I spent 24hrs with Faker as they wrote, recorded and mixed a song that features on their latest album. It was a cool idea and was quite challenging to document, which I enjoyed…I think.
We’re suckers for a collaboration. The They Will Have Their way tour was a celebration of the music from Neil & Tim Finn. The show was really special and Clare Bowditch had us in stitches.
Whilst on the tour Paul Dempsey & Alexander Gow from Oh Mercy took some time out to share some of their thoughts about the Finns and cover one of their songs.
Following on from our EPK for the Stonefield girls, we spent half a day in the studio with them down in Melbourne to create their latest music video.
They say the first three years of being in business is the toughest. F*ck me I hope that’s true. I don’t think I could do another three like I’ve just had. Naively when everyone told me starting a business was tough I thought my journey would be different.
From the early days of having to dj on weekends to pay the rent all the way through to being nominated for an Aria and creating a DVD for the great John Farnham. It’s been quite a ride. Special thanks to Harry Charnock, Ash Morgan and Brad Jarrett. You guys have killed it.
We’ve had over 300 shoots and edits over the last 3 years. Here’s a couple of my favourites.
Justice Crew documentary – This one pushed everyone in my team to their limits and we somehow pulled it off.
That Moment – A simple little video we made for a competition that Getty ran. We ended up winning.
Guy Sebastian – Each doco project we have taken on we have aimed to really get to know the artist. To showcase what they are about, what drives them. At the end of this one I felt like we were getting pretty close.
It’s hard to put into words what this project was like. When I started the Grindhouse I would have never thought that one day we’d be making a DVD for John Farnham. We spent a week with John and his band as they stripped back John’s classics and re-recorded them acoustically. We put in a lot of hours but to be honest this project was easy. John is surrounded by an amazing team. His band have been with him for over 20 years and it was absolute pleasure to watch them at work. Who knows, maybe we’re getting a little better at what we do. Another superb effort by our DP Harry Charnock.
The DVD is out this week through Sony Music.
This one was just easy. Commissioned to create a mini documentary on Stonefield we set out to film them at home, rehearsing, recording and playing live. The girls were lovely, the music was great and I think this is one of the best content pieces we’ve created to date. The girls are from regional Victoria and range in age from 14 to 21. An all female, all sister rock band playing music straight out of the 70s…the video basically made itself.
As Eskimo Joe recorded their latest album Ghosts of the Past we travelled up to the Central Coast to The Grove studios to spend time with the guys and document the recording process. How were they approaching it differently this time and what was it about that studio and producer that worked so well?
As I always say you dont need a big budget or major record company behind you to make content and videos that people connect with. It’s a simple equation. Good song + simple and clever ideas = winning.
Here are three Aussie artists we think got it right big time.
Since starting the Grindhouse I’ve been fairly staunch on not wanting to create music videos. They are extremely labour intensive, it’s hard to meet expectations and I’m not even convinced people watch them anymore. Don’t get me wrong I am still a firm believer that a song needs a visual element I’m just not convinced a traditional video is money well spent.
EMI came to us and needed a clip for Leader Cheetah. There was a modest budget but I liked the song. After hearing the song I immediately trawled Vimeo looking for interesting film makers. I was searching for someone with a love of 8mm. I found a guy called Justin Cary. He had some amazing old footage of his family from the 50s & 60s and together we set out to piece together something for the band.
The footage used in this clip is Justin’s Grandparents Bee and Doug. Shot in 1951 the couple were together for over 55 years!
Collaborations are always exciting, especially when three talented solo artists are thrown into the mix. The Seeker Lover Keeper project is Sarah Blasko, Sally Seltman and Holly Throsby. After spending the beginning of the year making a record in NYC The Grindhouse was commissioned to make three videos that told the story of how the girls came together as well as the writing and recording process for the album.
Sally’s interview we did at the Sydney Bus Museum. A must see. There are almost 100 old buses and trucks, a fantastic place to shoot. Holly’s we conducted in Gould’s Bookstore. A Sydney institution. Sadly the owner Bob Gould passed away just a week after we shot there.