Happy Valentine's Day! Here's a thing that may, or may not, be appropriate. A while ago, I was asked by the fantastic Kid Canaveral if I would like to make a music video for their song 'You Only Went Out To Get Drunk Last Night'. Of course I did! After a few delays, setbacks and general slowness (on my part), I finally asked for a deadline and got to work. The above video is the result. For a better viewing experience, click here to watch it on YouTube properly (clicking up the resolution / video size goes a long way).
For me, video and animation is a funny thing - I don't really know what I'm doing. The ins-and-outs of cameras, shutter speeds, lighting, exposure etc. are all still kinda outside my understanding. I'm learning though. The KC video may not exactly be beautiful, but I think it has a certain charm to it. I hope? Maybe? I read a very encouraging interview (here) with Michel Gondry before I began filming where he said:
"I care less and less about the aesthetic quality. It finds its way into it anyway. I can't bother with that and the less attention I pay to it the better it becomes."
That was exactly what I needed to hear. The perfectionist part of my brain got booted well and truly out the window and I concentrated more on just having fun and throwing as many ideas into the silly thing as tI could. All the mistakes - the wonky shadows, visible wires, shakes and wee glimpses of hands were suddenly Good Things, not Bad Things. I tried to keep in mind stuff like Adam & Joe, Oliver Postgate and the Teeny Little Super Guy from Sesame Street rather than, I dunno, Chris Cunningham or Shynola.
Speaking of fun, I can honestly say that this was one of the funnest projects I've ever worked on. It was a blast. Along with my wonderful fiancée Alex and my best friend Fergi, we hunkered in over four long nights and pretty much mucked around. Alex in particular was incredible throughout - she worked her socks off, took damn near every photo (8000 odd) and came up with loads of the best ideas. I couldn't have done it without her, no way. She's amazing. Fergi did some brilliant stuff in the crazy-kitchen scenes too. Check the cups in the cupboard at 2:43 - I didn't even spot him doing it. Haha!
Photo: two blurry men work on a blurry thing.
As for Kid Canaveral, I was super chuffed to work with them again (I did a poster before). Kate has been completely lovely at putting up with my rubbish and giving me freedom to go nuts with their song. So if you like 'Only Went Out..', I'd really recommend you pick up their album 'Shouting At Wildlife', it's a cracking wee record that's full of energy and life. I'll try to get round to a proper post about the band soon because this one is going on a bit and I'm worried people will just tune out. One thing I will say is that they're off to SXSW next month and they've been organising a few gigs to support their jaunt - check out their website for more details (they're playing Glasgow, Edinburgh and... New York!). If you can, pick up some tickets or pick up an album - you wont regret it.
Anyway, enough from me. Please have a look at the video - if you enjoy it, clicking on the 'like' button on YouTube goes a long way in helping it reach more people. If you really like it, any tweets, posts, blogs or links pointing people towards it would make me a very happy man. I'm quite proud of it. Hopefully soon I'll be able to do some more video stuff (Jonnie Common & Johnny Lynch, I'm looking at you). Stay tuned here or on my Twitter for further stuffage.