Day 1058 / Day 55 Double trouble

Eek! Again with the massive long gap between posts. Big news, we have another baby, Eden, born 15/1/13. Yes I am photographing her in 3D every day as I did with Oscar! No photos at all up here yet, somehow the joy of *two* little people seems to be much greater than the sum of their parts. Especially when that joy starts for me at 5.30am and through the night for Tasha. We are also totally remodelling our house and time seems to be a fluid experience, mostly flowing away from me it seems. Since last posting, I finished scoring the movie 'Death', which is currently doing rather well on the festival circuit. I also scored 'Gangsters Guns and Zombies' (2013 Lionsgate) which does pretty much what it says on the tin and hit DVD and VOD in Jan, and 'All Stars' (2013 Vertigo) a marvelous 3D family film from the company who made 'Streetdance'. All Stars features some great performances from the young leads, a witty script and a great soundtrack of bangin' tunes. See, I'm down wit da kids. It's in cinemas May 3rd, currently trailers running in cinemas before 'Oz the great and the powerful'

Day 309: Conjunctavitis is upon us

Just as the elation of finally cracking the crawling knack hit, Oscar has been slapped in the face by conjunctivitis. This may sound like a Roman General, but it's a nasty (and sadly common) infection of the eyes, the main symptom being waking up with your eyes glued together with gook.

If that wasn't enough, he also has lungs full of a variation of the same gook, with a nose full thrown in for good measure.

Tasha has the same throaty spores, and I am fighting it.

I've been away filming 'Death', a British feature film from director Martin Gooch. I originally came on board as music supervisor and composer, but was seduced by the opportunity to be back on a feature set, this time as camera operator.

I got to film awesome veteran Leslie Philips, 'Raiders of the Lost Ark's 'Belloq' (Paul Freeman), Mr Lock-Stock-and-two-smoking-barrels himself Nick Moran and a whole barrelfull of fine Thespians.

With the aid of some modified firmware we have been recording on Canon 5D2 cameras at much higher bitrates that have previously been possible. This plus some great locations and lighting from the three DOPs have lead to some really nice filmic scenes. The rushes so far look great!

I should have a rough cut in two weeks to begin the score. Director Martin has quirky tastes. He has been given free reign to use Roger Taylor's solo albums as well as the new album from Michael Mckell (Emmerdale) so it should be an eclectic mix.

Day 214: Get into the groove

Eek! I thought the last lost weekend was long but this one has been quite a jump. I've been busy working pre production for the music on a big budget fantasy movie and also consulting on a low budget feature for Vertigo which looks like it will be great. I can't say too much as the marketing plan includes viral web promotion which is linked to the story, but I can reveal that I supplied a specially modified daylight infra red camera for the night scenes, which has captured some amazing footage.

With the six month half birthday over our shoulders, Oscar is moving on quickly. His new mode of transport is bottom shuffling while sitting on the potty!

In the last few days he has learned a new trick. Whenever he hears music or singing, he goes into 'dancing' mode. Dancing for Oscar mean wobbling your head with a stylee not unlike those dancing flowers from the 80's. Very cute.

Day 152: Flying

Today I found out that Oscar really likes to fly! When I say fly I mean hold him out like superman or above me when I lay down. He also likes to carpet bomb with drool as he flies around so a muzzy is essential equipment for this game.

Day 149: Hi tech Fuji W3, Highchair.

I shot some photos today with the soon-to-be-released Fuji W3 3D camera.

Fuji have kindly loaned me one as I am test shooting for a 3D movie. This is predominantly a stills camera, but it also features 720P 3D video. It's true 720p, recording two independent 1280x720 video streams which can be demuxed for 3D editing (no side by side compression). It has a wonderful parallax barrier (i.e. glasses free) 3D screen which amazes everyone who sees it. I'll post more about this camera later in a proper review.

Today we did a grandparents marathon!

First up was lunch with Mum and Dad, where Oscar has his first time in a high chair! He took to it marvellously, really enjoying looking around and watching us all eating. We made sure he had his milk before we began our meal.
I've noticed that he is copying my chewing movements whenever I'm eating, he must be getting ready. We read a lot, and a lot of people are recommending holding off on solids until six months to make sure his digestive system is all ready for it. He seems happy enough on milk so that's what we are going to do.

It was nice to see my brother Paul and his girlfriend Michelle. He's been working away so hasn't seen Oscar that much. He usually looks better in photos...

I wanted to post the group shot as it shows the slightly hyper 3D depth from the Fuji, which has a stereo base of 75mm. (My Lumix pair is even wider, but they have wider angle lenses which alters the depth perception. It's a complicated business)

I've posted the 'numbers' shot twice, once with the Lumix pair and again with the W3. Not entirely scientific as the web upload is compressed, and the anaglyph format is not very forgiving. Also the stereo window was set differently on the two setups, so Oscar is standing out more in the W3 shot.

Second meal of the day was at Tasha's Mum Judy's. Here, Uncle Matt, fresh back from IBC in Amsterdam where all the new 3D tech was on display, did his best to stifle his language as Arsenal played Sunderland and nearly lost (!)
Bebi was there too with cousin Molly. The babies both went down to sleep without any crying.

Penny, the stray cat we have rescued, seems to be recovering well. In a move surely designed to curry favour, she caught the mouse that's been living under our cooker for weeks. Our resident cats had ignored the task...did I detect a slight hint of smugness when she saw them?

Day 148: The lost weekend

Eeek! Has it really been that long? I knew I had let the blog slip but woah the time has run away with me.

Oscar has reached a few milestones, he's now in his own room, sleeping right through from 7pm to 6-7am with a brief dream feed at 11 ish from me.
He's just about sitting up, though we like to put pillows around as he does flop over eventually!
About a week ago he held on to the bottle and supported it for about 30 seconds...no luck repeating that trick but I'm sure he'll get the hang of it.

Maybe soon he'll also be able to sterilise the bottles...

I've been busy as a stereo consultant on a new movie for Vertigo...which is now going to be made in 2D!, product testing for several manufacturers with exciting new 3D products, and getting ready to score a big budget movie with a full orchestra.

Oh and we all had a nasty cold from Oscar's cousin Molly which knocked the whole family (and my mum and dad!) out for over a week.

Day 113: She has no machine

Oscar's first time in his new cot for a sleep in the day and he took to it beautifully.

Mummy is not *quite* ready to put him in his own room for a whole night though. She didn't mind me going in there when I had tonsillitis, what's going on in the world?

We visited Tracy and James from the NCT group who are several weeks behind us with baby Florence. I hope we reassured them that it gets easier!