Be Excellent To Each Other

I'm worried it might seem I only ever post here when I have something of my own I want to show off (which I realise is pretty heinous forum etiquette) but y'know, look at that joined date. I've lurked here and on WoS since most of you were knee-high to a grasshopper, so I feel sort-of within my rights to demand you watch and listen to the video my band have just made (single to be released at the start of August) and hit me with some honesty.

Yes okay, I'll watch your White Dress video

What do you think? Can you make me cry with your scathing honesty? Really want to hear what people genuinely make of it, because when your mates tell you, "that's friggin' awesome" it's hard to tell how sincere they're being. More cynically, I also have a bet on that it will get more than 632 unique hits within six months, which you might just help me on my way to winning...

Cheers!

No, that is awesome.

OK, you asked for a critical eye:

1 minute before music starts. As a casual viewer with a low attention span, I'm bored! I want to get the the action. One of the useful things on Youtube is that you can see how short peoples attentions spans are these days and its just so easy for them to click on another video if its online.

Like the slow mo bits but they are crying out to be shot at an overcranked frame rate on something like an EX1. You just get rid of that slight jerkiness but I guess Joe Punter never notices these things.

Why can't I see the bands faces? Just interested.

Like the shallow focus stuff. What camera was it?

Love the grading. Magic Bullet/Colorista, Apple Color or something else?

In all, I like the general look. Can't comment on the music. I'd really look at tightening up that intro.

I like the direction but my one comment is that the camera is a little static in that there are few camera moves. I don't mean handheld stuff either. I'm afraid to say that often handheld is the lazy way to get movement into a shot and its a crime I'm guilty of myself because I'm not prepared to spend 40 minutes setting up a jib or dolly shot.

If you think of all the great movies, pop videos, or whatever, there's always some camera movement in there. Some jib shots with some subtle movement combined with some of the shallow DoF shots would actually really add something. It's the kind of movement that you can achieve on that kind of support that really gives you that expensive look.



NB: Pop videos are not something I've ever had an interest in shooting.

See, I think that if you put in more movement it wouldn't suit the music as well as it does.

That was awesome. Blown away by that right there.

I only listened to the first minute & then gave up. Ambient isn't my bag.

Is very noice.

Yay- comments! Thank you all.

@Chinny:

Why are the band wearing masks?
If you could see our faces you wouldn't need to ask!

Why is there so little movement?
We had £0 as a budget, and had to rely on what people already owned or what could be begged, borrowed or stolen from others. We also had to shoot the whole thing in two days with no real crew. That was pretty hectic as it was, and although this is my first and only experience filming anything like this, I'm guessing setting up many moving shots would have been too expensive both in terms of time and money.

Also, like Dimrill said, it was TOTALLY an artistic decision.

What camera was it?
I *think* it was a Canon XH A1 HDV. Which means absolutely nothing to me, but it looked wierdly like a standard digital SLR camera.

What was done in post-production?
Your technical terms go straight over my head. I'm afraid I had nothing to do with that bit.

@Wullie
Why the hell does the song jump all over the place?
It's been re-jigged a little to fit the video. We sometimes play it with an extra verse at the start, which we're still debating whether to keep chopped or not in the long run.

I couldn't take an album of this!
We also do silly pop sometimes. Like this.

I'm not talking doing a remake of Angels, I'm talking alot of far more subtle stuff that would replace some of the handheld shots. The kind of stuff that goes on in higher end production all the time but works on a much more subconscious level.

Sorry, I thought you wanted comments on the video not on the music!

Pop groups never have any money which is why I always sigh in my head when one rings me up because they are usually just wasting my time. You were very lucky to do it on no money. You were also lucky to get the direction, camerawork and post that you did. My comments aside natch, but the excuse of having no money is a good one.

I know setting up jibs can be a pain and slows things down, but on the other hand you do get the benefit of a "wow" shot. People forget camera movement is a big part of direction but can also be one of the most difficult and expensive things to get right.

The song is nice enough, not really my thing. The video is superb, really crisp visuals, excellently styled shots, and just gorgeous to look at. Well done!

x ten billion. I wish I had enough kidneys to donate one to each of the production team.

I agree with Chinny about the minute before anything starts. I'd got the idea in about 10 seconds. GET ON WITH IT! etc...

Musically it's not my bag, I'm one of the least acoustic inclined people here. Synthesisers all the way. Death to acoustic! etc.. (again)

It was pretty. I liked the masks. And the girl.

Well done overall though. It looked thoroughly professional

Really enjoyed that. Again, for a regular music video the intro/outtro parts were very long. Perhaps there could be an MTV-edit?

The song is very good though, and I'll definitely listen to it again. Can you tell us a little more about your band? Also, which one are you?



EDIT - I think you must be the band member I appear to already be following on Twitter!

