hardluckhotel.co.uk

Birmingham Zine Festival Artwork

Hardluck Hotel — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 16:55:31 +0000

I’ve been following the Birmingham Zine Festival on Facebook for some time after a friend put me on to it and last month they put out a call for people to submit artwork on postcards for an exhibition they are are holding during the festival. It seemed like a great opportunity to produce a little piece of new work and a way to be involved in the festival as more than just an observer. Within minutes my request to take part on it’s way.

The original call for submissions looked like this -

You are invited to take part in our exhibition of postcards, where each postcard will be a unique work of art. At the end of the exhibition, all of the postcards will be randomly ‘swapped’ and you’ll receive someone else’s original artwork in the mail – yours to keep!

To take part in the exhibition, send us a message with your name and address. When you receive your postcard, just follow these simple instructions:

Create your own unique artwork on the blank side of the postcard. There’s no theme so feel free to submit whatever you like.
Write a message on the reverse, leaving the address space blank (we’ll fill that in later!)
Mail the postcard back to us in the envelope provided, along with your name, address and website details.

That’s it – we’ll do the rest! All of the postcards will be exhibited at The Framers Gallery in Birmingham as part of the Birmingham Zine Festival.

It took a while to decide on what I was going to do but in the end I settled on the idea of a short three panel comic strip. The strip was to be drawn in pen and ink with no use of computers and photoshop, to keep that zine illustration feel I was looking for.

This gallery shows the progression of the strip from original thumbnail sketches through to the completed postcard.

I’m looking forward to seeing all the other postcards in the exhibition along with everything else that is going on over the course of the festival. If your in Birmingham between the 10th and 12th of September then try and get along to one of the Birmingham Zine Festival Events.

First Aid Kit | Ghost Town

Hardluck Hotel — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 14:38:06 +0000

Earlier this month I was lucky enough to see First Aid Kit for the second time this year. The performance was amazing and once again the girls gave a completely acoustic performance, at the front of stage, of Ghost Town, one of the most beautiful songs on their album The Big Black and The Blue.

I managed to capture the performance on my iPhone and decided to share it with you here.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Recorded live at the Hare and Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham on 15th July 2010. Filmed on iPhone 3GS.

The Secret Garden

Hardluck Hotel — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 10:45:05 +0000

This set is from Heartbreak Productions beautiful open air theatre performance of France Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden.

Performed in Warley Woods on Thursday 17 June 2010.

Find out about other Heartbreak Production performances at www.heartbreakproductions.co.uk

All photographs were taken on a Canon EOS 550D camera with processing done in Lightroom.

Fairbourne 2010

Hardluck Hotel — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 15:09:45 +0000

I’ve taken a step away from my regular iphoneography photographs with this set taken on a recent visit to Fairbourne in Wales.

Since having been made redundant I have had to improve my kit and so I took the leap and purchased a Canon EOS 550D. I bought the Canon primarily to be able to shoot high definition video but it also gives me the opportunity to take a different kind of photograph.

Fairbourne is a beautiful place and I hope these images capture just a little of it’s magic.

All photographs were taken on a Canon EOS 550D camera with processing done in Lightroom.

Street Signs Project

Hardluck Hotel — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 14:26:14 +0000

I was looking for a new project to do over the spring and I decided that I would take photographs of all the street signs I passed. The idea is to stop, take one shot from the best possible position with my iPhone and then process with apps.

These are the results – and I’ll adding more to the series as I pass more signs.

All photographs were taken on a iPhone 3GS (3 megapixel) camera, Helga and Lolo filter enhancements made with the camerabag application.

WE ALL NEED HEROES – ACOUSTIC SESSION

Hardluck Hotel — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 10:37:55 +0000

On March 7th 2010, three members of We All Need Heroes performed four songs in a live acoustic session on Eskemo Radio.

The session included 3 new songs and a cover version of Modern Myth by 30 Seconds to Mars.

NEVER

Click here to view the embedded video.

UNTITLED

Click here to view the embedded video.

