I saw these young fellas playing outside the Turkish market in Kreuzberg, Berlin on a sunny Friday afternoon.
They told me their band name was something that sounded like Formatia trei ochi, which translates in Romanian to Three-eyed group… so I have decided it is so. Such energy, watch them go!
Some street art I have seen around Berlin, micro and macro.
I found this 6-piece jazz band playing some swinging tunes on Friedrichstrasse in Berlin on a sunny Monday afternoon.
Hey na na na!
I saw this chap, Robert Lee Fardoe busking under the Oberbaumbrücke in Berlin, a popular spot to busk here. I filmed him singing his own songs, and thought that the graffiti’d bricks made an interesting backdrop for the music, so I decided to start a series. Watch this space (literally, that space under the bridge there).
Robert is a friendly chap from Wales who has been living in Berlin for 5 years. Check out his myspace.
Now, time to go back under the bridge and see who else is there!
I am making a music video to the song The District Sleeps Alone Tonight by The Postal Service, which I started in London, and have been filming here and there in Barcelona and Berlin too. I got some beautiful subjects, Lisa and Sebo, to star in the video, and filmed them getting on trains, getting off trains, in front of trains…. it was a fun experience for them.
This is a still shot of Lisa in front of the colourful Berlin S-Bahn, with Sebo in the reflection.
I have carried on my travels and landed in Berlin! This is a little pinch of what I saw today…
(she’s a donut!)
The third music video I made with Iza, for the single La Llama [The Flame].
Filmed in Barcelona, in the colourful streets of Barceloneta and Gracia. Iza is fantastic to work with, very hard working, she will keep her arm raised in the air for 3 hours if it will look good on film. We had a lot of fun making this video, particularly filming the running (which I made her do for 2 hours) while I sent my precious SLR camera rolling down a hill on a shopping trolley!
Enjoy the video!
The very nice folks at Love Cases gave me another camera bag to review, this time the Capdase 180A MKeeper SLR Camera Bag. So once again I popped my Canon 550d into it and toodled off to take photos and videos. In fact, I have been using this bag in the last two weeks during my latest music video shoot.
This one is bigger than the last, with just enough room to squeeze in my Cannon 550d, with 50mm prime lens and 18-135mm zoom lens. This bag is very compact and again lightweight, which is what I want. There is also a pocket at the front to store my 2 extra battery packs and spare memory card. Handy.
There is a space-divider thing inside, attached by velcro, that can be moved to change the shape of the internal space, but moving it is not super efficient, particularly when you wear things that get caught onto velcro as the wind is blowing, and you need to change your camera lens. This can be annoying.
If I am only planning to take one lens out with me, then this bag can also be used to store my phone, wallet and keys, which means I do not need to carry my handbag with me. But with the room for 2 lenses, I tend to carry the 2 lenses. The shape of this bag means I can sit it down on the ground, which is useful when on location.
In general, a compact, lightweight camera bag that can store my 2 lenses, comfortable to wear, I would say it’s good value for money (£19.95 from the Love Cases website).
For the past few weeks I have been working with Iza on her third video, for the song La Llama (The Flame). On the set for one of the shoots (along the small, colourful streets of Gracia) we found this very colourful wall.
Colour is the main theme of this video. Iza’s bright red hair is complemented by various backgrounds of colourful walls, and it is really fun when you spot one and go “There… stand in front of that” and it looks good!
Running is the other theme, in the section that I like to call Run Iza Run, which we filmed using a shopping trolley to hold the camera, and both of us running down sloped streets, to capture the running motion as smoothly as possible. It was resourceful and hilarious.
We also tried some stop motion for this video, something that I would like to experiment with more. The music video is in the editing stage just now. Stop by again soon to watch La Llama very soon!
Toodle pip.
Oleh Kerana is a musical performance by the group Taima Tesao that I photographed last Thursday in Barcelona.
Taima Tesao is a Barcelona based group, with Laura Guiteras and Toni Xucla, and they wrote this show Oleh Kerana (Malaysian term they saw in some Ikea instructions) as a way to mix their musical performance with visual art. There was also sign language translation in Catalan.
I took some photos of the show, and also the practice preparations. I particularly liked shooting the blue light, and the silhouettes their figures made. Here is a selection.
