#tim parkinson

[jgthirlwell]

LONDON! JG Thirlwell + Ensemble will be performing at Bush Hall in London on August 12 2023. JG Thirlwell + Ensemble perform chamber versions of Foetus songs and more. This iteration of the ensemble will feature the incredible players Angharad Davies (violin, viola), Emilia Agajew (harp), Tim Parkinson (piano), Simon Hanes (acoustic guitar, bass) and Adam Morris (drums and percussion) with JG Thirlwell on vocals. Opening act is a special duo set from Microcorps (Alexander Tucker) & Kenichi Iwasa.

Update : tonight's show is sold out! See you there!

[kitmarlowe]

PLODDING ON “At the end of the day, Steve, it's just a television programme. It will be on and then it won't be on.”

[thehistoryone]

That was so flipping beautiful oh my god. I'm not gonna stop talking about that EVER. All the cast coming back together(I actually screamed when I saw Katherine Parkinson),the CALLBACKS shshahahahhaha. I love this show so much and I'm so sad it's over but also soso happy to see them go out with a bang

[cliffexcellent]

Leaked scene from Taskmaster series 17

[kbaker1431]

Genuinely bawling my eyes out over the last episode of Inside No.9.

Was like watching them get a divorce.

Really started to cry when Mark appeared.

(On the inside, obviously, people already think I'm weird.)

What am I going to do with my life now?

[brittasfan]

The Brittas Empire as Reductress Headlines

[local-blog-for-local-people]

Inside No. 9

Series 1, Episode 1 - Sardines 

[tothelightsource]

Inside no. 9 - Sardines [ep 1 s1] - 2014

[downthetubes]

The Beatles Story Museum is on the hunt for the Fab Four’s cartoon and comic appearances

The Beatles Story Museum is on the hunt for cartoon and comic appearances featuring the Fab Four

The Beatles Story Museum in Liverpool is working on building a collection of all the comic book and comic appearances featuring the Fab Four, assisted by comics writer and author, Tim Quinn. Last year, they unveiled a new addition to the collection – the final issue of The Dandy, featuring Sir Paul McCartney, and the unseen storyboard for both the featured comic and Nigel’s shelved “Little Sir…

[twitchywoman]

What is your favorite book about Parkinson's?

I am thrilled that the House has come together today to take a transformative step to fight Parkinson’s and atypical Parkinson’s which would save lives and give families like mine hope Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton (D-VA), diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a form of atypical Parkinsonism First, the great news! This week, the Senate unamimously passed the National Plan to End…

[stellasstones]

Haiku for Parkinson's: Interview-Tim Roberts

The second installment of Haiku for Parkinson’s is the interview of a British poet, now living in New Zealand, Tim Roberts. Tim describes his haiku practice and the ways it helps him with his Parkinson’s symptoms. It has not been an easy ride. He says: I had to stop work shortly after being diagnosed. I was adrift. I didn’t have any real hobbies and lost my identity. I felt rudderless and…

[jgthirlwell]

LONDON! JG Thirlwell + Ensemble will be performing at Bush Hall in London on August 12 2023. JG Thirlwell + Ensemble perform chamber versions of Foetus songs and more. This iteration of the ensemble will feature Angharad Davies (violin, viola), Emilia Agajew (harp), Tim Parkinson (piano), Simon Hanes (acoustic guitar, bass) and Adam Morris (drums and percussion) with JG Thirlwell on vocals. Tickets are available at here . Buy now to avoid disappointment. See you there!

[fuckyeahgoodomens]

Oooh! A great Gavin Finney (Good Omens Director of Photography) interview with Helen Parkinson for the British Cinematographer! :)

HEAVEN SENT

Gifted a vast creative landscape from two of fantasy’s foremost authors to play with, Gavin Finney BSC reveals how he crafted the otherworldly visuals for Good Omens 2.  

It started with a letter from beyond the grave. Following fantasy maestro Sir Terry Pratchett’s untimely death in 2015, Neil Gaiman decided he wouldn’t adapt their co-authored 1990 novel, Good Omens, without his collaborator. That was, until he was presented with a posthumous missive from Pratchett asking him to do just that.  

For Gaiman, it was a request that proved impossible to decline: he brought Good Omens season one to the screen in 2019, a careful homage to its source material. His writing, complemented by some inspired casting – David Tennant plays the irrepressible demon Crowley, alongside Michael Sheen as angel-slash-bookseller Aziraphale – and award-nominated visuals from Gavin Finney BSC, proved a potent combination for Prime Video viewers.  

