We overslept and missed the rationing van today. Then again, with nights spent kept awake by the screaming of a thousand hungry hearts - sleep is as precious to us as food. It’s a year since the summer that ruined us. The summer that rotted the civilised world from its core. The summer we way…
This has been a long time coming but I finally moved my site to something more manageable.
I’d previously built the site in iWeb partly due to the fact that I don’t know an awful lot about CSS, HTML and all that jazz. It allowed me to do exactly want I wanted to do, i.e. drag and drop things into my site, put them where I want and get it online. The downside of this was that I could only edit it from one machine and because of the way it had to handle website SEO, then had to go through 3 others stages to be effective in search engines.
In short, a bit of a nightmare.
And so I’ve moved over to WordPress instead. Lots of people recommended it, it’s nice and easy to update with news and new work, precisely what I need. The less time I spend fixing the site every time I have an update, the more I have to film and edit. So I hope you like the new site, be sure to check out the portfolio which is now far more accessible, and I look forward to being able to share more content with you.
I’m very happy to be able to share this with everyone having hidden it away for a few weeks!
A short while ago I was asked by Redg Weeks of Invada Records if I’d be interested in creating a music video for Bristol based band The Fauns. Naturally I said ‘Yes’ but immediately afterwards came the revelation that not only would it be a video for a band which I was already a fan of, but the version of the track in question, ‘Fragile’ was in fact a remix by legendary film composer Clint Mansell. Deal sealed.
Working alongside the band’s wonderful lead singer Alison, we developed the idea of incorporating images of space into the video, which resulted in a few failed attempts to merge the footage we shot of Alison and the space images created in After Effects. I’m still learning my way around AE, so the idea of creating animated images of space was a bit daunting in the beginning, but watching a tonne of tutorials online and merging advice from each seemed to prime me with the knowledge I needed to sit down and create what I needed. There are around 38 different animations in all, which were then either overlayed onto the footage of Alison, or blended with other space compositions to help create the trippy cosmic mood of the track.
It was a pleasure working with everyone involved and probably my favourite piece of work so far.
Clint’s amazing mix of ‘Fragile’ will be available on pink vinyl for Record Store Day on April 20th and features a B side of ‘The Sun is Cruising’ by Redg. It’s limited edition and you’ll only be able to buy it from your local record store.
I was recently asked by Vital Arts to contribute some artwork to be exhibited in the children’s consultancy room at The Royal London Hospital. This was the finished piece, to check out the full project CLICK HERE!
I love Ben’s work. Fact.
Very stoked to say that there’s a 3rd edition print run of the BÖIKZMÖIND DVD & photo book now on sale at the BÖIKZMÖIND online store!
The package costs £29 and features the full BÖIKZMÖIND fixed gear bike documentary (see here for a trailer) plus a 20-minute making of edit as well as photo gallery and bloopers real. The DVD is an all-regions disc so will work anywhere in the world, nice!
The book is a digitally numbered & editioned 95-page 22cm-square photo book featuring behind the scenes photographs, sketches & notes, cataloguing the entire creation of the film!
That’s all held together by a magnetically-sealed screenprinted cord-embossed wrap cover, which was all put together by hand by myself & my good friend Jake Ivill.
I’d like to say a huge thank you to my friends Rik and all the guys at Ripe Digital for printing the book and to Josh & Bex at Whiteduck Screenprint, for printing the wrap covers, it’s great to work with such ace people, especially with them also being in the South West!
There’s just 100 DVD/Books in this run, so grab yours whilst you can. I will happily ship them worldwide, so head on over to the BÖIKZMÖIND store and pick one up:
P.S Don’t forget that you can get the Digital HD release of the film right here!
A few months ago I shot this video for Bristol based artist Kwende. We filmed over the course of 2 and half days at The Island in the centre of Bristol which is a community artspace converted from an old police station. It was a great space to shoot in, loads of natural light from the windows above and a really huge room for us to record in that also happened to have a separate room attached that we could use for watching back rushes, a place for people to rest if they wanted while not needed and for refreshments. The final video altered slightly from our original intentions but not hugely. We’d originally planned on shooting everything so that the band appeared in a infinite white space, and while some of that aesthetic remains, I think we gained a bit of depth with the recording space we otherwise would have lost. As the budget was really tight on the video we’d decided to try and keep it nice and simple, Kwende was keen that this first video didn’t fall into the usually pitfalls of swaths of girls, clubs and booze and instead focus on his music instead. I’m really pleased with the finished result and I’m looking forward to working with him on the next one.
His debut E.P. will be released online on the 13th May.
I’m currently involved in a Kickstarter project for a film called She Moved Through The Fair. It’s written and directed by my friend Owen Franklin and I’ll be editing the film in the autumn. While it doesn’t need an astronomical amount of funding, it does still need to get to £20,000, a tall order at the moment, but there’s still plenty of time left to help fund and spread the word on the project. Click on the image and you’ll be taken to the Kickstarter page where you can read more about the project, including seeing me on camera (a rare RARE thing)!
So today we wrapped on Kwende’s music video for Can You Hear Me Now. I’ll be writing a full blog post on the production once the edit’s finished, but thought I’d share a couple more grabs from days 2 and 3 of the shoot.
Currently shooting a music video for Kwende King Webb. Second day of the shoot tomorrow, but will have this online very soon. In the meantime, raw stills from today’s footage.
It’s been a long time coming but sooner or later I’d have to learn to edit in something other than FCP. Tonight I’m starting to cut my new showreel on Premiere, it currently makes the most sense to switch to Adobe’s edit software as it seems a lot of production houses are doing the same. The most immediate of challenges is the shortcuts. I’ve always learnt shortcuts in any program I’ve used, but Premiere is the first one that I’ve taken time out to simply remap it’s shortcuts rather than learn them. It means that although my workflow is currently a little slower than when working in FCP, it could still be slower!
Really looking forward to seeing how the next few projects turn out as I plan on trying a few out to begin with before trying the ropes with Avid and Smoke in the new year. Must just remember to control the Gamma Rage!
loading tweets…
Top
