Killhope Lead Mining Museum

[fh1805]

I've been promising to upload this for a while now. I took the DVD version up to Killhope last week and Mike, the museum manager, was delighted with it.

Killhope Lead Mining Museum is located at Park Level Mine in the upper reaches of Weardale, in County Durham, England. The site is a large one and this sequence deals with just one aspect of the museum - the underground tour. It has been put together so that those visitors with mobility problems, who cannot take the underground tour, and those who are claustrophobic, can still gain an insight into what the underground tour covers.

All the sound recording, except for my introductory voice-over and the bird calls, was done on location using the Zoom H4. The photography was done using a Nikon D70 with Nikkor 18-200mm VR Zoom lens (on later visits the camera was Nikon D300s with same lens). All images were taken using a tripod. The illumination was provided by a single Nikon SB-600 flash gun. For some shots this was attached to the camera via a SC-17 cord (about 1m in length).

There will be one small change made in the near future. Whilst checking that the DVD played OK on the kit at Killhope, I was given the opportunity to photograph a freshly broken piece of galena. One of these new images will replace the existing inset image of galena. When it is a fresh surface it shines like polished silver!

regards,

Peter

Killhope v26.zip

[cottage]

Peter,

Absolutely fascinating !!! Very well done. Thank you for a very interesting journey into the life of a miner. Again, well done. Bravo !!!

Regards,

Bill

[davegee]

Peter,

That took me back a few years!!

A superb production which I know will do well if you decide to enter it into competition.

I know that was not the primary reason for its existence but I believe it deserves a wider audience.

Well done!

DG

[rick235]

Peter,

Brilliant show, one of the best i have seen.

Thanks

Rick

[Bert]

Peter,

Great show of a fascinating subject, good pictures off what must have been difficult lighting conditions.

Thanks,

Bert

[xahu34]

This is a very fine presentation. I like the images, but also the audio part is well done. For me, as a none-native speaker, the introduction is a bit easier to understand than the voice of the expert, but the way you do it is the more authentic one (instead of having one speaker recorded in a studio). I like the sound effects coming from the off. There are a few sound effects that indicate motion, while the images show static scenes. I would try to avoid this.

Congratulations and best regards,

Xaver

[fh1805]

Thanks to Bill, Dave, Rick, Bert and Tom for your comments.

@Dave, The museum are happy for me to use this sequence as I wish for my own purposes; so it will be seen by audiences local to my home. Also, I'm seriously thinking of entering it for the RPS International Festival later this year - not that I expect it to gain any awards.

@Bert, The ambient lighting in the mine was almost zero after about the first 100 yards in. The only "ambient" lighting from that point on was provided by the helmet lamps (dim at best), with primary subject lighting coming from the flashgun. Even with all Nikon's clever gadgetry, the auto-focus frequently struggled to find enough contrast to get a good "lock on". Composition was mostly "shoot and hope" as I could see nothing through the viewfinder and not a great deal more on the LCD screen on the camera's back!

@Tom, Unfortunately, I have no control over the location of the playback equipment; that is at the discretion of the museum manager, and he is handicapped by the existing design and features of the museum building. It is currently located just before exiting the museum building to go to the assembly point for the public tours of the mine. That's about as good as I could have hoped for.

regards,

Peter

[Ken Cox]

Peter

too many safety violations making the show -- the dept of mining in the UK will likely condem it if they see it

Now if you had shown it the the forum first as Eric suggested, the violations would have been caught

Ken

[fh1805]

Ken,

Killhope museum has to abide by the rulings of the Mines Inspectorate in the UK, as does the Cleveland Ironstone Mining Museum where I'm a volunteer guide - so I'm reasonably familiar with the Health and Safety aspects of going underground in a vistor mine (as distinct from a working, extractive mine).

Peter

[fh1805]

@Xaver,

Thanks for your comments. I don't think I can do much about the motion. There is not enough lighting to do any video capture. I have tried to use some gentle zooms to convey the impression of moving along the tunnels. Perhaps some more?

Peter

[xahu34]

... I don't think I can do much about the motion. There is not enough lighting to do any video capture. I have tried to use some gentle zooms to convey the impression of moving along the tunnels. Perhaps some more ...

The situations that I refer to are the following: 1st, when the blue man opens the iron door; 2nd, when the blue man enters the tunnel, you hear the steps but you see the frozen motion.

You may compare the scene of entering with the one at the end of the show, when the men leave the tunnel. Here I like the effect of the steps, you see the light at the end of the tunnel, there is a zoom, while hearing the steps, but you do not see a frozen motion.

Regarding your door, you may have a look at "La femme de la chambre 122" by Hervé Séguret and the way he deals with sound effects.

