I love London.
More than that, I love London’s Underground.
This ancient subterranean transport system has been a part of my psyche from the first time my Mum brought me up to the big smoke to see the pigeons of Trafalgar Square – remember them?
Since then the colourful, maze-like map and simple iconography have been a clear and constant theme throughout my life.
Recently, after moving to London, travelling on the Tube (as it is more commonly known), has become a daily routine. Having spent a good couple of years working out of town, it really is good to be back.
Back on the underground.
Another pleasant by-product of enjoying my favourite form of public transport is the fantastic photography of it all.
Over the course of last year I caught myself snapping here and there more often than not, when there is an absence of occupance. This in turn led to the creation of a Flickr group - Empty Underground.
A collection of photos taken of London’s underground rail system all in that rarest of moments; emptiness.
A few days ago, interes10 mentioned that London’s Natural History Museum was a fairly decent place to visit for a family day out.
Whenever I think of the Natural History Museum I immediately have images of the giant Blue Whale model in the Mammals hall, or even the huge fossil collection that inhabits the entrance hall.
Dinosaurs spring to mind.
Always.
Today I found myself back there again. But not for a family day out this time, oh no. My presence was required for a much different purpose.
Operation: BIG GNAW was my very own secret mission for today.
Part of an overall plan -PLAN 9 to be exact – I was to be at a set location, at a set time and armed with a very specific set of responses to a set of questions of which I had no knowledge. With a map in my pocket and some guidelines around exactly what I could and could not say, I set out.
“But what the hell is PLAN 9? What is Operation BIG GNAW?”
Allow me to explain…
Mr Dan Light (pictured, top), is currently in the process of putting together a sizzle/trailer for a new film entitled Loch Ghoon. The script, based on an original screenplay by Dan’s cousin Max, requires a few vox pops from everyday folk (that’s where I come in), shot in and around London’s Natural History Museum (NHM).
‘PLAN 9′ was the codename for the operation that took us secretly deep inside the NHM and BIG GNAW was the pseudonym under which my instructions were left for me. Along with a few other cheeky cameo stars, the aim was to get in, shoot what we needed and then get out again before we were rumbled by the NHM security.
Not an easy task.
I’ve tried filming in a you-think-it’s-public-but-it’s-not-really kind of place before and that did not end well. However, thanks to Dan’s meticulous planning (see above), the whole shoot went off without hitch.
Being a Saturday afternoon, the museum was naturally very busy. With Joe Public taking photos left, right and centre, somehow a small collection of inconspicuous-looking men gathered ’round a camera, interviewing each other suddenly became something rather normal. Par for the course in fact. Business as usual.
To the average passer-by, we were merely tourists.
There’s a Plan9 photo set from today’s fun and games up over on flickr and, if you’re interested in following the progress of Loch Ghoon, I suggest you stay tuned to Dan’s blog – if anything, it’s just a good read.
My small obsession with all things London Underground continues unabated with this video pulled together of different shots I’ve taken in and around our fair public transport system.
I love it, I really do.
There’s so much interesting architecture to photograph and shoot that one can easily get quite carried away. Originally I intended just to make this video a bit like a scrap book; it’s ‘pages’ made up of all the out-takes and un-used footage that I’ve taken so far this month. But when I found the stuff with my old friend Basti, I had to whack it on the end.
Yes the audio is out of sync. It’s supposed to be. If you ever meet Basti, you will know that he operates on his own planet, in his own dimension, running by his own rules.
Time and space and all that jazz work around him, not the other way ’round.
This evening I attended the Nokia N900 meetup event in London town and, with my very own brand new Nokia N900, I managed to get a Qik video stream of the demo they gave…
It’s a bit dark and there’s no fancy intro, but I have no time to clean it up so I’m just going to throw it up raw.
The TV screen is a live TV-out from the device itself and the UI really is that smooth.
I’ll probably write up a bigger review for The Really Mobile Project at some point but in the meantime, I guess this is my vlomo09 entry…
