Eve McConnachie is a graphic designer based in Glasgow. She trained as an animator at Duncan of Jordanstone Dundee and has been in-house designer and filmmaker for Scottish Ballet since 2009. The Bird is the first piece created under ‘Scottish Ballet Creative’  – an ongoing project in which the Company collaborates with contemporary artists, filmmakers and musicians. This short film for Scottish Album of the Year Award-winner Kathryn Joseph, directed, filmed and edited by Eve. Here she tells us more about the making of this film.

Scottish Ballet’s online audience has been growing steadily for the past few years, with our online videos receiving hundreds of thousands of views per year. The films I create are mainly behind-the-scenes documentaries and trailers that promote productions, but Scottish Ballet have been looking to produce more creative content that would not be for promotional purposes. This led to the idea of ‘Scottish Ballet Creative’, an initiative that would see the company produce creative digital projects and collaborate with other artists.

Kathryn Joseph’s involvement came about very organically; we were listening to her music in the office and were awestruck by her haunting vocals and her raw and emotive lyrics. When we approached Kathryn for this project she was pleased and, I think surprised, to hear from us. She is a big fan of dance already so she was very enthusiastic from the start. When I asked if she’d like anything in particular for the film, she said she’d be happy whatever we came up with. It was a completely open brief and you can’t really ask for anything more generous.

The first thing I did was to listen to the track on loop. I also collected a ton of visuals that fit with my emotional response to the song. I showed these images to Kathryn and she confirmed that I was on the right track. I wanted to create something that would do justice to her beautiful song – and then Kathryn won the SAY award and I really knew the pressure was on!

Image by Christina Riley

The film features Sophie Laplane (pictured above), who is not only a wonderful dancer, but also a talented choreographer. I knew that she would bring something special to the film. Sophie decided not to choreograph a complete dance piece; instead we workshopped some key movements and then Sophie improvised to the track on the day.

Kathryn already had a short video for The Bird – of a murmuration of starlings. I didn’t think I’d be lucky enough to find a similar flock of birds, but I wanted to echo Sophie’s choreography with the natural movements found in a wild landscape. So I knew I was looking for a location with long grass and water, and I was hoping to film at sunset.

I spent the next week combing the west coast for a suitable location, accompanied by my dad and his bearded collie, Ben (pictured below). Eventually we found a great spot at the edge of an Irvine golf course: secluded, with a nice view of Arran, even a gorgeously silvered driftwood tree on the beach nearby. It was a typically dreich evening – grey, windy and wet – so I couldn’t get an idea of the sunset, but Ben (the dog) unearthed the bird wing which you see at the start of the video.

On the day of the shoot the sky wasn’t the atmospheric grey that I’d expected – instead we got the best day of the summer! We packed my gear into the car along with sandwiches, biscuits, chocolate and gallons of hot tea – all the essentials. When we arrived the coast was bathed in the beautiful warmth of a low evening sun so we quickly got to work.

I was shooting on a Canon DSLR with 50mm and 28mm prime lenses; shooting on a DSLR lets me get the shallow depth of field that I love. It’s also lightweight enough that I can shoot without a tripod – which meant that I could adapt quickly to Sophie’s movements.

After years of filming dance at Scottish Ballet, I’ve found that it’s best to keep the camera loose and responsive. You can plan your shots to a certain extent, but often on the day it’s the happy accidents that are the bits I like the best. I use my own (cheaper!) version of steadicam, using the camera strap stretched tightly against my neck to steady the shot. I think if the camera is free to move then you can respond better to the dancer – perhaps your shots aren’t as perfectly composed but it makes the performance more alive. Personally, my favourite shots are often technically imperfect; out of focus or only catching a small part of the dancer onscreen, but I think that imperfection makes you focus on the detail in a way that isn’t possible in a live performance.

