The Infinity Box

Last Saturday lunchtime, I dined with a delightful lady whose right-side was painted white and whose left-side was painted black. I urged her to not spill the beetroot soup, for its resemblance to blood, be-spattered over her gothic-inspired black and white costume would take her already terrifying appearance over the level that would cause me to flee.

I had assumed, rightly or wrongly, that this was not a stray spirit loosed in the castle basement, but an actor taking part in the filming of "The Infinity Box" at Balintore Castle over the weekend.

Joel, the director of the project had made contact with me through a mutual friend called Karen. When I dealt with Karen she was an antique dealer; when Joel dealt with Karen she was a Bollywood location scout in Scotland. All this goes to illustrate that each of us can do many things in life. One of my personal bêtes noir, is that a CV has to show a career path struck in a single discipline rut.

Anyhow, the film cast and crew were lovely and though one might feel one is not part of that world, you have to realise that not all members of the team will have worked together before, so they are open to meeting new people including oneself. And indeed, we all share a deep love of film.

The scenario of the 15 minute film, which forms just part of a multi-media art project, makes little sense to me, but here goes. A Scottish maker was commissioned to create a hand-written book. Another Scottish maker was tasked with creating a hand-woven fabric bag in which the book is placed. Another Scottish maker was tasked with creating a box, in which the bag and ultimately the film/DVD will be placed.

The filmed sequence features two creatures: one inside the mirror in a parallel universe and one in front of the mirror in the real world: very much in the tradition of "Alice through the Looking Glass" and Jean Cocteau. I know no more, but will be fascinated to view the resulting film sequence which was shot entirely in the "Gentleman's Dressing Room" at the castle.

the shoot

It was interesting to observe how much of the production effort took place in the corridor outside the "studio" as the crew studied monitors, etc

technicians in the corridor

Here are some images from the black and white production.

the result

Book your tickets now!

Cineastes amongst us will not fail to note the commonality with the similarly named British technicolour film "The Magic Box" (1951) and the Star Trek episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" (1969).

still from "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" 

Gregor's Secret Door

As I passed Gregor in the carpentry workshop at the end of a working day recently, I asked "What have you been up to today?". "You can see for yourself.", replied Gregor.

So I walked into the Great Hall which is where we are currently working. I failed to observe any visible change, and was too embarrassed to pursue the matter further, so I slipped past Gregor discreetly and exited the scene hastily.

The next morning, as I walked into the Great Hall, the difference was staring me in the face: where there has once been a blank opening with a stone wall behind it, was now a Gregor home-brew Victorian door.

Gregor's Door

It's a pretty decent recreation of the surviving Victorian doors, all done without the intervention of a specialist carpentry workshop.

Here is a surviving Victorian door for comparison. This is still covered in the detritus of the building's ruination, which we haven't even attempted to clean off.

Original Victorian Door.

The only different is the paint job! The Victorian door has a paint effect using light and dark brown paints to emulate oak. Gregor's door is just painted in the light brown colour (Mexican Tan). If anyone knows how to apply the paint effect using the dark brown paint on top, then please get in touch! I know that the technique is called graining or scumbling.

Gorky's Sun Dog

On the 12th of July this year, I organised a dinner party at the castle for my great friend Görkem (Gorky). Gorky was last in Scotland 10 years previously, so it was very much an occasion for celebration. I sneaked-in some surprise guests who Gorky had not seen, since we last worked together for a computer games company in Dundee.

Just before the meal, Gorky announced there was something interesting going on in the sky which he had seen from his bedroom at the castle. We all rushed out, and the amazing phenomenon lasted another 5 minutes or so before fading away.

We all savoured that special moment of being together as mother nature did her showiest best. I am presuming this is a sun-dog, but if anyone else knows to the contrary please let me know. I had seen sun dogs before, but this was against an otherwise dark sky which spectacularly highlighted the rainbow colours.

telephoto shot from Gorky's bedroom window

standard shot from Gorky's bedroom window