Money made from the traditional casino game, "Roulette". If you add all the numbers on a Roulette table together you get 666.

What has made this start to the year good is the fresh sense of optimism I have. 2011 was a good year for me as a low scale filmmaker. It is sometimes hard to rate progress while in the middle of the cycle but despite whatever made being good or not I have been able to pay the rent doing it. I have also felt a rebirth of love for film. Music has always been my number one passion. It explains why I film so music music, I’m a shit musician. I would buy music magazines and subscribe to Loud and Quiet (Very cheap. Good Quality. Free Vinyl. £20 for a year). When I have bought film-magazines in the past like Sight and Sound or Film Ireland I have been bored and fallen asleep, sometime whilst floating on a giant zebra. I looked at them for opportunity rather than interest. Two days ago I had a craving to buy my girlfriend a subscription to Little White Lies film magazine. Basically the Xmas presents I got her were bought when I was in a haze and weren’t very cool. I then thought how a subscription to a magazine would be a class gift. I also think a voucher for the Wii Virtual Store would be class. £30 to spend on old school games. A dream. As I had been bored in the past with film magazines I bought this months issue before subscribing. It is all about the film Shame, the newest film by Steve McQueen. I was impressed that I remembered his name and even more impressed that I was interested in reading about his new film. One point I found really inspiring was that his other film, Hunger, was released 4 years ago. That seems like ages to me because I am an idiot.

The man has been crafting a piece of Art that will be in the world for the rest of time. 4 years is nothing. A lesson for the new year. It definitely helps that the magazine is the best designed magazine I have ever felt. The shape, texture, layout and style is flawless. I tried to use a self-checkout to pay for it but I couldn’t find the bar-code. That was because the barcode is incorporated to the magazine so well that you don’t even notice it. I remember my friend telling me that the gentleman who designed Kowalski’s Take Care, Take Flight EP had a stressful moment of clarity as he forgot there was a barcode going on the disc and if he had remembered he would have designed the EP slightly differently. No one want’s a barcode on their artwork but LWL did it and I am smitten. I also couldn’t tell what film the issue was about despite it saying on the cover. Again, it is so well designed I didn’t even notice. This new found romance for the magazine is one part of my life which is gelling with other parts and giving me an interest in making a short film. That’s the real challenge for myself. Make a decent short film. Get into Directing in that way. Directing live stuff like concerts etc is so different. When you do that you capture a subject that you have no control over. In the short film area it is all about what you see. Very scary.

DOT-AH

The new live video above is the companion piece to the live video from last month of Daughter performing Love at St. Giles in the Fields Church. I think the video of “Youth” is the better one of the two and it’s maybe my favourite live video I have shot. Elena, singer, looks iconic to me in the “soundcheck” footage. Some people hate the film-burn look. I can understand why. I thought it worked for this. I hope to work with Daughter again. The second EP wasn’t as instant for me as the first but the performance of Love I filmed really got me into it and helped me understand the whole EP. I was with Hannah in Topshop getting her some late Xmas gifts with the casino winnings and the demo of “Run” came on. It was great. It feels like a big secret that is going to be revealed in 2012.

An attempt at making new year resolutions below!

NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS

- Make a short film

- Stop biting my finger nails

- Remember Actors and Directors names

- Stop eating white bread

- Begin a feature length documentary

- Get a video on Pitchfork

I got this Coma Cinema T-Shirt for Xmas. 1st Day it got covered in Guinness and a hole burnt in it.

If any of Y’all go on Twitter ye can follow babysweet ramblings courtesy of @mrbabysweet

is it the sea? is it the sky?

