A Light Shines...

A new touring exhibition of films created to be shown in churches and cathedrals is set to open in Blackburn tonight.

‘A Light Shines in Darkness’ aims to bring new audiences into churches, some of whom may have never set foot in one, and challenge them to look at the building in a new way.

It seeks to provoke discussion around buildings now often overlooked and undervalued that nevertheless have a powerful architectural presence.

“Whether you’re religious or not you can’t help but be affected when you go into a place like this and the atmosphere the architecture creates. They deserve to have life in them and for people to have access to such special places,” Mike Jones FVU, curator.

Three films from the collection will be shown at the Grade I listed Gothic church Holy Trinity, built at the height of Blackburn’s industrial might.

They include LEAP after The Great Ecstacy an examination of worship of a different nature that of a major sporting event and Stable a film exploring what happens when you release a group of horses into a religious space.

A Light Shines in the Darkness can be seen at Holy Trinity Church, Brownhll Road, Blackburn.  BB1 9QY from tonight until the 28th March 4.30pm - 8.30pm.

Exciting News for Blackburn

2015 is an exciting year for Blackburn as it will see the opening of The Making Rooms, a unique facility that brings together art and technology.

The Making Rooms is a state of the art technology and manufacturing hub that will help put the town back on the map as a place for start-up businesses and manufacturing innovation.

One of the only facilities of its kind in the country it will be equipped with cutting edge equipment such as 3D printers and small scale manufacturing machinery that will allow people to test and try out new ideas.

It will also host a technology hub for new businesses to use as a work space as well as hosting courses, events and groups based around digital innovation.

In addition there will be studios, workshops and exhibition spaces for artists and craftspeople, as well as provision for artist residences for both local and international artists.

It will offer training in collaboration with school and colleges and local businesses.

Based in the Bentleys building on Museum Street, formerly a bank, it will incorporate the best ideas from similar facilities around the world and is one of only two such projects in the country.

The project is funded by Arts Council England, the Lancashire Economic Partnership and backed by Blackburn with Darwen Council.

If you’d like to get involved we’d love to hear from email Blackbur is Open on ideas@blackburnisopen.co.uk

Happening tonight

Art SPACE is a monthly meet-up for local creative people to come together and share ideas, exhibit, hang out, perform and network.

Each meeting involves live music and/or performance, exhibitions of artwork and workshops where you can either offer or learn a new skill.

There is also a tasty buffet and a relaxed atmosphere to meet other local artists.

Some space will be made available to exhibit work and a digital slideshow is shown that you can submit to. All submissions are welcome- whether it is your first attempt at something or a technique you’ve been doing for years.

There is also a stage for performance- dance, singing, music, poetry etc  And while there are often acts invited to perform there is also a chance to participate in the open mic slot on the night.

Workshop sessions also include life drawing, interactive installations and photography.

This is a grassroots event – bring what you would like to find, get out what you put in!

To submit ideas or artwork email info@blackburnartspace.org.uk

Follow artspace here facebook.com/artspaceblackburn

6.30pm-10pm.  St. John's Centre, Victoria Street, Blackburn.  Entry fee £3.  All ages welcome.

Updated: Blackburn's Cinematography Pioneers

I had a nice surprise in my emails this morning.  Barry Noon, the President of Blackburn and District Camera Club and friend forwarded an email about an 1880 camera built by Sagar Mitchell of Northgate Blackburn.

Sagar Mitchell

It turns out that Mitchell was one half of Mitchell & Kenyon that were early film pioneers in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.

Mitchell had been a photographer and manufacturer of photographic equipment while Kenyon had manufactured automated slot machines.  The combined talents of the both of them would lead to developments and archives that still exist today.

They formed their partnership in 1897 under the trade name of Norden and the company became one of the largest producers of film in the United Kingdom.  Their first showing of a film was reported to be of Blackburn Market (that was located in King William Street adjacent to the clock) and was show at Mitchells premises of 40 Northgate on the 27^th November 1897.  In 1899 a travelling showman commissioned the pair to make a film of people leaving factories for the Easter Fair.  The same year Norden released three fictional films, The Tramp’s Surprise, The Tramps and the Artists and Kidnapping by Indians.  These led to more and more commissions from travelling showman and cinemas.