Aziraphale’s bookshop was a set design triumph.

Season two departs from the faithful literary adaptation of its predecessor, instead imagining what comes next for Crowley and Aziraphale. Its storyline is built off a conversation that Pratchett and Gaiman shared during a jetlagged stay in Seattle for the 1989 World Fantasy Convention. Gaiman remembers: “The idea was always that we would tell the story that Terry and I came up with in 1989 in Seattle, but that we would do that in our own time and in our own way. So, once Good Omens (S1) was done, all I knew was that I really, really wanted to tell the rest of the story.” 

Telling that story visually may sound daunting, but cinematographer Finney is no stranger to the wonderfully idiosyncratic world of Pratchett and co. As well as lensing Good Omens’ first outing, he’s also shot three other Pratchett stories – TV mini series  Hogfather  (2006), and TV mini-series The Colour of Magic (2008) and Going Postal (2010). 

He relishes how the authors provide a vast creative landscape for him to riff off. “The great thing about Pratchett and Gaiman is that there’s no limit to what you can do creatively – everything is up for grabs,” he muses. “When we did the first Pratchett films and the first Good Omens, you couldn’t start by saying, ‘Okay, what should this look like?’, because nothing looks like Pratchett’s world. So, you’re starting from scratch, with no references, and that starting point can be anything you want it to be.”  

Season two saw the introduction of inside-outside sets for key locations including Aziraphale’s bookshop. 

From start to finish 

The sole DP on the six-episode season, Finney was pleased to team up again with returning director Douglas Mackinnon for the “immensely complicated” shoot, and the pair began eight weeks of prep in summer 2021. A big change was the production shifting the main soho set from Bovington airfield, near London, up to Edinburgh’s Pyramids Studio. Much of the action in Good Omens takes place on the Soho street that’s home to Aziraphale’s bookshop, which was built as an exterior set on the former airfield for season one. Season two, however, saw the introduction of inside-outside sets for key locations including the bookshop, record store and pub, to minimise reliance on green screen.  

Finney brought over many elements of his season one lensing, especially Mackinnon’s emphasis on keeping the camera moving, which involved lots of prep and testing. “We had a full-time Scorpio 45’ for the whole shoot (run by key grip Tim Critchell and his team), two Steadicam operators (A camera – Ed Clark and B camera Martin Newstead) all the way through, and in any one day we’d often go from Steadicam, to crane, to dolly and back again,” he says. “The camera is moving all the time, but it’s always driven by the story.” 

One key difference for season two, however, was the move to large-format visuals. Finney tested three large-format cameras and the winner was the Alexa LF (assisted by the Mini LF where conditions required), thanks to its look and flexibility.  

The minisodes were shot on Cooke anamorphics, giving Finney the ideal balance of anamorphic-style glares and characteristics without too much veiling flare.

A more complex decision was finding the right lenses for the job. “You hear about all these whizzy new lenses that are re-barrelled ancient Russian glass, but I needed at least two full sets for the main unit, then another set for the second unit, then maybe another set again for the VFX unit,” Finney explains. “If you only have one set of this exotic glass, it’s no good for the show.” 

He tested a vast array of lenses before settling on Zeiss Supremes, supplied by rental house Media Dog. These ticked all the boxes for the project: “They had a really nice look – they’re a modern design but not over sharp, which can look a bit electronic and a bit much, especially with faces. When you’re dealing with a lot of wigs and prosthetics, we didn’t want to go that sharp. The Supremes had a very nice colour palette and nice roll-off. They’re also much smaller than a lot of large-format glass, so that made it easy for Steadicam and remote cranes. They also provided additional metadata, which was very useful for the VFX department (VFX services were provided by Milk VFX).” 

The Supremes were paired with a selection of filters to characterise the show’s varied locations and characters. For example, Tiffen Bronze Glimmerglass were paired with bookshop scenes; Black Pro-Mist was used for Hell; and Black Diffusion FX for Crowley’s present-day storyline.  

Finney worked closely with the show’s DIT, Donald MacSween, and colourist, Gareth Spensley, to develop the look for the minisode.

Maximising minisodes 

Episodes two, three and four of season two each contain a ‘minisode’ – an extended flashback set in Biblical times, 1820s Edinburgh and wartime London respectively. “Douglas wanted the minisodes to have very strong identities and look as different from the present day as possible, so we’d instantly know we were in a minisode and not the present day,” Finney explains.  

