These are some ungraded stills from our first shoot. We had a treatment fall through the day before shooting and we ended up writing, testing and shooting this over a weekend. We had a bunch of ridiculously attractive swedish kids at our disposal. Perhaps we were intimidated by their model-esque statures and clean skin, however, we took them outside in the freezing cold temperatures (about minus 2) and made them convulse cold milk all over themselves. Thank you to frey + lovisa for providing armpits for warmth and phone credit.
We begin this video sale now. We're in Gothenburg, Sweden. A friend of a friend (who's now our friend) is this guy: David Borkmann. He makes tunes in his spare time from med school. We had some beers a few nights ago with him and naturally ended up getting into a wrestle. While his girth amasses to the two of us combined, we somehow managed to slip him an elbow to the face resulting in an epic nose bleed. So, our debt to him will now be re-paid with this video.
We haven't just been wrestling though. While in Turkey we met a man in a bar who was playing Dallas Green covers. He then played a credible cover of 'Fake Plastic Trees' and we knew we should speak to him. His name is Orkun and we had a รงay with the guy, shared some seesha then realised he was a massive fan of two of our favourite bands: Alexis and Refused. He told us he had some of his own tracks - we told him we had a camera - so we took him out on the street and this is what happened:
Technically I guess this counts as our first video. Or at least 0.5. We now have under a week to write a treatment for David and shoot the video before we fly out to Iceland. So we best stop this procrastination.
The sound isn't great as Orkun didn't have this song recorded yet, so we had to swallow our technical pride and resort to using an in-camera mic.
Bye from the Bearded Maricon and Josh.
A note from Josh:
I must make special mention here to pay my respects to my Peruvian headband that was tragically lost a few nights ago. I have worn that guy literally everyday for an entire year now. My fringe will forever curl in mourning.
Well. We're heading off to Turkey today. Before we leave - we thought we'd show you some of the tests we've been shooting with our new camera. The compile consists of the back of old ladies heads, an abandoned amusement park and of course as the title suggests - some Korean sewage. We will be beginning our video work in under a month. In the meantime we'll be concentrating on growing lush bush ranger-esque beards.
The track is by False Jesii. They're good. Listen to them.
We plan to test the limits of lo-fi music videos. We want to see if we can feasibly produce quality videos in exchange for shelter around Europe.
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Aims:
Explore video as its own medium, separate from film.
Embrace the mobility of video
Attempt to find a more fluid approach to video, free from monetary constraints.
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Method:
No matter the monetary situation we will create a video for any artist, anywhere in Europe. All we ask from them in return is that they provide some shelter for the duration of the production process (an estimated two weeks). Be it their grandmother’s couch or their mate’s back shed, if we are given the space, we will produce a video for you. We will make our own way to your hometown.
We are geared up with the newest of the Cannon DSLR line – the EOS 7D. We will be carrying our own laptops that can be built into a mini edit-suite.
We will begin our video-making in Turkey at the end of November. After that, we will travel wherever we find willing artists.
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Research:
Here are some of our favourite lo-fi videos of late that have helped inspire this idea:
This blog will provide the platform to exhibit our results. We will post whatever we feel relevant to the experiment – be it pictures we take, tales of the people we meet, videos we like, updates on our progress or stories of our demise.
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Note:
There will be no conclusive results found by this experiment. We simply hope to begin establishing (for ourselves) a new language of music video making, where video is used as video and fluidity takes priority. We want to find some beauty in the haphazard.
We are two Australian lads geared up with laptops and an EOS 7d camera ready to exchange music videos for shelter in Europe. Our rates? We work for free. Any spare change you have to put into the production will improve the final piece but is not required. This blog will service as our video catalogue + diary. = = = If interested in partaking in our little experiment, then please use the contact below.
Coop: recently checked his soul in and subjected himself to some of the worst jobs imaginable. He has confirmed his wariness of the bullshit involved in the pursuit of capital gain and has nobly elected with this journey, to reclaim his soul and become a bum, before embarking on an arts degree at the Australian National University, which he understands will only further his status as a ‘bum’.
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Josh: is currently studying film at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, Australia. He has since been corrupted by the assumption that glasses are cool, weakening any grip he once had on reality. He's now attempting to reclaim his rightful place at the top of the rainbow, hence this experiment. His trip will be funded by the Australian Government’s student welfare system. Thankyou taxpayers.
