Wednesday 22 December 2010

Overdrive : The Trailer

With apologies if you have already seen the trailer on the Overdrive blog, but here is the latest video to hit YouTube, along with the pilot programme. Overdrive is a personal project of mine that I am hoping to produce through next year with a 6 part monthly series - That is, if I can attract funding for it. I shall write more in depth about it when I'm more awake! In the meantime, comments always welcome!


Friday 17 December 2010

Snow! where's my skis?

You may have noticed that there has been some snow lately.

With that in mind, here's some photos  of my street and car in the snow today - an enforced day off beckoned. Now the downside is that I've just prepared 2 videos for the air cadets who meet tonight, and I doubt strongly that I'll get there to show them now.

More pics of snowMore pics of snowMore pics of snowI did have a black car, now it is white!

And because it's snow... here's what happens when a dogcam, a racing driver, 2 skis, 1 snowboard, and Tamworth come together with some appropriate music


Saturday 11 December 2010

The Perils of LP mode

With any luck someone else has experienced this problem and can suggest a solution, because I've never come across it and it's weird.

A friend of mine asked me to transfer video of their granddaughter's nativity play on to DVD. Fine, no problems - just run it through Final Cut Express, grab the out put and put it onto a Disc. Easy.

Errm... No.

It was filmed in LP mode, and although I've used the camera that they used to film it to capture it, I've had all sorts of problems sorting it out.

My Final Cut Express set up is usually optimised for working with the Sony Z1/5 or PD150 cameras. So I had to change a lot of settings to suit the little JVC camcorder that was used. Only 12bit sound first, which caused a bit of a surprise when you're used to everything being in 16bit at least. No problem, quick setting change and off we go again.

Now it's out of sync! Nearly a whole second out with the image in front of the soundtrack. No problem there either, just cut the offending difference off the front of the vision clip and shuffle it forward until it matches the sound. Great. Hit Render.

And it comes out Green. Not just green tint, but Green. Solid Green. Green and nothing else. I like Green, but the video shouldn't look like that!!

Fiddle with settings, now I've got random visuals. The same still keeps appearing and rapidly flashing with another one like bad stop motion.

I've got no idea at all what's going on with this. Usually when I capture something there are none of these problems! I'm sure it's something to do with the LP mode but I've no idea what. Any suggestions, Cyberspace?

--

Update : Managed to re-capture it using the DV-Convert setting but it still came out out of sync. I've never known this sort of problem to happen before, so suggestions very welcome.

Sunday 5 December 2010

Refreshed, Re-Launched, Ready to go!

Old readers start here

Hello everyone! I'm back! Firstly, what do you think of the new look? The main site has changed to a simpler, cleaner, more attractive version, and the blog has had a bit of a makeover too. Other changes around here include a new button to a new project that I'm trying out. It's called Overdrive UK, and it's a monthly motorsport video magazine programme which you can watch by visiting this blog's sister site, www.overdrive-uk.com, and I'd very much appreciate your comments on it too.

Filming wise, well there's been Overdrive of course, and I've also spent some time with the Air Cadets filming a training video for their flying trips. This involved an aeroplane, a land rover, and some very obliging chaps who gave chase to the former in the latter with me in the back pointing a Sony Video Camera out of one of the side windows. Land Rovers have many uses, it seems.

Work wise, there's been... um... none. I'm currently working for Cardiff Council as a so called Records Clerk which means I live underground and file things. Not that interesting if I'm honest, but hey, it's something. With any luck it'll be full steam ahead in January into Telly Production... if everything goes right.

Quick reminder that you can follow me on Twitter - and I update that much more than I do this blog - by going onto the respective site and looking for @kevinmcmullintv (or use the gadget thingy on the left hand side), and of course I'm still on Youtube (youtube.com/kevinmcmullintv)

Right. I'm off to do some Christmas Shopping and dodging the snow!

Saturday 5 June 2010

New Showreel...

Grief! Over a month since my last post! Been really busy of late. I promise to do another posting soon... once a 9th day in the week has been discovered!

Meantime, enjoy the latest Showreel!



Showreel 2010 from Kevin McMullin on Vimeo.

Tuesday 13 April 2010

The Perils of Geneology

My mother recieved this e-mail this morning after someone found a page on their website with all the family's many blacksmiths on it... What follows is the result of someone not quite reading the information, specifically the date of death... James Allen is my 4xGreat Grandfather, and died in the 1880s.


----- Original Message -----
From: Zhangli
Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 4:22 AM
Subject: Blacksmith hammer


Dear James Allen,
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My factory is a professional manufacturer of CE approved Pneumatic Forging Hammer in China, the Forging Hammers are very famous in Europe, America and Australian Markets.


Pneumatic Forging  Hammer Ram weight at 9kg,15kg, 25kg, 40kg, 55kg, 75kg are best used for art blacksmithing such as drawing-out, upsetting, punching, chiseling, bending and twisting.


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Please contact me if you are interest in the wrought iron forging hammer.

Looking forward to your reply!

