In the midst of all the exciting arts and crafts happenings, the Hallé got back in touch with me. They had invited alumni members of the Youth Choir to take part in their performance and recording of Elgar's The Apostles and I said yes in a heartbeat. After a few weeks of intensive rehearsal, we performed the piece at the beginning of May with the majority of the recording coming from the concert performance.
Section from The Apostles that was solely Hallé Youth Choir girls. Once again, I was an Alto 2 :)
It was so wonderful to be back in the Hallé, back singing such challenging and beautiful music, back under Sir Mark Elder's instruction. The concert was well praised, including this 5 star review from the Guardian. If the promise of the CD in September wasn't enough to excite me, the Hallé then got back in touch to say that they had been invited to perform The Apostles at the Royal Albert Hall as Prom 37 in this year's BBC Proms.
I don't need to tell you how excited I was. I'd performed with the Hallé in two BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall in 2009 and they were the best nights of my life. I took part in the concert and it was magical. Here I am onstage as rehearsals were about to begin:
Here we are during rehearsals. I am the head next to the line of squares on the organ:
Lovingly nicked from the Hallé's Facebook page.
Also lovingly nicked from the Hallé's Facebook page.
The Prom was a joy. The recording of The Apostles was released in September:
Now Gramophone critics have cited the recording as the CD of 2012. Pretty exciting. A couple of weeks ago, the Hallé were back in touch again to ask if I wished to take part in a performance in February and then the Youth Ensembles' 10th anniversary shortly after that. Also pretty exciting (this is an understatement.)
... to one of the most inspirational people I've ever come across. Happy birthday, Mike Scott. This man and his music have changed my life, most definitely.
This photo is taken from this blog post featuring a lovely interview with Mr. Scott.
Plus, the man is so damned suave I had to share said suaveness with all.
Apologies I've neglected this blog in recent months. I have been up to stuff. I'll inform you of it all soon, I swear.
(I got very excited about this. Red Dwarf is my favourite TV programme and therefore its cast are some of my favourite people ever so to finally meet one of them and finally see his stand-up made me extremely happy indeed.)
Charlesworth and I with Jon Richardson. He wished me good luck job hunting.
Excellent times all round.
I have also just been paid for my first illustration commission. I would put proof but I'm not sure the drawings have been fully approved yet (they are instructional drawings).
Now I have entered my final month of living in Edinburgh before I move back home. I have been reading, catching up with my book of Codewords for every day of the year (I've only just got to the beginning of May) and other such stuff before my boxes and bubble wrap arrive tomorrow and the packing begins. In the meantime, here's a drawing of my dear friend Kay and myself and the possible conspiracy theory we may have uncovered:
Note my hand in the 'Making Of' projected on the screen.
My station in the exhibit:
My brother, Morgan, and I (aka Jay and Lori in my film) on the Family and Friends Opening night:
The degree show's been going really well, us animation folks have had a lot of positive feedback, which is grand. The whole degree show is pretty damned strong so I highly recommend people around and about Edinburgh having a gander before it closes on Sunday evening!
Other than that, I've been drawing and doodling again now that I don't have to draw Jay and Lori a bazillion times over.
Drawings
A couple of parent and kiddywinkle sketches. I shall be colouring them soon. I'm thinking of doing two different coloured versions for each, one digital, one traditional.
A Forest by The Cure came on the radio whilst I was drawing in Starbucks, so I was compelled to draw this as I do love that song a great deal:
Whilst I've been invigilating I've been sketching to stop myself from going a bit spare staring at the same bit of wall for 5 hours, so this is what spilled out of my brain whilst on duty yesterday:
Because I am small.
I saw a girl with knee socks watching one of our films so I suddenly felt compelled to draw socks.
Knitting
I've also been knitting. I am working on a scarf, and this is how it's looking currently:
Singing
Tis time to practice the songs for the gig next week again. I'm singing Complainte De La Butte by Rufus Wainwright, Walk On The Wild Side by Lou Reed, Port of Amsterdam originally by Jacques Brel but I shall by singing a Brel/David Bowie hybrid and El Tango De Roxanne from Moulin Rouge!. Practice is going... alright. Some of them are not too bad but some of them *cough*Port of Amsterdam*cough* are proving to be a bit of a nightmare. Plus, I seem to be developing a sore throat and that is exactly NOT what you need for singing times. Here's hoping it'll be gone for next Friday...
