Blue:: The Warehouse Announcement – New Video
The Warehouse Announcement are possibly the finest, unsigned, never heard of band in the NE of England. I’m biased, ‘cos I love ’em. Their music has got me through sh*te days at work, wet weather and the threat of incipient madness. All you need is five minutes in their presence and something interesting happens. Something usually gets broken, someone (everyone) is usually howling drunk and tall objects are randomly jumped off.
It’s rock. With tunes, lyrics and attitude. This is ‘Blue’…For all those office workers out there, dreaming of something else.
Jason Kyrone : New video or two coming soon.
It’s all a bit top secret at the moment, but the ever prolific Jason Kyrone paid a visit at the weekend armed with a can of Irn Bru, six apple pies and two lovely new songs. Saturday night was a bit rock ‘n’ roll as we were recording and filming until about 3am, however, we got some really nice stuff – all filmed in our new top secret session location. The sound files are with Mr. Kyrone for a bit of tweaking so…Watch this space! And if anyone would like an apple pie – let me know.
Here’s a quick still (yes, I’ve gone a bit Llewyn Davis)
Don’t Leave Me / Tasha Blackmore – Video Production Notes
Here’s a very sweet and beautiful song by Tasha Blackmore – “Don’t Leave Me”. This was filmed in November last year and from what I seem to remember a lot of chocolate was consumed on the day of the shoot. It helps relax the vocal cords so I understand. One day I’ll have to treat everyone to my John Cooper-Clarke impression. It’s like he’s in the room. No, really.
The original idea of the shoot was just to do a simple one camera, live take of Tasha performing the song, but then it seemed like a good idea to get some different angles and shots but sync’d up to the vocal take we had already in the bag. I think it worked quite well.
Production Notes:
Camera : BlackMagic Cinema Camera (EF Mount)
Format/Codec: ProRes 422 HQ
Lenses : Canon F2.8 24-70L & Canon TS-E 24L
Lighting : Dedo Lights
Mics : SE Electronics 2200 (Vox) & Rode NTG-4 (Guitar)
Sound Capture : Via a Canon XF100 (didn’t use the video)
Mix : Not my expertise at all but I think I added a little bit of compression & reverb
Playback : Through the living room hi-fi
NLE : FCP 7 & graded in MB Looks
Dust : M-Dust plugin
All in all it came out very nicely and for once no-one got wet feet, hypothermia or dysentry. Result!
IC-double me and you / production notes / @joeshendry @topclasskennedy
Shortly before Christmas we were engaged by two fellows – “Local Hero” Joe Hendry & “Agent to the Stars” James R. Kennedy to produce a music video for a song about Insane Championship Wrestling called “IC double-me and you”. Having a lifelong fear of burly men I can’t say it was top of the list of my priorities given it was a few days before Christmas (when buying M&S discounted Prosecco obviously is) however…When the song was sent over the night before the shoot it was plain that it was a hit and it was important to be involved. I can truthfully say there was no threat of legal action from Mr Kennedy. The shoot itself was quite easy – although keeping back the hordes of inquisitive onlookers & autograph hunters did prove troublesome – still that’s the price of fame I guess.
Production Notes:
– Storyboard & Shot list : Prepared at Starbucks 20 minutes before the shoot
– Shooting time : Around three hours
– Cameras : Blackmagic Cinema Camera, GoPro Hero 3 (slo-mo) & Canon 5DII (wide-angle)
– Lens : Canon 24-70, 70-200 & 17-40
– Edited in : Final cut Pro (around 3 hours)
– Graded : Magic Bullet Looks
– VFX : Dust ‘n’ snow by M-Dust
– Locations : Edinburgh, Calton Hill, Waverley Station & a bar at the back of the station
– Titles & compositing (as in above) : Motion 4
All in all the video came out rather well. Here it is – enjoy!
“Last December” the video / By Tasha Blackmore – Now released! @Tashabmusic @BlackMagic_Cine
As promised, here’s the latest video from Tasha Blackmore : “Last December”. Shot on a remarkably cold day in just over three hours, in a somewhat inaccessible place within the legendary kingdom of Northumbria….It turned out rather nice! Mixing and sound magic from Iain Petrie, great performance, song and vocals from Tasha. Thanks to Colleen for make-up and hair curling (Tasha’s, not mine) and the lovely folk over at Blackmagic Design in Australia who developed, delivered and produced the quite incredible Blackmagic Cinema Camera. Gentlemen…You have opened my eyes.