Norden soon outgrew it premises and the pair bought 22 Clayton Street which would become Blackburn’s very own film studio.  Although their production of fictional films was limited they had an indoor and outdoor studio at the premises as well as using locations.

The pair made films across many genres their most famous and historically important being their ‘topicals’.  These were documentary films that depicted ordinary life in Edwardian Britain.  They feature mill workers, Easter Fairs, Temperance marches, Wakes Week holidays in Blackpool and Morecambe and emigrants boarding ships in Liverpool bound for Boston.

News also became a big part of the company’s business.  The film troops leaving and returning from the Boer War, shot war re-enactments in the surrounding countryside of Blackburn using smoke bombs and guns for special effects; they were responsible for the first crime reconstruction film, The Arrest of Goudie in 1901 which was made and show just three days after the arrest of Thomas Goudie.  Sports news also became a regular feature of their work with local football teams often being the subjects.

They also shot some slapstick comedy films that no doubt influenced the Keystone Cops and Charlie Chaplin (Chaplin performed at the Theatre Royal, Ainsworth Street, Blackburn in 1903 and 1905).  Their most famous comedy film was called Diving Lucy of 1903 and was filmed in Corporation Park.

In 1907 Mitchell resumed possession of his original business in Northgate and from here on the volume of film production began to decline.  By 1909 films were only being made in the local area with the last surviving film being made in 1913.  In 1922 the partnership was dissolved with Kenyon dying in 1925 aged 75.  Mitchell continued to runs his photography business with his son until his death in 1952 aged 85.

Many of their films were stored in the basement of the Northgate business and were uncovered by workmen.  The films have been restored and are now in the possession of British Film Institue.

News from Blackburn is Open

There are several events up and coming in the Blackburn is Open calendar that we thought you might be interested in;

Beatles Drink & Draw

Drink & Draw are a cabaret style event with a difference.  Bringing together both professional and amateur artists alike to enjoy a drink and drawing while being entertained.  This month it is the turn of The Walrus, a Beatles/John Lennon inspired tribute act to entertain the artistic crowd.

The Drink and Draw event takes place on Thursday 12th February, 6:30pm at St. Johns Church, Victoria Street, Blackburn.  Admission is £5.

Open Day @ The Bureau

The Bureau is Blackburn's newest art venue and will be opening its doors for a day of artistic intent.

The event taking place on February 19 will feature live entertainment, demonstrations and workshops in everything from printmaking to lampshade making.

Take part in a singing workshop or even try your hand at circus skills such as juggling or unicycling.
There’ll also be live entertainment from a variety of performers including Blackburn People’s Choir, singer songwriter Ian Hodgson whose band Bradford have shared stages with the likes of Bjork and Primal Scream, and folk band The Driver Brothers.

SLYNCS, a Blackburn based youth organisation, will be delivering a one hour workshop aimed at finding out what people want from an arts centre in Blackburn and Somewhere-to who support young people in the arts will also be on hand to talk about the work that they do.

There’ll also be an art auction to help raise money for The Bureau. Work will be contributed by the many artists involved in setting up The Bureau and bidding begins at 7.30pm.

The Bureau is based at the former church St Johns which until recently was the venue for the Citizens Advice Bureau.

It has now been relaunched as an arts centre and is being run by local artists, performers and event promoters to host events, exhibitions, workshops and other creative endeavours.

The event will run from 10.30am until 5pm followed by ArtSpace creative meet-up from 5-10pm.

A Light Shines in the Darkness

‘A Light Shines in Darkness’ aims to bring new audiences into churches, some of whom may have never set foot in one, and challenge them to look at the building in a new way.

It seeks to provoke discussion around buildings now often overlooked and undervalued that nevertheless have a powerful architectural presence.

“Whether you’re religious or not you can’t help but be affected when you go into a place like this and the atmosphere the architecture creates. They deserve to have life in them and for people to have access to such special places,” Mike Jones FVU, curator.

Three films from the collection will be shown at the Grade I listed Gothic church Holy Trinity, built at the height of Blackburn’s industrial might.

They include LEAP after The Great Ecstacy an examination of worship of a different nature that of a major sporting event and Stable a film exploring what happens when you release a group of horses into a religious space.

A Light Shines in the Darkness is commissioned by the Film and Video Umbrella (FVU) and the Church’s Conservation Trust

A Light Shines in the Darkness runs from 5th March until 28th March, 4:30pm - 8:30pm, Holy Trinity Church, Mount Pleasant, BB1 5DQ.

