It would be brilliant if this little blog here was a tad more consistent... but life never is... so there's not really any point in apologising... because I suppose it's never going to change... just yet!
We're off to Holland tomorrow for the next three shows of The Third Policeman. It's going to be quite an adventure. Eight of us (inc. two kids) will be going on the trucker's ferry over to The Hook of Holland and performing the first show at 10pm that night. Eeeek... we still haven't packed and I haven't been feeling all too well so I hope I'll be able to relax and enjoy the time we have there without feeling too grim.
And when we get back we'll be getting ready for the night we've organised, How To Say To at Bridport Art Centre (10th December) which we'll be opening with the Opera too. So that should be a jolly good festive night with lashings of mulled wine and mince pies!
And now... to round this little posty up, here's some random pics from over the past month or so...
A horse
Lavender
Liverpool
Lamps in Liverpool
Kids in venues hanging around.
Travelling in style on the trains with the heads.
Oblivian & Erik with the head.
Touring kids
During the show. Mr Phizmiz behind the projection.
Mr Phizmiz arresting Sergeant Dr Who.
I'll hopefully get some good images to put up from our trip to Holland. Now... my head's hurting again so I'm going to scoot.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Don't quite know where to begin.
We went.
We played.
We got reviewed.
In The Times.
And also here too. (Scroll down to The Thid Policeman)! Look! There's a little Moop mention, and about the masks too!!
We couldn't have asked for better really. The shows went very well indeed.
And here's the new tour poster:
Oh so many shows left! You can also look here for a gallery of photos, (by Claire Shovelton) of the second show we did in London.
We now have any empty(ish) house. The rest of The Gang of Rogues have retreated to their homelands. Think we're only just starting to feel slightly human again and drop back into reality.
So... this is a few little things we've been doing in the Phizmiz/Moopette household since getting back...
Eating HUGE strawberries
Cooking with my home grown chillies
And getting the kinder eggs ready for School
It's little boomeroo's first ever day at School next week!! And we shall be tying back Tally's new found thickest ever seven year old hair. We cut it short not so long ago and didn't expect it to spring up into such thick locks!
Some other little news... a good friend of mine is arriving today. That be Amie Willingale. This time last year, pretty much to the day, we went elderberry picking. We made some gin for Christmas time and it was wonderful. So we're going to be doing it again over the next few days.
Also, around this time last year we made this...
And I've got a few things up my sleeve, as I'd very much like to make another music video at the moment. So I might just rope dear sweet Amie into it again...
Still got little bits of making to do and the gentlemen are beginning with the rehearsals.
But here, is the process of the making of the last mask... well the last of the Policeman masks... still another little mask to make.
The second mask clean out the mould.
First coat of paint.
I love his nose.
Adding some bags and rosey cheeks.
Cheeky.
Cheek shading.
Starting to look a wee bit like Chaplin... or Hitler.
Isn't he looking just beautiful?
Chin chin.
And here they are together, the lovely pair.
So what do you think of these lovely fellas? Are you going to come to the Premiere?
But lastly... here's one of the masks that I had to take back to the workshop to get his moustache put on. You can see his moustache waiting to be put on, on the table above.
Rather fitting... if you know what I mean...
I had to walk through Bridport market to get to the workshop and with it being the summer hols, it was very packed! I got lots of funny looks and laughs on my way by.
Well, hope to see you there! Do say hello if you happen to come along. The tickets are only £6 per show, so if you happen to live or be in London, it would be great if you came along.
How do, all? I've been meaning to get this post up for a while now, but as usual with the many million things on my lists, it's not been happening.
So here I am. How've you all been? Any fabulous news you want to share with me? Makes? Bakes? Crafts?
Just wondering as I'd love a good ol' catch up. Been a bit blind recently with all the other things going on!
Here's a little update as to where to masks are at... click here to see where they were up to last time I posted about them...
After the plain pink first coat, I added darker colours in places to shade certain areas.