Anywho, now to more tidying and packing. Charlesworth is arriving tomorrow to see the degree show and then I will be traveling back to Oldham with her in order to watch my brother's last Showcase concerts with Oldham Music Centre. Then back to Edinburgh to graduate.
So... next time I'm back here I might have a funny picture of me wearing a mortar board to share.
Well, hello again. Just a little update of what's going on before the degree show occurs.
Well, first of all, I turned 22. My mum was in Edinburgh visiting for my birthday and we had a rather good time. The night before my birthday (well, I say the night before, it had turned midnight and therefore was actually my birthday) my friends and I went to see Neil, my sound designer, play drums for one of his many bands which was much fun. I had to inform Neil that we had just been told we needed adjusted cuts of the films in four days time which wasn't fun but Neil, being the excellent chap he is, made the changes I asked for and everything was superb. Later on my birthday, my mum and I went on a charity shop raid and came away with loads of stuff. Methinks my favourite purchase was one that felt as though it was fate.
I had said to my mum and brother that a present I would rather like for my 22nd birthday would be two little ducks. This is because the bingo call for 22 is 'two little ducks' and therefore is the best bingo call, in my eyes. It was suggested that my brother should buy me the two little ducks seen as I seem to have a tradition of buying him duck and/or penguin themed presents for his birthday/Christmas.
Whilst we were on our charity shop raid, my mum and I stopped outside one of the charity shops and looked in the window. What should be there but two identical ducks and a larger duck in the same style. My mum naturally bought all of them for me (we said that the two little ducks are my brother and I whilst the larger duck is our mum). Here are the two little ones:
Two little ducks, with the two little ducks card that Christina gave me.
Twas fate, I tells thee.
Other than that, my mum and I went to two concerts in Glasgow that were the main part of my birthday present. One was to see the Groundhogs, whose lead singer and lead guitarist, the legendary Tony McPhee, had a severe stroke two years ago. I was blown away by how phenomenal his guitar playing remains. He was sensational. He only sung three of the songs as he still clearly struggles with speech; he lost the ability to speak when he first had the stroke. Considering that, he's come on leaps and bounds and although his singing was quite mumbly there were moments were you could hear his amazing gravelly voice shine through. At this point, I found everything rather bittersweet but the band then informed the crowd that they intend to release a new album soon. The material is all ready, they are just waiting on Tony's voice to be better for recording. So hazaar, he is confident he will be back to business soon! If you've never heard of the Groundhogs before (and I'm sure you probably haven't), you should check them out. The next day, we went to see Roger Hodgson, formerly of Supertramp. I didn't realise how steep the gallery seats in the Pavillion theatre are, so my crippling fear of heights and vertigo didn't take very long to kick in. Thankfully, Roger and the band were such an excellent distraction. The most wonderful thing about this gig was, just after the interval, Roger came on and informed the audience that he'd just found out he'd become a grandfather two hours previously and then played what he said was one of his favourite songs he's written, which is one of mine too. Congratulations to Roger!
Finally, on the music front, I am currently in the process of rehearsing for The Blind Tiger Burlesque: Vice Night with special guest Anna Fur Laxis. Before you ask, no, I will not be doing any burlesque dancing. I shall leave that to Charlesworth's older sister, who is the one behind the event. She needed a singer so I was asked to perform so that is what I shall be doing, singing about the cheery subject of whores! No better way to pass the time! This will be my first paid gig too, for every concert I've ever done has been with a choir or school so obviously I've never been paid. Should be pretty good!
So now that my obligatory music ramble is over, back to degree show stuff. Just under a week to go and it's getting pretty exciting. It would seem that eca have picked me to be the representative of Animation and be mentioned in the press:
This stuff was also mentioned in a newspaper apparently, though I do not know which one. This is the Animation section on the official 2011 degree show website and here is We Are Animation, a website that the wonderful Sarah Keeling has put together for us, so be sure to check that out!
Finally, what we've been working towards: The Filmhouse!
Lots of links for you to enjoy there, so get to it! I'm going to get back to practicing my songs. Adieu!
My degree is finished. That's an odd thing to say, but it's true so there we go. Here are a few things about the final days of said degree:
This is pretty much all the frames I drew for my film:
My attempt at being organised.