One for the Gamers

Pixel Lust, the retro gaming interactive exhibitions returns but this time with more levels and extra bonus points!

Back by popular demand Pixel Lust the exhibition dedicated to the art of gaming returns for a two week bonanza of exhibitions, workshops and of course gaming.

In a nod to the hacker movement and also a time when computing seemed more accessible for would be coders Pixel Lust II will include a whole of host of computing workshops.

Events will include Tech Jam, an opensource electronics event for people wanting to start Raspberry pi and Arduino projects and coding for youngsters with Scratch software.

“We’re getting practical with art, programming and electronics workshops and celebrating technologies such as Minecraft, Arduino and Raspberry Pi, that encourage adults and young people alike to get their hands dirty but only digitally, of course,” says organiser Alex Martindale.

And other events include a jewellery making session, a stitch a sprite workshop, a retro gaming party and a craft jam where anything goes.

To volunteer or to get more information Facebook visit the website Pixel Lust

Pixel Lust runs from the 16th March until 29th March, Blackburn is Open Art's Centre (Next to the old cinema).

Now I get it!

Not so long ago Pentax Ricoh released the Pentax K-S1.  At first I thought the idea of a light up camera was simply folly, a gimmicky selling point.  Last night I changed my mind.

It's fair to say I am a Pentax fan.  I bought my digital KX because I knew there was a lot of excellent quality lens available both new and old available for it.  I knew the imaging was good, I'd searched flickr and done my homework.  Above all the KX felt right in my hand.  It actually felt better in my hand than the equivalent Canon and Nikon did (although I have to admit, it was a toss up between the KX and Nikon).  I love my KX so much that I bought a K1000 film SLR.  I love that so much that I have a Pentax Espio 115G, a 645 (both film and digital) and 110 Auto on my GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) list.

In an earlier post Liam alluded to the both of us taking part in a course on astronomy.  As part of the course we have to take photographs of the star constellation Orion and last night proved to be the first and best opportunity to do that.  So braving the temperature I set off up the nearest hill to bag a shot.

Orion - best seen on Flickr

I've done night photography before but it has always been pretty much in an urban area.  Last night it was dark, in fact it was so dark that my camera's auto-focus was useless and I hit on another problem.  I couldn't see through the viewfinder.  Well, no that's not strictly true.  The light of the rear display was interfering with my eyes own capability to see in the dark.  Of course, I could use live view or turn the display off.  Well, I could have if I could;

1. remember which button it was in the dark or; 
2. seen the button in the first place.

As a result I have a new mental note.  That is, 'if shooting in the dark take either a torch or phone with me'.  It helps light the back of the camera up even and I can find the buttons!  Either that or buy a camera that has light up buttons.

The K-S1 isn't such a bad idea anymore!

Breaking Records

Last week we reported that we had reached a landmark 5000 views of our website.  Yesterday we broke another record; yesterday saw the Pixel website have more views in one day than any other day since we started.  To top it off it was just a few more views either in fact we broke our previous record by about 300%.  If you took time to stop off and have a read then thank you.  We hope you enjoyed it and will continue to visit us on a regular basis.

Have a nice day!

Previsualization

The finished shot.
Slightly different from the concept.

Last week a few of us from Blackburn Camera Club had a walk out in to Blackburn Town Centre for a night shoot.  I told the lads that there was a particular alley that I would like to do something with.  So we wandered over and had a look.  It would seem that we were all quite inspired by it and came away with some shots that we were happy with.

In the pub afterwards we were talking about the shoot and one of the lads said something like ‘You knew where you wanted to go and what you wanted to shoot.’  The truth is I did.  In fact I had been thinking about it for a few days.

Previsualization sketch from
my notebook.

Normally, if I had had the time I would have gone out and made a reccy during the day taking some reference shots with either a compact or my phone.  As it turned out I didn’t have time to do this so I had to work from memory.  And it was a long time since I had been from that location.

I’m not sure about how many other photographers do this but I tend to keep a photographers notebook.  In there are the ideas for my projects, shots that have inspired me, recipes for chemistry, developing info for different films and shoot sketches.

