Category Archives: Studio

Bears Are Making Movies

Our friend Katya is here in the studio to help us with our latest film project.  The Bears are hard at work on a music video to the Alien Influence track, Area 51.  As this will involve some chroma keying techniques, I have the important job of ironing out all the creases from the green screen!

Big Ted Ironing Greenscreen

Big Ted ironing the green screen

Watch out for more from the Bears as we work on Area 51!

Drive Day 4 Laying the Concrete

Today is concrete day, so we finished off some detailing and waited for the concrete to arrive. As the delivery was later than expected, I entertained the guys from NDC with some beverages and reading tealeaves.

Once the concrete truck arrived it was all mad activity, with me organizing everything to ensure that things were in the right place. The team worked well, and left us with a coloured and imprinted drive.

Finishing off the Shuttering

Day three of the drive rebuild, but the weather forecast is not good, so no concrete pouring today. Instead Ryan and I finished off the shuttering. Here I am during a brief lull in the rain checking the position of the post holders.

Big Ted Checking Post Holders

Big Ted Checking Post Holders

Drive Day 2 Hardcore

Day two of the drive resurface began bright and early with Ryan and the team from New Design Concrete turning up on time and ready to go. First thing after tea-break was to take delivery of a lorry load of hardcore, which I supervised of course.


Once the hardcore was dropped off, the remainder of the old concrete was loaded on to the grab lorry for reprocessing. Efficient hey?

Work Starts on the Drive

Today, work has started on leveling and rebuilding the drive which leads up to the studio. The guys from New Design Concrete (NDC) were here bright and early and started breaking up the old concrete, which did not take much effort it appears to me.

I provided words of wisdom and guidance about the finer points of leveling ground, as usual, as well as ensuring quality.

Led by Ryan, Steve, John and Stefan have been doing most of the hard work, while I supply the beverages (that tea, coffee and coffee extra strong, all white with two sugars!).

The bears are really excited to see the final phase of the studio build under way. After all, we have got to have somewhere to park the limo when we are famous!

Disappointment As Pool Arrives

Our people delivered a pool today but I must say we were disappointed. The name Spa implies bubbles and hot water, and somehow we had been lead to believe that it would be bigger than it is.  Clara was quite underwhelmed too!

You don’t think our people are playing games with us do you?

Electricians Second Fix

Today we made some progress on the studio, with the electricians Gavin and Tyler completing most of the second fix electrics.  Of course I helped out and gave them the benefit of my experience. Not much more to go until we have electric power and the bears can get the amps plugged in.

Rendering the Studio

Work is progressing on the studio build, with the top coat of render going on. As usual I was supervising the quality of the work, but the Keith the plasterer achieved an excellent finish.

Render - Big Ted supervising detail

Render – Big Ted supervising detail

Banging on the Bell Cast

No work on the rendering yesterday due to the weather.  Interestingly, bears and plasterers don’t like the rain much!

Today we put on some of the mesh corners round the windows and doors.  Of course I let the people do the hard stuff while I gave useful hints and helped holding up the Bell Cast Bead. This bead, also known as Render Stop Bead, forms and protects the lower edge of the external render.

Scratch Coat - Big Ted gets the bead level

Scratch Coat – Big Ted gets the bead level