Thanks and regards,

Alina

Anyang Forging Press Machinery Industry Co.,Ltd

Mobile:0086-13783837582

Tuesday 30 March 2010

First of Many

There is not much point in this post other than a bit of trumpet blowing. Anyone watching BBC 2 on Saturday may well have seen this. The first credit I've had Broadcast... Hopefully there will be a few more after this. Big thanks to Boomerang, Stephanie and Inge.


You can watch the programme here. It is a great insight into what happens to the children left behind when their parents are sent to prison narrated by Matt Lucas. It's been doubly interesting for me as I've seen lots of the material that was left out of the film, as well as lots of the footage that did make the cut.

All in all, a great way to kick start my TV production career! I am already working on some production ideas, so we shall see where the next one will be coming from.

Tuesday 23 March 2010

Bang!

Unless you've only just discovered my site, you will probably have worked out that I'm a bit of a petrol head, and love cars. I particularly like filming them, and contrary to popular belief also have an interest in alternative energy supplies - particularly electric vehicles and hybrids. However this new energy supply does seem to be somewhat... um... drastic.



Still, good on them for giving it a go - Bang goes the Theory certainly seems to be a big success for the BBC and the Open University in bringing science and engineering to the masses. and stunts like this will only help to reinforce that position... Won't be converting my Peugeot or Polo to coffee power yet though...

Saturday 13 March 2010

More information

Utterly Ages ago I was asking about aircraft hangers next to Llandow Circuit. Well the answer has now come forth : They are for sale. Price unknown.

I wonder how much they cost, but selling the area as development land will almost certainly mean the end of a pair of WWII Hangers that at one point were full of Spitfires. And that would be a shame when you consider just what you can do with a great big hanger full of nothingness...

I'd love to use that area as a studio come exhibition centre come autotesting venue... but I think it's probably out of my price range somehow, and they do need a bit of work.

Anyone want to buy a pair of aircraft hangers? My birthday is coming up, would make a nice present!

That was a joke. Hah Hah. Fat Chance.

Wednesday 10 March 2010

From the makers of USF1Formula1.com

The Journal - Issue 1 - March 10, 2010 by Flood 1

We have compiled some of the blog posts into a turn-page magazine called "The Journal." The front cover is shown below. The link to the magazine is http://issuu.com/flood1/docs/the_journal_issue_1 . We plan to do this regularly just to group all the blogs together in an easy to read format. There is no content in this mag that is not already on the blog.
My suggestion is to click the full page button. The fonts are large and you should be able to read everything without zooming. Try the buttons at the top (they only appear when you hover the mouse at the top of the page) to discover the options available.
Note: Machines that do not use flash (iphones) will not work well with this format.

In case you're wondering, I write the WRC articles for this!

Thursday 4 March 2010

A design on the future?

Over to the left there is, or should be at any rate, a sneak preview of what the new website will look like. There's only one small problem : Now I've got it designed, what do I do with it!?

I know about HTML. That is straight forward enough, but what I'm not sure about is how you take a picture made with photoshop and make it work as a website. This project is going to run a bit I think.

Also as part of the new design you can see the new logo, which shouldn't really be a surprise to anyone. and there's fewer buttons. About Me is going to be a pretty simple profile about yours truely, Services is what I can do for your video production [it occurs to me that I've never actually said on my website what it is I can do or that I'm available to do it!], Portfolio is going to take over the numerous pages with the videos on and hopefully be a lot easier to mainatain, the Blog is not changing, and M&W will be all the stuff me and Ulrich have done over the last few years. It should be pretty good once it's all worked out and in place. I've got a seperate design for the M&W website so watch this space.
Some production news for you. On BBC 2 (once they've sorted out the digital switchover around here, there will be a programme which I worked on broadcast on the 20th of March (Saturday) at 11:30am called "My Life : Children of Prisoners". I spent a couple of weeks logging rushes for this programme with Boomerang in Cardiff, and I'm quite looking forward to seeing how the finished programme looks after it's all been edited. Oh yes, and it'll be nice to see my name on the end credits for the first time on broadcast! Other productions are currently rather thin on the ground, but there will be a new showreel going up soon once the new music is attached to it, and there's a couple of small test videos in the pipeline once I get a few moments to myself. There may even be some flying with the Air Cadets to show you, meaning that once again my DogCam gets called into action. Aviating Dogcams... whodathunkit?
And of course there will be some motorsport filmed this year, that's inevitable. I'm keen to hone my skills of filming on board cars and tracking. Prehaps I can use the Peugeot for that? Hmm...

Motorsport diary wise, it's a busy year for me and my orange romper suit. All kicks off later this month at Pembrey, then I spend my Birthday at Gurston Down hillclimb. Both Goodwoods are on the menu too, which is great, and I've even got a date at Donington. That is, if it's all been put back together after lots of well documented problems this year.

As Ever, Watch this space...

Sunday 14 February 2010

Quietness... explained.

yes, I know, once again I've neglected the blog. Hopefully you've been keeping up with my tweets (see the twitter tweeter on the right of this entry) so you'll know that I haven't been not been completely inactive.

