tagged w/ pipes
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http://www.youtube.com/user/WillowCreekPictures
Since 1947, the Edinburgh Festival Cavalcade has taken place in Edinburgh to signal the start of the Fringe Festival. The cavalcade is a parade made up from the performers of the Fringe in addition to local community groups and marching bands which includes the cast of the world renowned Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. The event takes place at the beginning of August annually and atracts many thousands of visitors visiting Scotland and local families and groups of friends. Despite occuring every year since it's inception, for the first time in it's history, the cavalcade did not take place in 2011 due to a lack of funding to support the event. Hopefully, the event will return in the future. Rumours have been around stating that the cavalcade may now become a two year event which would be possible with current funding available for staging the event.
I have always been a spectator to the event and so I wanted to try and gain an opportunity to film the event on the ground. To achieve this, I approached cavalcade Director, David Todd firstly in 2008 to seek permission to shoot the event. He gladly accepted and I took along my Hi8 camera to record the event. It wasn't until the following summer that David got in contact with me again to record the event a second time of the parade to take place during August, 2009.
My aim was to create a better video of the event than the one I produced in 2008 so I decided that using multi cameras might cover the event in more detail. I've been a member of the Edinburgh Cine & Video Society since 2006 so I posted an ad at the club to see if anyone would like to help collaborate with me on the project as a Camera Operator. The response was good initially where I managed to get together a team of five to record the event.
To gain the best coverage, I put together a very rough diagram of where I wanted to position cameras. One of the members of the team, Peter Dick wanted to try out his new HDV camera at a height so he ended up filming the parade from the Crags in Holyrood Park which produced some excellent results. I particularly enjoyed the shots of the Scottish Parliament in the background and the marching bands seen from afar.
Two of the Camera Operators were positioned on the ground within the parade route which included me. When I arrived a couple of hours before the event, me and Bob Bell, another ECVS member picked up some orange high visibility vests to alert people that we were filming. I quite liked having this as it made me feel more professional. Getting close to performers during filming was a good idea where between us we managed to gain some interesting, comical shots of the performers. Bob Bell managed to capture some shots of the crowds waving and smiling which added a community feel to the video. I especially liked his sneaky shot of a woman singing Batman where she obvisouly seems oblivious to the fact that she's being filmed, only to realize that she is at the last moment.
I enjoyed one of my shots where I weaved in between the Massed Pipes and Drums which I think adds excitement to the video. Another memorable moment for me was filming the Swiss Army band which were kind enough to march in a circle around a roundabout in order for a badly placed crowd to see some action. They loved the band for giving them a photo opportunity. Being able to follow the bands behind them worked well too for giving the audience an unsual look at the performers in my opinion. Bob managed to get a shot of the pipers by using a monopod lifted high in the air which created an interesting look. I found that when filming the bands, you have to be on your feet, watching out for where they are marching to and you have to make sure you don't get hit by a drum major's mace. Another of my shots which worked well was a pan shot on the ground of Royal Air Force Pipes and Drums which added another different perspective to the video. I also found that Chinese Dragons are easy to get tangled up in when filming!
There were two other Camera Operators who filmed the event really for fun which were Ann Sutherland and Jim Close, also members of the Edinburgh Cine and Video Society. Their cameras could only film footage in the 4:3 format so I never used any of the footage from their cameras. Their footage wasn't useable anyway in comparison with the footage from the other three cameras as their positions were within the crowds and the shots weren't very glamarous.
The Post Production stage was a challenging one. The three cameras were quite different from each other, one shooting HDV and the other two SD where Bob's Canon's video quality was superior to my P2 HVX200 I managed to borrow with permission from my college lecturer from Jewel & Esk College, Gerard Lohan. When placing some of the clips on the timeline, Peter's HDV footage played back at slow motion and featured a flickering motion. After a few days of frustration, I managed to set the correct frame field options for rendering within Sony Vegas and produce a good mpeg 2 video master mixing SD with HDV. At the time of producing the video, I was using the Platinum version of Sony Vegas which doesn't support 16:9 export! Sadly, this video should have been exported as 16:9 so I've been left with a letterboxed 16:9 video unfortunately with no option to create a proper 16:9 version. It happens. Having multiple coverage made it easier to cut the marching band segments to music as I could use a high angle shot followed by footage from the ground. I used some crossfading techniques to create the illusion that the shots occurred during the same march when in reality, the footage was taken from various different parts.
The music overlaid over the community floats section of the video was composed by Kevin MacLeod from incomptech.com, well known for providing royalty free music online licensed under the creative commons license. In addition to the video quality difference between the cameras me and Bob had, the sound quality was different too where it was much more muffled on my HVX200 and the video was softer. To compensate, I had to carry out some colour correction and adjust the sound levels although for my footage, the sound recorded just wasn't high enough in comparison with Bob's onboard microphone.
