Meracious Machicolations at Manaton

Crikey, wowzers and goodness gracious me - I've finished yet another film sequence - this time for St Winifred's church in Manaton, Devon. At this rate I'll be finishing projects before I've even started them! However there will be a brief hiatus now because am about to depart on my monthly mother trip to Yorkshire and then we're off to film Gareth in Welsh Wales and then hopefully get some editing done when we return home to Film Farm.
The worst thing about the Manaton film was the incessant rain - I felt frozen just watching the rushes!

Bucklebury Beastly Beatitudes

Wowzers, what a week. After finishing Tiffany I then read Ingrams book about Piper prior to our interviewing him in March, finished off a drawing of Galerie L'Art Nouveau (because permission to use the photograph would be exorbitant), and today have completed the film sequence for Bucklebury. Am I chuffed or am I chuffed. Oh, and I've also started a painting for my son's wedding in May!

Meanwhile poor Charles has been having hellish problems with some new software and reinstalling Final Cut Pro so he's been walking backwards the last couple of weeks.

Tiffs of Tiffin at Tiffanys

Following on from my comparative success of 17 January, I decided to rejig the Tiffany film which I had originally written last April, so fingers crossed that this will pass muster when we do some editing after the Gareth trip end of Feb. Just hope I've got the correct roll numbers, timecodes, chapter headers, image sizes (they HAVE to be TIFFS) etc etc.

Brangwyn Website

The Brangwyn website has been dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century with a brand new sleek, sophisticated format and oodles more images and oodles more info. So much for those detractors who, observing me reading Dreamweaver for Dummies at Christmas (good gobble book dontchaknow) looked at me askance. Anyway I did it, all by myself! Check it out on http://www.frankbrangwyn.org/ and let me know what you think! Here's the opening SPLASH page to whet your appetite:

And since everyone has their SNOW picture, here's the lane outside my house a few days ago - reminds me a bit of FB's etchings, Trees in Snow or The Storm:

Animal Farm

Just returned from a week at Film Farm where the population has doubled within the last month, the new arrivals being Zutty, a very laid back purr-box named after Zutty Singleton (1898-1971), jazz drummer who worked with Fats Waller et al - and two Lincolnshire/Sussex cross hens named Gin and Tonic (Gin, who is a tad larger than Tonic was too busy laying to be photographed). Pepper (the existing feline) has not taken kindly to her new companion and they regularly eat each other's food, and poor Dot (the existing hen - keep up!) seems to have been unceremoniously shoved into bottom place in the pecking order, with the result that her feet have been severely pecked by her raucous new companions. Hopefully things will have calmed down by the time I make my next visit. Anyway, I didn't really go to inspect the new menagerie - but to WORK! Those of you who recall (and who wouldn't) the blog dated 29 April 2008 will understand my apprehension about a second attempt to put together the Northampton film. However, I've learnt a lot in the last year and it transpired that my preparations were sufficient unto the day and (apart from a tiddly section where I need some of Peter Cormack's valuable input) that particular film section is bagged - and not only that, the wondrous filmmaker pronounced it 'jolly good' (considering!) So I feel vastly heartened and ready to tackle the next episode.

So we celebrated by making a batch of marmalade on Friday - named Prohibition Marmalade in honour of the date - and possibly ironically since we always seal the amber with a slurp of whisky! See label below:

I DO NOT BELIEVE IT!

All the positive thoughts about leaping back into FBSG have already been scuttled, and we're only 6 days into the year! Gareth rang last night, his water supply has been broken since New Year and he can't get any work done until the broken pipe is mended and the Council appear to be saying it's nothing to do with me mate. So we've had to cancel the projected trip the end of January and are hoping to re-schedule for the end of February. Since this whole project is self-funded I just hope the hotel doesn't charge a penalty or it'll be bread and dripping for my esteemed filmmaker colleague and a lettuce leaf for me.
Watch this space.
A heartfelt AAAAARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009

Looking back at my 2008 entry - what has changed? Much the same story, achieved a lot but not necessarily what I'd intended.

I did complete Christ's Hospital Murals and rather good it looks too (though I say so as shouldn't) with it's hand made and hand bound Lokta paper cover, a limited edition of 250, specially designed illuminated letters one of which is hand tinted, and a letterpress sheet. A bibliophile's dream. And I published the history of the William Morris Gallery (see below), wrote the article about Stations of the Cross, did quite a lot of work for the Brangwyn exhibition to be held in Tokyo 2010, started the libbyhorner.com website, tried my hand at podcasting (great fun), learnt the rudiments of letterpress printing (I'm hooked), delivered my first Gourmet Art lecture and taught myself how to use Power Point.

The main thrust of the year though was the commission to make a film about John Piper with Charles Mapleston. We decided to concentrate on his architectural and topographical work and to this end realised that to 'bag' all the sites we wanted we'd have to be out and about filming virtually every other week during the so-called summer months when the light was good. Exhausting stuff which didn't leave much time for other projects.

And FBSG - well that got sidelined by Piper and other issues beyond my control. BUT this year I am even MORE determined to get the DVD finished and we look to be off to a good start with an editing session mid January and a 2nd visit to Gareth to film the glass making at the end of January.

So 2009 - complete FBSG, complete Piper, write a couple of chapters for the Japanese book, teach myself Dreamweaver and bring my Brangwyn website into the 21st century, get more variety to my exercise by adding cycles and swims, carry on cooking, try to get the most out of life, be positive despite the gloomy outlook. Cheers all and Happy New Year!