I made 4 music videos. That is the most I have ever made in a year. In terms of improvement I think they were the best I have made but if I had made 10 videos this year then maybe I would be much better at it. The most successful video was the Cashier No9 video for Oh Pity. It was my first music video to get played on MTV2 (Rocks!) or whatever it is known as these days. It was always a goal of mine to do that so now I need a new music video goal for 2012. Maybe get it on again or get a video on Pitchfork. I feel Pitchfork is actually a little down the toilet. Or maybe my taste is. We don’t agree on a lot, 24bit is a much more “part of the family” website. I would love to get back on to 24bit but Pitchfork is the sort of Hidden Treasure and the exposure would be magnificent.

Besides Casher No9 I also made videos for Kowalski, Grand Forever and Gathered Ghosts. The Kowalski video was definitely the toughest edit I had. I thought the whole project was a disaster and going to need to be re-shot entirely. We didn’t even have a plan for the video. I can’t remember one thing we really spoke about besides getting the “Morph” suits. It turned out well though. The first video of the year for Gathered Ghosts was my favourite at the time. It was just a marvellous situation. An amazing label, an amazing band, an amazing song, an amazing actor in an amazing city. I thought that video would have caused more of a stir online but it wasn’t to be. The Grand Forever had little presence online despite getting a premier on Fake DIY. It took 30minutes to make and was my favourite at the time. I still love it but I have watched it back only once or twice since it went online. I wanted to keep it special or didn’t want to catch myself out as a Conman.

Photo of the Year?

I only ever judge the progress of Babysweet by looking at the Short Films section and seeing how much it has grown. I look at and think it hasn’t really grown this year. there were four music videos, a couple of corporate jobs and Cornelia’s single Launch. The Single Launch is one of my best pieces of work in terms of photography. There is also a Gotye mini-documentary that is done but not allowed online until January that I feel is strong. It’s going to change anything or make any money or bring any popularity but it’s just a really basic mini-documentary that I don’t mind watching. There are also a couple of Daughter performances I shot very recently that I am quite proud of. They should be online maybe before Xmas. I think I have made them quite interesting. It a tough call with live performances. The amount of live videos going online is large. It’s hard not to get bored of some of them. That then translates to filming them I find. You would look at a shot and think “I don’t want to film that” or know that you could film it in a way that would go down well but you can’t bring yourself to do it. That’s why I enjoyed the Daughter / Gotye videos as I made an effort to try and make it different to other live stuff I have done.

I live in a Music Video Asylum

So besides Videos and Live Performances the only documentary I have made was “A Musician and a Scene” which is going online a couple of hours after this is written. You can read about it here. I was hoping for bigger things from this film. Festivals, Late Night TV etc. Applying to festivals is a full time job in itself though and I just haven’t got round to it. Although there may not have been stuff appearing up here for a month or two at a time I have been working on other things. That has been the real “win” of this year. I now make my living from Directing and Editing. Surely that is the biggest success I could have hoped for this year. I am allowed to improve and develop and pay the rent all in one. I have been doing it full time since June and looking over that period it is great. Sometimes I moan about it but I am just being a dick then. What more could I want?

In trying to find another picture i couldn’t find one where i looked decent.

Of the Top of My Head Favourites of 2011

Albums

The Peoples Key by Bright Eyes

Let England Shake by PJ Harvery

Blue Suicide by Coma Cinema

Video of 2011

The Leopard by We Cut Corners (Dir: Eoghan Kidney)

This video just stood out to me as clever and magnificent. No fucking around. Just got the job done.

FM Belfast: Underwear (Dir: DANIELS)

This video was out in April 2010 but I only saw it this year. It’s perfect.

End Of the Top of My Head Favourites of 2011

Theres too much you can write about that stuff and I can’t be arsed. Top Irish stuff I liked is the Wonder Villains Zola Ep and I like The Jepettos “Goldrush” free single. It’s not that I am all about the quiet poppy single it’s just that they are most prominent in my head at the moment. The find of the year was Coma Cinema. Pretty slow on the up take considering it was the 3rd album released by them before I caught on. They are the best band I have heard since I first got a Bright Eyes addiction in 2004. The beauty of how i found them was through Vimeo. There is a video guru making a name for himself called Tyler T Williams. I came across a couple of his videos and just watched and re-watched them. Then the music seeped in, I went to the website and haven’t looked away since. The music is all free to download. It’s completely free and legally so. I don’t know how the main Gent survives by giving his music away and sometimes there are a few tweets that would suggest he is close to death. If you check out his blog then you get links to all these other killer bands that have music on bandcamp for free. The latest one I have found are called Happy Trendy. They are great and free. Check them out.

Nothing really to report. Just felt like writing something before beginning an edit on a opera. I have one week to get something in. Hmmmm. So at the start of this month I had the pleasure of attending the first ever Northern Irish Music Awards. It was held in the Ulster Hall and had a decent line up with performances from General Fiasco, Cashier No9, Japanese Popstars, ASIWYFA and The Stiff Little Fingers. I was up for Video of the Year which was an honour. It was for my most recent Kowalski video. In the end we lost out to Cashier No9’s video for “Lost at Sea”. A deserved winner.  Kowalski and Cashier made up however and are currently on a UK tour together.

Kowalski and Cashier No9 Tour Winter 2011

In even more exciting news Kowalski are now being played on Radio 1. We all know it can be a grim Radio station but it’s the biggest in the UK and airtime is pretty much impossible for a relatively unknown band but theys is ons its.  Here is some details from Kowalski keyboard / axe man / One Man and his Dog:

Even if you don’t get a chance to tune in,
If you like our song, It would be a real help if anyone could text in 81199 to tell Fearne how amazing the track is! 

The twitter handle is @fearnecotton or add @BBCR1

It would really help us out if we can create a buzz around the track whilst it’s on the playlist this week.

Monday: Fearne Cotton (10am-12.45pm)
Tuesday: Scott Mills (4-7pm)
Wednesday: Dev – early b’fast (4-6.30am)
Thursday; Greg James (1-4pm)
Saturday: Huw Stephens (1-4pm)
Sunday: Edith Bowman (7-10am)
Nick Grimshaw and Annie Mac (10pm-midnight)

I checked out how Oh Pity was getting on in the world of Youtube and it’s been watched about 8,000 times in three weeks. I think that is decent. You can read an interview about the making of the video here. I have a couple more ideas for videos and although I would love to make another one before the end of the year I think it’s best to just sit it out and recharge. Editing it dominating at the moment. This feels like a kind of end of year write up. It’s not. The Irish Music Television Awards are happening at some point this month. I have entered numerous things but am yet to hear back. Last year I had the pleasure of having 3 nominations. I was surprised at the work selected but honoured all the same. Fingers crossed for this year. Hopefully I can bring some gold home.

Forgot to add. The highlight of the trip for me was meeting the Indie-Icon-Beauties, The Wonder Villains. Check out the love in the frame. I am trying to get Lou photoshopped out.

Wonderful

My good friend MiddleBit Patterson is someone you should check out. His animations are ultra-cool and funny. A very talented man. He made a music video recently for FREE. Put hours of work in and dedicated himself to it. The label and artist had asked him to do this. Commissioned but without any money. Once it was made the results were fantastic. Then the label decided not to put the single out and said the video had to come down. Totally depressing. Watch it here while you can.

I get a lot of emails at this site and one of the hot topics is about the retro-indie-vintage-icon The Posterboy. The Posterboy basically is now a man. He is dealing with serious business on a daily basis. I still call him once a month for advice but in order for closure. There have been two alternate endings drawn up for you. Choose which you prefer and think about that when you think about him.

