Burns Night - and a' that

Hello folks, just a short note to say all is coming along fine with the movie (One Day Removals) and the last of the tweaking is nearly at an end. The imperious leader, Mark Stirton, is all ill just now with a nasty chest thing (not the thing from alien, or the alien's thing) and has been told to rest, but probably isn't, so the editing schedule is still on target.

I can't post any pictures or design work just now as all the stuff I was working on recently would pretty much blow the story of the movie, so instead I'll post a spooky night time scene of Scotland (Tam O' Shanter) and tell you about the Burns Night celebrations.

Robbie Burns is the national poet of Scotland. Even though he's been dead for a few hundred years Scots celebrate his life and works every January 25th by having a 'Burns Supper.' This is usually a formal affair in full tartan kit or evening wear - the main point of the evening is to eat heaps of haggis, drink whiskey and listen to somebody read Burn's poems (haggis and poetry are optional). Burns was also the bloke that wrote 'Auld lang syne.' I'll leave you with a short poem of the chap's called 'Fickle Fortune,' written in 1782.

Though fickle Fortune has deceived me,

She pormis'd fair and perform'd but ill;

Of mistress, friends, and wealth bereav'd me,

Yet I bear a heart shall support me still.

I'll act with prudence as far 's I'm able,
But if success I must never find,
Then come misfortune, I bid thee welcome,
I'll meet thee with an undaunted mind.

Interlude 3.

I got an email from my mate Duncan (Aktoman) last Friday about a minute before I left work. 'I'm going up Bennachie (hill near Aberdeen) to try new camera, coming?' What can you say to that?

I was knackered after a long day staring at a screen and was thinking of crawling into a cupboard and dying, but I went along instead. For the first time in a week it wasn't raining so we wandered up the hill in a leisurely fashion- Bennachie isn't a very demanding walk at 375 metres (about 1230 feet) but it has some steep parts so we had a few breaks to get our breath back and take photos.

The hill itself has several peaks but we were heading for the one known as 'mither tap,' which has a natural rocky plinth with the remains of 2 ancient stone forts surrounding it. One of the stone barricades is comprised of fused stone, not a bad job considering the picts didn't have plasma furnaces or crazy glue. The hill is one of the most probable sites for the Roman battle of Mons Graupius (84AD approx.) - where 10.000 hairy arsed Scotsmen led by the war leader, Calgacus showed the Romans what they were made of , literally, by being wiped out by about 30.000 trained combat troops and cavalry. It did however show the Romans that the Scots were way too mental to try and rule over. Yay us.

It was sunny but pretty windy so we could only manage F stops below 5.6 at 100 asa which for landscape photos is a bit flat, but without a tripod it was our best option as the wind was chucking us about like rubber kittens. Duncan's new cam is a canon 350D, it's a good entry level digital SLR and it has a nice lens. As he's never used one before I was helping him out with some basic tips and settings, he does have a good eye for composition though so that helps heaps.

Here are some photos which we took, I think my ones are the long shot of the top of the hill and the Lord of the Rings one of the valley below (yup, the clouds are real). They are a bit soft due to lack of tripod but not too bad.

It's for charity, mate....

No, not for me. I generally don't give to charities as I know the sponging little funts just use the cash to eat crack and buy PS3's...

My mate Duncan (Aktoman) is doing a cross country walk (starting this Saturday) from one side of Scotchland to the other. Existing only on captured haggises and tartan pudding his trek will take him across 212 miles of the most rugged, badger infested terrain on earth... and he's doing this for fun! The walking mentalist has a heart of sponge though, he's got a link to a charity site on his blog where nice folk can donate money to the 'Gurkha Welfare Trust.'

As a big fan of the Gurkha's I said I'd mention it on me blog, and I have. Gurkha's are amazing soldiers and have been part of the British army since about 1815 - winning heaps of Victoria crosses and generally kicking the enemies arse in the name of truth, justice and freedom. To find out more about these brave chaps click here .

There is a link to Duncan's site in my links section, or click here. Please visit, even if its only to call him mental for doing the Southern Upland Way.

Various dangers Aktoman may encounter...

A New Week

Back to filming for me, Tuesday went very well and director bloke, Mark has many good shots. We also managed not to drown Kerwin in a little boat on the fast flowing and very deep river Dee. Kerwin, who has never been in a boat before, had to row to the middle of the river, put the oars away and place a binliner wrapped corpse on top of himself before letting the boat drift downstream. He did really well and didn't freak out too much when he found out his safety net was me with a bit of rope, and the drysuit under his clothes of course - we're not that mental.

While we were getting the boat ready the rest of the team went off to film Pat and Scott throw the wrapped corpse off a high bridge over a river, that (judging by Scott's behind the scenes footage) went very well and looked pretty funny.

What's left of my brain needs some sleep so I'll not write that much and put pictures on instead.



Scott Ironside and Patrick Wight, (lead actors) finding another stiff


Me, filling a bottle of bleed


Me, making up the back of the van for my impact


Me, post impact (blood looks very red but thats the flash apparently)


Mark Wyness, (who has taken these photos) with a screwdriver in his head

On The Move....

Just a short post today as I'm totally tired. Today's filming went really well again and the weather was great, even hotter and sunnier than yesterday. I spent a lot of this morning stuck under a van covered in sticky fake blood, not too fun but the shoots looked good and thats the point.

Here are a few shots from yesterday's filming. They show director, Mark Stirton and Kerwin Robertson (on sound) filming Graham's big pishing scene, also a before and after shot of Graham Robertson's character, 'drunk man.' He gets hit in the face by the van while wandering about on a lonely country road.





More to follow tommorrow. Hopefully I will be able to mug the professional photographer (Mark Wyness) thats doing our publicity shots and get some of his excellent photos on the blog. Poor chap's Bowen lighting kit fell in a marsh today so we're all hoping it dries out ok and isn't buggered - as he's still got a lot of shots to do for the film! Honestly, it's not fun as the kit cost more than the van we bought for the film, as we say in Aberdeenland 'ooya beastie!'

Off to bed now to die a bit until 5.30am.