SOURCE OF MADNESS

Click here to view the embedded video.

MODERN MYTH (COVER VERSION)

Click here to view the embedded video.

Find out more about the band on their website & myspace page -

weallneedheroes.co.uk
myspace.com/weallneedheroesuk

This film was originally shot on a Panasonic NV-GS230, Canon MV890 and a Canon MV400i and edited in Final Cut Express.

Thanks to Iain and Andy @ Eskemo Radio.

Clips from previous We All Need Heroes shows and more can also be found on this site and on the Hardluck Hotel YouTube Channel.

youtube.com/hardluckhotelfilms

Metapod Connect

Hardluck Hotel — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 18:13:47 +0000

Last year I was lucky enough to take part in the first Metapod Connect course. Metapod Connect was designed and developed with award-winning blogger and consultant Pete Ashton. It had been developed for established arts organisations who wanted to connect with new customers through new media.

The six month training programme, allowed the organizations to explore, experiment, design and implement a bespoke social media strategy which suits the resource and ethos of your business. At the end of the six months all of the organisation that took part were asked to contribute content to a publication about the course. Others wrote about how using social media had changed the way their organisations interacted with audiences, others gave examples of changes in their practice. Me, I illustrated a comic strip, written in the style of Dr. Seuss.

Metapod Connect was supported by Arts Council England, West Midlands. My thanks also go to Helga Henry who co-hosted the course with Pete. I had a great time on the Metapod Connect course, I learnt a lot about social media and met some great people who I now consider friends.

SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD

Hardluck Hotel — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 20:13:39 +0000

WE ARE SEX BOB-OMB!

Like many today has been the day I’ve been looking forward to for some time. The official trailer for Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World has finally arrived.

Based on the comic by Bryan Lee O’Malley and brought to the screen by the directorial genius behind Spaced, Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, Edgar Wright, the buzz for this film has been building for a while, with Wright giving us an insight into the making of the film with his video blogs and teasing us via his twitter feed.

Now finally we get to see what it’s all about and like Kick-Ass and The Losers this looks to be another comic based must see this year. And I’m not the only one who seems to be very pleased with how this one is looking, judging by the reaction across the web just minutes after this trailer went online.

Still clueless as to who Scott Pilgrim is and why this film is set to be one of the biggest hits of 2010 – when watch this awesome trailer and start counting the days until the film arrives here in the UK in August.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Now that looks to be An Epic of Epic Epicness. Now go tell your friends about this film and get them to tell their friends and then go buy the books on Amazon and then watch the trailer again…

Oh, and judging by this and his performance in The Losers, it’s looking like Chris Evans is going to make a fine Captain America.

SCOTT PILGRIM AVATAR CREATOR

In the run up to the release of what is set to be one of the biggest films of the year, the official Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World movie website is offering you the change to create your own Scott Pilgrim styled avatar.

This is me – Scott Pilgrim Style.

If you want to make your own head over to the Scott Pilgrim Avatar Creator! and get your Scott Pilgrim makeover. Then post it to Twitter and Facebook, I want to see Scott Pilgrim avatars take over!

INTERNATIONAL PILGRIM

Excitement for Edgar Wright’s adaptation of Scott Pilgrim continues to mount and this week has seen the release of the new international poster for the film.

But better than that is The Playlists track by track review of the album that will accompany the release of the film. The album is produced by Godrich (Radiohead, Air, Beck) and features songs from Beck, Broken Social Scene and Metric. Best of all where there is an audio link The Playlist has included the audio for that track. Many of the tracks are those suggested by original creator/writer/illustrator of the Scott Pilgrim saga Bryan Lee O’Malley (check out the back of the Pilgrim books for his suggested soundtrack for each volume).

My favourites so far are the Metric and Rolling Stones tracks – but I can’t wait to see how these songs will play out in the film. It’s looking like this album will be my new Singles and really capture the feel of the film.

Anyway go have a read of what The Playlist thinks and listen to a few really great songs - take me to the track by track review.

