James is off to Saudi Arabia
Jonathan Bond of Vision Mill has invited James through XL Video to act as projectionist for an event at The King Abdullah University of Science & Technology in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The event involves large format projection using Barco FLM HD-20s onto a building, driven by Barco Encore.
New territory again for Basic Monkey!
Q&A Session at Manchester’s City College
I was invited by a friend of mine to talk at Manchester's City College, Sheena Simon campus today to talk about what I do and hopefully help with the production of the students' upcoming fashion show.
Public speaking has never been my strong point, however yelling across a stage I can do. I was more nervous sat infront of 20 students than on stage infront of 80,000 people!
We discussed the different elements of their show, my main response being that the most important aspect is timing and coordination. Even on the lowest budgets, you can still make a show feel coordinated in regards music, choreography, lighting and visuals.
I'd relish the opportunity again, next time I think I'll be a little more at ease.
James
Site vist for new Samsung phone launch, Barcelona
Today I'm in Barcelona at the Fira Gran Via, meeting with the team from Jack Morton Worldwide and Cheil (Samsung's marketing agency) to discuss plans for the grand unveiling of their new phone here in February.
I can't divulge too much as the details of the phone and launch are highly confidential, but it's safe to say that this event will make a huge impact and will be unlike anything the press have seen before.
The launch is at the start of the Mobile World Congress in February. Keep your eyes peeled for more info.
James
Visuals at Warehouse Project, Manchester
Tonight was a return to club visuals for Basic Monkey at a new venue, Manchester's highly successful Warehouse Project.
Long term friends of James', The Fetish Sound System, were asked to provide music in the back room while Calvin Harris and Pete Tong were playing in the main room. Along with their DJing, they wanted to make the most of the opportunity with fancy dress, usual fetish antics and a visuals show from Basic Monkey.
We provided our Catalyst media server controlled by Jands Vista S3 lighting console feeding into a central Sanyo projector onto a screen and two installed side projectors onto the brick wall.
Using a wide selection of stock content, specially designed animated texts and also live inputs from a night vision camera and special hat mounted wireless camera worn by Tom from the Fetish and various others; the visuals complemented the antics on stage.
Catalyst and Barco iLite Demo
Check out our latest demo video for Catalyst and iLite 12. Shots taken from Paul Hogarth's 50th Birthday.
Music: "Nero - Do You Wanna"
Catalyst and Screens at Unilever’s Christmas Party
Basic Monkey has been asked to provide Barco iLite12 screens and a Catalyst media server for Unilever's Christmas party.
Steven Williams from CSP saw the photos from Paul Hogarth's birthday party and suggested to Unilever that they use the same system. A few design ideas were put forward but they've decided to go for the same layout of 5 columns of video wall, this time in a V shape plan on stage.
The Catalyst system will also be driving projection in the marquee, all geared towards the Hollywood theme. All video and lighting will be controlled using our Jands Vista S3.
James will be installing and operating the system, also creating some custom Hollywood graphics to work on the LED screen and projections. James will also be designing and operating the lighting.
Should be a great event!
Samsung Korea, Photos and Video
YouTube Video, in 6 parts. Intro, White, Yellow, Pink, Green and Wrap-up.
Some photos of the setup.
Samsung Corby Launch, Seoul
Basic Monkey's first venture outside of Europe has just come to an end, a very exciting 11 days in Seoul, Korea leading to a very successful event.
Following on from the Milan Fashion Week Launch, Jack Morton Worldwide were asked to travel to Seoul with the same team that created the holographic experience in Milan. Lighting, sound, set, staging and side screen video would be provided locally by Yonhanaro. XL Video provided the 16 Barco FLM HD 18 projectors, 2x Catalyst systems and processing, also bringing in James from Basic Monkey and Nev Bull of Pixels Plus to program and run the show. Basic Monkey provided a Jands Vista S3 lighting console, a high-spec Catalyst media server with suite of video software and network gear for content distribution.
Learning from the challenges encountered at Milan, James was involved from an early stage to design the pixel specification and consult with the rest of the team regarding Catalyst capabilities and methods. JMW also decided to help on three fronts to reduce workload and the chance of issues from Milan reoccurring: 1) Bring in a second Catalyst operator, Nev Bull 2) Supply a software producer (and body guard), Sharon Stansfield and 3) Ship the team out well in advance of the event and program offsite at the offices of D'strict (the graphics and content team).
The team worked really well. James would, as before, program and operate the show, with Nev acting as Catalyst technician, handling hardware issues and setting up the complex video input system. Sharon acted as intermediary between the team at D'strict and James and Nev, this meant that any content alterations wouldn't impact too much on programming and ensured a common schedule to work to. James was also responsible for processing the video files provided by D'strict and provided 'pixel crunching' and technical support to the local video team in charge of the side screen content.
For those that don't know, the holograms are created by projecting images onto the floor which then reflected using a very high-tech plastic stretched at 45 degrees along each side of the catwalk. This is provided my Musion, based in the UK and rigged by Steve from Nippy Industries. The technology is amazing and is best appreciated in person, please check out the YouTube videos.
All this technology is nothing without the amazing videos created by D'strict, along with their incredible 'Gesture' system that tracks the presenter's hand movements and also 'Vision Blob' which tracks dancers' movements along the catwalk and maps graphics which appear above or infront of them.
The team on the ground was as follows:
Rob Oliver - Senior Production Manager (JMW)
Jeavon Smith - Producer (JMW)
Tim Riley - Video HOD (XL)
Warren Galt - Projectionist (XL)
Sharon Stansfield - Software Producer
Nev Bull - Catalyst Technician (PP)
James Cooksey - Catalyst Operator (BM)
James to operate Catalyst for Samsung in Seoul, Korea
Following on from the Samsung 'Corby' launch in Milan, Jack Morton Worldwide and the team are invited by Samsung to repeat the show in Seoul, Korea.
XL Video will be providing projection, video control and Catalyst along with James as Catalyst operator. Unfortunately Jonathan Bond isn't available for the event however with a week on site before show, James will have enough time to 'crunch' the content and program the show well before presenter rehearsal.
Basic Monkey will be providing a Jands Vista S3 lighting console and a high-spec MacPro with Catalyst as a content injection, video manipulation and audio playback machine.
This will be Basic Monkey's first event out of the EU and is very exciting. More news to follow!
St. Etienne at The Ritz, Manchester
Today James acted as rigger/technician for St. Etienne's show at Manchester's Ritz venue.
Having received sketch plans yesterday, James had 6x Robe ColorSpot 700 and 6x Robe ColorWash 700 moving lights, 2x Martin Atomic strobes, 8x James Thomas Pixellines, 6x 2lite molefays and 6x S4 19deg profiles to fit intro the notoriously tight venue. All equipment was provided along with James by HSL in Blackburn.
The moving lights were split between the floor, boxes, truss towers and a goalpost truss across the back on 2no Litech wind up stands. Matt Waterfield the LD arrived late morning and was happy with the deviations from plot made by James to fit into the venue. Room was made for the band's fastfold screens under the goalpost truss with a minimum of clearance.
