Shooting High and Low

A couple of months ago I nipped up to Scotland to shoot a new music video for indie folk band The Low Anthem with End of the Road Films. Back in 2009 I worked on the animated video for 'Charlie Darwin'; building sets and doing the odd bit of animating. That video came out very nicely, so I was eager to work with the band again, this time directing along-side Glenn and Simon.

The song, 'Boeing 737' is the first single off their new album Smart Flesh, and is based around an imaginary meeting with Philippe Petit in a bar at the top of one of the Twin Towers.

After first listening to the track, Simon came up with the image of high-wire walkers pacing through trees, birdlike in their appearance, stalked by men with axes below. Ben liked the idea, but wanted the axe-men to have more of a backstory. We chatted about the idea a bit more, and then I went off to draw up a storyboard.

I thought it would be interesting to imagine a world where tight-rope walkers were a species -indigenous to certain areas - who were hunted and sold on to circuses. Our axe-men would be from a destitute circus, who had worked their previous walkers to death and decided to catch their own this time (hoping to cut out the hunter's fee).

We got Leila Watts on board costume designer, so she got straight to work on the bird costumes. Most of the circus men's costumes were borrowed from a theatre production my parent's had been working on, while other bits were also made by Leila - for example both clown ruffs were made by hand.

For this video we also brought in a wonderful DOP, Pablo Rojo Guadarrama. This was my first time not shooting my own work, and Pablo did an incredible job, along with 1st and 2nd AC's, Thor Eliasson and Poom Saiyavath.

We also had the opportunity to shoot on the new RED - The Mysterium X. This is the same camera 'The Social Network' was shot on last year and it captures a ridiculous amount of image data. That meant a lot when it came to grading the video, but also allowed us to shoot later in the day as the light began to fade. In fact some of my favourite shots in the video were captured just before dusk, as the light turns silver.

Of course you can't have a video about tight-rope walkers without... well... tight-rope walkers.

Fortunately, we had some of the best out there; Jade Kindar-Martin, and his wife Karine Mauffrey. Both had previously worked as part of Cirque du Soleil and Jade has broken Guiness World-Records on the high-wire. They were brilliant to work with, bravely facing the freezing Scottish weather in little more than leotards, and still giving beautiful performances.

For one shot we had planned to digitally add the falling figure of a walker, not imagining it would be possible to do in reality. That was until we discovered that Karine was in fact a professional stunt woman and would be up for doing in on a harness. Brilliant! One simple wire removal later and we have an absolutely stunning shot.

Okay, before I rattle on any more, here's the final video. Have a look if you haven't already, and if you have... maybe refresh your memory.

Directed by Simon Taffe, Joseph Brett and Glenn Z Taunton Production Design by Leila Watts To create the new video for The Low Anthem's single 'Boeing 737' the team at End of the Road Films took to a deep forest in rural Scotland. Here, a flock of wire-walkers move through the skies as they are pursued by a band of circus men. Feathers fly and axes swing as the graceful figures are brought plummeting down to Earth. Featuring the world renowned high wire walker Jade Kindar-Martin.

But what's that I hear you ask? Who were those dashing circus men?

Well, from left to right; Charles Wemyss, Jimmy, Jason Lehmer, Tommy and Diego Cazzetta.

Diego and Jason have worked with us on videos before, building sets, and are part of the team behind End of the Road festival. We figured it was time to stop wasting their good looks behind the camera, and thrust them into the lime-light.

The woodland we shot in actually belongs to Charles' family, while Jimmy and Tommy are the past and current generation of groundskeepers.

They all graciously agreed to try their hands at acting, and it turns out they're pretty damned good at it. For such charming individuals, they manage to come together into a pretty nightmarish troupe.

One last thing before I go. I'm always impressed by how close to the initial storyboards our video's come out. So here, mostly for my own entertainment, but maybe for yours too, it a short comparison of shots.

Okay.

That's all.

Scram!

Ferris Bueller Recut

A couple of weeks ago I saw Ferris Bueller at the Screen on the Green in Angel. It's one of my favorite films, and so I was pretty hyped up after finally seeing it on the big screen.  I'm always struck by how beautifully shot it is for a comedy, compared to those made now. Also how sincere the story is once you get past all the 80's... ness.

The following day was a slow Sunday, and since I had little else to do I decided to have a play with some of the shots and maybe make a trailer which could cut out all the comedy, and make it look more like an indie coming-of-age film. This is what I ended up with:

After seeing Ferris Bueller at the cinema last weekend, I decided to recut a trailer as an editing exercise. My aim was to make it look more like an indie coming of age film; perhaps the kind of film Sofia Coppola or Godard might make. The music is 'A Slight Return Home' by Woodpigeon.

I hadn't intended to put it online, but I showed it to a few people and they like it. Aidan Hornsby said I should put it on YouTube, so I finally got round to doing it a couple of days ago.

Then in the past 24 hours I reached nearly 100,000 hits, beating the view count of just about anything I've put online before. All over something I made with a few spare hours on a Sunday.

Nice.

EDIT: Earlier today I did a short Q&A for Steve Spears blog which can be seen HERE.

EDIT 2: 600,000 views. Not Bad.

Allo, Allo!

No! Don't run! It's not the police! It's Allo Darlin', a wonderful indie pop group from London! And yes, I went there.

For the past couple of weeks I've been working on a new music video for these guys. Which has meant many sleepless nights in a disused office block. And at last, my work is complete.

Jump
Jump

The video features a whole lot of cardboard, and I've been working with the same team behind my last video, Efterklang's 'I Was Playing Drums'. That also means I've been co-directing with Simon Taffe again.

Before I say any more, have a look at the video on Vimeo, or just below:

The shoot all started in Simon's kitchen, which on Saturday evening looked something like this:

And by Sunday evening, was looking like this:

From there we moved to a disused office block to build the rest of the set and costumes. The main tunnel ended running about 20 meters long, and was built, for the most part, by Clyde Cronin. When it was finished the only way to get from one end to the other was to crawl, which meant some pretty painful knees all round.

Me
Me

Not least for Elizabeth, who had to do more crawling than anyone. I seem to have a habit of putting my lead stars through arduous conditions, and this shoot was no exception it seems. Luckily I think nostalgia served as a pretty good anaesthetic here.

IMG_6686
IMG_6686

On the day of the band we were running behind slightly, and the guys were brilliant at pitching in; building the final bit of the tunnel while I continued to throw boxes and Ukelele's at Elizabeth.

The performance itself was filled with enough slapstick to fill a Laurel and Hardy sketch, with Heart's tripping over left, right and centre. I don't think the laughter on everyone's faces could have been faked, and I'm really glad a lot of the atmosphere on set made it into the video.

Screen shot 2010-11-18 at 13.47.01
Screen shot 2010-11-18 at 13.47.01

I have to give an extra special thanks to Leila Watts and Owen Davey, who gave up far too much sleep for me and Simon. And a standard, but still very special thanks to everyone else who gave up their waking hours to make this one happen. I really think it was worth it, and I hope it makes people smile when they see it.

IMG_5252
IMG_5252

Trees over Exmouth

The other day I was sat in the offices of New Bamboo, when I noticed the trees outside moving in the wind. I don't know any other cities that can quite compete with London's capacity for simultanious urban and natural environments. Maybe I just need to travel more, but to me, this is one of the best reasons to live in London.

Oh yeah, and so I filmed it. Because that's what I tend to do when I like something. Enjoy.

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