OPINION

Scott Pilgrim the comic book has been a master class in storytelling. Bryan Lee O’Malley created an incredibly believable world. It is a world that reflects the dreams and ideas I had when I was a 22 year old, finding my way through life and love.

Edgar Wright began bringing his Scott Pilgrim vision to the screen before the comic version had been given it’s ending. And although the two diverge slightly when it comes to wrapping up the story, Edgar and his team have managed to bring the snowy world of Scott’s Toronto to the big screen just as it appears in the comic. Some scenes are perfect matches for their black and white counterparts. Edgar has also transferred the sounds of the comic to the screen, by taking some of O’Malley’s soundtrack suggestions (in each volume of the comic Bryan Lee O’Malley recommends a set of music tracks to accompany that volume) along with some of his own. It all works flawlessly, the perfect melding of sight and sound.

I’m not going to give you a full synopsis of the film, you can find that in most other reviews, but in essence the film is about finding the girl of your dreams and overcoming not only the physical barriers to making that relationship work but the mental ones we all put in the way of our true happiness. As an added bonus we get high octane video game/anime style fight scenes, fantastic acting, great music and a director at the top of his game, who understands his source material and his audience.

In fact, Scott Pilgrim has a lot in common with Spaced, the Channel 4 show Edgar directed over 10 years ago (it was written by and starred Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes). Much like in Spaced there is a character somewhere in this film we can all wholly identify with. And as in Spaced, the film understands the complexity of relationships and how we deal with them.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World may seem like an all out fantasy action film with all the pop culture bells and whistles, but the film, like the comic that inspired it, is really about people. It’s about how we deal with growing up, taking responsibility for our actions and dealing with the consequences. It’s about life and that is something that Edgar Wright has placed at the heart of his film.

I cannot recommend this film enough, its charm and wit shine. It wears its heart on its sleeve and it certainly walked away with mine. Go see it as soon as it opens in the UK on 25th August.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

Directed by Edgar Wright

Produced by Edgar Wright, Marc Platt, Eric Gitter & Nira Park

Written by Edgar Wright (Screenplay), Michael Bacall (Screenplay)

Based on the comic by Bryan Lee O’Malley

Narrated by Bill Hader

Starring Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ellen Wong, Kieran Culkin, Chris Evans, Anna Kendrick, Alison Pill, Brandon Routh, Jason Schwartzman

Music by Nigel Godrich

TREES | A FILM DASH PROJECT

Hardluck Hotel — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:57:54 +0000

This year I decided to submit an entry for Film Dash 2010, the 48-hour film challenge, organised by Meshed Media in association with Say Hello, which is part of Hello Digital, Arts Council, Birmingham City Council, and The Bullring.

In addition to creating the film from scratch in just 48-hours the following had to be included in my film:

General theme: Happiness

Line of dialogue: My years are not advancing as fast as you might think.

Prop: Ironing Board

This is my Film Dash 2010 film -

Click here to view the embedded video.

This film was shot on a Canon MV890, edited in Final Cut Express with music recorded live and edited in Garageband.

All film and music used in this entry was devised and created between 7pm Friday 5th March and 7pm Sunday 7th March.

Special thanks go to my partner Madeline for helping make this film happen and for creating the beautiful music that accompanies the film. You can visit Madeline’s own website – Meeni – to see more of her own artwork and music.

This film made as part of Film Dash 2010, visit the Film Dash website and you can see some of the other entries in this years competition on the Film Dash Youtube channel.

First Aid Kit @ The Rainbow

Hardluck Hotel — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:51:46 +0000

First Aid Kit: Live on 22nd February 2010 at The Rainbow, Digbeth in Birmingham.

First Aid Kit are sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg from Stockholm, Sweden.

This performance at The Rainbow in Digbeth was incredible.

Find out more about First Aid Kit on their myspace page – www.myspace.com/thisisfirstaidkit

Buy their new album from Amazon The Big Black & The Blue

All photographs were taken on a iPhone 3GS (3 megapixel) camera, Silver filter enhancements made with the camerabag application.