I had the idea of this Bicycle Mini Adventure after watching one of Alastair Humphreys brilliant Micro Adventure videos. Small, affordable adventures that anyone can try. It’s a great series and one of the best motivational tools for encouraging people to step out of their comfort zone and explore their surrounding area.

Use Your Weekend is a short film from my first trip to the Catskills Park, NY. At 700,000 acres, the park has plenty of opportunities to immerse yourself in the wilderness and take a break from the hustle and bustle of city life.

Thank you and respect always to the main man behind the beats – @Grumb

Tech Specs
Shot on a GoPro 2 – 720p 60Frames.
Edited in Final Cut
Graded in Magic Bullet Looks

Last summer my Bicycle Mini Adventures took me on a 125 mile single speed bicycle ride from Brooklyn to Montauk.

Riding 125 miles wasn’t the only challenge I set myself, I also wanted to document my ride in photographs. The idea was simple. Every half hour I would stop and take a photo. Easy? No. It’s far harder than it sounds, just the idea of stopping, getting the camera out, taking a photo and then having to start up again is so demoralizing when you have so many miles to cover. But still, I persevered and came out with a rather interesting, fascinating  ‘American’ set of photos. Judge for yourself.

I shot all these photos  with a Fujifilm Natura Classica on Kodak Portra 800 film.

7:00am

7:30am

8:00am

8:30am

9:00am

9:30am

10:00am

10:30am

11:00am

11:30am

12:00pm

12:30pm

01:00pm

01:30pm

02:00pm

02:30pm

03:00pm

Couple of months ago I wrote about glitch art, data bending and data moshing. Since then I have been heavily destroying code, hacking video and mashing Gifs together.

I’ve stepped into the murky world of Tumblr, where I have been showcasing my creations destructions. You can see my work and follow me here - Neon Gl1tch

Catastrophic Null is a short film I made when I was hunkering down during Hurricane Sandy. As the power went down all over New York I started to think about how much we rely on technology to feed us with useless information. And it’s this digital garbage I wanted to show crossing into our world. I have corrupted video files from the internet of such amazing thought provoking shows, films and music videos. Such as the Jersey Shore, The Only way is Essex, Miley Cyrus – Party in the USA and The Paris Hilton Sex Tape.  Then I added the glitched files to black and white still photographs to make it some what more pleasing on the eye. With heavy grain applied to the film, it gives the effect that the photograph is moving. Watch at Full Screen and in HD if you can.

Also, thanks to Lee for helping me with the music sample, I don’t know what I would do without him.

]]> http://www.therandomsam.com/2012/11/catastrophic-null-glitch-art-and-more-databending/feed/ 1 http://www.therandomsam.com/2012/10/how-my-name-ended-up-in-a-feature-film-pusher/ http://www.therandomsam.com/2012/10/how-my-name-ended-up-in-a-feature-film-pusher/#comments Wed, 03 Oct 2012 20:45:52 +0000 Sam http://www.therandomsam.com/?p=3827

I started my London time lapse project in spring 2010, and uploaded the final movie to YouTube in March 2011. Since then it has had over 30.000 views on YouTube which is fairly impressive since all my other videos float between 500 to 1000. Why did it take so long to produce? Mainly down to two factors. Working shift work and the British weather. It was also a massive learning curve, I had played around with video before, but I came from a still photography background so teaching myself Final Cut was like back in the day when I taught myself Photoshop.

I filmed it for a number of reasons, to teach myself another photo technique, collaborate with a friend, learn Final Cut Pro and for me, the most important reason, it was to engage the creative side of my brain.

And now, after shooting over 10000 images and nearly getting arrested (twice),  I ended up with a piece of work which I feel like I can be proud off.

Off the back of my video, something happened that really hadn’t happened before to any of my other videos. The internet started to take notice. I  would receive dozens of emails a week asking if they could use the footage for different projects. Normally, these companies, students and even Canadian Christan rock bands didn’t want to pay me for the footage, so I declined 99% of these requests. But one day I had an email from Vertigo Films in London asking if they could use clips for an upcoming film called ‘Pusher’. A remake of the 1996 cult danish film by the same name. Of course I said yes. And now MY WORK IS IN A REAL FILM, A FILM THAT IS GETTING RELEASED AT THE CINEMA. They credited me in the film and used the shot of the city taken from Primrose Hill. This is all very exciting for me.

