adventure again!

So I posted a few photos from the Adventure gig, now here's some videos!

This Venture perform Emmylou (First Aid Kit cover)

The Regal Narwhals perform Step Into Christmas (Elton John cover)

This Venture perform O Come, O Come Emmanuel

This Venture & The Regal Narwhals perform Winter Winds (Mumford & Sons cover)

This Venture & The Regal Narwhals perform Jingle Bells.

There is of course a playlist of these videos and a playlist of all the music I've filmed for my friends. Merry freakin' Christmas.

This Venture: facebook, twitter
The Regal Narwhals: facebook

adventure!

As a regular reader of my blog, you probably know my involvement with a certain Dan Simpson and a certain musical collective This Venture. Well, this weekend Dan organised a lovely little gig with the title adventure. It was Christmasy and fun and all organised by the bearded boy himself. Well, not entirely by him, that would be insane but I think he's taking most of the credit but is being most humble about it. I think I've expressed my pride in him about a million times.

Should The Doctor have done the thing?

THERE ARE DOCTOR WHO SPOILERS HERE.
So someone sent me a question on tumblr about my thoughts on the plot of The Day of The Doctor, about if the original plan should have happened. They asked me to reply privately to it but I want to share what I wrote back so I thought I'd stick it on my little blog and just share it with my friends. My thoughts aren't particularly detailed but I honestly hadn't given it much thought. It's more of a stream of consciousness.

This Venture did a gig (October 12th, part one)

So This Venture did an awesome gig a few weeks ago and I was cool enough to film it for them. I'm in the midst of editing the whole set but four of the songs are online already. Check em out!

This Venture: Twitter + Facebook

6 things I missed about my bed

So I went to visit my best friend at her uni and I had to share a bed with her, which was absolutely fine. It was a double and she doesn't wiggle much, and her snoring wasn't too awful. It was very much the better bed sharing experience I've had this year. I had to share a single bed with someone and I barely got two hours sleep because I was so uncomfortable. So here's the list of things I missed about my own bed.

This Venture rehearsals

So you know I take photos and video this musical collective I know, right? Of course you do, when do I ever shut up about Dan and the gang. Well, they've been rehearsing recently for a gig tomorrow and I've been sitting there causing distraction as usual...

Here's a video I did last week to promote them! It features Dan, John, Shanon and Matt and was super fun to film, edit and just generally be involved with. It's a great environment to be in with these guys and their music.

Wrecking Ball thoughts

I was curious so I watched Miley Cyrus' music video for Wrecking Ball. I'd seen gifs and screen captures of it: a nude Cyrus in a destroyed grey room, an extreme close up of her teary face. It was noticing a lyric that drew me in at last.

Being aware of worlds

I am an introvert. I enjoy being alone at least as much as I like being around other people, even if my feelings for myself are not always satisfactory. It's very easy being alone: the stress and anxiety of trying to please people, trying to make them or keep them liking you, being tactful, being interested in them, being funny, being mentally there with them - that disappears when you are alone.

But so do worlds. Worlds are that other people's lives, their minds, and presence. It is easy to distract yourself alone so you do not feel lonely, you do not miss having new worlds to explore. It's easy to get lost in your own mind. It's easy to think you don't need outside validation that you exist, that you matter, that your world has worth. And it's easy to forget how good it really feels.

And then suddenly, you are thrown back into that situation where you are made aware.

I walked into a room last night, fashionably late, obviously. I couldn't turn up on time, I didn't know every person I knew would be in that room. What if no one I knew was there yet? What do I say? How do I make people like me, make them pay attention to me until my friends do come? No, I avoided that. And as I took a second to look around at the people, to see who I recognised, which was tricky as most of them were wearing masks, I remember hearing a voice or two. I remember my head jerking to look in that direction. I saw my friends and I saw their faces lift a little. I saw widened smiles and sparkling eyes. And they were around me quicker than I could comprehend, arms around me, complaints that my hugs were too hurried and the interest in their voices as they asked how I was. In those seconds I was so aware of my existence in the world, in their worlds and theirs in mine. It is a beautiful feeling to know you mean something. It is easy to survive when you have forgotten how nice it is, but it shouldn't be.

Get nerd culture out of my goddamn face.

It's 2013 and it's finally the nerd uprising. For decades nerds, geeks and enthusiasts of books, cult tv shows and movies, and anything considered intellectual have been ridiculed  - or, at least, popular culture has told us so. Teen movies have shown us the popular jock/cheerleader/socialite character bullying and abusing the nerd type character for simply being 'different'. The book reader, the tea drinker, the loner, all social outcasts. But no more! These days, it's almost trendy to be a nerd.

Eyes

These ones are mine.

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Summer time and the Cat.

