Here is the next artist interview, this time with Josh Earl - production assistant and camera on the new music video for what you want (doesn't exist)
what are some of the creative artforms and projects you are involved with?
Well for a very long time I've been a juggler and fire twirler and have travelled around a lot with my partner meeting people and performing world-wide. For a number of years we ran a festival in the Adelaide Hills called Common Ground that attracted jugglers and fire twirlers from all over Australia (and sometimes even from overseas). It was awesome but when we decided to have a baby, we had to let it go to give us a bit of space in our lives. Last year we worked in a team to produce a Blues and Roots festival called Common Roots which was also very successful. Musically I play bass and drums, although my skills are pretty low level :)
what was it like working on the video shoot for WHat you want (Doesn't exist) and can you tell us a bit about the filmmaking process?
Working on this shoot was great fun although having although having our star living interstate certainly made planning shoots a bit trickier! Simon seemed to have the aesthetics of what he was looking for pretty well sorted in his mind, and through dialog we worked up a bit of a narrative. Once we had worked through the narrative a bit, we spent a day wandering around the West end of Adelaide CBD taking a lot of photos and scoping out possible places to shoot. It took a while but we eventually decided on most of the spots for the outdoor shooting. Simon also contacted The Reading Room and secured it on a Sunday morning (I think) for the Piñata sequence. Eventually we shot all the outdoor and Piñata material in one epic day of shooting. Unfortunately we didn't get time to shoot all the material we needed for the Artists Lair/cut up preparation sequences, so we had to wait a while until we could go out and visit Simon's parents farm and shoot the last bits there. I'm glad we didn't rush it though, I think the result was worth it.
what kind of camera did you use for filming?
We used Sony gear and for most locations we shot on two cameras at the same time to give us a bit of flexibility in the edit. Usually we had both the HVR-Z1 and the HDR HC9 capturing at the same time. The HVR-Z1 was most often tripod mounted, while the HC9 was handheld. I don't think we could have achieved the look we got without shooting in this way.
what is your preferred platform... Mac or Pc?
It's been a long time since I've given Windows a proper go for video editing. I've been a Final Cut fan since version 4, and I still really like it in version 10.0.8 - so Mac is really the only platform for me.
any advice for people making their own videos?
Just do it - get a team of similarly motivated people together. Don't expect it will happen overnight, be prepared to re-shoot or be flexible. Maintain a positive attitude and make sure you finish what you start. Things usually take a lot longer than you think, especially when you have to set up lights n stuff. Give yourself double at least the time you think it will take, and make sure you have a backup plan! Oh yeah - and time spent drinking coffee and talking through the ideas before running around the town with gear in your hands is time well spent (i.e. have some idea of what you want before you shoot).