Other stuff: The light leak effect is nothing more than me waving a sparkler in front of the lens, while the odd bits of subtle movement were created using a Glidetrack Shooter. As always everything was edited in Final Cut Pro 7, graded in Magic Bullet looks with a tiny bit in DaVinci Resolve. Anything else? Oh a top handle for the BMCC from Zacuto and a Tiffen variable ND. In some ways we didn’t get all the footage I originally intended as A) It was freezing and B) Some eagles with their own paparazzi arrived! Not to worry though – we pulled it off. So here we go:
Then I found you / @JasonKyrone / Musical Oxygen
We picked up the wandering troubadour of Edinburgh and Leith from the station, then exactly one hour later had him installed in a slightly draughty castle, mic’d up and ready to go. “What are you gonna play?” said I. And Mr Kyrone replied, “Well, I’ve got a new one you might like”. Then. He went and did this. Might like? Erm, this is quite possibly one of the most gorgeous songs I’ve heard. And I heard it first hand, watched it happen and now need to listen to it each day, as though it were musical oxygen to ward off imminent asphyxiation. If there’s a crowd-funding kinda dude out there – if this song isn’t worth £1000 of recording time, a few string players and some mastering….Then I don’t what is. Somebody, somewhere, needs to get behind this.
Anyway. Here is Jason Kyrone and “Then I found you”
Just this minute finished the final cut : @Tashabmusic // 25.11.13
Having just completed the final cut and edit of Tasha Blackmore’s latest video, aside from reaching for a glass of wine and a small biscuit…I prophesy tears of emotion and a flood of marriage proposals….It’s a great performance from Tasha, full of character, full of genuine charm and very…beguiling. And the wife likes it, which can’t be bad.
It’s out on the 25th November. More details on Tasha’s FB page here, but in the meantime, here’s a little still. In other news, if Marquez doesn’t win the MotoGP Championship on Sunday, I shall be very sad.
NuFolk, ambient, soul : Coming soon from @JasonKyrone
Most of this weekend was spent in the presence of Jason Kyrone and the Blackmagic Cinema Camera. Hence, as you may have guessed, a couple of quick session video’s are on their way. Mr Kyrone kindly brought with him a selection of fine food and gifts : Edible eye-balls, a huge bag of onion rings, a £3 pack of horror make-up and a bottle of Drambuie. Suffice to say, a great weekend was had by all and the de-tox is now well underway.
More importantly, Jason also brought with him a couple of new and fabulous songs and we’re absolutely itching to share them – “then I found you” in particular is a hit. No doubt about it. It’s beautiful, catchy and features a hook I just can’t get rid off. And as for the guitar playing, Jason has created something new. NuFolk, ambient soul I reckon. The vocals are sublime – deep and husky but then out of the blue some incredible high notes that take the track to a fabulous new place. Keep an ear out for this track, it is both stunning & different yet has an accessibility that means it’s immediate, but also a depth that requires repeated listening.
As for the BMCC…it’s a physical object of alloy and clever electronics – nothing more. But. It’s an incredible device for producing beautiful images and yes, while it’s not as polished as something from the big players, it has the knack of displaying beauty. After my wife, my bike, my Mac, it’s the next thing to be rescued from the rhetorical burning house. Actually, it may come before the Mac….
Deep in his castle lair…Jason Kyrone & ‘Raylen the Raven’
Every folly used to have it’s hermit. Every castle would have it’s minstrel. And every small, yet perfectly formed tower in the Scottish Borders should also have a folk/indie/experimental singer-songwriter armed with a guitar and singing a song of ravens. As luck would have it, right on our doorstep, at the rather delicious Greenknowe Tower, we find Jason Kyrone singing ‘Raylen the Raven’. How strange..for a moment then, I had a Michael Moorcock flashback and imagined a bone-white emperor with slanting eyes of crimson grooving to this song. I’m going to lie down now.
Jason Kyrone :Raylen the Raven