I've just tried to quickly count up all the frames I drew and methinks it comes to roughly 1149. Poor tree.
This was my desk at half 7am on the day of the hand-in:
Messy.
I'd stayed all night in the studio, dressed in my pyjamas at Sarah's suggestion (and what an excellent suggestion it was), finishing off my supporting work and such. Considering I'd been awake for over 30 hours (which was far less than some people, might I add), I was wide awake the whole time. Maybe I was running off adrenalin, who knows. I will say that when I got home after a celebratory drink I changed into my pyjamas, made myself a cup-a-soup and was about to watch Neighbours when I crashed out for 3 hours, woke up at about 11pm and crawled to bed, leaving both Neighbours and my cup-a-soup sadly neglected.
This was the book full of my supporting material:
Note how my finger is propping it closed. This is what happened without any propping:
It no shut. It wasn't even finished at this point. Somehow, after finishing 240-odd pages into the book, I managed to make it prop itself semi-closed. I'm not sure how I did this. Naturally, this book was from a charity shop and I placed all my work in it using photo corners, the idea being that all of my additions can be taken out so the book can still be read. The book was Principles of Immunology so if you're looking to read up about the subject, I may be able to help you out.
More book photos:
But that was over a week ago and I have been free since. I've been back in The Ham of Old for the past few days to celebrate my younger brother Morgan's 18th birthday, which was on the 21st. I insisted I has a picture taken with my best friend on this momentous day but he wasn't too keen on the idea, as you can tell:
He loves me really.
Morgie had a concert with the Oldham Youth Choir in the evening so he didn't have a choice in how he spent his birthday but the concert was wonderful and I enjoyed it immensely (and was super jealous that I wasn't back singing with them as they sung a couple of pieces that I've sung and adore: Locus Iste by Bruckner and the first movement of Vivaldi's Gloria - look them up!). Morgie was part of an 8 voice close harmony group dubbed The Candy Men and they were fantastic. Morgie was the lowest voice part in the group and was dubbed as the steadiest, rhythm-wise, but the conductor couldn't think of something to compare him to so I now call him "steady as a steady thing". I adore close harmony and that was definitely the most fun part of the evening, but methinks my favourite piece was the choir's performance of Softly, As I Leave You.
Now, if you've never heard the piece (you might have heard it played when Jack Duckworth died in Corrie), then you must (I can only find an arrangement for male voices. The version the choir sung was four part harmony for soprano/alto/tenor/bass):
Morgie and I think it's about an elderly couple and one of them is about to die and goes quietly before the other notices. It's such a beautifully moving piece and needless to say that the choir hadn't even finished singing the first line and I was already crying and continued to do so throughout the song. Mum was set off too. Just magical music making. Couldn't be more proud of my brother. What a wonderful eighteen year old he's turned out to be.
I'm going to go and relax now, as the three of us have just had a meal to celebrate birthday times (as my birthday is in a few days - I have often said that Morgan is my twin for all except the fact he is 3 years and 360 days younger than me) and I've eaten a lot of rice and drank a fair bit of wine. I am content.
I just realised I haven't posted anything here in a while and I thought I should rectify that. So bonsoir.
Well, what's been happening the past couple of weeks? I went home for a few days which was good fun and super useful. When I arrived back I needed to nip into my old primary school as my mum volunteers there a couple of days a week and she had my house keys. When I arrived my mum said she would just go and gather her things and we could go (twas the end of the school day when I arrived) but we could look at the bells before we left. Now, a couple of days beforehand, I had asked my mum if the school still had the old handbell they used to signify the end of breaktime as I need a bell ringing in my film when the charity shop door opens. My mum had then apparently asked one of my old teachers, Mrs. Robertshaw, if I could borrow this bell to which she said that I could borrow these:
MUST OWN. You can also see the old handbell in the top left.
How adorable are they?! An octave of rainbow bells! Being a musical person obsessed with rainbow/multi-coloured things I got very excited. I need to own my own set of these one day. They make such lovely sounds as well. The first one I tried was one of the red bells, which happened to be a low C and the tone of the note was gorgeous! I then preceded to spend fifteen minutes trying to decide which note I wanted to use (read: playing the bells because I was having so much fun), before being torn between low C and F. My mum then said she couldn't see a problem with me borrowing both and asked at reception if this was OK. There was no problem at all so I took both the low C and F bells, after having a quick chat with Mrs. Robertshaw and thanking her for being so kind.