So there you go, that’s how my name ended up in a film. My advice is get out there and create something good, something worthy, and stick it on the internet, because you never know who might be watching.

It’s already out on iTunes to rent in the US and will be released in the UK at the Cinema on the 12th Oct – 2012

Pusher 2012

Here’s the shot they used. From the top of Primrose Hill.

My name on the end credits.

I said that another reason I created the time lapse was so I could collaborate with friends. Luckily I know some very talented people and getting to work with Jonathan from The Natura Cinematica was an exciting prospect.  We used one of his tracks to set the mood and pace for the film and though only a demo at the time, Fastlane LDN works so well with the visuals. Fastlane LDN has since been remade and remastered and now can be found on the Album, The Man Who Knew Too Much.

You can find out more about Natura Cinematica and buy the album on their site.
naturacinematica.bandcamp.com
facebook.com/naturacinematica
reverbnation.com/naturacinematica
twitter.com/naturacinematic
soundcloud.com/naturacinematica

A few months back my good friend Will introduced me to Glitch Art. and ever since then I’ve been delving deeper and deeper into the digital roots of this medium. I thought I’d share the results and techniques with you.

What is it Glitch Art?
Wikipedia puts it nicely ‘Glitch art is the aestheticization of digital or analog errors, such as artifacts and other “bugs”, by either corrupting digital code/data or by physically manipulating electronic devices‘. Still confused? Let me try and explain how to hack photos.

Rename your JPG as .txt – sample.jpg will become sample.txt.
Then open the file in a rich text based application – Textedit for mac and wordpad for Windows. I’m using ImageGlitch from the apps store with has the benefits of a real time preview of the image.

Hack the code by chopping large chunks out, adding characters, and copy paste new sections in. Save the file and rename it back to a JPG. Open it up and see the corruption.

Original File. Two old dears, going about their own business on Coney Island Beach.

Corruption 1

Corruption 2

Corruption 3

Corruption 4 – Destroyed

You don’t have to stop at photos, hack any digital content. Music can be rewired.  Rename .MP3 into .RAW and then open in Photoshop to get a image representation of the code.

Taylor Swift – Love Story. Looks better than it sounds, doesn’t it?

And so, I made a little movie incorporating some of these techniques. To get full effect; Watch in HD, switch  full screen and turn up your speakers.
WARNING: Flashing lights and images. Images and words containing a strong reference to sex and violence. Please do not watch if Bambi makes you cry.

Neon.Glitch
The daily onslaught of media fear, government propaganda, sex and violence that prays on our subconscious mind.

A project comprising of 624 corrupted images edited together with words subliminally sown in amongst the chaos.

Music by Grumb
Welcome..Come in by GrumB

As you can imagine, I’ve only just scratched the surface of what’s possible here. I’ll be exploring other ideas and projects in the future.

Stay glitched….

Last month I wrote a post about changing my habits and living minimalist lifestyle. I’ve started a new chapter in my life – Wife, new city and finding a new job – (See blog post here).
The post was my most popular article to date. Again, I want to reiterate, this is a lifestyle choice, an experiment in changing for the better. I don’t want to come off being like a preaching c*nt.

How am I doing?
Since limiting my internet access to only office hours, From the start of the day I feel  more focused. I don’t feel the need to check Facebook, YouTube or other social network platforms religiously, I might check them in the morning after breakfast and that’s about it. During the evening I have access to my blog (In case I get inspiration) and BBC news. That’s all. I have my Twitter client running in the background, but making sure all notifications are turned OFF. Talking of notifications, I upgraded to Mountain Lion the other day. Some of the new features are incredible (I will be discussing one life changing feature in a future post). I had to do away with the notification center, it was driving me nuts. Every few minutes a banner would pop up alerting me to a new tweet, email or calendar event. NOTIFICATIONS – SWITCHED OFF. The problem is (Granted, a small problem) I can’t get rid of the icon in the menu bar. Help anyone?

