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Regular readers will be aware that I'm in Make Some Videos Mode at present. (for a list of the current video clips ideas see this article)

Each week, I try another idea, smile when things go wrong and try again.

Last week I tried to get a quick shoot done for Running Jody from Carl's chair. Fail.

I'll try again this week. If the weather is OK and if I can find the right person, if the steadicam works, if the bike works, if Dions got time, if...

That's the lesson here. try, fail, try something else, fail and smile. Every now and again you win :-) I think Edison said 'Fail early and often'

After my trip to VIVID this year I was kind of inspired by the animations on the MCA and wanted to try and do something in the same vein for 'Hard Times' from the new album

but thankfully, I have learned the occasional thing about my abilities over the last few videos, for example, animation is hard.

It's hard, time consuming and, um, err, hard.

Did I mention hard? 

So I decided to go ask for some help via one of the websites where you can post art jobs for hire and we'll see ho we go. I don't think I have the budget to do quite the same level of work that VIVID displayed, but just like Aperture Science, we do what me must because we can :-) I'll post my results as we start working on it.

Will online collaboration with an animator work? Will it all go up in flames? Stay tuned for randomness via the web.

Meanwhile, I am still trying to find a jogger for running jody, a location for Hollow Tree and trying to come up with some other ideas for the other songs on the album. the more ideas we have, the greater the likelihood that we'll be able to get one of them done.

Howdy Folks. Newcastle here we come, this saturday night from 8pm. I think.

So there.

What's that you say? half price on lights at the hire place? Am I tempted to add some lights to our gig?

no, I have come here to pick up a vocal compressor to try and smooth out the low register vocals on Country Radio and South Of The Border, so that they are lifted above the guitars. I will just hire this device and...how much did you say those lights were again?

Ok, so I might have gone slightly mad. Maybe it was reading that bio of Syd Barrett and all those early Floyd gigs.

then again it didn't seem to bother the boys too much.

In between sets, I spotted this adorable little pooch outside int eh cold, waiting for his/her owner. Awwwwwww cuuute.

Rosie says the lights were either awesome or aggravating, depending on how he felt in the moment,  Claudette says it was distracting, I thought it was like being in a tumble drier filled with Christmas tree lights.

I am not sure if we have quite got the hang of using them.

Carl also got a bit keen with the fog machine, so it was a whole effect. I am not sure if we'll do it again quite the same way but it was a fascinating experiment.

Oh yes, the vocal compressor helped. Cheers to Bobby and Pete for some additional production advice.

Also, cheers to Claudette, Suzanne, Steven and all the folks that came and danced last night. Good times. 

There are still blinking lights in front of my eyes now. I can see infinity!!!

It keeps on rolling, just keeps on rollin...i've been listening to Paul Robeson off and on for the last few days, must be something about low frequencies that soothes the ear after a week of mixing.

9 down 4 to go. 

We now have a break of 10 days while Pete does his thing at Splendour and then we'll be pushing on.

In the interim, it's time to make notes on these mixes, and in my case, start searching for any additional sound effects or features that we might want to add.

There's also the album artwork and I guess we could even try the occasional videoclip.