Traditional Ending A

Alternative Ending B

A lot of things have happened in the two months since we last spoke. Firstly I was contacted by the gorgeous Bella Union Records. I was on a train from Manchester to London and in a tizzle. I found an email that I hadn’t responded to and immediately thought back to a job I was once offered to edit a Stereophonics Documentary. I’m not the biggest fan of Kelly Jones and co but at the time I was working for £5.97 an hour in a place where I had tea thrown at me, heard every day about the art of watering plants that always died and every other Wednesday dressed up as a Chef. It was on St.Patricks night and in a rage I smashed my phone. I then didn’t get home for 17 hours or so and thus didn’t get to check my emails. The job was gone. They needed an instant response. That job flew by and I wept on my girlfriends shoulder.

So I was getting my hanky ready and a beer opened as I wrote back to the management, expecting the boat to have sailed. Luckily however it was still in the dock (no more analogy) and I was asked to send a treatment in for “Oh Pity” by Cashier No9. This was beautiful. My beloved and I had been listening to “The Death of Fun” on near constant rotation. It was one of my first targets as a young lad to be asked by a label to make a music video. That and get a video / film on a CD release. Anyway, I had two days to get a treatment over. I kept the treatment really basic as I find it quite difficult to write coherently at times as anyone who has read the essay section of this site will confirm. They didn’t fancy the first idea. They didn’t hate it. It just didn’t do anything for them. It didn’t do too much for me probably. Here is what I was thinking. Next I moved onto some one shot concepts. With those I knew they were half hearted and the band didn’t go for them either. I started waking up in the middle of the night.

Calm Egg Gregg

Is it true that at some point’s I actually wanted to become ill to get out of doing the video and become an Estate Agent? I will leave that to VH1 Behind the Music. I started to ask the band if they had an enormous banner to play in front or a Cashier No9 flag. They got back to me with a video of them playing a festival in front of a screen. You can see it here. They used the word “projection” and it instantly took me back to Halloween 2010 when I took the photo below.

The seed grew from this. T'was like Inception lick.

At that time I remember thinking that would be a really cool video. I think I may have drunkenly even spoken to the band, Grand Forever, about trying it out for one of their songs. When I had this idea I was pretty sure the band where going to go for it as it was eerie and I felt it fitted the song well lick.. I was really excited by it which was interesting. Usually I give my idea in the first few hours. I always thought that you either had the idea straight away or didn’t. Im a spoon. I spent ages thinking about this idea. then when it came it was written in two minutes and sent off. The band went for it and all was happy and tap dancing began. I’ll not bore you with details over trying to find a location and a suitable projector. Needless to say it was hard being based in London and unable to go home to check out locations or actually do any tests with the idea. In fact it was big stress. At the same time though it mean’t the idea couldn’t get out of hand and that it had to remain simple and in it’s most basic form. Blah…blah….blah….I flew home for the shoot.

On meeting the Studio Manager of our location, Media Zoo, I was told that all green screen stuff had to be shot first. This threw me off. Is it OCD or something I don’t know but when I make a shot list it is usually not the most efficient structure but more one where I know I will feel good if “that” shot works. I wanted to start by filming the shots that would be projected the next day. There wasn’t even mean’t to be any green screen but it was felt that at 4:50 or so the video may need a kicker for certain places. The first days shoot was actually a little chaotic. We didn’t get as much shot as I hoped. Once the ball finally got rolling and a bit of momentum started, I interrupted proceedings by screaming an emotional and fully visible “Fuck”. When checking how much space I had left on my card, I formatted the card and deleted everything. Danny from the band asked, “Are you a good guy?” I said, “I think so”. He then calmly said, “It will be all right then. Nothing to worry about”. A complete Indie Icon called Lewis Wilkinson was on board and sat down with Kowalski’s own Paddy Conn whilst on the blower to Shannon “Bang Bang” McClean and between them they salvaged all of the footage.  At this point it’s worth saying how magic the crew where. I had never worked with a crew of more than two in anything babysweet related, save “Tatters and Beard”, and on this project I expected two pairs of helping hands.

I am very laid back when it comes to filming as you can see. Me. Don't give a fuck.

