What do you get when you take a musician, his band, a friend with a cool central London rooftop pad, a couple of digital cameras, and a very (VERY) hot sunny afternoon? Answer: a photo-shoot and two music videos!
Tech has totally changed the photography & video landscapes, it’s a far cry from the 20 years ago, when I first sat in a plush office in the heart of Soho, on a very comfy leather sofa at the back of a darkened edit suite directing an editor. Then waiting every time he made an edit for the stack of tape decks (which had their own room) to spin up to speed, before finally transferring the edit from tape to tape. The equipment cost £100,000’s, it took hours to edit, and a good editor charged more an hour than a good lawyer!
I’m the first to admit that I’m no Ridley Scott, but below are two videos I directed & shot in an afternoon using would you believe, my Sony NEX 5N (the wonderfully light weight little gem of a camera I bought last year for when I spent three months trekking in the Himalayas). The biggest problem on the day, was the glaring sun and trying to stay ahead of it as it chased us around the rooftop (hopefully you won’t notice that the drummer had to move & set up three times during the Stacey shoot!). Incredibly we also managed to have time to do the photo-shoot for the promotional material & album artwork. Which we were able to review on my iPad while we sunk a few pints down the pub afterwards, something else we’d have never have been able to do years ago!
The album is available as a digital download or as a CD form rollingexile
Stacey & Deep Down, both from the Album Exile