I have to admit that it is not often I draw sketches.  I tend to only do this if I’m doing any shots with lighting in them.  It allows me to see where the flash units go.  Of course the practicalities on site often mean that I deviate from the plan but at least I have some idea of what to shot and how to shoot it.

This is called Previsualization and although used more in movie making its origins stem from photography.

So what is previsualization?  The great oracle of information, Wikipedia, sums previsualization as;

‘Previsualization (also known as pre-rendering, preview or wireframe windows) is a function to visualize complex scenes in a movie before filming. It is also a concept in still photography. Previsualization is applied to techniques such as storyboarding, either in the form of charcoal drawn sketches or in digital technology in the planning and conceptualization of movie scenery make up.’

Ansel Adams (see video below) wrote extensively about visualising photographs before actually going out.  The term Previsualization is attributed to Minor White who divided up visualization up in to sections.  Previsualization was seeing the image before shoot; visualization was studying the subject while shooting; and post-visualization was remembering the subject while printing.  White determined his process of visualization as a ‘psychological concept’.  However, he admitted that he had learned the idea from both Adams and Edward Weston.

Visualization has been used in cinema from the very beginning firstly starting with storyboards.

Walt Disney would photograph the storyboard and edited them together in what was called the Leica Reel and add soundtracks to them as a way of determining the finished animated film.

George Lucas would push the visualization method further with his Star Wars series of films.  The Speeder Bike sequence from Return of the Jedi was planned using models with lip-stick cameras attached.

Later, Lucas’ company Industrial Light and Magic would develop 3D visualization techniques during the filming of Spielberg’s Jurassic Park which won the company an Oscar.  As an interesting side note it was an ILM employee, John Knoll that was behind the creation of Photoshop.

Software for visualization is now readily available should you want to go to that extent. 

However, for me the secret to previsualizing a photograph is to know how light affects a subject, do your research and use your imagination.

Meet the Lumix GF7 - The Selfie CSC

A couple of weeks ago we featured an article about Fujifilm’s XA-2 CSC camera that appeared to be aimed at the growing selfie market.

Today, Panasonic release news of a new CSC model aimed also at the selfie market.

The Lumix GF7 is a 16 megapixel, micro four thirds camera that has the selfie straight at its heart.  The rear LCD is capable of being turned to face forward in the same manner as the XA-2 and doing so initiates the ‘selfie’ mode of the camera.  From here the camera’s soft skin and slimming modes can be activated as wee as face detection auto shutter just to make sure that you too can look like a vogue cover model.

For something a bit different the camera can be connected to a smartphone via wi-fi to activate a jump shot mode where the camera will automatically fire the shutter when you get to the optimum height of your jump.

The camera look has a retro feel to it which is accentuated with a ‘leather feel’ grip.  It also features full HD video, time lapse and stop motion animation settings.

There are also plenty of digital filters for those looking for an Instagram type look to their images with a choice of 22 including retro, dynamic monochrome and toy camera effects.  Interestingly, the camera can be set to record the same image twice.  One with the filter applied and one without.

The GF7 will be hitting UK stores in March and will cost £429.  It will be available in silver or brown.

Coming up at Blackburn is Open

Image by Blackburn is Open

Book in at the Bureau

Blackburn's new arts venue The Bureau has pledged to show an new emerging artist every month. It kicks off with artist Yvonne Koo a Manchester based painter who uses traditional Chinese techniques in her minimalist paintings. For More information click this link! Image by Blackburn is Open

Don't lose out.

When Lost Ground hit the big time (as we know they're going to) you'll be able to tell them you saw them in Blackburn playing an intimate venue and for free!! Follow the link for a lifetime of lording it your over mates who missed out. For more information click this link! Image by Blackburn is Open Got Soul? This year the North West’s longest running Northern Soul night will celebrate two decades of good times, great music and impressive dance moves. And what's even better is it's right here in Blackburn. For more information click this link! Image by Blackburn is Open Could you be the next Mark Ronson?   Thinking of making it in the music business? Sound Bytes is a Creative Lancashire event to help performers, producers, musicians and managers get ahead. For more information click this link! Image by Blackburn is Open The Making Issue   Issue Two of By Skill and Hard Work is out now. The Making Issue looks at makers, crafters and artisans who decide to follow their creative dreams. Read it online or pick up a paper copy in Blackburn town centre. For more information click this link!