Instead, I got guys who helped in a way I couldn’t have fathomed. All the Kowalski chaps, except for Lou who was moving house for the 8th time in Bangor, where up to help. They along with Media Zoo Pete sorted the lighting, built / pushed the track, sorted the music and let me moan and be depressing for 48 hours. Paddy introduced me to Lewis who I mentioned earlier. He took me and a couple of others to his work on the weekend and let us use an enormous printer to get really high quality masks of the band made. It was sick. His boss came to the location. If spotted we were out and Lewis was maybe sacked. We were walking up a corridor and in the distance the boss was wandering about. We snuck into a changing room and waited for the all clear. It was like Mission Impossible on the N64, which I still think is one of the greatest games ever despite what people say. Up the Bond. We had a crew cutting out the mask and gluing them until about 10:30 the night before the shoot.

A sofa of models

At one point I thought my cigarette had been covered in glue and thought I was about to have a heart attack. We had make up people who gently caressed the already stunning faces of the Cashier boys. I started to really enjoy the shoot when we did a solo green screen take of Phil. We had brought a rug in, purely to protect the floor, and I thought it looked ace. The green screen stuff is kind of like Gonzo or something. A TV show. I like that. I like doing really basic things that are almost inappropriate for a music video.

Every Man and Womans Dream

We finished a little early and probably a little deflated the first day. I went home and got some of the stuff ready to be projected the next day. The projector was delivered at 12 on the 2nd day and that is when things really picked up. It was the original idea and was really the maker or breaker of everything in the universe. I had started to doubt the idea and so had only got Danny’s stuff ready to test with the projector. As soon as it was hooked up it was amazing. An imaginary cloud I had in my mind was lifted. It looked just how I had wanted it, better even. It was sick. Blah…blah….blah….we filmed everyone as the projection. Then Phil, who was at this (wait till the chorus!!!), got a smoke machine in and we did some stuff. I then got a six-inch subway, haggled for free double cheese as they had no peppered cheese and got a cab home with One Man and his Dog as the funniest taxi driver in Belfast drove us home. His accent was that of an angels. The funniest thing about the whole video is that James disappeared and went and slept in the Van for two hours.

There are things that bug me after watching it 50-100 times but I’m Northern Irish so that is expected. “Disappointment  fills my veins”. I hope you think it’s decent.

In other Gossip. The outrageously good “Foreign Box” EP by one of the greatest bands on the planet at the moment “Gathered Ghosts” is out. Talk about Indie, there are 50 copies of the cassette. It comes with a download and some of the most beautiful artwork I have had the pleasure of feeling. If you miss out on a tape  you can download it but listening to it on tape is even better. The sound bends in places and it just works wonders. Whoever mastered it is a hero in my big important book. There are 20 copies being left in record shops all over the place and if you find them you get it for free. For those of you who are rich you can buy one from here for £4.00. Be quick.  You can also see that lil’ video we shot for one of the tracks here. It hasn’t been viewed many times. Makes me blue.

Only 50 copies!

In between all that I got my first editing job for TV. It was for one of the wonderful 4play programmes. A mini-documentary about Slow Club. I have never had anything I’ve worked on show on TV except for this Kowalski video which was shot back in 2007. I went for a meeting to discuss the project and as I was being shown stuff on the producers Mac Book Air my sub-concious decided it was going to well. Suddenly I poured my Latte all over her computer. Oh Lord aka Oh Boy. After much red tape, legal fights and psychiatry sessions I got the job. It was shown last week and you can watch it here.

The view from my window

This feels like quite a long post so I am off. Maybe shooting a video at the end of this month and a couple of live things. The next video is going to be quite pretentious and extremely laid back. I’m away to swim.

All the best,

Babysweet

” A musician and a scene ” is the beginning of something special for babysweet. I think I can feel it. There’s just something about this whole thing that feels right to me. I’m getting something from it and I don’t know what it is. You know that lyric “it’s like walking a long desert mile spending one minute in this town”? Well it’s nothing to do with that but thats by a band called Spider Bags and their debut album will make you ill. “lay down with the wrong woman and you may as well lay down everything”! I could keep throwing those lyrics out but just go listen to it on spotify.