In 22 days i’ve lost 7lbs (0.5 stone) from exercise and eating better(ish). I’ve now ran my first 10km which I’m delighted at. I’ve even bought new running shorts. Fancy. The exercise continues with the new segment on my blog called Bicycle Mini Adventures. I thought it would be a fun idea to get out and about, creating manageable one day and overnight adventures. You can see how I’m getting on by clicking on the adventure tab at the top of the page ^.

I’ve read two books this month, and just started my third (No, not Fifty Shades of Grey, who do you think I am?). This might not seem like a big thing, but for a non-reader like myself and my dyslexic brain, trust me, it’s a small feat. I’ve starting to get to the point that I’d rather sit down with a good read than watch a movie, something I thought I’d never say.

Now for some digital house keeping. All my photos are now catalogued in Aperture and backed up on two drives, as well as uploaded to the cloud. I have unsubscribe to all the junk emails that had been weighing down my inbox for months on end. I’ve also ‘unlike’ 90% of my Facebook pages. Only my friend’s pages stay. Pages from Gizmode, Gawker, Engadget are all gone, I found these blogs being the main culprits for getting sucked into the interweb. TO MUCH INFORMATION!

The not so smart phone.
Let’s face it, our smart phones are great. They do everything we need, and a whole lot more we don’t. And that’s my problem with living this way. They are intruding into my life. I feel like I’m wired to the internet 24/7. Last year, if I woke up in the middle of the night i’d automatically check my phone. Because it was right there, right next to my bed. I MUST CHECK TWITTER, I MUST CHECK FACEBOOK. Now my phone never comes to bed with me.

I think the iPhone is one of the greatest inventions ever, but I would find myself sitting on my couch or at a bar ignoring the world around me. Come on, we’ve all done it. I took to delete all apps that I don’t use. Filling up the empty space with music. Apple won’t let you delete Safari, but you can make it harder for you to use. The Restrictions can be found  in Settings – General – Restrictions. You’ll be asked to create a password, then you can hide Safari. Browsing will be such a chore once you’ve restricted your phone.

Again, notifications are switched off except for iMessager. (Not that anyone messages me anymore, sob sob*).

All the apps I own.
Note: Page two has all the Apps that I can’t delete. Does anyone ever use that Stocks app I wonder?

Things I could will improve on.
My biggest weakness is waking up early. I’m not getting up  everyday at a stupid time, I normally wake up at 8:30-9am, but I’d like to train myself in getting up between 06:30 – 07:30. That way I could get all my job hunting done and dusted before 9am. This is my main goal for the next month.

Any set backs with this lifestyle?
I won’t lie, some nights have been a little quiet for me. I’ve checked my Facebook a couple of times, when I couldn’t get to sleep. I nearly handed over 69p to Apple, just so I could play R-Type on my iPhone (My favorite arcade game from the 90′s), but I didn’t. I just couldn’t do it.
I’ve also missed a few days of running here and there. I didn’t feel like running three miles in a Derecho. But on a whole, it’s been a very successful month.

Next update in 3 months time.

What did I learn from a seven thousand mile bicycle trip? More than I thought, It’s really changed my outlook on life. So much so, I’ve made some big decisions this month, and so far I’m sticking with them. This is just the beginning of my new way of life.

Now, I’m not telling you to live your life this way, I know this idea isn’t for everyone, but so far, it seems to be working for me. So what am I trying to achieve?

Why I needed to change.
I’ve been back for about a month now, settling into the New York way of life, you know, eating bagels, drinking coffee, moaning about the F Train. The mornings were spent job hunting, the afternoons I would procrastinate on the internet, for hours upon hours. during the first week I snapped at myself for wasting so much time. A quick google led me to theminimalists.com/. This websites aim is to make you live the minimalist lifestyle. I’m not following their 21 day set program religiously, but they do make some interesting points that I’m happy to try out.

I don’t need stuff.
There was a time in my life (Most of my twenties) where I needed to be surrounded by stuff, an abundance of shiny toys to keep me distracted until the updated version came out. iStuff, cameras, gadgets, the list goes on. But I realize now, that material things only bring you a certain amount of happiness for a very short period of time. On my bicycle adventures, I can only carry a limited amount of equipment and would only replace something if it was worn out or broken. I was never tempted with new gear or gadgets, because I didn’t have those temptations around me. No CDs, DVDs or books, no video games. I’m now left with, 2 bicycles, a few film cameras and a small amount of clothes.

