31-01-13 / A MUSIC VIDEO FROM TOO LONG AGO
I've been wanting to post this music video for aaaages. It has been power-snoozing in the archives for far too many sundays, and I even had to go trawling through this blog to find evidence of the date I shot it. Seems I didn't mention it at the time, but from checking the file metadata I deduce it was late Summer 2011. I'd been nagging Swimming to let me do a clip for this particular song since hearing the early demo (before it finally happened we did the acoustic version in the sand dunes). Given that my intention was to choreograph a single, unedited sequence, for which we couldn't find an appropriately minimal location for free, it was decided that I would hijack "at least three hours" (my words) after their soundcheck at a London gig. This way I craftily stole the space for nothing; tee blummin hee, right? We all squeezed into a circle on stage in the same arrangement I'd sketched out, then we were told we had only 45 minutes before being booted out. So with very little time and only available spotlights, we moved fast, without a camera rig, follow-focus or viewfinder. After five takes we were out of there. Ohhh for a sixth.

05-01-13 / 'BINAURAL SWIMMING (BEACH)' BACK ONLINE / 'STEW & PUNCH' IMMINENT
Here's the documentary sequel to Binaural Swimming (Skyspace) which I originally posted in October 2011 then had to remove for a festival screening opportunity. Don't ask why it took so long to get back online because I don't have a good answer. Remember to watch it through headphones though...

My new short film Stew & Punch is sprinting to the finish line. This is always the trickiest of times, watching it back endlessly while making those final adjustments, being mindful to keep perspective and not overcook anything before delivery. It's an excruciating dichotomy of relief and ordeal that is quite impossible to articulate in a few daft words, and I'm not about to write an essay on the matter.

13-12-12 / NEW MUSIC VIDEO
While in the final throes of post production on Stew & Punch (sound mix and final picture imminent) I restored a wee bit of sanity putting together this batty music video for Swimming:

18-11-12 / JURY DUTY IN BREST / A SPECIAL MUSIC VIDEO
It was still dark in Brest when I left this morning, then it was raining in Paris, but Birmingham was all booming sunshine when I landed and it's funny what cheers one up after only 90 minutes of sleep, even if said sunshine was wasted on my undead head. Brest was brief and brilliantly bananas. While there was a lack of drunken Breton brawling compared to last year, the cinema audiences seemed even more enthusiastic for the films, and that's saying something. Their sheer numbers and insane fervour really made an impression on me last time and they pretty much blew me away again, exhibiting the kind of excitement that most festivals can only dream of seeing in their paying public. You should hear them holler when the festival trailer ends, even in the afternoon! It makes me wonder what they put in the water.

Interestingly, there was a male streaker who ran across the stage butt-naked on two occasions. Appropriately, his first caper was during a particular moment of Jean-Baptiste Saurel's porn-ish comedy The Dickslap, and he was clearly so chuffed with waggling his silhouetted balls on the stage that he decided to do it again during the closing ceremony. Under the spotlight this time, he wore a nappy to spare the crowds (and cameras), except that we, the jury, were standing right behind him. And we got a solid eyeful of dangle when he took a bow, I can tell you. Speaking of the jury, I got lucky again with my fellow jurors Mihai Mitrica, Ludovic Henry, Nabiha Akkari and Kris. Through much agreement and occasional friendly disagreement, we made the right choices for the right reasons. The schedule was fairly heavy: five 90 minute programmes for me on one day because of the need to view the non-subtitled films with English subs in between theatrical screenings, but despite the workload we got to go out and see some of Brittany's coast, pose for the cover of our upcoming album, and I ate the best crepe I ever had in Le Conquet. Thanks to Nabiha for some of these pictures (her wonderfully juvenile chocolate teeth trick was something to behold and damn I'm getting all misty-eyed already).

Right, enough with the sentimentality. Notable films were Gabriele Mainetti's Tiger Boy (Italy), Nicolas Guiot's Le Cri du Homard (Belgium/France), Michael Rittmannsberger's Punched (Austria), Fabrice Maruca's Coming Soon (France), Miha Hocevar's Can I Drive Daddy? (Slovenia), and of course Gunhild Enger's exemplary short Prematur (Norway), which I have bleated about in previous posts already. There were others too but I can't list them all.

To side-step for a moment, festival director and general bud Massimiliano Nardulli put me onto something I hadn't seen or heard of before, and I currently can't stop watching/listening to it. It's a music video using reappropriated footage from the 1962 Italian documentary Mondo Cane (A Dog's World), put together by one Jamie Harley. What makes it particularly hypnotic for me is that the footage is 1962 16mm shot in the streets and bars of my beloved Hamburg's St Pauli district. Anyone who has spent more than a fleeting amount of time in those streets can't fail to be fascinated by this raw document of the Reeperbahn's hedonistic heritage. It is something very special indeed, so fill your eyes and ears right up, right now. That means full screen, and louder... louder... a bit more... just a touch more... good:

This one here is a bit mad too.

01-11-12 / STEW & LOTS OF MUSIC
Like the titular broth, Stew & Punch is bubbling along slowly but surely, and there is a page for it here which includes some waffle by me and an on-set report from Lauren Bergin. Nothing else to reveal on the film yet. What else... I exploded my face off for Halloween fun and games.

In more musical news, Nottingham's free Branch Out music festival last week revealed a true bevy of world class performers sure to break through into ubergalacticmegastardom. Gawd bless Nottingham, just when I was starting to wonder where all the talent had gone. Hats off to John Sampson for a sublime performance in pitch blackness, Ady Suleiman, Georgie Rose and the exceptional Natalie Duncan. I also had the pleasure to see Max Richter and Britten Sinfonia perform his recomposed version of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons at the Barbican on Wednesday. Some moments of shivery bliss went on there, I can tell you. Made me want to give up filmmaking and learn violin. Again.L

03-10-12 / NEW SHORT WRAPPED
Stew & Punch, the story of a housewarming dinner party gone awry, finished shooting two days ago. Despite being one of my shorter shooting schedules it is likely to be my longest short, and all that I have the energy to say at this time is an enormous THANK YOU to an outstanding cast and crew. Each and every one of the talented buggers really went the whole nine yards and never seemed to start flagging despite having to live on top of one another for the duration. I'm sure I will find better ways of gushing about them all as my head readjusts to the world outside but for now this is the best I can do.

(OLDER POSTS)