Anyway. “A musician and a scene”. I filmed this back in April at the suggestion of an “Indie beyond his own comprehension” bloke called Richard. The film is only 15 minutes long. I’ll tell you that for free. Am I over egging by making a trailer for it and not only that but editing another trailer to release in a months or so time?

"The Dynamic Dynamo" Mr. Si Cranstoun

The reason I am trailering it, if you will, is because this baby isn’t going online for a long time. I feel this should be shown at a festival. I mean for the love of the great saints this should get into at least one festival. Ideally a festival where people know why they are going into a certain room. Not like the time we had our Two Door film shown in some excuse for a film festival. That was hard to take. Fannys. Don’t know if that’s directed at myself, the festival organiser or the people who watched it and left it. It’s a very strong word. But in this age and time we sometimes need strong words. Anyway, this is going to be touted out to some festivals. No doubt they will want it on a DVD and then I shall refuse as I can’t do that and am getting fed up with hating the quality. It’s my on fault. I find it easier to get better quality online than on a dvd. It’s laughable if your not me. I adore emailing links for applications.

The film takes place at Hemsby 2011

This blog was meant to give fans of Si an insight into the film. As let’s make no mistake about it, Si Cranstoun is Indie huge. The Dynamo promo has over 70,000 views. Huge. I am at a level where that still matters to me. It says a lot about my progress. I’ve come on leaps and bounds. Figure that out gangsta. Si took me to a festival. People adored him. He said to me “It’s funny / hard, because at these festivals I am somebody. When I go home I’m just Si Cranstoun”. Indie.

some people are born to jive

So the plan is that this film will enter some festivals. Get a minuscule bit of interest from somewhere and then I will get a bit of funding to go off and make the hour long feature film that this scene, musician and characters deserve. Or, it gets turned into a reality Tv Show. Or I just go and make the documentary myself.

i love this man. i love him. you will.

Some folk who’s opinion I respect and hold dear have been toying with my beliefs recently. At the level I am and stage I am at and age I am, should I make the music video idea I have for the band that aren’t really going to promote it, that will use it but in a totally unambitious way but for whom the concept originally came and for which their song fits perfectly. Or should I use it for the other band, who’s song I don’t like as much but still like, who sound doesn’t fit the concept as perfectly but still fits it and who will put in far more effort promoting it, will have more money to spend on it, will have it shown to people who are more likely to hire me for a future job and who arguably would be more appreciative. It’s an interesting debate.

But to finish on a less pretentious note, a lady from the film spoken about above, who entered into the hemsby beauty pageant contest. There is something about her movement which you can see briefly in the trailer that does something to me. Obviously she is my second love and doesn’t touch the lonely hunter. But I think we should all appreciate this woman style and beauty.

Hemsby beauty pageant had some lovely people in it

Looking at a beautiful shot angle we didn't even shoot from

This was the concept and influence for the video

On the first day of the shoot we filmed the shots of Paddy B’s drum being brought out to him, the main vocal take sequence where Lou is in the forefront and the band behind and another vocal take which has become known as “The Gervais“. I showed a rough edit of the video to the CEO of Everybody’s Stalking Records. There was a vocal take where Lou was singing and in the background Tom was spread out like a greek god throwing flowers at Lou while he sang. Sometimes you can loose perspective. It’s really dangerous when that happens. We all kind of felt depressed I think, called it a day at 3pm and went to the pub. We watched some footage back at Lou’s. At that point we were really pleased with some of the shots which was a good feeling but we also realised we had filmed “The Gervais” at the wrong speed. There was a small panic but that all disappeared after a while and I went to bed.