I would not regard all this too seriously, but if one likes it one may have that kind of a discussion

Best regards,

Xaver

[fh1805]

I would not regard all this too seriously, but if one likes it one may have that kind of a discussion

Xaver,

Indeed we can have such a discussion. Detailed and constructive observations such as yours are always very welcome. They force me to challenge my own thinking.

Peter

[David Porter]

Hi Peter,

I'll try and kill two birds with this post.

I really liked you Killhope A/V, not that I am a great enthusiast of lead mining but voice-over gave a really good impression of being on the actual tour with the variable acoustics and sound levels. I am sure those not able to do the tour will find this a very acceptable alternative. I hope you have good fortune if you put it for a comp.

Re your Teesdale Waterfalls. You really hit the nail on the head when you tried to copy professionals and cut from shot to shot rather than fade transforms. Good on you. Take a look at any professional video documentary and the number of fades, pans, zooms etc is an absolute minimum and yet we see amateur videographers swinging the camera around like Whirling Dervishers. You may have got some of the technical aspects of video on PTE sorted but that is the easy bit. Now, as you recognize, you have to produce an A/V that makes sense of mixing video with stills. I have only seen one A/V on this site mixing video and stills which gave me any satisfaction at all.

But,had you been able to take video in your lead mine then, this could have been an opportunity to create a very interesting combination of stills and video with the voice-over being the perfect reason for inserting a piece of video. I'll look forward to seeing how you proceed in this direction,knowing that you will not post anything on here unless it is worthwhile.

[fh1805]

Mick,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. As I think you have realised, the waterfalls sequence is very much a "suck it and see" project. I'm willing to try anything in order to learn what works for me and what doesn't. Having built a "cut" version and a "dissolve" version, I can see that sometimes a dissolve between two videos will work. The transition between waterfall 1 and waterfall 2 is not too bad, and the one between 3 and 4 is a dissolve that I really like. But the transition between 2 and 3 is just so messy. I think what I'm saying is that video is just like stills - you can get a nice third image or you can get total rubbish. One of the learning curve steps will be to try some of the fancier transitions to see if any of them have prospects to get past a messy dissolve.

Peter

[goddi]

I've been promising to upload this for a while now. I took the DVD version up to Killhope last week and Mike, the museum manager, was delighted with it.

regards,

Peter

Killhope v26.zip

====================

Peter,

I just had a look at the show. Really terrific. Lots of good techniques to learn from.

Thanks...

Gary

[Paul T]

What a fascinating presentation Peter, held my attention throughout and now know a lot more about lead mining. Great show well constructed, and an informative narration.

Paul

[morturn]

Peter

This is an excellent presentation, and encompasses all of the right ingredients that give it interest and also a meaningful subject. At this stage I will of course confess that I also happen to be interested in lead mining.

I know how difficult it is to do underground photography, and obtain a clear and sharp image; I will say here you have done this remarkably well.

I am interested in ‘other’ ways to use AV shows, and have done similar things with corical building and salmon fishing (I cannot remember if I ever posted them here). They are a great way of presenting the past as an alternative to academic literature, and AV shows are also far more engaging.

It is important to understand that doing something different like this, where you are telling a story, and explaining methods and skills long past can be quite challenging; so I think you should take time to say to yourself, great job.

I really like the way you have covered the interesting aspects of lead mining; depicting the movement of the water wheel and bell cranks worked out quite well. Perhaps you may consider doing a follow on AV about lead ore processing?

One thing that stands out is the quality of the sound recording, it certainly add a sense of realism, and holds things together quite nicely; I think the Zoom recorders are first class.

Thanks for sharing it with us.

[fh1805]

@Gary and Paul,

Thanks for your comments. I'm glad that you found it interesting and enjoyable.

@Gary,

I'm not sure what you meant by lots of techniques. The sequence does not make use of many specific techniques: just still images, simple transitions, a little bit of gentle zooming in and a soundtrack. From my point of view, the complexity was in the soundtrack: extracting the relevant sections from Bill's tour commentary (the tour lasts one hour!) then piecing together 49 separate sound clips (my voice, his voice, ambient location sounds and the two bird calls) into the final form.

@Morturn,

Thanks for your words of praise. The underground photography was a real challenge. I'd never done anything remotely like it before. As my introductory remarks made clear, this sequence was done for Killhope. I currently intend to do two more sequences: one on the processing of the galena on the surface (but not including smelting: there never was a smelting shop at Killhope) and one of the social history side of lead-mining: communities, way of life, etc. Both of these will require fine weather for the outdoor photography, so I'm waiting until later in the summer (I've had enough of being a cold, wet, mole, working in the dark!)

regards,

Peter