My electronics have been halved.

• 11″ Macbook Air + External drives for Backup.
• Panasonic GH2 Digital Camera.
• GoPro Hero 2.
• Kindle.
• iPhone 4 (soon to be replaced with a standard phone).
• iPod Nano.
• Nikon CoolScan 5000ED.

Did you know that the average American watched 34 hours 39 minutes of TV per week in 2011? Not in our apartment, we don’t have a TV. I don’t have anything against them, Christ, I’ve worked in the TV industry for 11 years. I just think my time can be spent more wisely.

The Minimalist Mac
The biggest distraction is my computer, it’s also my main tool I use on a daily bases, so there’s no getting away from it, for now. I’ve switched off any notifications – Tweets, updates, etc. I’ve also replace the background with something clean. simple. minimalist.

A minimalist task bar. By removing all the distractions at the top of my screen allows me to focus on the task in hand. I found myself glancing up at it every five minutes or so. If I need to know the time, I hit F4 (Three finger left swipe) to bring up my widget page. If I need to connect to the wireless, then I have to go into my system preferences.

At 18:00, my Firefox & Safari lock me out of the internet. The only website I can access is my own. My mail client works, but I’ve made a rule that I can only reply to them in office hours. I use LeechBlock for Firefox and Waste No Time for Safari.

Exercise Daily
If you know me, you know I don’t like sport, never have, I don’t like playing them, I don’t like watching them, I just can’t see the point of them. I’m not a competitive creature. I never really used to like exercise and the idea of spend time in a gym makes me shudder. Then I hit my late twenties, ate way to much dark chocolate Toblerone and piled on the weight. Something had to be done, and that was cycling. I love it so much, well you know the rest, I cycled around America, blah, blah, blah.

For the past month I’ve been trying to cycle every day, I don’t have a job yet, so procrastinating on the computer just seems like a mammoth waste of time. I’ve also taken up…… running, yes you heard me right. R-U-N-N-I-N-G!

Running is a strange thing, I don’t enjoy it as nearly as much as cycling, and I don’t really get it. The only thing it’s useful for is out-running zombies. When the zombie apocalypse finally arrives, I should be in good shape and be one of the last standing. I don’t think I would of taken it up, if it wasn’t for a few reasons.

1. My Wife: She was always a runner and not a cyclist, she took up cycling because of me, so I thought, why the hell not, i’ll give it a go.
2. Nike+ for iPhone: It feels like i’m in a live action video game, as I try to beat my high score, In this case the high score is my distance and speed. It’s very addictive and keeps me focused. Oh, and I love it when Ellie Goulding congratulates me for a personal best. Swoon…
3. The approaching zombie apocalypse.

What do you do for fun?
This is New York! so blatantly there’s a lot to do. It doesn’t have to cost an arm or a leg either. Use my bicycle to explore the city. I practice my photography and video editing. Go for walks, chill in parks, mosey on down to the beach, go to the movies, read. With having so much time on my hands, I can immerse myself into the city.

You’ve turned into a boring hippie.
Nope, I think I’ve become more interesting, more creative. With more time I can focus on the things that really matter to myself. Where my next adventure will take me, or start a new photo/film project.

Sneak preview of my next short film.

What does the future hold?
Ideally I’d like to get rid of the internet from the house, but that’s not possible just yet. Deleting my personal Facebook page, once I can figure out how I can keep my fan page. Getting rid of my iPhone once my contract comes up in a year. I’ve cut up all my English credit cards and will close the accounts in the next week or so. I might not stick to all the goals I’ve set myself, but I’m going to give it my best.

“This is your life, and it’s ending one minute at a time.” – Tyler Durden, Fight Club

Note: I’ve just got to the bottom of this post after re-reading it, it sounds all a bit negative and angry. I promise, I’m not angry, I’m not very good at putting words to paper. Blame the dyslexia, and now I have more time to fix that as well ;-)

Thank you for all the nice comments/thumbs-ups/re-tweets I received in the passed few days about The Random Way Home.

A few of you wanted to see the video I made for the final episode of The Random Way Home without the ‘Thank You’ ticker. And a couple of you asked how I made it. Maybe I’ll do a time Lapse tutorial someday, but there are some really good ones out there on the net already. Like this one.