Pull your trousers up you disgusting moron

On the second day we did the chorus part first. There were no batteries for the CD player so we had a delay of an hour and a half. So while the shit hot DJ P Baird went of on his magic carpet to get some I took some burnt out footage of the other guys hanging about. Once Paddy returned we started the sequence and with P Bairds drumming to be done we had to take a break. The guys had struck a deal with a local sandwich shop and so had to go and do some press shots with there sarnies. Tres Indie. After the press shots we did Paddys and that section was done. The sun moved during this time so there is a small difference in colour levels. Oh Shit. Let’s throw the video in the bin. Ruined. Garbage. Crap. After all that some other stuff happened, we felt it all went well. The blue suit stuff was a hard way to work. Firstly I could see everything on every body. But as we were filming in a way that would only look good after editing it was hard to feel “cool”. I will be putting together an alternative edit of the video purely for you guys to see what I mean. Some of the blue suit footage is horrific in an artistic sense. We totally lost the plot. I went back to Lou’s once the shoot was finished and after I had vomited from laughing so much at Tom’s legs and PC’s hand movements he made me promise not to include any of that section in the video.

losing the plot

plot is lost

For this video I wanted to make a montage one. I did that. I wanted it to be poppy and I think it is. It took me ages to get a good edit with this video. We considered re-shooting the whole thing in Paris. Who knows how that would have turned out .

pish / pish / posh

There are more and far better photos here on my facey b. I can’t upload the higher res photos here. Very sad. Weep. Weep. Hug me.

Above is a video I made about Cornelia’s single launch.

Kowalski’s much spoken about little seen video has been 97% finished since the start of June and is now 100% done. The song was worth the wait. The video probably isn’t. That level of self pity suggests an alcohol problem.

There is a pretty interesting mini documentary that I’ve been editing in short, rare then long common bursts. It’s a tough one to call. I think it’s really interesting but I could have done a better job with my filming. I blame the DSLR technology and being a one-man crew. Having to compensate for shitty sound by holding a mic in one hand, holding the camera in the other and pulling focus with ones tounge.

I was at Latitude. I saw Bright Eyes. They were the reason I wanted to go. Maybe I had to much Gin, maybe I was stoned to the bone. But it was the best festival performance I have ever seen. Definitely the most enjoyable. The set list wasn’t anywhere near as strong as it could have been. I was nearly in tears at various points because I was enjoying it so much. He was behaving a little like a rapper and it was really working for me. Below is a photo I took at Latitude.

I am meeting a great band about a music video shoot. It’s going to be really, really great. I am going to put so much effort in it will hurt. I will take Valium if required. I will nail it. It’s a solid idea. It’s a great idea. I haven’t told the band the concept yet and I haven’t heard the song I am making the video for but it will work. It will be marvellous. I am going to hire a lens. That is how much effort I am going to put in. I am going to throw away all my stress and bitterness and jealousy. I am going to concentrate as much on it as I did for my 11+. I am going to dispose of the annoyance generated by the people I contact about my work and never hear back from. I am going to forget about wanting a career and just make a cheap music video that will content me and help keep me calm for a month. I am going to shoot a music video for a band that I like. The odds are that neither of us will make it in our chosen field and that is ok. I can accept that. I am going to enjoy making this video. It is going to be a pleasurable experience.

Oh Dazza! Behave.

I am moving house on Wednesday. My loving Girlfriend has done all of the work. Organised every aspect of the trip. She privately enjoys it but I sure feel like a lucky boy. She is in the wardrobe in the bathroom right now, sorting things. She started her new job today. It’s a career. I have promised to pack away the cutlery before she gets home tomorrow.

Said Saint showing her loyalty to the Belfast Music Scene

Anyway, I have a new video completed for their forthcoming single “Don’t Go Easy On Me”. It will be getting an exclusive over at Abeano.com and then maybe a second exclusive at another Mag. I usually deal with Mag’s quite a lot but for this I have done nothing. It has been so refreshing to sit back and just learn that this is what is going to happen and that there is actually a sort of release schedule for it. I have spoken more about the band than HOSJ and so this will be the blog that supports that video release as well.

