This page shows some of the video projects on which I have worked.
Jingle for the title sequences of short news reports for the website of the 'Institut Universitaire de Technologie de Rouen' part of the University of Rouen. The video is by David Added, audio-visuel technician at the IUT. At the time of writing, the videos in which the jingle has been used can be found on the IUT news page.
Second Nature is an improvised sound video piece. A simple montage of short clips from a video phone are accompanied by a piano line and vocals by myself and Céline Agoutin as well as a few other little sounds. The first video - shot in Edinburgh - is of a man in the snow in Nicolson Square, shot from the window of what used to be the common room in the Edinburgh University Music Department's Alison House building. This is mixed with an image of a fountain shot at a small park in Rouen in France. The swan (because they are all the same swan!) were filmed in this same pond. The other two images are of our orchid and of a graffiti wall in Edinburgh.
Paris à la Mer is a slide show of photos taken in Paris, Rouen, and Dieppe accompanied by a winding sonic journey from chaos to calm passing through dark and light places. The photos were taken by Jessica Morrealle and made into a slide show using iMovie. The sounds were sequenced in Logic, then rediffused using an fft process in Max MSP controlled by a two axis accelerometer.
Mon Plage is a largely improvised experimental sound video piece. The video was shot with a low budget digital camera on a fine February day on the beach in Le Havre. I liked the way the bright light of the sun creates vertical lines on the picture, and when scattered by the reflections in the sea it creates a pretty, almost retro effect. The various video clips were mixed together live using Peter Nyboer's 'Simple Mix' Jitter demo patch. The music consists of an improvisation using a rhodes piano sound; a tibetan singing bowl; a set of tingshaw bells; a little crooning; a handful of paper and plastic wrapping; some maracas and an unexpected interjection from a mobile phone. The title is in part an attempt at a jeu de mot on 'montage', and the fact that it doesn't really work is perhaps an expression of being a foreigner.
Office Party is a 30 second mock advertisement for Kodak created for a competition. It was shot by students at the Leeds Northern Film School. I was given the film with a preliminary music track and asked to try and improve on it. I chose a mischievous Latin style theme to convey the party atmosphere and the bosses misfortune. The sounds are from a Roland XV-2020 module, sequenced and mixed in Logic audio.
Half Life is a short film about 12 minutes in length by Dead by Dawn from the Leeds Northern Film School. The film is science fiction about a pair of scientists who transport an apple from Tokyo to London. The tense, futuristic plot demands dark sinister music. I composed the music in Edinburgh University Music Department Sound Design studio, the Russolo room using their G5 running Logic Pro 7; and a laptop running Max MSP making use of Michael Edwards mdegranular~ granulation external. I should point out that only the music is mine, and not the excellent sound design work.
Hermanus is a music video starring my sisters, my cousin, and I, miming and dancing in - and to a song about - the South African coastal town of Hermanus. It is partly an answer to those dreary home videos that people seem to feel obliged to make while on holiday, and partly an excercise in what you can do in a few hours with a little determination and no concern for perfection. My Dad's digital camera and iMovie were used for the video, the words and music were written and recorded by myself using Logic Pro 7, and my uncle's keyboard and microphone.
The Bus is a short film about a number of people who are hoping to catch a bus and their frustrations. My role was to tidy up the windiness and poor clarity of the voices on the location sound involving some voiceover work and creative cutting and pasting of clean background noise and to lay on a couple of tracks by young Scottish bands. The voices were rerecorded in studio one at the Edinburgh University music department using an AKG 414 and Logic Pro 7, and the mixing and editing were done in my home studio.
Dead Line is a short horror film about a guy who finds himself following a white line through the city streets past mysterious messages that his wife could be in danger. The project was for the Edinburgh Movie Production Society freshers' film project where four teams of (mostly) freshers made a film in a specific genre (horror, action, rom com and drama) with deadline as a common theme. I recorded the location sound, helped a little with some of the editing, created music for the first version. I then made a second verison of the film with most of the location sound replaced with foley.