One way to shape their distinctive look was through using Cooke anamorphic lenses. As Finney notes: “The Cookes had the right balance of controllable, anamorphic-style flares and characteristics without having so much veiling flare that they would be hard to use on green screens. They just struck the right balance of aesthetics, VFX requirements and availability.” The show adopted the anamorphic aspect ratio (2:39.1), an unusual move for a comedy, but one which offered them more interesting framing opportunities. 

Good Omens 2 was shot on the Alexa LF, paired with Zeiss Supremes for the present-day scenes.

The minisodes were also given various levels of film grain to set them apart from the present-day scenes. Finney first experimented with this with the show’s DIT Donald MacSween using the DaVinci Resolve plugin FilmConvert. Taking that as a starting point, the show’s colourist, Company 3’s Gareth Spensley, then crafted his own film emulation inspired by two-strip Technicolor. “There was a lot of testing in the grade to find the look for these minisodes, with different amounts of grain and different types of either Technicolor three-strip or two-strip,” Finney recalls. “Then we’d add grain and film weave on that, then on top we added film flares. In the Biblical scenes we added more dust and motes in the air.”  

Establishing the show’s lighting was a key part of Finney’s testing process, working closely with gaffer Scott Napier and drawing upon PKE Lighting’s inventory. Good Omens’ new Scottish location posed an initial challenge: as the studio was in an old warehouse rather than being purpose-built for filming, its ceilings weren’t as high as one would normally expect. This meant Finney and Napier had to work out a low-profile way of putting in a lot of fixtures. 

Inside Crowley’s treasured Bentley.

Their first task was to test various textiles, LED wash lights and different weight loadings, to establish what they were working with for the street exteriors. “We worked out that what was needed were 12 SkyPanels per 20’x20’ silk, so each one was a block of 20’x20’, then we scaled that up,” Finney recalls. “I wanted a very seamless sky, so I used full grid cloth which made it very, very smooth. That was important because we’ve got lots of cars constantly driving around the set and the sloped windscreens reflect the ceiling. So we had to have seamless textiles – PKE had to source around 12,000 feet of textiles so that we could put them together, so the reflections in the windscreens of the cars just showed white gridcloth rather than lots of stage lights. We then drove the car around the set to test it from different angles.”  

On the floor, they mostly worked with LEDs, providing huge energy and cost savings for the production. Astera’s Titan Tubes came in handy for a fun flashback scene with John Hamm’s character Gabriel. The DP remembers: “[Gabriel] was travelling down a 30-foot feather tunnel. We built a feather tunnel on the stage and wrapped it in a ring of Astera tubes, which were then programmed by dimmer op Jon Towler to animate, pulse and change different colours. Each part of Gabriel’s journey through his consciousness has a different colour to it.” 

Among the rigs built was a 20-strong Creamsource Vortex setup for the graveyard scene in the “Body Snatchers” minisode, shot in Stirling. “We took all the yokes off each light then put them on a custom-made aluminium rig so we could have them very close. We put them up on a big telehandler on a hill that gave me a soft mood light, which was very adjustable, windproof and rainproof.” 

Shooting on the VP stage for the birth of the universe scenes in episode one.

Sky’s the limit 

A lot of weather effects were done in camera – including lightning effects pulsed in that allowed both direct fork lightning and sheet lightning to spread down the streets. In the grade, colourist Spensley was also able to work his creative magic on the show’s skies. “Gareth is a very artistic colourist – he’s a genius at changing skies,” Finney says. “Often in the UK you get these very boring, flat skies, but he’s got a library of dramatic skies that you can drop in. That would usually be done by VFX, but he’s got the ability to do it in Baselight, so a flat sky suddenly becomes a glorious sunset.” 

Finney emphasises that the grade is a very involved process for a series like Good Omens, especially with its VFX-heavy nature. “This means VFX sequences often need extra work when it comes back into the timeline,” says the DP. “So, we often add camera movement or camera shake to crank the image up a bit. Having a colourist like Gareth is central to a big show like Good Omens, to bring all the different visual elements together and to make it seamless. It’s quite a long grade process but it’s worth its weight in gold.” 

Shooting in the VR cube for the blitz scenes .

Finney took advantage of virtual production (VP) technology for the driving scenes in Crowley’s classic Bentley. The volume was built on their Scottish set: a 4x7m cube with a roof that could go up and down on motorised winches as needed. “We pulled the cars in and out on skates – they went up on little jacks, which you could then rotate and move the car around within the volume,” he explains. “We had two floating screens that we could move around to fill in and use as additional source lighting. Then we had generated plates – either CGI or real location plates –projected 360º around the car. Sometimes we used the volume in-camera but if we needed to do more work downstream; we’d use a green screen frustum.” Universal Pixels collaborated with Finney to supply in-camera VFX expertise, crew and technical equipment for the in-vehicle driving sequences and rear projection for the crucial car shots. 

John Hamm was suspended in the middle of this lighting rig and superimposed into the feather tunnel.

Interestingly, while shooting at a VP stage in Leith, the team also used the volume as a huge, animated light source in its own right – a new technique for Finney. “We had the camera pointing away from [the volume] so the screen provided this massive, IMAX-sized light effect for the actors. We had a simple animation of the expanding universe projected onto the screen so the actors could actually see it, and it gave me the animated light back on the actors.”  

Bringing such esteemed authors’ imaginations to the screen is no small task, but Finney was proud to helped bring Crowley and Aziraphale’s adventures to life once again. He adds: “What’s nice about Good Omens, especially when there’s so much bad news in the world, is that it’s a good news show. It’s a very funny show. It’s also about good and evil, love and doing the right thing, people getting together irrespective of backgrounds. It’s a hopeful message, and I think that that’s what we all need.” 

Finney is no stranger to the idiosyncratic world of Sir Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

[shortqueershakespeare]

Taskmaster S1-17 contestants and how they'd feel about tumblr

[IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A tier list ranking the taskmaster contestants from series 1 to 17 and little Alex Horne by their relationship to tumblr

Tier one, a purple square that says "would run their own fan blog of themselves": This tier has a picture of Alex Horne

Tier two, a red square that says "Shameless tumblr girlie (gender neutral)": This tier has pictures of Sam Campbell, Joe Lycett, Joanne McNally, Lucy Beaumont, Lou Sanders, Desiree Burch, Morgana Robinson, Sophie Duker, Sally Phillips, Aisling Bea, Fern Brady, Mae Martin, Mawaan Rizwan and Alice Levine.

Tier three, an orange square that says "has a tumblr but would die of shame if anyone knew": This tier has pictures of Joe Thomas, Rose Matafeo, Ivo Graham, Susan Wokoma and Josh Widdicombe.

Tier four, a dark yellow square that says "would know how tumblr works": This tier has pictures of Nish Kumar, Richard Osman, Iain Stirling, Ed Gamble, Katherine Ryan, Kiell Smith-Bynoe, Munya Chawawa, Paul Chowdry and Katy Wix.

Tier five, a light yellow square that says "aware of tumblr's existence": This tier has pictures of John Robins, Tim Key, Charlotte Ritchie, Lolly Adefope, Phil Wang, Jess Knappett and Sara Pascoe.

Tier six, a light green square that says "would enjoy the concept of tumblr": This tier has pictures of Hugh Dennis, Asim Chaudhry, Liza Tarbuck, Sian Gibson, Joe Wilkinson, Rhod Gilbert, Noel Fielding, Sarah Millican, Chris Ramsey, Ardal O'Hanlan, Steve Pemberton, Sarah Kendall, Richard Herring, Al Murray, Dara O'Briain, Diasy May Cooper, Dave Gorman and Russell Howard.

Tier seven, a dark green square that says "has absolutely no idea what tumblr is": This tier has pictures of Bridget Christie, Johnny Vega, Mark Watson, Roisin Conaty, Sophie Willan, Bob Mortimer, Julian Clary, Sue Perkins, Frank Skinner, Paul Sinha, Mike Woziak, Jamali Maddix, Judi Love, Jo Brand, David Baddiel, Alan Davies, Kerry Godliman, John Kearns, Lee Mack, Rob Beckett and Romesh Ranganathan.

Tier eight, a turquoise square that says "would be actively horrified by tumblr": This tier has pictures of Jon Richardson, Mel Giedroyc, Doc Brown, Tim Vine, Nick Mohammed, Katherine Parkinson, Jenny Eclair, Frankie Boyle, Victoria Coren Mitchell, James Acaster and Guz Khan.

END OF IMAGE DESCRIPTION]

[aimeedaisies]

“If you are ever approached by someone called Tim Laurence for a game of golf and he tells you he has a handicap of 18, play for fun, not money” lmao 😂

Evert time I see that picture of Tim in a golf tournament I think about that Anne quote that she'd rather take the dog out for a walk.. lol

Lol I know, it’s cute that she still went along with him even though she clearly hates golf.

Here’s a golden article that @annewindsors shared with me where Michael Parkinson talks about playing alongside Tim, and how Anne took pity on him and wanted to help carry his clubs because he was so bad 😂