The video is based around my Auntie Susan’s wedding. It is the first music video I have made where I have been completely contented and happy with post-edit. It is the kind of video I have wanted and failed to make before. If I saw it on TV I would think it was beautiful. It took me 40 minutes to do. Obviously this was possible because I didn’t actually film it. It was filmed by some guest at my Aunties wedding in the eighties. But it was also time efficient because I stripped everything back. There is no grading and there is nothing fancy. I wanted to make it as honest as possible in everyway. There is text over some sections which for me make the video. I think the text will make the video more memorable than it would  be without it. There are vast array’s of videos released now that use free footage of some factory from the 60’s or something. I always think those videos are a waste of time, except this one. I just don’t really like them as they tend to be boring and lazy. That is why it was important for this one to be plain and honest. It took 40 minutes. It wasn’t lazy as for those 40 minutes I worked really hard and when it was done I was happier with it than I have been with any other video. The band are very happy as well.

I was chatting with Neil about it the other night in a pub called “The Royal Oak“. He said he had the impression people thought “Grand Forever” where a throw-a-way band and that people thought there was no effort or enjoyment in it. We agreed that the video will probably be seen in the same mould. Who cares? If it is seen as throw-a-way that is fine with me. I know it isn’t just like they know their music isn’t. It is nice and honest with no bullshit.

Okay, my cousin couldn’t be less like a hipster in every single way.

Hours earlier that happy lad woke up in a lift in his pants.

Grand Forever are waiting to get their mastered track back and then its being added to the video and instantly loaded up here. It feels kind of Foreign to me. It took 40 minutes and is possibly my favourite work since Tom McShane. It opened up a whole new lease of life for the Kowalski Outdoors video. I had reached a mental blockage with it but after I cut that video for Grand Forever my eyes were opened and the rest of the Kowalski one just flowed. It should be online by my 26th Birthday.

I am also working as an assistant on Monday on a music video. Exactly what I felt I needed to do to get some perspective. I’m getting picked up at 6.30am. Scary times. On a further note I handed in my notice at work and only have four shifts left. Here is a picture of the flowers my friend Jem Parks is in charge of looking after outside the offices.

An absolutely gorgeous flower arrangement by Jem "Clint" Parks

And finally in this weird update here is a photo of me pointing a camera somewhere. It is a rarity to have such an image.

Pointing to the giant Tampon in the sky

I have been low low low on ideas that cost no money. The only answer is to get some.

In the mean time while I am away trying to find some please enjoy the video above of Nathaniel Rateliff. I think it’s the best live video I have done. It is really down to how on the money Nathaniel was. I still get shivers when I hear his voice at a certain point in this song. If this was a decent blog I would tell you the point that I am talking about but once again it’s all ideas and no action. Let me put it this way, at the point where Nathaniel looks like an alcoholic policeman from the deep South that is the moment my hairs on the back of my arse stand up. The performance is from a live album that is being put out and It was suggested that a few of my very own stills may be sketched and used for the artwork. That would be great.

My God I still haven’t done my taxes and keep losing bits of paper with all the passwords and user names on it. I think I will just hire an accountant. Much easier. More expensive.

There will be another video from the same show put up on CommunionRecords youtube page in the next week or so. It’s for a song that isn’t on the debut album “In Memory of  Loss”. It is a great song and the live video is ok. The video above though is my favourite.

Where on earth is Tom McShanes debut album? Where on earth is it?

I pre-ordered Girls Names album last Wednesday, it came out on Monday and it still hasn’t arrived. What’s the point of the pre-order? I could have walked down to Rough Trade over a period of 72 Hours at 1 mile every two hours and gotten it quicker. When it arrives should I throw it in the bin in protest. You could say that as a result Girls Names are Dead To Me.