At this stage I was quite worried he looked like a drag queen!
But we wanted to make it look aged and like an old antique... so scrubbed away it with sandpaper
Being worn by the actor who is playing this character
The mask at this point is still not finished, as you'll see by the next photo. We wanted to try it on to see how well it fit. We will be padding out the bottom of it as it is a little painful on the shoulders. It is actually so much lighter than it looks as well. And we'll be putting eyeholes in it somewhere at some point too!
The next stage was painting over the whole thing with shellac to age it and also make it look more wooden and like an old toy. We were greatly inspired by punch and judy puppets and also Jan Svankmajer whose work we love.
Shellac'd
At first we were worried that it was too brown but this is because we couldn't get out of our minds how the first painted one looked. Out of context and left in the studio for a week or so, the colours seem to have faded slightly and it looks great. Apparently when people have been popping into see Mike in his workshop (where we've been making the mask) people genuinely were thinking it was a very old toy/mask/thing.
He is now currently sat in our front room window looking at passers by. I would take a photo but our SD card has just recently broken and won't let us use it anymore. Sure we'll have a new one soon!
Next up is giving this policeman a ginger moustache and eyebrows, padding out the inside and the neck of the mask and then painting the new mask up (for the 2nd policeman).
Tomorrow we'll be making a mould or two of bananas to make his moustache.
A little update on the masks... You may remember these previous posts about it HERE.
One is nearly finished. He still requires a large ginger moustache and eyebrows, but his look is pretty much finished otherwise.
And here's the process along the way...
Putting the resin and fibre glass into the mould
All of the sections of the mould together
And here he is!
So he needed a lot of picking at and scraping all the plaster from crevices and sanding down areas.
First coat of paint
Eyeeeeees
I have completed more of it than this, but I'll leave that for another post. Next was to give him more punch-and-judy-esque colouring and make him look a bit battered and like an old wooden toy.
And here's the other mask's ceramic head after taking the plaster mould off.
Unfortunately Friday's Foul Food Fotos at the moment are just going to have to come... when they come... so it can be a nice surprise when they do, as there's just too much going on at the moment to dedicate myself to it.
The mask I showed you last time is coming along very nicely. A plaster mould has already been made of it and this is what I got up to today...
Head in plaster.
Plaster front coming off.
And here the beauty is, ready to make the mask with.
He can breathe again.
But then I scraped his face away...
...to start Sergeant Pluck
I wanted him to be a lot thinner, so I pushed in his cheeks & added the paintbruch for his moustache.
Here he his! Although smiling too much... so I worked on him a bit more...
...but still wanted to keep the bulbous cheeks.
His nose reminds me of the child catcher.
That's a hell of a lot of spots! Think I got carried away a bit...
Some more news on the opera... we're on the Tête à Tête Opera Festival site! This is the first show, so if you're a London bunny, get your lovely selves down to see it and us. It's going to be amazing. Suppose I'm one of the Rogues... think they're right about that!
Here's a short clip to give you all a little peep into the world of Ergo Phizmiz's Opera, The Third Policeman.
And here's all the dates if you're elsewhere in the world and would like to catch a glimpse of it.
Click me to see!
On Thursday it should be time to actually make the masks and then on Friday I shall be painting them. Can't wait to see what they're like.
Two of the cast are coming over very soon and will be able to try them on. These include Erik Bumbledonk, who played Chris Evans in Phizmiz's last opera, The Mourning Show and Oblivian Substanshall who has just been released on Chinstrap by Ergo.
Talking of Oblivian Substanshall... has just reminded me of this little groovy number...
Ergo, Oblivian and myself... fed up one morning (see video description) found a CD of Abba... and got a bit carried away...
And last but not least!!!
I recently went to Soundart Radio and made some animations with a group of kids. Here is one of the videos made.
They worked really well and made this beautiful piece. There's lots more of these to come too.
Well... I'm off out for an evening bike ride now. Thankfully the sun's showing it's face.
