Two Thousand and Twelve Months Ahead

My choice of title for these blogs is still poor since the turn of the new year. They are not funny nor informative as I am not a comedian or an Informer. This year has started as well as any year I can remember and as of writing I am only eight days in. I spent christmas and new year back home in Northern Ireland. Before the trip I was in severe need of a break. It came just at the right time. My break back home consisted however of getting battered every day for 8 or 10 days and so by early January I was more than ready to return to London town for a quieter life. My first step was to go back to the swimming pool. I started going to the swimming pool around the time of making the Cashier N09 video. I was getting myself into such a stress in the pre production that going to the pool and sitting underwater felt like the only way I could clear my mind and not be worrying about the project. After Xmas I went and could barely do 10 lengths of the 25m pool in one go. I battled on, got to 30 and then left. Two days later I had to force myself out to go again and I managed 30 without a break. I could really feel the benefit of not smoking for one week. I then went to the casino with my dear friend and began smoking.

Money made from the traditional casino game, "Roulette". If you add all the numbers on a Roulette table together you get 666.

What has made this start to the year good is the fresh sense of optimism I have. 2011 was a good year for me as a low scale filmmaker. It is sometimes hard to rate progress while in the middle of the cycle but despite whatever made being good or not I have been able to pay the rent doing it. I have also felt a rebirth of love for film. Music has always been my number one passion. It explains why I film so music music, I’m a shit musician. I would buy music magazines and subscribe to Loud and Quiet (Very cheap. Good Quality. Free Vinyl. £20 for a year). When I have bought film-magazines in the past like Sight and Sound or Film Ireland I have been bored and fallen asleep, sometime whilst floating on a giant zebra. I looked at them for opportunity rather than interest. Two days ago I had a craving to buy my girlfriend a subscription to Little White Lies film magazine. Basically the Xmas presents I got her were bought when I was in a haze and weren’t very cool. I then thought how a subscription to a magazine would be a class gift. I also think a voucher for the Wii Virtual Store would be class. £30 to spend on old school games. A dream. As I had been bored in the past with film magazines I bought this months issue before subscribing. It is all about the film Shame, the newest film by Steve McQueen. I was impressed that I remembered his name and even more impressed that I was interested in reading about his new film. One point I found really inspiring was that his other film, Hunger, was released 4 years ago. That seems like ages to me because I am an idiot.

The man has been crafting a piece of Art that will be in the world for the rest of time. 4 years is nothing. A lesson for the new year. It definitely helps that the magazine is the best designed magazine I have ever felt. The shape, texture, layout and style is flawless. I tried to use a self-checkout to pay for it but I couldn’t find the bar-code. That was because the barcode is incorporated to the magazine so well that you don’t even notice it. I remember my friend telling me that the gentleman who designed Kowalski’s Take Care, Take Flight EP had a stressful moment of clarity as he forgot there was a barcode going on the disc and if he had remembered he would have designed the EP slightly differently. No one want’s a barcode on their artwork but LWL did it and I am smitten. I also couldn’t tell what film the issue was about despite it saying on the cover. Again, it is so well designed I didn’t even notice. This new found romance for the magazine is one part of my life which is gelling with other parts and giving me an interest in making a short film. That’s the real challenge for myself. Make a decent short film. Get into Directing in that way. Directing live stuff like concerts etc is so different. When you do that you capture a subject that you have no control over. In the short film area it is all about what you see. Very scary.

DOT-AH

The new live video above is the companion piece to the live video from last month of Daughter performing Love at St. Giles in the Fields Church. I think the video of “Youth” is the better one of the two and it’s maybe my favourite live video I have shot. Elena, singer, looks iconic to me in the “soundcheck” footage. Some people hate the film-burn look. I can understand why. I thought it worked for this. I hope to work with Daughter again. The second EP wasn’t as instant for me as the first but the performance of Love I filmed really got me into it and helped me understand the whole EP. I was with Hannah in Topshop getting her some late Xmas gifts with the casino winnings and the demo of “Run” came on. It was great. It feels like a big secret that is going to be revealed in 2012.

An attempt at making new year resolutions below!

NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS

- Make a short film

- Stop biting my finger nails

- Remember Actors and Directors names

- Stop eating white bread

- Begin a feature length documentary

- Get a video on Pitchfork

I got this Coma Cinema T-Shirt for Xmas. 1st Day it got covered in Guinness and a hole burnt in it.

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