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September 29, 2009
so farewell then, Bankfield Mill
it's been 9 years...
some good times
some bad times
lot of memories sticking to these empty walls
Posted by john at 05:12 PM | Comments (2)
September 27, 2009
move in and sort out
"How many plan chests have you got?" said Matt, carrying the thirtieth drawer down the stairs from the mill.
Er.. too many?
It is only when you come to move that you realise how much stuff you've managed to accumulate over the years. Especially when, like me, you've been holed up in a large and expansive mill. Thing is, I've never actually bought a plan chest, I just seem to get given them.
With everything unloaded the place takes on the air of a second-hand furniture warehouse and it fairly bears in on you to start sorting stuff out. Paintings begin to vie with timber for the new spaces.
Mind you most painting go into the new racks in the attic. Racks, as regular readers of this missive will know, are a Good Thing in a painting studio, and racks in an attic above a painting studio seems to be an Excellent Thing.
Posted by john at 11:04 PM | Comments (0)
September 23, 2009
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Posted by john at 10:02 PM | Comments (2)
September 22, 2009
Gone Fishing?
another chance to see
Posted by john at 11:53 AM | Comments (0)
September 20, 2009
on flooring
...thing is, about a floor, it's what everything else starts out on, so to put down a new floor you've got to get everything off the old floor, obviously really when you think about it....
Now, admittedly, a lot of what was on the old floor was the new floor, but the aim is to move things as little as possible. We were battening it out and insulating it with 50mm polystyrene, topping it off with 18mm x 600mm x 2400mm flooring boards.
Luckily the apprentice, Young McFugger, was on hand at the start:
so after the first day we had more than half complete, and had suspended some old floorboards for posterity
Next day I cracked on by myself, Young McFugger getting up to no good in the corporate world.
and I finished it leaving the hanging floorboards looking for all that like an art installation
Suspended Floor, Coombes/Jones 2009, wood and kernmantle rope
many thanks to Mr Jones, without whose help etc...
Posted by john at 06:44 PM | Comments (1)
September 16, 2009
s'more photographying
Rachel, brushing up, from the dusty-sandy shoot
Anna, white-out against the window, from the white-on-white shoot
Posted by john at 10:32 PM | Comments (0)
September 14, 2009
Where the Wall Was
Posted by john at 06:28 PM | Comments (0)
September 12, 2009
FISH TANK
Andrea Arnold's new film FISH TANK opens this weekend in Bradford, and Manchester and London.
Go see it it's good. Good independent cinema. Hollywood it ain't. Andrea has a beautiful eye on a hard world. It won the Jury Prize at Cannes, as did her last film Red Road. I've known Andrea for years, since we worked together on No73, a live TV show in the 80s. After TV in the 80s she went to LA Film School and came out top of her class. She then spent 15 years making short films. The last of which, WASP, won an Oscar - yay!
Posted by john at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)
September 09, 2009
breaking through a wall
the first bricks are always the hardest
Posted by john at 09:57 PM | Comments (2)
September 06, 2009
The Belle Isle
Been shooting a short film in South Leeds, on the Belle Isle estate.
And, more specifically, in the Youth Club, where the youths in question were the usual mix of noisy kids, until that is they opened the tuck shop. After grazing on blue Smarties for a few minutes the kids livened up noticeably and things began to get out of hand.
It was next to impossible to do any interviews. One constant interruption was by a boy honing his skills at burping the word bollocks – he got quite good. The wide shots were just full of “Hellomum!” and “Look! – we’re on TV”, and the belief that the best thing to do when you are on TV is to knock three kinds of bells out of your mate.
When a pool ball sailed past the camera – lobbed by a particularly aggressive sugar-fuelled gobby youth – I decided it was time to leave and suggested to the crew that we slowly pick up our gear and head for the door.
Outside, where things were less hectic and Jess found us the closing shot:
Posted by john at 10:49 AM | Comments (1)
September 03, 2009
and not building with building sand
If you've got some building sand left over from your last building project, which I'm sure you all have, why not call in the dancers and and get some sandy dance action going on?
sadly you're a bit late to get Wilson Kepple and Betty:
Posted by john at 08:23 AM | Comments (0)
September 02, 2009
THINGS YOU FIND BEHIND THE RADIATORS WHEN UN-BUILDING A PRINTWORKS No.3
An old printing plate this time. Upon which was this image of the Denby Dale viaduct, when the original timber viaduct was being un-built.
photographer unknown
Denby Dale is no'but a few miles from the Printworks, and for those to whom these things matter the viaduct carries the single track Penistone line, opened in 1850 by the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Company.
photographer Alan Stanton
Posted by john at 08:04 AM | Comments (0)