C and F happen to be two of my favourite notes, the other being A. Yes, I have favourite notes...
So I recorded those and they sounded spiffy. Methinks I'm genuinely a bit overexcited for this one sound effect.
What else happened at home... went to the opticians (the optician who conducted my eyetest was also called Natasha... that's right, we're cool), learnt I have gotten more blind in my right eye and now have new eyeshields. Twas a BOGOF deal so I now have two pairs which I can swap and change: my brother and I said that whenever our mother's back is turned I should change the pair of glasses I'm wearing and not tell her, just to catch her out. Also, speaking of my brother, I recorded Morgan playing his clarinets for my soundtrack. He did some lovely improvisation for me whilst he practiced for his Grade 8 exam (which he got a Merit in, hazaar!).
Here is Morgan playing Bass Clarinet in a concert. He is most excellent.
My spiffing composer chap Neil and I have had a sit down and talked about how these recordings can be used and it's looking positive, so that's something. Can't wait to see what Neil comes up with!
Finishing off my time at home, I went to see a heavy metal band called Marseille at my local. One distinguishing feature this band has other than the fact that they were originally called AC/DC before some Aussies got a bit more famous than they did is that Neil Buchanan from Art Attack is their lead guitarist. You know, this fellow? This promised to be an awesome evening, even more so considering that quite a few of my friends and I partially have this chap to thank for our interest in art.
Now, first things first, the band are really good. My friends and I were by the bassist's side who was enjoying a bit of banter with us in between songs. When it came to their encore, whilst the singer and Neil were talking to the audience, the bassist turned to me and said "Do you want to come and sing with us?" I thought he was joking but it would seem that the members of the band each pick someone (i.e. a girl) to join them onstage and sing the chorus of the encore. So I ended up singing with Neil Buchanan's band. Here I am onstage with them:
My friend also videoed the whole thing. So bizarre yet completely awesome. We then met Neil:
Charlesworth and I with NEIL BUCHANAN.
So that was a lot of fun.
And then I returned to Edinburgh and the grim prospect that was my dissertation. Thankfully it is ALL OVER now. I made sure I handed in on April 1st as I enjoy the idea of my two hand-in days being April Fool's Day and Friday 13th May. If it all goes wrong, I can blame the dates. The Baftas were fun too, though neither Nuria nor Will won, but Anna who was in last year's graduating class with Nuria won Best Animation so congrats to her!
But now I am back to animating and this is good! Here are some linetests you can look at:
Methinks Mr. Runnicles has turned out quite well here, though this was NOT fun to animate. Ah well, as long as it's worth it.
Finally, to finish off this oh-so-lengthy ramble, here's the other drawing Turnerface asked me to do for her.
Before I shaded the face, Faustus looked like Paul Stanley from Kiss in Starchild mode without the star...
I have done more since (I have nearly three shots drawn out) but here is a very short test for one of the flashback sequences. Both are shots that can be completed fairly easily as they lack precise backgrounds but they have some of the more complicated movements in them; one features a dog (and four-legged walk cycles are not my strongest point - anyone who has seen my eca sting featuring a cat limp instead of walk can vouch for this) and the other features Jay run and kick a football. The latter is the one I'm working on and the entire shot is looking passable... for the moment. Needs more inbetweening. For now, here is the very short test.
Hopefully, I should have this shot finished, scanned and possibly coloured by the end of the week. That could be me getting ahead of myself though.
Other than that, I've been listening to Desert Island Discs and wondering what I would choose if I was on the programme. For those unfamiliar, each week the guest on Desert Island Discs is asked to choose eight songs which they would take to the desert island they have found themselves stranded on. They then have to choose just one song out of the eight, as well as one book (the Complete Works of Shakespeare and The Bible or whichever religious text that is relevant to them are given) and one luxury item that will not help them escape the island or allow them contact with the rest of the world.
Naturally, I have come up with my own list because I love playing these sort of games for some reason. And naturally, because you're so desperate to know, here is my Desert Island Discs list:
Song One: Four Sticks by Led Zeppelin
It's very hard to choose, but I tend to say Led Zeppelin are my favourite band. This is probably because one of their members is one of my favourite musicians and I've probably chosen this song because it showcases his talent (let alone the others'). John Bonham was the drummer for Led Zep and I absolutely adore him. I was very tempted to pick Moby Dick for the four minute drum solo, but I'll go with Four Sticks because it amazing, Bonham played the track using four drumsticks, hence the title.
