Thumbnail Express is The Light Surgeons debut documentary short film and was commissioned by onedotzero festival in 2000. This is the first chapter of “Gilligan’s Travels”, a series of experiemntal short films based around an interview with the Venice Beach street philosopher Robert Alan Weiser and his travels across America.

This landmark project combines Super 8 and DV footage with motion graphics and has been screened as part of the onedotzero festival internationally.

Co-Directed and edited by Chris Allen and Jude Greenaway
Camera work by Chris Allen, Jude Greenaway and Andy Flywheel
Location Production by Andy Flywheel
Sound design by Scanone
Audio track “Unfair Weather” by Kinobe

Visual production began for U.N.K.L.E. with the UK and Ireland NME & Carling Premier tour in 1999. The tour featured James Lavelle and the Scratch Perverts performing a live DJ remix of the “Science Fiction” album, with a multi screen visual TLS production using video, slide and 16mm film projection. This show also contained artwork by Futura 2000 along with amazing animated contributions produced by award winning promo directors Shynola, this collective fusion of visuals went on to be used at countless other U.N.K.L.E. gig’s and DJ appearances at venues such as Fabric overr the following years.

New visual production was commission in 2002 to promote the release of the album “Never, Never Land” with a blow out two night performance at London’s ICA as part of the After Dark festival. “Never, Never Land” also contains an audio sample of Robert Alan Weiser taken from TLS’s APB performance in the opening track “Back and Forth”.

Visual Direction by Christopher Thomas Allen & Andy Flywheel
Animation by Shynola, Jude Greenaway & Kate Rogers
Documentation edited by Tim Cowie

The first live AV performance created by The Light Surgeons took place at the Lux Cinema in 1998 and was commissioned by the London Film Makers Co-Op.

The show consisted of many sampled scenes and fragments from different cult sci-fi and thriller films which together formed a Frankenstein narrative. A feeling of suspense and tension was built during the show as a time code slowly counted down to 00:00.

This use of a visual time code was also key to the syncing of the music and the visuals by giving queue points for the live musicians to start tracks at specific points. All the music was performed live by the band the Herbaliser, with additional soundscapes from Dynamic Syncopation, both artists on Coldcuts Ninja Tune label.

The show formed the opening event for the Lux Cinema in Hoxton Square and was run in collaboration with the Blue Note club next door where there was a big after show party curated by The Light Surgeons with a line up of DJ’s and audio visual artists.

Sadly both venues no longer share the address.

See flyer for details:

The Performance went on to be shown at the Rotterdam Film festival in 1999.

Visual Artists: Christopher Thomas Allen, Andy Flywheel, Andy Firman & Mark Blackburn
Musical Collaborators: The Herbaliser & Dynamic Syncopation