Enjoy…

(These are in no particular order)

Roscoe – Lowlands from Norman Bates on Vimeo.

Flying Lotus – “Until The Quiet Comes” from WHAT MATTERS MOST on Vimeo.

Calvin Harris ft. Example – We’ll Be Coming Back (Official Video) from Saman Keshavarz on Vimeo.

Jay Z & Kanye West “No church in the wild” from ROMAIN-GAVRAS on Vimeo.

Justice: New Lands - Directed by Canada

Big thanks too Sophie Caley, Paul and James.

Here’s a sneak preview of the new single “Vicissitude II”

Bad Sign: de l’Amour from Oliver Rankin [Burnthecanvas] on Vimeo .

We were lucky enough to use a large free room Brit School for a days worth of filming. This accumulated into two 4-5 hour filming sessions with a short break in between.

The guys approached me looking for a video with a simplistic approach, to film them singing ‘Burning the Reward’ in a closed dark space focusing primarily on band and the music (with virtually relatively no budget). This meant no gimmicks, montages, external story lines or anything like that. Simple right? Not exactly, to me music videos have to keep the viewer hooked not only on the song being played but also ‘visually addictive’ so they keep interested in the video. With such a simple idea I had to think of ways to keep it ‘addictive’ and this basically came down to lighting (excellently provided by James Washer) and post production.

I had one aim; To keep the video throughout raw and gritty incorporating an ‘energy roller coaster’ ride using fast cuts, close profiles and lots of camera angle set ups as if to make the viewer feel like they are in the room alone with the band playing at them. This is why the main shot of the video is the wide shot filming at a slightly lower angle (waist height)

Before filming took place I had about a week to prepare in my head what I wanted to shoot. Noting down rough notes and angles I wanted covered and what I’d shoot them with:

The main equipment and cameras I used were:

• Sony Z1 w/1080p HDV tapes
• 2 x Canon 7D w/ 8mm manual fisheye lens, 50mm 1.8F, 11-16mm wide angle.
• 1 GoPro
• 1 long ladder (for elevated shots) & 2 Manfrotto tripods.

One of my challenges while filming with so many takes and camera angles in band positions, it’s important to try and get each performer to remember how they react to each part of the song to keep it’s continuity. Luke, Adam and Lewis did this very well, after a couple of early warm up takes we were always in full flow. This was helpful because monitoring the movement and lighting while filming as well can be difficult, especially if you’re focusing on 1 or 2 band members while the 3rd is out of shot but being picked up by another camera angle. So my advice is to always do a rough take to get a comfortable platform that band members can easily remember their main positions.

I did a lot of takes with Lewis the drummer, as keeping everything in sync was an important part of the video because most of the time if Luke or Adam were being filmed the chances were Lewis would be seen in the background. So we came up with a few camera angles mainly shot with Canon 7D’s wide angles, for example this 8mm manual fish eye:

As you can see the shot is in black and white, I wasn’t sure at this point if I wanted the video to have black and white clips in, but I felt this overall made the video lose it’s overall visual appeal and seemed unbalanced. I also wanted a lot of the hand held angles to keep some ‘grainyness’ to it, now I’ve seen grainy filters and things put through photos or videos on purpose but I feel it looks too fake if it’s over the top, so I just upped the ISO on the Canons forcing it to keep in noise and grain while keep the Sony on a relatively normal set up as most of the angles shot with the Sony Z1 were steady shots.

Although I wanted the lighting kept simple the band and I felt it would be good to add in some strobe for the ‘heavier’ parts of the song, especially towards the end where their classic ‘triangle’ formation breaks up and they release the rest of rest of the musical energy. This is when all the light fade (except Lewis’s) the cameras pan inwards more and the back lighting just comes from the strobe itself.

Rough shot taken of the mobile from the sound/light area, this room was excellent as any crew members could get an elevated shot of the whole area, the walls could be blackened out with the use of the large curtains and encircle the entire room.

Overall I was incredibly pleased with the end result, it was exactly what myself and the band wanted. On the 9th of July it premiered on Rock Sound Magazines (thanks David!) website for a day we’ve been receiving great feedback.

I’m sure we’ll be seeing much more of these guys and I can’t wait to get my teeth into more projects with this band!