Yesterday was interesting. Vision mixing for Glam TV's live coverage of the Chinese new year celebration. Whilst there were a few problems (not least with the computer that does the streaming failing to spot the vision mixer that had been hooked up to it all morning and that had worked faultlessly up to an hour before we were due to go live.) In the event, the whole thing went very well.

Today was Pembrey for the first time this year... it's shaping up to be a great year of motorsport in the UK, and also the international series keep me interested. Other projects have included writing WRC previews for USF1 Journal, so keep an eye out for those.

And I'm still looking around for work. Someone has suggested specialising in vehicle mounted camera systems, and it's a possibility, but I'd like to keep my options as open as possible. I've got Job applications in already, and plenty of programme ideas to develop, so we shall see what happens with them.

Meanwhile, I'm glued to the Winter Olympics. I love my winter sports, and I hope that the UK can bring back something shiny!

Bye for now.

P.s. Got a surprise today in my e-mail box from the latest twitter follower...


From:   twitter
Subject: Sir Stirling Moss  is now following you on Twitter!

Crikey! If you're reading this Sir Stirling, I shall see you at Goodwood no doubt.

Thursday 28 January 2010

Advice please...

The plan was simple. Attach a dogcam to an air cadet's flying helmet and pop him or her into an aeroplane and film the flight. Simple. (I refuse to say Simples on principle!)

Except that the people who own the aeroplane don't want to do it with the dogcam, they want to do it handheld instead.

Now, that asks an interesting question. Whilst I can't see any problem with using a handheld camera inside an aeroplane whilst it's flying along quite nicely and above all straight, What on earth happens when it turns?

Not sure what I'm talking about? Well put it this way, when you corner in your car, if you do it slowly then you don't really notice much. If you are a bit more enthusiastic and do track days, you'll note that anything not bolted down gets thrown from one side of the car to the other when you try and go around that chicane. The question is, if an aeroplane does a tight turn, which way does the force go on the camera? Is it likely to produce a force large enough to remove the handheld camera from the hand, so to speak? What about Aerobatics? In short, how do you film inside an aircraft with a hand held camera?

Mounted cameras, easy - I've seen plenty of videos done that way and it's the way I'd nominally do it. Hand held asks so many questions. Sure, if it was a big airliner then handheld is no problem, but a little light aircraft?

So I'm stuck. Any suggestions? Anyone done it?

And yes, I have seen this : Isn't life easy with mountable cameras?


Monday 18 January 2010

How long have I been doing this?

I missed something, I've now been doing this blog for a year! woo! *blows ridiculous party hooter thingy*

That is all.

Sunday 17 January 2010

Plans

Or lack of them, at the moment. Having just applied for one job, I seem to be left with time on my hands. Again.

At least I've got a whole year of teaching air cadets, and even better is the year of motorsport I've got lined up, Including a 24 hour race. I'm quite looking forward to that.

More plans - well I'm currently working on some programme ideas (again) and there's the 3 minute wonders to work out. Hopefully they'll go somewhere nice.

Other than that, trying to figure out where all my website visitors come from (some from twitter, lots from USF1 Journal and some who just seem to turn up, welcome to you all!) Things are rather quiet.

I therefore leave you with the last of the time lapse experiments.




The irony was that a week afterwards we got a LOT of snow, and I was out when it started! Bother!

Wednesday 6 January 2010

Happy new year!

A happy new year to you all! I'm writing this in the midst of a big freeze as the news stations are insisting on calling it - The only problems I've got is the sheet ice preventing me moving my car (nothing some grit won't solve), and urchins throwing snowballs!

Over Christmas I made a mistake, and took part time night work at Sainsbury's. This was a mistake because working in the night proved to be able to drive me insane. I don't mind hard work, but hard work which goes unappreciated and accompanied by a system of bullying is enough to really drive me nuts.

But enough about that. Christmas was great with some interesting presents (you'll see one of them in a moment), and for once was white. Before Christmas I may have mentioned I was on work experience... I was logging rushes for a company called Boomerang, and their programme called "Children of Prisoners". It's on from Feburary 10th, and I should be very grateful if you watch the series, and look out for a familiar name on the credits. I've still got some work to do on that, so once again, watch this space.

Now, there's snow around, so that means it's time for the timelapse experiments again... Attempt one was set up in the hope of snow, and is 24 hours around here, Unfortunately, Autofocus in the dark is not a good idea...


Then snow finally turned up - right when I wasn't expecting it to - so turn on the timelapse camera quick! Caught 12 hours of snow melting.



There's a third part to this, and I'll show you that later.


So, to 2010. One of my Christmas presents was a new car - a VW Polo to replace my reliable, but aging Peugeot 106. I took it down to Southerndown (bad wolf bay, for you Dr Who fanatics) for some pictures and to enjoy the drive and mangaged to get this shot of the sunset. I wonder where these wheels will take me over the next year, and are there better times over that horizon*? We'll see

*actually over that horizon is Devon.