It's hot right now and I have a ridiculous cat who prefers to sit outside under the hammock than stay inside where it is so much cooler. It's also pretty dirty on the patio too so crawling around trying to photograph him in the sunshine is no walk in the park. Nevertheless, I played with a new lens accessory and damn, what a wonderful depth of field it gives.

Let's talk about Dan.

If you know anything about my real life (eg, you didn't just stumble across this blog when googling 'rupert graves cute') or have glanced at a blog post called Project Busking, you'll know I have a friend called Dan. So let's talk about him. He's got a great beard, all his instruments are left handed and he plays them to a decent standard too.

Because we are friends, I tend to spend a lot of time doing things for him. I'm not complaining, any excuse for me to get a camera out, I'll bloody take it, but yes. We make a lot of videos together. Well - he'll mess around and I'll put the hard work in. Just kidding, it's the best.

So, let's recap all the little projects I've done for him, a kind of master post, though I have more I haven't finished yet.

De-stress

I'm stressed okay. I'm stressed because it's nearly the end of my first year at college. I'm stressed because I have deadlines I'm scared I can't keep. I'm stressed because I can't talk to my teachers. I can't even look them in the eye the days I manage to get into college. I'm stressed because I had a small emotional upheaval in my social life. I'm stressed because my friends are stressed over exams and I sympathise. I'm stressed because I have low self esteem and no ambition. I'm stressed because I've forgotten what I love and I've forgotten to do it.
So I remembered to do something I love. I picked up a camera and went on an adventure. Fueled with my favourite coffee-based treat, a soundtrack I only discovered in the last few weeks and probably not a thick enough jumper, I filmed stuff. I tried to find nice angles and spaces. I didn't care if it didn't turn out well, I just liked pointing and pressing the button and trying my best not to shake my hands too much.

I wasn't going to do anything with this. I told someone I wasn't. But I was inspired after finishing an old project. I picked a song. I opened adobe premiere. I spent a couple of hours cutting to beat, a trademark of mine. I feel calm now. I forgot how much I love this pure creativity.

I'm sorry I forgot, there were things. Now I want to do this all summer. I want to film flowers and clouds and my friends and music and happiness. I love that.

Energy Drink Advert

This has been in the workings for about two and a bit months. This is actually a second version, as the original didn’t pass the unit at college, which sucked.

Thanks go to my friend Richard for his fab acting and to my brother who is the nerdy one who recorded all the game footage for me. Actually Richard’s pretty nerdy too. My nerdy boys :’)

Song is Radioactive by Imagine Dragons.Footage from League of Legends, Minecraft, Saints Row, Tera and Terraria.

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Project Busking

My normal college alarm rang out through my bedroom and I could have screamed. I trick myself every morning I have to wake up with this method; having selected the most irritating alarm sound on my phone, every morning I have to hear it makes me want to throw it into the nearest river. I guess you could say it works but it also ruins my mood. If I manage to fall asleep again, it'll start playing again twenty minutes later. 

Boredom Photos

They happen far too often. And I spend more time editing the format of these posts, than I do writing them.

Flowers album review

I like Icelandic music. The majority of my ipod is Icelandic bands - Sigur Rós Björk  Múm, Seabear, Amiina, Pascal Pinion, Útidúr, Sóley - you get the idea. There's something about the landscape, the isolation from most Western culture, the small population, that brings the people of that little island together to make such great music. Though my tastes tend to be fusions of indie, folk, pop and experimental with a touch of instrumental and post-rock thrown in, Iceland produces almost every genre so you can stop stereotyping and judging right now. And it's all very good. Now, for something very special...

An artist and musician, Sindri Már Sigfússon, has released a new album Flowers under the name of Sin Fang. 

Artist: Sin Fang

Album: Flowers

Release date: 1^st February 2013

Label: Morr Music

Genre: Indie Pop

Themes in Flowers

I reviewed Sin Fang's Flowers over in this post but also wrote some unorganised crap about themes too. Here it is.

Update on that cool movie poster

I finished the whole DVD sleeve! I may tweak it a little more as I still have a week before I hand it in, but it's pretty much done. Just gotta do my production log and research.

Sometimes I do college work and enjoy it

My second favourite class at college is a class where I get to use photoshop a lot. I think it would be my favourite class if I had it more than for an hour and a quarter once a week. We've been doing this assignment since the beginning of January which involves creating an original dvd cover design. I was so happy when I got this brief, I was thrilled. I love photoshop. I may not be the best photographer in the world, but I can god damn manipulate multiple images in compositions. I am yet to get a firm grasp on typography but there's time for that in the future.

It was snowing so I picked up a dslr

Because literally every other person on my facebook was doing that and I hate admitting to being the biggest loser ever.