Looking back the day, it was interesting to film some of the Harley Davidson motorcycles prior to the start of the parade. Maybe in the future, I could think about recording some vox pops with some of the participants and carry out an interview with the cavalcade director to add some insight into the event. I chose not to include commentary in the video so that the viewer could enjoy the music more without interruption. I'm not sure if it needs a bit commentary in some places, I think I was right to choose not to for the marching bands. The captions seemed to work well with telling the audience about the group without spoiling the music.
Some interesting facts about the day; Bob Bell had an interesting discussion with a retired police officer he used to work with and he also spoke with a woman from the states which made for some interesting conversation. I was also offered some cheese from a member of the crowd which was delicious. There were a few other crews about on the day where I spoke to some of the photographers although even today, I'm unsure of who they were working for.
Let me know your own thoughts and opinions after viewing the video and post your comments here. If you have any suggestions for future projects too then don't be afraid to tell me them.
Article written by Alan Andrew Taylor, © 2011 Willow Creek Pictures
You are free to distribute this article under creative commons 3.0 attribution non commercially through other social media links, just ensure that you give me a credit.http://www.youtube.com/user/WillowCreekPictures
Since 1947, the Edinburgh Festival... more
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November 26th, 2010
09:08 AM ET
Secondhand smoke kills 600,000 worldwide annually
1 in 100 people around the world die from secondhand smoke each year, a new study reveals, and nearly two-thirds of the deaths occur in children.
Health officials have known that more than 1 billion people around the world smoke and 5 million people die each year from tobacco-related illness, according to the World Health Organization. That's about one person dying every six seconds.
But just how many people are sickened by secondhand smoke has been less clear, which led researchers to try to investigate how big the problem is. Based on 2004 data gathered from 192 countries, researchers estimate "as many as 40 percent of children, 35 percent of women, and 33 percent of men are regularly exposed to secondhand smoke indoors," according to a WHO study published in the British medical journal The Lancet.
"Tobacco use is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced," says the WHO. More than 80 percent of the more than 1 billion smokers worldwide live in low- and middle-income countries, where the burden of tobacco-related illness and death is heaviest. The study authors estimate that 165,000 children under the age of 5 die each year from lower respiratory infections caused by second-hand smoke – and most of these deaths occur in Africa and south Asia.
Just two months ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report that found more than half of children in the United States, between ages 3 and 11 show signs in their blood of exposure to secondhand smoke. Previous studies have found that even extremely low levels of exposure to cigarette smoke produced detectable abnormal genetic activity in these cells.
The more than 1 billion smokers are exposing billions of non-smokers to one of the top indoor pollutants according to the WHO. Researchers believe more needs to be done to create complete smoke-free indoor environments at work, in public places and on public transportation. Jonathan Samet and Heather Wipfli, two leading public health experts from the University of Southern California say their research from 31 countries found that 88 percent of parents who smoked did so at home and that over 80 percent smoked near their children. In an accompanying commentary, they emphasize the need for smoke-free homes, which can help lower the number of people sickened and dying from someone else's smoke.
Wipfli and Samet say educating and empowering women can make a big difference is protecting children and non-smoking adults from the deadly effects of secondhand smoke. "Few sources of indoor air pollution can be completely eliminated. However, smoking indoors can be eliminated," they say.November 26th, 2010
09:08 AM ET
Secondhand smoke kills 600,000 worldwide annually... more
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The remnants of used cigarettes, among the world's most common form of trash, leak chemicals that have been shown to kill fish and damage the environment. The problem could be alleviated if new uses are found for the cigarette butts.
"When people walk on the streets, they usually see cigarette butts scattered everywhere, on the ground or the grass," said Jun Zhao, a Ph.D. student at the Xi'an Jiaotong University, by telephone. "I felt it was quite significant to do a project related to environmental protection."
The study is particularly relevant to China, where about 30 percent of the world's smokers live, a number roughly equal to the entire U.S. population. The country is home to both the world's largest tobacco grower and cigarette producer.
Zhao and other researchers in northwest China said Friday they have found that cigarette butts soaked in water can help guard against corrosion in a type of steel commonly used in the oil industry.
The finding was recently published in the American Chemical Society journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research.
Zhao said she started the research after noticing that cigarette butts turn the color of water brown when immersed in it, like the color of antiseptics. "That inspired me to wonder if the two are related," she said.
The researcher started collecting cigarette butts for the project around 18 months ago, picking them up from ashtrays atop roadside trash cans and collecting them from friends whom she had asked to save the butts.
"I have bags and bags of cigarette butts for the project. I have no idea how many of them I have," she said.
Researchers found that extracts of cigarette butt water could substantially protect N80 type steel from corroding when in hydrochloric acid at 90 degrees Celsius (194 degrees F). That type of steel is often used to make drill rods, which costs oil producers millions of dollars annually when they corrode.