Song Two: Solsbury Hill by Peter Gabriel
This song has the distinction of being my most played song on iTunes by nearly 100 plays. Peter Gabriel is fantastic and this song makes me feel stupidly happy and stupidly sad at the same time, and that's an accomplishment. It is beautiful. Jeremy Clarkson picked this song for his Desert Island Discs. Now, I don't care what you think of Jeremy Clarkson but one thing is for certain in my eyes: the man has excellent taste in music.
Song Three: Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky
This isn't a song, but there we go. Mussorgsky is probably my favourite composer (I have a great love for the Big Five Russian composers) and this is my favourite piece of classical music. The sequence this was used for in Disney's Fantasia terrified me when I was younger but I even then I still thought the piece was outstanding.
Song Four: The Bell by Mike Oldfield
Tubular Bells II is my favourite album is this is the last track from Side One. Continuing the ideas showcased in Tubular Bells, Oldfield created a beautiful little melody and asked Alan Rickman take up the wonderful Viv Stanshall's post as Master of Ceremonies (although Rickman was uncredited on the album). This reminds me of driving around Anglesey with my family in the summer, automatically making me smile.
Song Five: Serenade To Music by Ralph Vaughan Williams
Vaughan Williams has written some of the most sublime pieces of music but methinks this has to be my favourite, even if it is because I have very strong ties to this piece. When on tour with the Hallé Youth Choir in France in the summer of 2006, this was one of the pieces we performed. This piece provided the most memorable moment of the tour for me; performing on an open air stage set in a great hillside in Fayence, we sung this as the sun set behind us. Imagine hearing this as the sky turns shades of orange, pink and purple before turning inky on a balmy night. I very nearly cried at the time.
EDIT: For anyone who is interested, here's part of Serenade To Music being sang by the Hallé Youth Choir as part of the Bridgewater Hall's 10th Anniversary concert in September 2006. I am singing in this performance but you won't be able to see as a) the quality of the video isn't that great and b) someone's head is in the way of where I was onstage anyways.
Song Six: Ask The Lonely by Journey
This could be seen as a little ironic if you're stuck on a desert island on your own, but no matter. This also shows how much Journey have taken over my life. They've always been a favourite of mine but they've shot up the rankings recently, managing to knock the likes of Jimi Hendrix, The Waterboys, Family, Roger Chapman, Kate Bush, Jethro Tull, Supertramp and the Groundhogs out of this list, which is impressive. This isn't my favourite Journey song either (that would be After The Fall). This song just makes me dance about like a complete idiot, it's fantastic.
Song Seven: The Rio Grande by Constant Lambert
Again, I have quite strong personal ties to this piece but it's still fantastic so that doesn't matter. Not very well known and extremely difficult to find recordings of, Lambert's The Rio Grande is classical music infused with jazz, which is a great combination in my eyes. I performed this with the Hallé Youth Choir as part of the Hallé's 150th anniversary concert that was broadcast live on Radio 3 on 30th January 2008. I desperately want to get hold of the sheet music to this again, as the recording I have from our concert is not the best quality so at least I could sing all the Alto 2 parts again.
Song Eight: Manchester by The Beautiful South
I felt I needed a song to remind me of home and what better way to do that than to combine it with the acerbic lyrics of Mr. Paul Heaton. I am fiercely proud of being from the Manchester area so I'd happily share that with any sea creatures nearby.
The book I would take would be The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy: A Trilogy of Four by Douglas Adams. Hitchhiker's has long been my favourite book and the Trilogy of Four would give me most of the series in one book, which is very handy indeed.
My luxury item, I feel, would be my lovely alto saxophone, which I have named Sonny, and an endless supply of reeds. Since I finished my lessons (not by my own choosing, may I add) in 2005, I have become rather rusty and if I had all the time in the world and nothing to do then I'm sure I could improve and do justice to dear Sonny. David Suchet of Poirot fame chose his clarinet and reeds so I feel this is a sensible decision to make.
And the one song that I would chose over the others? Serenade To Music. It is etched so deep within my being that I will never grow tired of it.
A pleasant distraction from inbetweening, but it's also music such as this that gives me the motivation to finish my film.
