June 23, 2010
Palpatine’s heart is palpitating with the prospect of fame and fortune after being asked for his autograph by an online fan. It has been a number of years since the second Star Wars spoof was completed but many people are still watching it online. They have been leaving comments as they do. One of them [...] [Read more]
November 10, 2009
Here’s an expanded account of the 24 hour ad challenge experience.
On the morning of the 7th November 2009, the team did not know what to expect. This was going to be one of biggest challenges they had ever faced: to make a 60-second advert on a unknown theme in just 24 hours…
The competition was organised by Johnnie Oddball, the loveable eclectic with his famous ten rules of guerrilla filmmaking. Four years since first conceived, the competition began: make an advert for the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) on the theme of “now”.
“Now”
Pre-planning was paramount. They had arranged to use Johnnie’s Movieum as a base, but with no idea what for. Peter managed to get a permit to film at Canary Wharf, which Darren trumped by making arrangements for a helicopter. In the end, they never went to Canary Wharf, needed no helicopter and actually spent less than three hours at the Movieum.
As the briefing closed, there was an explosion of people onto Golden Square. Some went off immediately and others huddled into groups among the benches. Team 2 took a different approach and stayed in the building mulling. First they had to define now.
Peter and Kevin went to find a book called “Now”. Kenny, of the Philosophy department at Foyles took them on a journey through now and Peter texted it back. Matt, Ash and Josh went out to ask people ‘what is now’ and film them doing something spontaneous. Once the concept was finalised, not much time was left. Runners were dispatched to get a large white gift box. Having picked up red ribbon from a shop that Caroline knew, Peter retrieved the cardboard from a skip on a side street.
“60 seconds in 24 hours”
They moved on to the Movieum. Ed, Caroline, Steve and Nyall got to work on building the box, as the rest tried to borrow what they could from Johnnie. They had to work fast as it was already three and the November dusk was closing in. It was clear they needed a back-up.
Peter and Kevin were sent through the labyrinthine corridors lined with everything from storm troopers to giant spray cans to get some props for a mad professor sketch. Josh and Mark worked on getting the script together, and with the help of Johnnie and the resourceful Joanne they found a flip chart and collection of old-fashioned jackets which Peter tried on. But they were not needed, as the rest were ready to go.
They headed out towards the South Bank to find the right place for the box of now. It was positioned on the lively promenade and they waited to see what happened. Most people, wrapped up against the winter, rushed straight past. Those that even noticed were unaware of the man facing the other way, crouched behind a low wall, cradling a rather large TV camera. Ashley filmed the HD, Josh recorded sound samples and Ed did the time lapse. At one point he was standing on his own with the camera on the floor in front of him, yet strangely inconspicuous.
“The Present is Now”
Not everyone was oblivious to the huge white box on the quickly darkening streets. Once, Darren had to maintain a conversation with security so they could shoot what was needed. And he does not do small talk. Some touched it, some picked it up and some kicked it. Nyall had to call out to stop three women sitting on it and Ed had to stop a man taking it away altogether; it made the final cut.
As night fell, they needed to find light, but they found the perfect spot, against a dark background of feet. The box visited the entrance to Chinatown, a staircase, a lift, a busy street corner in Soho and a West End theatre, taking the tube to get there. Matt meticulously tweeted on its journey.
Back at base, it was time for post production. There seemed to be discussions going on in every room along the corridor all night as everyone got coffee’d up, punctuated by Josh’s time signal.
“Three hours to go!”
There were screens everywhere, for reviewing dailies, time lapse and music. Mark reviewed samples and took on Nyall’s suggestion to tweak one. As the night wore on and coffee turned into beer, two and half hours of stock became 60 seconds. Steve and Nyall worked with Ed on wording and Darren put it all together.
“Don’t Pass it By”
The morning after, they took the tube, now boxless, to the ICA to see all entries screened. In a room stuffed with insomnia, each entry was played in turn, with the Backyard present shown second. It was interesting to see how many different interpretations there were. One team was having technical problems, but there was consensus throughout the room that if it could be shown, it should be shown and it was.
When the judges went up on the stage to announce the short list there was bleary-eyed tension in the stalls. They read out the first number:
“Team 2. The Present”
They all breathed in and tension heightened. They had made it to the final five. Would it win? Could it win? As the judges mentioned it was something less conventional, a static image, they knew it wasn’t them and the tension released. The judges had unanimously decided on Team 13.
Their version showed a single shot of man staring into the city nightscape, the lights of passing cars subtly reflected on his face, before he breathed in and the logo was displayed. Everyone applauded, they explained their inspiration, and when it was all over, they went to home to bed.
By Kevin Harper
October 16, 2009
On Wednesday (Oct 14th 2009), Darren and Ed attended the Institute of Videographers Trade show and (in the evening) their 20th annual Awards ceremony. Darren was nominated for best film for ‘Sugarcubes’, and we met Maggie Philbin of ‘Tomorrow’s World’ fame, who was genuinely... [Read more]
July 27, 2009
We’ve had a last minute audition for the role of Prince in Cinders. It certainly sets the bench high for the singing ability of the Prince… Just to clarify. Yes, that is Darren, the Executive Bully of Backyard Productions. [Read more]
July 20, 2009
Monday 20 July marks the 40th anniversary of the first man on the moon. To celebrate the achievement we had a moon party hosted in usual great style by Darren and Sandra on Saturday! Space style fancy dress was worn…astronauts, stars, planets, 60′s dress and even Albert II the first chimp in space. Darren and [...] [Read more]
June 24, 2009
The Mother of backyard productions (Janine) reached a new pinnacle of fame… For a whole ten minutes!
