Chris Chelser's Blog, page 20
December 3, 2015
‘Behind the Scenes’ – Interview video is now available
When putting together the launch for The Kalbrandt Institute Archives, I received several requests to tell a bit more about the process of writing and how I develop my ideas. In answer to those questions, I made this video.
Oh, and if you want to know what button I’m referring to: it links here.
Enjoy!
December 1, 2015
Something else: art reboot
Know that feeling when you are happy with something, yet you feel in your guts that something is… not quite right? I had that with the ‘Dark Eyes’ portraits. Until a friend gave me a brand new toy, and I could make them the way I had them in mind!
So, uploaded to gumroad and society6 for your enjoyment, the reworked versions:
November 26, 2015
Watch launch video 2 now!
The second launch video is up now, and this time I will be telling you more about the files that Eva encounters in her search through the archives…
… and, by extension, its ghosts:
Kalbrandt Institute Archives: Hauntings – teaser video 2/3
November 24, 2015
Watch launch video 1/3 now
The book launch of The Kalbrandt Institute Archives: Hauntings is underway!
Click the button under the video to download the transcript and secure the discount code that will give you as much as 50% off when you buy the book 
Next video is coming two days from now. See you then!
November 20, 2015
November 19, 2015
Get Ready for Launch!
Next week I will be releasing some teasers for the upcoming book launch of The Kalbrandt Institute Archives: Hauntings, and while I was preparing the files, I realised that I had never posted the photos of the book itself here.
Isn’t it nice and shiny? Next week I will tell you all about how and where to order your copy
November 17, 2015
Montreuil-sur-Mer: retracing the steps of Jean Valjean
On the way back from my trip to Paris, my friend and I had decided that we would take a detour to the town of Montreuil-sur-Mer, in the Pas-de-Calais. “Where?” you ask? Allow me to explain:
My friend and I are both avid fans of Victor Hugo’s novel ‘Les Misérables’. The musical is beautiful (it is. Go see it if you have the chance), but the book has an amazing depth that makes the themes and characters surprisingly current for a book that was published 150 years ago. It is also a massive story, originally consisting of 5 volumes, and spanning 17 years, from 1815 to the failed revolution of 1832.
In one part of the story, its protagonist Jean Valjean, an ex-convict who broke parole and is on the run from the law, is granted moral redemption and a small fortune to start his life over under an assumed name. He moves to the small Northern town of Montreuil-sur-Mer, where he uses the money gifted to him to revitalise the town’s jewelry factory. Within a few years, the factory does so well that he invests his money in all kinds of social services that we consider more or less normal these days (at least in Europe, since I understand that affordable education and healthcare is not so common elsewhere, even in the richer countries). He becomes the celebrated hero of the town, and is made mayor despite his repeated refusal to accept acknowledgement for what he does. Only the town’s Chief of Police, Inspector Javert, suspects that this saintly man may in fact be a wanted criminal…
I will spare you a summary of the rest of the 1.475 pages, but I do want to share these images of Montreuil-sur- Mer. Hugo knew the place, and he describes the setting quite accurately without going into details. And the great fun for us modern day fans:
The town has barely changed since the late 18th century. The streets are all paved now, and accommodations were made for motorised cars and electricity, but for the most part, the old houses are still there.
Some of them are truly tiny, with low ceilings and a first floor where one cannot stand upright. Some of them look too small for a modern family, yet must have been used as tenement buildings in the past, with a different family living in each room. An ancient chapel, its windows bricked up and a faded sign on the wooden doors revealing that is had once been used a fire station. The whole town is a window into its own past.
Which makes is very easy to imagine Hugo – or rather his characters – walk these streets in the early 1820′s.
The town itself, a fortified citadel, was suprisingly small and enclosed, too. A 15 minute stroll will take you from one end to the other, if you walk slowly enough. On this arial photo, courtsey of Google Maps, you can count the cars in their parking spaces.
It really is an immense pity that half the photos I made failed because of not knowing how to work the camera. At least it gives me a perfect excuse to go back next year *grins with delight*.
This visit also taught me a thing or two about the influence that setting has on a story. But I will devote a small “Bare Bones” to that.
November 16, 2015
Paris…
I failed to post much last week because I was ill. Such things happen. So Friday evening I was feeling better and sorted through more Paris photos to post.
Then I watched the news.
Humans are capable of barbaric cruelty, that much has always been evident throughout history. Still, evert confirmation thereof is shocking. And yet what struck me most was the courage of the Parisians, who refuse to give in to fear and the hatred it causes. Humanity at its worst and its best, all in one night.
On a note of propriety, I have debated ever since whether I should post more of my photos, given where they were taken. Most of them were of rue des Archives and its ajoining streets, and of the area around the Louvre and rue d’Echelle, where my friend and I had lunch. All innocent enough, until I saw our national media presented a map of where the attacks had been.
So to post or not to post? Eventually that question was largely taken out of my hands because I’m just not a very good photographer, so only a handful of images were fit to post. Among them, these two, of where the rue des Archives looks into the rue du Platre:
There are a few more photos from this trip, but since they were not of Paris, I’ll give them their own post.
I will definitely go back to Paris in the near future, because it is a beautiful city and there is still so much I haven’t seen yet. And then I will be sure to ask someone who is a better photographer to take all the pictures!