How it was made. Pretty simple really,

1. Get one wife,
2. Attach a GoPro to her bicycle helmet.
3. Select Time Lapse mode (5 Second intervals)
4. Send her down the side of a mountain, in this case, Emory Pass, New Mexico.
5. Stop at the bottom of the mountain for a piece of cake and a Coke.
6. Add some magic. Edit in Final Cut Pro 7. Grade it Adobe After Effect, using the Magic Bullet plugin.

And then it ends up looking something like this.

Congratulation to my wife, Julie, for peddling her butt off. I love you, treacle. 2000 miles done and dusted.

A huge thank you to @Grumb & Lee for providing the music to the vlogs.

Massive props and concrete to all who donated to Dyslexia Action, Cancer Research UK and CURE Cancer.
Emma & Molly – Dad & Mum – Paul Riseley – Jason Cronin – Lee Osborne – Rebecca Steiner – Raymond Hollis – Anne Turnbull – Ricardo Valenzuela – Geoff Lambert – Neil Caldicott – Jonathan, Emma, Amelia & Jessica – Sophie Service – Virginia Dan – Liam Weston – @Dizzydyslexic – Madeline Brozen – Chris Aldridge – Matthew Barnett – James Hume – Jon & Frank – Charlie Hoole – Tracy Dale Enderby – Duane Joubert – Claire Rodie -  Crispin Clover – Emily Blakemore – James Payne  – Will and Kate – Lee Osborne – Elsbeth Gotts – Timohty Hurst – Justin Fleming – David Grant – Wally & Julie – Lee Sparey – Lauren Hellicar – Georgina Mavris  – Maria Lalli – Daniel Kerry – John Welham – Barry Pryer – Steve D – Jim & Sue Williams – Jess Layton - Anne Palmer – Dinn – Claire Rodie – Mrs M – Becky Miller – Chris & Archie – Maria Richards – Ivan Vazquez – Russell James Holliss – Ruby True – Naomi Amner – @DJoubert  – Wendy – Colin & Lin – Meg – M Browning – @ToyCameraPlay (Matt Larson) – Jessyka – Marcus & Ashley – Melanie Smith – @jaznycgirl – Teddy Lyden – Kaz – Darren Sharp – Frazer Moutrie – Frank Swing – Amanda Cerniglia – Katie Gora.

We raised a grand total for
Dyslexia Action – £860.00
Cancer Research UK – £685.00
CURE Cancer – $678

‘Scrrrrrrape’ goes the underside of our little rental car as I pull off Highway 61 into a makeshift car park.

“This is how I imagine it” I remember saying to myself. A town hidden away, out of sight, forgotten to the world and which holds on to a dark, miserable past. I say town, but there’s really nothing left. A few empty reminders, in the shape of house foundations and roads which lead to nowhere, a ghost town slowly being eaten away by mother nature. You see the reason Centralia, PA is no more….., is right under our feet. Fire.

As we walk up the hill of the now deserted part of highway 61, under your feet, deep in the mountain beneath you, an out of control fire rages relentlessly in an abandon coal mine. The fire was said to have started in 1962 by the volunteer fire company to clean up the town landfill. Unlike in previous years, however, the fire was not fully extinguished. An unsealed opening in the pit allowed the fire to enter the labyrinth of abandoned coal mines beneath Centralia.

Over the years, people have been forced to relocate to other nearby towns as the ground has been found to be unstable, sink holes have opened up and carbon monoxide has been detected. Now, only a handful of residents remain.

In places, the road is buckled, twisted and huge cracks have formed. The road is warm to the touch, smoke and steam can be seen rising out of the cracks. Budding artists have spray painted the road with intelligent slogans and art work. “Silent Hill, PA” Reads one. Others read “I Love Meth”, “This man has a small penis”, “The End is Near”. In someways it has the same eerie feeling as when I visited Chernobyl, the landscape, the trees, the worn out roads, it all looked vaguely similar.

If you’ve played the game or watched the horror movie, Silent Hill, you’ll know the town in the movie was abandoned by a coal fire. Centralia was the inspiration behind the movie. But unlike the movie, Julie and I didn’t get chased by the undead, though there were two Gothic girls taking photos of each other on the old highway, so who knows…. Maybe it was the real Silent Hill, after all.