“A Sara Mahoney contacted me on Skype asking ‘are you THE J9 ?’
Well yeah, my nickname at work is J9…….as in Ja nine. So yeah, I guess I could be THE J9. I can’t remember a Sara Mahoney at work but there’s been plenty of Sarahs come and go, and my memory isn’t all it was. So, I added her to my Skype.
A while later she Skype phones me. I didn’t answer because I was in the middle of internet banking and didn’t want all my millions to be Skyped to her!
When I finished checking my bank balance, and realised that I don’t have millions anyway, I saw that she was still on line.
So I message her
‘who are you?’
‘Helsinki. Please can you phone me?’ she says.
‘I can’t phone, the volume on my computer is playing up’
‘I understand’
‘Remind me which Sarah are you are’
‘Mahoney’
‘Can’t remember the surname, did I work with you?’
‘Are you not dancer Janine? As in J9?’
‘No I’m not a dancer‘
‘Woops, sorry…wrong Janine Russell’ she says, and promptly hangs up!
I get to thinking, “so who is this ‘Janine Russell from J9′ person that she thought I was?” And being as I was rushed off my feet with a million things to do before I go on holiday…. I thought I would spend an hour or two googling her.
I’m sure you will be as thrilled as I was to find out who she is:
Did you enjoy that as much as I did?
Apparently I’m the one with the huge feathers prancing around in the background with the half-naked man with lumpy trousers, (not one of the warblers to the side!)
Sara Mahoney was probably disappointed that I’m not the REAL J9. Whereas I……. now have to go on holiday without half my stuff!
The Mummy x”
Can anyone top The Mummy’s brush with fame?
May 25, 2009
Space Shuttle Atlantis has just landed safely in California after a very successful 12 day mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope for the very last time. Furthermore, with this mission concluded, there are only eight more Shuttle missions planned, ever. Four members of Backyard Productions – Darren, Edwin, Matthew and Luke – went to [...] [Read more]
November 13, 2008
Acapella song combining the dialogue of Star Wars with the the scores of John Williams (i.e. not just Star Wars, but E.T., Jaws, Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones etc.). The song was originally written and recorded by a vocal group called Moosebutter, and this lip sync video made by Corey Vidal has been very popular recently.
Please check out their website, with many more clever fun acapella tracks. At the moment, there’s a great Harry Potter one on their homepage, to the tune of Pretty Woman!
If you want to listen to more of their stuff, you can on their site (they say radio quality, but it’s pretty good), or support them by buying them in CD quality. There is also a page with all the lyrics too, so if you want to learn a song and lip-sync your own YouTube video :p you can.
Seriously, they’re very good. Great harmonies and clever lyrics. I’d like to see a video of them performing the track!
October 22, 2008
As some of you may know, I have an interest in singing, recording and mixing vocals / music. I’ve always enjoyed singing, from being in the choir at school, to good old karaoke nights down the pub, but recording wise, I’m just starting out over the past couple of years. Now I have a place of my own again, I’m keen to set up a little home studio (very basic!) and resume recording. I thought I’d share a track with you that I worked on in collaboration with an old housemate, Edward Clark. He’s a budding music maker, with a number of great tracks online. You can find his work / album / latest updates at The Calico Sequence website, and also on MySpace. We worked together on this particular track, the vocals were taken from a cover recording I made a couple of years ago, which were remixed with Edward’s backing, which I think gives the track a great contemporary feel. If you’ve already heard it, please accept my apologies – I hope to have more tracks soon!
Ain’t no Sunshine – featuring Ed Hollingsbee (MP3 direct link)
Please bear in mind that I am not a professional vocalist. I sing because I enjoy it, not because I hope to make a career out of it! Having said that, I do aspire to improve both the vocals and the recording production. Constructive comments welcomed!!
In setting up this ‘blog’, we intended for it to be a small corner of the website where the members of Backyard Productions would have the opportunity to present some of their more personal opinions, events, news and work that does not fall under the auspices of ‘official’ Backyard Productions business. It is meant to enrich the BYP site, providing a broader range of more dynamic content for our visitors and encouraging wider community participation. We hope you enjoy seeing a more diverse side to the people that make up the company! Our eventual goal is that more BYP members will post here regularly.
Please bear in mind that the opinions posted here do not necessarily represent the official ‘position’ of Backyard Productions.
October 19, 2008
I was at the Institute of Videographer’s (IOV) annual convention last week (Oct 16) and apart from drooling all over the great new camcorders, jibs, cranes, dollies and editing kit, I did take a look at the books section. I found a real gem called “Shut up and Shoot” by Anthiny Q Artis.
It looked good, with some nice pictures eay words and big (making the £17.99 price tag a bit more attractive). It wasn’t until I got home however, when I realised just how VERY GOOD it is. It was as if I had written it myself (perhaps I should have!).
It details how to innovative in budget filmmaking. Some of the tricks I knew, many I did not and even as an expericed budget filmmaker, I found it a really good read!
Better still, there is also a website with great up to date links for aspiring filmmakers.
If you get the chance, you MUST buy this book, it explains in one place what my other numerous filmmaking books only try to achieve. Thier website is www.downanddirtydv.com Check it out! YOU CAN GET IT ON AMAZON HERE.