On Sunday we hit Blank Tape Studios to record a bunch of music for Play It Safe! I'm listening to the tracks right now, and I have to say that it's a very surreal experience! I've been talking to Nathan and Oscar about these songs for more than a year now and to finally have them sitting on my computer is just incredible.
Fundraising Gig
A few weeks ago we held our first fundraising event featuring an awesome collection of bands and comedians. On the music side we had Yes/No/Maybe, Mike Kay, The Fox Party, and King Armadillo. On the comedy side, we had John Conway, Neil Sinclair, Dave Quirk, Simon Keck, and our very own Alasdair Tremblay-Birchall on hosting duties. Everyone was absolutely amazing and I definitely recommend you check all these guys out if you haven't seen them before.
Band Rehearsals
I'm very excited right now (even more excited than normal) because tomorrow morning we head into the studio to record the music for Play It Safe! From Play It Safe's inception, music has been a huge part of the film. Nathan began working on ideas for the soundtrack late last year and Mantra came on board early this year. As you can imagine, these songs have had a lot of work put into them and I just can't wait to hear the final products!
Behind The Scenes: Block 04
Apologies for the lack of updates everyone, things have been very hectic over the last few weeks. If you've been following our Facebook page you may have heard that we're now officially 50% through production. This is a huge milestone for us to reach and it feels amazing to make it this far. We have one more night of shooting this year, then we'll be taking a break from shooting over the next couple of months to finish rehearsing and tweaking the remaining scenes, as well as to raise some more funds (more on that in a future post). In the meanwhile, here's some behind the scenes pics from block 04:
Nathan Liow Trio - Procession
We recently put together a fun little video for our amazing composer (and all around great guy) Nathan Liow. I've been a big fan of Nathan's work for many years now and it was a real pleasure to work with him on this video. We ended up recording a live version of his song "Procession" with his trio (featuring Adam Spiegl on double bass, and Justin Olsson on drums), which is one of my alltime favourite songs of his. I think it's absolutely breataking and I can't wait to debut some of his new music on the soundtrack to Play It Safe.
Competition: Spot The Reference
In the photos below I can count at least 14 clearly visible references to the local music scene. The first person to guess at least 10 will win a FREE digitial copy of the film once it's finished. Be specific, if it's an album can you name both the artist and album title? If you can guess all 14 then we'll give you an even better prize! (I don't know what it is yet, but I promise it will be good!)
Recording MC Jibber Jabber
A couple of weeks ago we recorded the final version of a song Jamie (Nicholas Kato) and his housemate Jefferson (Alasdair Tremblay-Birchall) make up while drunk one night. The recording session was tons of fun and half the time Nathan, Al, and I were just laughing at how stupid the whole thing is. (Don't worry, it's actually supposed to be stupid.)
Behind The Scenes: Block 03
Sorry for the lack of updates guys, we've been very busy preparing for Block 04 (which we start shooting tomorrow). Here's a few quick stills we took while shooting Block 03:
Behind The Scenes: Day 04 of Block 02
Block 02 of shooting is now officially a wrap. I'm really happy with how everything's been going so far and I can't wait to get to get into the next block. Here's some photos from the last day of block 02:
Behind The Scenes: Day 03 of Block 02
Over the weekend we had days 03 and 04 of block 02 of shooting Play It Safe. The whole weekend went very well and I am very happy with a result. Block 02 is now a wrap, and I'm looking forward to shooting block 03 in another few weeks. Day 03 was based in the Belgium Avenue Neighbourhood House which is a great little community centre in Richmond. Here's some photos from the day: