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Beginners Guide to Birmingham Theatre
November 6 2010 (1 year ago)
Want to see more theatre in Birmingham but clueless about where to look? Embarrassed to ask for fear of being labelled culturally inept? Fear not, for I asked the questions first, because there’s no point us all looking stupid!
I’m taking a class on writing for the stage at the NAW this winter so I decided to research the main venues in Birmingham, preparing for the inevitable post-class small-talk and giving myself half a chance at avoiding looking like a blubbering donkey (…sorry, I’m trying really hard not to swear). Quietly and pleasantly pleased at their diversity (keep watching lovebrum.org) I present the Beginners Guide to Birmingham Theatre, a venerable cheat sheet of the where’s where, their vital stats and the kind of performances you can expect to find.
Hippodrome
birminghamhippodrome.com | 1,900 seats | Hurst Street, B5 4TB (map) | 0844 338 5000
Apparently this venue has the highest regular attendance of any single theatre in the UK, bigger (think west end) productions with an emphasis on musical theatre, opera and ballet. Expect well polished, touring, and many previously proven shows with large budgets. Home to the Birmingham Royal Ballet and a regular venue for the Welsh National Opera.
Alexandra
alexandratheatre.org.uk | 1,347 seats | Station Street, B5 4DS (map) | 0844 847 2302
Part of the Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG), the largest theatre operator in the world; “…international stature combined with core local values”, apparently. Big budget touring productions of all varieties peppered with engagements from local groups seeking a larger stage, such as WBOS and The REP.
More after the jump…
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permalinkBake Your GPU Back to Life
August 15 2010 (1 year ago)
The GPU in one of my machines died last week – vertical red tears in the image and BSODs all over the display stack. I googled the behaviour to see whether it was a common issue and to my surprise a number of people were proposing a bizzare fix…
Baking a graphics card? I never would have thought of it but you can see how it might just work. Heat the card up to the point where the solder reaches melting point and then let it cool down again – repairing micro-fissures that may exist in connections that could be causing a problem.
Well it worked for me and lots of others so why not you? It’s using the same principles of a manufacturing process called reflow – read how after the break!
10SR: Predators
August 8 2010 (1 year ago)
The 10 second review: because nobody has time to read about Adrian Brody.
plot predators game reserve – drop in hard guys (literally)
good because it’s a return to authentic suspense
bad because it’s visually dull
and? don’t mess with Brody!
verdict: 6 / 10 – predictable but entertaining, could have been worse
View the Trailer
Look This Film Up on IMDb
[crew] Producer – Robert Rodriguez, Director – Nimród Antal, Writer – Alex Livatak, Cinematographer – Gylua Pados [cast] Adrian Brody, Topher Grace, Alice Braga [technical] Budget – $40 (£25), Opening Weekend – $24.8 (£15.5), Distrbutors – Twentieth Century Fox, Length – 107min (US), Aspect – 2.35:1, Camera – Panavision Genesis.
previewing; Resident Evil: Afterlife (looks OK but lets face it, I’m going to see Leeloo anyway), I’m sure there were more but we got there late!
WordPress IIS7 Large File Upload HTTP Error
July 4 2010 (1 year ago)
I came across the above error while setting up a podcast for Hot Ginger recently and the solution was’nt simple. The information is out there but it was a combination of a number of suggestions that eventually worked.
Assuming you already have uploads working in the WP media library (and therfore your basic configuration is correct) there are three configuration steps needed to enable support for large files with WordPress running on IIS7.
IIS Settings (web.config)
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
<system.webServer>
<security>
<requestFiltering>
<requestLimits maxAllowedContentLength="2000000000" />
</requestFiltering>
</security>
</system.webServer>
</configuration>
Digital Cinema Formats Uncovered
May 7 2010 (1 year ago)
I love Photoshop. It’s not just an application, it’s a special club that has no entrance requirements but takes years to join none the less. The average consumer sees a Photoshop’d image at least 25 times every day, where would we be without it? Go Adobe!
I know. It’s a thing of beauty isn’t it.
Go ahead, right click, save to desktop, keep it somewhere safe. It’s why I made it.
In an upcoming post I’ll explain exactly how you calculate all this stuff, but until then you’ll just have to enjoy the facts and read my geek!
Top 10 Greatest Screenwriting Quotes
April 4 2010 (1 year ago)
As voted by me, and all of my self. Motivational, inspirational and every other ‘tional’ that matters great quotes help us all be greater (and yes at the back, great is roughly equal to awesome – within a few decimal places).
I love top tens. This one was compiled while I set about unselfishly and unequivocally proving that Google can’t point you in the direction of a Final Draft plug-in that auto-generates scene 17, scanning back through your epic adventure and deriving exactly how the mysterious blonde could save the penguin from the blender.
Anyway, on to the quotes – and yes, before anyone points out that the list contains some people that aren’t actually screenwriters – I know. Glad you’re awake, but they are relevant all the same!
- [ 10 ] Always be yourself…unless you suck - Joss Whedon
- [ 09 ] You can make a movie about anything, as long as it has a hook to hang the advertising on - Roger Corman
- [ 08 ] There are no dull subjects, only dull writers - H. L. Mencken
- [ 07 ] A lot of times you get credit for stuff in your movies you didn’t intend to be there - Spike Lee
- [ 06 ] First get your facts, then distort them at your leisure - Mark Twain
Don’t stop there, click through for the top five!
Flatpack Festival 2010, Starts Next Week!
March 12 2010 (1 year ago)
From the 23rd to 28th of March, in the heady location of Digbeth (?!), one of the UKs most forward thinking film festivals will bring an eclectic mix of new and classic screen based media to the midland massive for its fourth year.
I can’t believe this is the first year I’ll be attending this festival, I’m almost ashamed. Opening in St. Martins Church and visiting the Electric, Ikon Eastside, Vivid and a few other underground venues I’m anticipating personal highlights for me to include 1927 Sunrise accompanied by live music, Modulate and Short & Sweet (if I’m lucky!).
Find out what it’s all about, take a peek at the programme and book some tickets over at www.flatpackfestival.org.uk.
If you are at a screening between the 25th and 28th and the video/sound/lights stop working it’s probably my fault as I’m volunteering as an AV tech., long live randomness.