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Everything posted by Professor Yaffle
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So after a bit of searching Ive found the snaps of my scratch build The Jaguar chase car with the camera jib. That used the eye lash doh dah thingmy bob. I got the camera in the wrong place it should have been slung under the jib, not balanced on the end of it - I blame the lack of mobile signal at Fawley for poor research, honest. The soundman with his fishpole and boom mic. That was the end of the head massager wires with a modified Russian soldier. It was just a joke for the TV crew more than anything, they seemed to appreciate it. The studio light lamp stands. Again the head massager wires chopped, bent and glued. With a 3D printed lamp on the top. I think this is where I lost a lot of time as I tried to make a lot of lamp stands. For whatever reason the araldite was not going off properly and there was a lot of re-gluing of these. I suspect sweaty fingers was the main cause in hindsight. War Memorial. The thing I was most pleased with and it seemed to get left on the cutting room floor. Yet gain the head massager wires for the tree trunks and part of the handle as the base for it. Some basic green foliage screwed into a ball using a tad of PVA to hold it for the top of the trees. An interior part of the head massager made the statue plinth and 2 Russian solders to top it off. One x Wonky Chimney. Oh the shame of it, I spent too much time doing the rest and this was a 15 minute panic, it was frankly shocking. Other thoughts what to do with the baby bio bottle were; Matt suggested a grounded steam boiler - I thought it was a bit big for this (sorry Matt). Pour the liquid into something and use it - I rejected that as we had done it in heat 5 with the tanning oil and thought it would have been seen as a obvious rehash. A water tower - Not carried forward because I couldn't work out how to do it at the time, however looking back I can see exactly how it could have been achieved and I had already cut all the bits or disassembled them that I needed, but just couldn't envisage the next move required - so annoying now. The plastic handle of the head massager upside down on the top half of the baby bio bottle. All I had to do was stick them together and then pour the liquid into the top, job done. DOH! As a team we did wonder what would be broadcast of the Wonky Chimney judging. The long silent pause of Kathy and Tim was the acceptable version. The one that didnt make the cut had Tim 'examining' the Wonky Chimney in a particular way. He did ask if his gestures and comments would make it past the edit and the director said 'Well it is Channel 5'. And contrary to what you may think, Kathy can smile. The other teams use of the items were top notch and I was much impressed with were they were used. Good work lads Chris .
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I totally agree. That bit of me sawing the baby bio bottle up was about 6 mins before the wonky chimney hit the layout table - 'Could you do that again?', 'Err, no.' The 4 min warning from Tim was a 'for TV' moment as I had already put all the other scratch build items on the set, but my TV minder hadn't noticed and I hadn't told them (someone is Head of Blame here), so I had to do it again. I'm not sure retakes were in my contract, where's my Agent? Chris
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Well done to the winners, it was well deserved, really nice layouts with fab features. What didn't get a mention was how hot it was over the three days. Jon and I decided we needed a breath of fresh air after being cooped up in the hot shed, but quickly came back inside after we realised it was considerably warmer outside. On judgement day the missus's car was reading the attached temperature. Chris ps Please don't mention the chimney, Im still having counselling
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Certainly as we were announced as the Wild Card that was done three times - for continuity sake I had to say the same reaction word 3 times, luckily that wasn't caught on mic. I suspect they used the first take. To be fair to the production company, by this time we were used to the retakes and from the otherside of the fence I know that having several versions of something to edit from gives you a lot more freedom to tell a story or the they way you would like it to be seen. Reality and truth are in the eye of the beholder
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The actual presentations to the judges took 10-15mins usually and the TV editor has the final say. There was quite a bit the operation of our Mars layout on the cutting room floor - various shunting moves etc. I'm sure this is true of all the layouts in one way or another. And lets be honest, shunting moves do not make great TV, but does prove the set functions operationally to the judges at the time. Are they repeatable animations? I suppose that depends on what it was. The door on our rocket shed should be but, it worked on the judging first time, however I understand it hadn't been approached about the numerous retakes that were required later. It was particularly obstinate about this, but did work again eventually before throwing a complete strop and storming off to its trailer to ring its agent. And of course those animations were the items we had time to cobble together in the 24 hrs we were allowed. I would expect a few other ideas and animations, etc to be added to our layouts that we didnt have time for or might dream up now, extending the dwell times at an exhibition. Steve Flint was disappointed that we didnt launch our rocket, 'a step too far for them', but I have thought of a few ways this could be done, however most of them are not repeatable as the rockets re-entry to the earths atmosphere may produce its own problems.
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I know what you mean about the signs, if we had our time again there would be a few things done differently. We quite possibly over engineered a few bits. Personally the opening door of the rocket shed to allow the rocket out is in that category. Instead of wiring a loco up (9v battery in use here too) and inserting below the door, I might just of used some string and pulled it open. That occurred to me as you flew your spaceship 'why didn't I do that??!?' That piece of practical sensibility seemed to elude me during the build up to the filming, probably because of the time constraint of being one of the last teams in. Then there was also a bit of the scratch build challenge that also suffered from overthinking too.
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As our team Capt. has alluded too, he had to jump through quite a few hoops for the inclusion of his daughter to be part of the team. However what the rest of us were unaware of (we probably didn’t read the blurb properly) is that the ‘audience’ allowed wasn’t the quite the friends and family we expected. This would have been a major problem for one team member and from a personal point of view awkward and disappointing for myself. I had ‘assumed’ (we all know what that means) that kids were ok on the judging day, as that is surely a major part of the target audience in itself? That bubble was burst a few weeks away from filming and there was genuine moment of horror within the team as the news spread. We looked at episodes of series one - no kids could be seen. What would happen? But to be fair to the production company once contacted, the situation confirmed and explained, they went away and sorted it out. Many, many thanks to them! - Lots of brownie points. All we had to do was sign our childrens' souls away to the gods to TV, nothing too awful. I hope that explains why you saw our sprogs on Heat 5. It was a proper delight to watch the older ones cowered in embarrassment and the younger ones yelp with glee as they appear on TV on Saturday night. Just for anyone else who might think of taking along their offspring, be aware there is a lot of hanging about and retakes that are a necessary evil of TV production. What you saw on telly of the judging section was at about 2-3 hours in reality. Each demonstration took 15 mins plus retakes, then there was the who had won bit too and they do like you to stand in the same position throughout for continuity reasons. This may not be suitable for every small person or even the bigger ones.
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I think the last time I really did any railway modelling was when I was about 14 - I'm older and wiser now. The rocket shed on our layout was my prebuild, Kathy was right, it was wrapping paper, but hopefully I did Clintons proud. Luckily she didn't realise the rest of it was a veg box, I dread to think what she would have said. It was loosely based on the Cardington airship sheds – it was the only thing I could think of that would be of a similar construction to the idea in my head.
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Part of what you didnt see explained this... The idea behind the setting was that after the failed Martian invasion of earth in the late 19th century, that the human race then backward engineered the alien technology and mounted their own conquest of Mars. So the stock used reflected the period we though this all happened in c.1900 and what may have been taken to Mars. Remember don't dwell on the historical accuracy, its all fantasy twaddle anyway, just enjoy silliness of it all Chris MGNR
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