The Calico Sequence – Ain’t no Sunshine

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!!

A little bit about the Blog section of the BYP site:

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.

The Ulitmate Budget filmmaking book!

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.

James Earl Jones Recites the Alphabet… Very Slowly

Genius footage from Sesame Street which predates ‘Star Wars IV – A New Hope.’ You can hear why he got to play the voice of Darth Vader, despite his relative youth at the time (well… he was thirty eight). He was the first well known celebrity to appear on Sesame Street in 1969 (the pilot episode) and went on to appear in several others. He apparently recorded another alphabet for Sesame Street after his Star Wars role.

From IMDB: According to Jones, when George Lucas was trying to cast the voice of Darth Vader, his immediate idea was to cast Orson Welles. However, he felt that Welles was too well-known for the role. So instead he looked for an actor with a deep voice, “like Orson Welles” which is how he got cast. [Read more]

Bring Back… Star Wars

Justin Lee Collins went on an adventure to bring back the magic of Star Wars. Followed by a film crew, he travels around America and UK, attempting to get interviews with the actors from the Original Trilogy and bring them back together for a reunion. [Read more]

George is now on Facebook!

That’s right! Our George Lucas can now be found on Facebook! He doesn’t quite have as many friends as some other George… but still, he’s there!

Just type George Lucas in Facebook and he should pop up!

You could even ask him a question!

Be Kind Rewind

Absolutely brilliant. We watched it last night after a long couple of days working on the new website. It’s so funny for us, especially as it so accurately captures what it was like for us when we first started making our films and sketches.

I have a bit of a love / hate relationship with Jack Black films: sometimes they are just too silly and self-indulgent, but it works here…. definitely quirky and perhaps not for all, (my girlfriend hated it when we saw it in the cinema – she preferred Son of Rambow), but if you have any interest in amateur filmmaking and fanfilms, it’s definitely worth a look.

What is even more clever, is that the Director, Michel Gondry (who also made Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), has sweded the trailer of his own film:

Supercool SW Dance competition

It’s a silly Star Wars dance competition, but it’s actually quite good. Recorded at the 2008 Star Wars Weekend Hyperspace Hoopla show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

Not only that – they did it in 2007 too!