Whilst the music isn't exactly my cup of tea, I can appreciate that some people like that kind of stuff and it sounds very good and polished! Nice song arrangement..

As for the video, I agree with the slow intro bits above. It did look lovely throughout though and was generally a bit creepy! I hope you went for this feel... Also, you look like Splicers. Good work.

The only problem I'd like to point out is as follows... There's a couple of bits in the video that don't fit the song. The drummers doing 16th's on the high hat at one point but the song isn't and in a quiet bit, there's a close up of the guitarist strumming when you can't hear him strumming.

Also... well done for taking the drum kit on the beach! I wouldn't have done that for no money!

@Curiosity
Can you tell us a little more about your band?
Alright, you asked for it...

We formed about a year ago around a set of badly written fire evacuation instructions- hence the slightly dorky name. We started out just messing around with guitars late at night whenever we'd been out drinking together, recording stuff on our phones so we could listen back in the morning to see if any of it was decent. Most of it wasn't. But we were having fun, and over time we found a few little grooves that seemed to work pretty well, and decided to turn them into proper songs.

We started playing Open Mic nights all over London from around December last year, because whilst we'd all been in bands before, we'd also gotten a little rusty at the "get up on stage and entertain a crowd" thing. Turns out Open Mic nights are great for building confidence- there's nearly always one truly terrible act who can give you some assurance you're not going to be the most disasterous performers of the evening, and once you've done a few and consistently get the feel that you're among the most well received acts of the night, you know you're pretty much ready to do "proper" gigs.

The "proper" gigs part is what comes next for us. On Thursday and Friday last week we were down on the Southeast coast (in Deal and Margate) supporting the brilliant and truly anarchic Bucket Boyz on the last couple of dates of their UK tour before they headed back to Amsterdam. They were two of the best - if slightly surreal - shows I've ever played. On both dates the crowd started singing the songs back to us despite never having heard them before, which is exactly the kind of goosebump-and-happiness-inducing moment that I've always wanted to be in a band to chase.

Anyway, this track, along with three others we're still halfway through recording, will feature on an EP we wanna get out on iTunes at the start of August, to coincide with our INTERNATIONAL tour (taking in England & Wales). On that note, if anyone here has any connections to music promotors outside of London who might be able to give us a show in the second week of August, I'd be hugely grateful if you could PM me with a name and number. No town or venue is too small or obscure - hell, we'll play in your living room if you want - we just want to tour.

@The Vision
Drumkit on beach?!
We suffered. Walking two miles carrying a bass drum over uneven ground on one of the hottest days of the year is not entirely fun. Wasn't so bad getting it out there at 4:30am, but bringing it back to the van at midday killed.

Isn't some of the video where the band is playing out-of-sync with the music?
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

@Chinny
What camera did you use?
Turns out I was wrong. It was a canon 7D.

@Everyone
This is all massively helpful and encouraging- thank you.

AHA! So that's who the mystery name on the Twitterfeed up top is. Ahhhhhhhh.

Do let us know when you're playing gigs in London.

I'm waiting on confirmation, but we should be playing at the teeny tiny Betsey Trotwood in Farringdon on August 6th as the first date of the tour. After that, next London date will probably be late September.

TsuMuch - have you tried Paul at The Adelphi in Hull?

Could probably find you a slot somewhere.

I have not- is he a friend of yours? Do you have a mobile number? I promise not to send nuisance texts...

I've watched, but I'm afraid I'm no good at criticising things that I like, and I liked that.

Where was the beach, and what God-awful time did you have to film the "running across it" scene?

Cheers Grim! That shot was actually done at around 11 in the morning so not too bad (although we had been up since 4am, for the second day in a row, having worked til 10pm the night before, so still slightly horrendous). The second day wasn't as sunny as the first, which is why it's not quite so bright and dazzling as during the some of the other shots (like with the ridiculously cute kids). And thinking about it, there's probably been some post-production jiggery-pokery to darken it down too.

As for the beach, that was near this little town Stiffkey in Norfolk. The reason it's deserted is because it's a LONG walk from the nearest car park. Still managed to get some funny looks from passing ramblers though...

I did think the running to the sea thing was very pretty.

Err, Beex meet? We should be supporting our homegrown music industry!

Pretty visuals and some sections of the music were enjoyable, just my personal taste. Has a great feel to it, you should be proud of yourselves.

Would definitely up for that! (Although music venues aren't often the best place for catching up/cheap drinks...)


There's a "not" missing there, right? (In my head I'm hearing it Wayne's World style.)

I'm going to Fabric on the 6th, which is handily just around the corner. Any clue what time you'll be on, TsuMuch?

@Grim...
Still waiting to hear from the owner about the 6th... but if it's happening, we'll be on somewhere between 9-10. Will let you know as soon as I do... (not least because I'll take every excuse I can get to bump this thread!)