A compound material produced from the burning of nicotine and tar is what protects against corrosion, Zhao said, adding she planned to study its effect on preventing rusting in other metals.
The findings are "very convincing," said Guy D. Davis, a materials consultant based in Baltimore, Maryland, with 30 years of experience researching the treatment of surfaces.
Together with another researcher, Davis has previously studied the use of tobacco extracts on steel and aluminum. "Tobacco seems to be one of the best plant-based inhibitors" of corrosion, Davis said.
But using tobacco to guard against metal corrosion has its limitations, Davis said, including that it acts as a nutrient for mold over time and "develops an obnoxious odor."The remnants of used cigarettes, among the world's most common form of trash,... more
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"The pipes that keep America’s drinking water circulating and the treatment facilities that keep it clean are falling apart.
Degrading water systems are now causing more than half of all waterborne disease outbreaks in the U.S. A common bacteria associated with leaking water pipes, fecal coliform bacteria, is not a merely unpleasant – it can be deadly for children and the elderly.
Sewage-contaminated water also sickens swimmers and poisons seafood, which when eaten by humans leads to more illnesses – as many as two million per year.
The American Society of Civil Engineers has given our water and wastewater infrastructure systems a D- grade, and the Environmental Protection Agency reports we are falling short on water infrastructure spending by $22 billion per year.
In short, we’re facing a looming crisis of clean water.
Fortunately there is a solution: the Water Protection and Reinvestment Trust Fund, currently before Congress. This bill would create a dedicated source of public funding so that communities across America can keep their water clean, safe and affordable."
Take action and sign the petition:
http://www.change.org/actions/view/tell_congress_to_keep_toxic_sewage_out_of_american_drinking_water
Join the Organic Revolution:
http://current.com/groups/organicgreen/"The pipes that keep America’s drinking water circulating and the treatment... more
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There’s no tactful way to relate this story, so here it is: A UK man got his penis so horribly stuck inside of a steel pipe Tuesday that it took seven firefighters and a metal grinder to get it out. The man had initially been rushed to a hospital, but doctors were unable to remove the pipe because restricted blood flow had caused the penis to become too aroused, the Sun reports.
It took firefighters 30 minutes to cut the pipe off, leaving the penis within bruised and swollen, but otherwise unharmed.
http://www.newser.com/story/77709/man-gets-penis-stuck-in-steel-pipe-firemen-called.htmlThere’s no tactful way to relate this story, so here it is: A UK man got his... more
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Arctic cold temperatures over the last week have resulted in 70 waterline freezes and or bursts across the capital city of Jackson, Mississippi.Arctic cold temperatures over the last week have resulted in 70 waterline freezes and... more
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Honestly, we're surprised that this doesn't already exist: Tribudesign, a young Lebanese firm, has secured a distributor for White, which is basically a bong that looks like an iPod.
Maybe bong is too cavalier a word. It's supposed to be a hookah, and it's going to be distributed by Airdiem, a Parisian company that appears to specialize in high-end Persian smokers.
White is made of a palette that includes stainless steel, acrylic, and leather, and that's more healthful because those materials are easier to clean and would thus produce less marijuana resin carcinogenic tobacco soot. Its slim design also makes it easily stashable. And if that isn't enough, you can just throw it next to your computer in a pinch, and pray that the cops mistake it for a USB drive.
http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/cliff-kuang/design-innovation/sign-times-bong-fit-mac-loversHonestly, we're surprised that this doesn't already exist: Tribudesign, a... more
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Only college kids smoke out of hand-blown bowls with swirly colors. Adults spend their hard-earned money on well-designed products made of stainless steel, acrylic and leather. This thing is the perfect compliment to the Volcano.
http://www.yankodesign.com/2009/11/13/minimalistic-water-pipe/Only college kids smoke out of hand-blown bowls with swirly colors. Adults spend their... more
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This once sleepy aboriginal community, 20 kilometres south of last week's oilfield bombings, is now criss-crossed by pipelines and main street has turned into a highway. There are five wellsites within the two-kilometre-square community and a sour gas separating plant just four kilometres north.
This once sleepy aboriginal community, 20 kilometres south of last week's... more
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The internet could soon be made obsolete by a new "grid" system which is 10,000 times faster than broadband connections. Scientists in Switzerland have developed a lightning-fast replacement to the internet that would allow feature films and music catalogues to be downloaded within seconds, and the human brain to be downloaded into the world of a computer and forced to participate in gladiatorial games where your only chance of escape is with the help of a heroic security program.
(edit: I may have nicked that last bit about downloading brains from the synopsis to the movie 'Tron'. Zing!)The internet could soon be made obsolete by a new "grid" system which is... more
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