our way out so it was the following morning when I got the chance to thread the film onto my editor and watch the film. On the whole it was quite good, camera work was quite steady and the exposure looked good. I had read mixed reports about whether the C107 XL could cope with Ektachrome 64T as it wasn’t a film speed that the camera had been designed for. the camera was originally used to either Kodachrome 40 or 100ASA film (as were most domestic Super 8 cameras).

Then when it got dark last night I got the projector out and played the film onto the dining room wall. I set up the camcorder to film it as a rough telecine technique. Sadly the video doesn’t do justice to the actual film which is much more vibrant and colourful. It does however give a lovely retro feel to it so I have added some appropriate music and uploaded it to youtube.

The whole point of running the film through the camera was to test the camera and as mentioned above to see if the film speed would give a good exposure. So that was why I bought the film and took it to the Isle of Wight on our Easter break. Since returning two things have happened which may have negated the need for the test.

Firstly as reported on returning home I dropped the camera causing some damage. Thankfully there was a small amount of film left so I was able to check that the camera still works, which it does, and thankfully I have now managed to repair some of the damage.

The second thing was that when I checked into the Blue Cine Tech website I discovered that Kodak have discontinued the Ektachrome 64T film and replaced it with Ektachrome 100D which is closer to what the camera would have used when it was first made.

Either way I’m a very happy bunny at the moment and can’t wait to get onto my next project which will hopefully be a movie of the Summer of Love party in July which I hope to use a mixture of video and film for. Then I really want to enter the Straight 8 competition next year.

This picture was in the Croydon Advertiser in about 2003 – it was taken outside Witchfest at the Fairfield Halls during my Morris Dancing days with Wolf’s Head & Vixen. We were performing at the festival and were asked by a photographer to pose for a picture outside. Keith and John still dance for the side and in fact feature in the video in this post.

Well my Super 8 film plopped through my letter box yesterday morning, the test reel I shot on the Isle of Wight to see if the camera was working ok. I’ve just run it through the editor and am glad to report that it looks absolutely fantastic so all systems are go for the future! I will try and telecine it using my projector and video camera and post it here.

A few weeks ago I blogged about how, while unloading the car after our holiday in the Isle of Wight, I dropped and broke my beloved Bauer C107 XL cine camera. At that time I expressed the view that it might be possible to fix it and today having a day off and part of it free I set about doing so with excellent results. I applied some superglue to the handle and twisted it into place and very soon it had set solid in the correct position. Admittedly it won’t fold away any more but at least the camera can now be held steady again while shooting.

Having had success I turned my attention to the other end of the camera. When it fell the button which controls the auto single frame exposure took the force of the landing and broke. I managed to take the side of the camera off and removed the knob. To my relief the potentiometer was undamaged  aprt from the small piece of plastic that held the outer knob in place. I removed the remains of the outer knob for the time being but feel that I may have to find a way of reattaching it.

Finally I had a rummage in my old camera bag and found an old screw in eyepiece that I’d bought for one of my Nikons. It wasn’t able to screw into the eyepiece on the Bauer (that would have been too easy) but I was able to superglue it into position over the viewfinder lens and once the rubber eyepiece had been refitted it made a fantastic replacement for the original one which had rotted before I bought the camera.

Hopefully any day now the test film I shot on the Isle of Wight should be back and I will be able to see if all this has been worthwhile – I do hope so!!

It’s been the annual Sweeps Festival in Rochester this weekend and as usual the street have been filled with the sounds of Morris men, the jingle of bells, the clashing of sticks and a myriad of folk tunes played on accordions, whistles, guitars fiddles and mandolins. From the white shirts and hankies of the Cotswold sides, through the clog dancers to the black faces and tattered jackets of the Border Morris men, there are traditional dances and dances with a modern twist every where you look.

As well as the music in the street music spills from almost every pub and street corner, folk singers, folk bands, hurdy gurdy players, traditional folk, folk rock even folk punk! There’s a marquee in the castle grounds and an open air stage in a car park or you can just catch impromptu performances under a tree or in a beer garden.

This year, because of the way the dates fell, the festival opened with the traditional Jack in the Green awakening ceremony at the top of Bluebell Hill. The ceremony starts at sunrise which is at 5:32 am, in a ring of fire sits the jack in the green who has been slumbering through the winter. At the appointed time the members of Motley Morris carrying sticks shovels form a circle around the Jack and sing the Jack in the Green song to awaken him. Once the jack is awoken they dance around him before making way for other Morris sides to dance in their own particular way. The Loose Women, Wolf’s Head and Vixen, The Gong Scourers, Beltane Morris and Bishop Gundulf and others dance in their own particular styles.

I’ve been going to the May Day ceremony since 1992, first as a member of the audience and then as a member of Wolf’s Head and now as a member of the audience again. I danced the Wolf’s Head signature dance, The Four Seasons, for the first time here in 2003 and I was glad to see them dancing it again this year. Over the years I’ve taken my camera and this year was no exception. I also took my video camera this year and hopefully will put together a short video of the morning soon.

In the meantime you can see my photographs taken with my Fuji S9600 or my HTC Magic cameraphone using FxCamera here