On that same shameless promotion front: the video can now also be found on Youtube, so if any of you have an account and want to "favourite" or "like" it or do something sexy with it, I would of course be honoured and delighted to receive any and all Beex love.

Cheers

I've stayed at a campsite there. It was always a point of great amusement to see the number of roadsigns that had had the 'k' erased by humorous locals.

Ooh, you playing in the basement or upstairs? i saw a gig there a few weeks ago.

I liked that, although I'll leave the feedback to those more competent than me, as I can't add much more than "It was pretty!".

However, 30 seconds in I had to pause it and nip to the loo, as all the water sounds made me really need to pee.

Turns out we'll be playing at the Betsey on the 13th August now, in their room upstairs. Means things will have to be pretty minimal in terms of drums, but I'm picking the line-up myself ("it's my birthday so I'll do what I want"), and I'm hoping it'll be a pretty special night. If any of you wanna come down and freak me out by saying "hi I'm someone from the Internet with a weird name whose discussions about videogames you sometimes spy on" that'd be cool.

Will probably post links to the other people playing once I get them confirmed, but if I get everyone I want it WILL be super mega happy times. It will also be free to get in...


My favourite comment yet!

Have you won the bet yet?

No. Although now it's on Youtube as well I'm not sure how it's going to work. Having it in two places obviously splits the count, but you can't just combine the two figures because a bunch of people will have watched it on both Youtube and Vimeo. But more or less halfway there after a week is encouraging, although I'm worried a little worried at how quickly the view count is dropping off...

I tell no lie when I say that this is exactly the road we've gone down for the final version that's on the EP. Listening back to the video version a few times, we ended up feeling like it was a little overblown/overwritten/overproduced and didn't really capture the raw emotion the song is about, and so (literally at the last minute) reworked it for just acoustic guitar and vocal. I think it's a lot more powerful as a result.

Onto the sales pitch: the EP came out today, and is available on iTunes if you'd like to buy it. If you buy just one song, get "Stephanie Rides With Me". I'm dead chuffed with how it turned out, and it's the most obvious single of the bunch.

That said, if you're uncomfortable taking such a crazy leap of faith with your 79p, you can wait for it to turn up on Spotify in a few weeks time.

Also, is anyone in Oxford on Saturday?
Or Bristol Sunday?
Or Portsmouth Monday?

We will be in town...

I bought your EP, for the bargain-licious price of £3.16 or thereabouts.

Only had the chance to listen to it once. On first hearing, I think I preferred the video-version of 'White Dress' instead of the stripped down one, but that was just a first impression. I'll have to listen to both again to make a more informed decision. Still really liked the whole thing anyway, so no worries.

And do let us know when you're playing London.

I'm free on Saturday in Oxford. I quite enjoyed the song and the video, well done.

Can't make Saturday, sorry.
Are you playing at the Jericho?

@Malia @Kern

We were in Oxford on the Saturday just passed! Slightly weird one in a shopping centre inside a castle - glorified busking really - but we got a little bit of interest from a few of the passersby, and it was quite a fun way to kick things off.

@Curiousity and anyone in London

We're playing at the Betsey Trotwood in Farringdon THIS FRIDAY. It's the last date of the tour, my birthday party, totally free entry, and I've got three other of my favourite acts to play alongside us. It's gonna be mega and you're all more than welcome...

MASSIVE thanks to all and anyone who bought the EP.

Bah! I'm in Hitchin for a wedding on Friday.



BTW - well done on getting your stuff on iTunes. How much do you see (if anything) of the money we pay for the EP? Have you ever considered using Bandcamp as a distribution method? Obviously not as high profile and ubiquitous as iTunes, but some respected artists are releasing music on there to cut out the middle man, as it were.

for a.. hitchin'.. *giggle* Oh, me.

With iTunes I think we get about 50p from every 79p download. We paid Tunecore $55 to get our stuff our up there (as well as on Spotify, Amazon etc, which should be appearing in the coming weeks), and another £100 or so to get the tracks mastered, so we probably need to sell around 300 copies to break even.

I think that might be a bit of stretch, but we will see (annoyingly there's a two month delay before they pay any royalties...)

Bandcamp looks interesting btw- I'd not seen it before so thanks for the tip. When I've got some time to properly scope it out I'll probably get us signed up.

I'd come along Friday, but unfortunately I'm at the zoo.

Shoop da woop. Interested parties can now hear our EP on Spotify.

Not my kind of music at all, but kudos on the video. I watched it 620 times in a row so you should have won your bet by now.

Myoptikakaka (if that truly is your real name): you are king of the lying stinky men.

You're right. It is exactly my kind of music. Sorry for fibbing.

Did you win the bet?