LYRICAL

Symmetry from Everynone on Vimeo.

FASHION

Mulberry ‘Skirt’ from Academy Plus (A+) on Vimeo.

CAPTURED

SWEATSHOPPE Video Painting Europe from SWEATSHOPPE on Vimeo.

REMIX

Rear Window Timelapse from Jeff Desom on Vimeo.

ACTION SPORTS

DARK SIDE OF THE LENS from Astray Films on Vimeo.

EXPERIMENTAL

Prie Dieu from Cokau on Vimeo.

MUSIC VIDEO

Manchester Orchestra – “Simple Math” from DANIELS on Vimeo.

MOTION GRAPHICS

A History Of The Title Sequence from jurjen versteeg on Vimeo.

ADVERTISTING

K-Swiss – Kenny Powers MFCEO from Caviar on Vimeo.

SERIES

Often Awesome The Series from All Aces Media on Vimeo.

ANIMATION

Umbra (HD – 2010) from Malcolm Sutherland on Vimeo.

NARRATIVE

Blinky™ from Ruairi Robinson on Vimeo.

DOCUMENTARY

Amar (all great achievements require time) from Pilgrim Films on Vimeo.

George Lois (born on June 26, 1931, New York City) is an American art director, designer, and author. Lois is best known for over 92 covers he designed for Esquire. “George Lois’ Esquire covers are considered among the most memorable propaganda imagery in any medium, and certainly the most provocative in the history of the magazine industry.”, from 1962 to 1972. Lois’s Esquire covers offered a controversial statement on life in the 1960s with subjects including Norman Mailer, Muhammad Ali, Andy Warhol, Germaine Greer, and Richard Nixon. In 2008, The Museum of Modern Art exhibited 32 of Lois’ Esquire covers. Lois has since become infamous in the advertising world for taking credit for the work of others.

I thought I’d list up 5 of my favorite points so far to help you give a feel of this great book!

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

If you’re in need of a kick up the backside (to help get off your lazy creative ass!), looking for direction or re-focus/advice on your creative projects or ideas then this book is for you. At £4.40 (off amazon) I think it’s a bargain and a great read!

Earlier in the month we had the release of my first music video ‘This Still Remains’ by Bloodloss clocking up over 10,000 views on Youtube so far. You can also check it out on my Vimeo page here.

Towards the end of the month I had the launch of my new showcase website oliver-rankin.com. This will feature my favourite photos and also have new section coming soon where I’ll be selling prints.

I’ve been confirmed to direct and film/edit a new music video for the awesome Press To Meco! We’re expected to get filming in March, I’m really looking forward to it!

I’m booked to photograph a couple of bands in March, notably one of Croydon’s finest bands, The 23 Enigma at Scream Lounge on 17th of March (St. Patrick’s day also, will be a great night!)

Band Bio: ‘Combining bruising breakdowns and hook-laden choruses influenced by the likes of Unearth and As I Lay Dying, Bloodloss’s neck breaking assault simultaneously draws influence from the grooves and raw attitude of early Machine Head and Pantera. Having already racked up some impressive high profile shows including dates with TRC, Polar, breed 77 and Ill Nino, they’re set to destroy the UK metal scene in 2012 with their crushing debut mini album “The Struggle”, out on 5th March 2012′

Direction: Oliver Rankin, Rick Hicks, Mark Browell.

Lights: Rick Hicks (Frantic Promotions)
Videographer: Oliver Rankin
Playback/Sound: Geraldine Gunning
Editor: Mark Browell
Catering: Chris Boon

Bloodloss are:

Vocals – Matt Hobbs
Guitar – Rob Ironmonger
Guitar – Mark Browell
Bass – Dave Smith
Drums – Dan Kelly

Burnthecanvas.com
bloodlossuk.com
franticpromotions.co.uk

Thanks to Dave & Hilary for letting us use the their land.

Also big thanks go’s out to everyone involved on the day, without your help we could never have made it happen!

I shot some live photos of Exit Ten supported by Press to Meco and Bad Sign recently @ Scream Lounge, Croydon. Excellent show…

Check out more from Exit Ten here.

Press To Meco and Bad Sign Photos coming up next!

= a trip of a lifetime.

move, eat, learn