We shot from 7pm till just before midnight. Fortunately I had good light for a long time because it was just after the longest day of the year. However, that also meant that poor Sophie spent hours in the wind in nothing more than a light dress. You’d never guess from the footage, but when the camera stopped filming her teeth would immediately begin to chatter. You can’t see, but there was always someone standing ready just off-camera armed with a blanket and a hot cup of tea! She still looked amazing though and never complained once.

Image by Christina Riley

Image by Christina Riley

My favourite part of the video is the last third, where the sun is low and the sky was especially vivid. By this point Sophie was freezing so we only had time for two shots – one ultra wide to get the sky and a second in close up. The colours were absolutely beautiful, so I’m glad she toughed it out.

Sophie then escaped to sit in the car with the heating on, while I stayed to get some final shots of the deserted beach. I ended up leaving the camera balanced carefully on the sand while I ran at a group of seagulls waving my arms frantically to scare them into flying into shot. (I’m glad the beach was empty at this point.)

The shoot only lasted one evening but the edit took far longer. I probably listened to the song another hundred times over this period. My first step when editing is to re-watch all the footage, picking out my favourite moments. Then I’ll piece together a rough edit. We’d thought we might need to do a second day of shooting but I could tell immediately that I had enough footage to tell a complete story. Just as well, as that sunset was never to be repeated!

The first edit came together fairly quickly, but then I spent days chopping, changing, and rearranging – trying to get the overall flow of the film right. I’ve learned that, with dance on film, perfect continuity isn’t as important as visual flow. Rather than piecing together movements that match up perfectly in a linear progression, I think it is much more effective to combine shots which have the same feeling, or contrast in an interesting way.

The end result was really well received, and bringing us to the attention a lot of people who might not have noticed us before. Everything worked for us on the day – that freakishly beautiful sunset and Sophie’s amazing improvisation. I can’t wait for my next Scottish Ballet Creative project!

Sophie Laplane’s new work Maze will be performed in September and October as part of Scottish Ballet’s Autumn Season 2015. Find out more information here.

See Eve’s showcased work on Central Station here.

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The two videos were created in response to a commissioning brief from the artist’s management. They wanted “deep, dark visuals” and two videos linked by the same aesthetic style and story, but with the narrative kept fairly loose and abstract.

At the time, I was submitting quite a lot of pitches for a fairly wide variety of acts – from radio-friendly dance music, to guitar-based rock. Once I’m sent a brief, I’ll have only a couple of days after first hearing the track to come up with an idea and draft up a pitching document to send to the label. It can be tricky jumping between different musical styles and trying to generate strong ideas that I’m committed to making, and that have a decent chance of securing the job. For me, when I’m at the basic ideas stage, there’s no point sitting at a desk with a pen just trying to force something out – and it’s a hundred times worse in front of a computer. What I usually do instead is listen to the track loads of times on a loop while concentrating on any kind of visual or emotional response I feel to it. Usually I don’t really get anything, and just find myself getting sleepy. At this point I kneel on the floor with my head resting on a chair in a really uncomfortable position, and drift off to sleep. Ten minutes, I tend to wake up with sore knees and the beginnings of an idea.

For this project, the initial idea involved a mysterious night time journey through an alien and deserted cityscape. I imagined the ‘walker’ being small within the frame, and swamped by darkness – always kind of frightened by what was around the next corner, but somehow compelled to keep going; inexorably, rhythmically, as though in a dream.

After kneeling on the floor, the next stage of my process involves getting out the pen and paper and approaching the initial idea with a critical eye and some discipline – thinking about how any specific effects or visuals can be achieved; taking the brief, budget and deadline into consideration; and starting to work out how the idea might be structured over the duration of the track. At this stage, it sometimes helps if I think of the idea as someone else’s crap brainwave that I’ve been tasked with whipping into shape – it makes it easier to leave the first type of woolly thinking behind, and get on with preparing a developed idea. (I should mention that I’m sometimes helped out at this stage by Halcyon directors Jack and Alex – for them it really is someone else’s crap brainwave). The outcome of this stage should be the creation of a pitching document to send to the label. This should give a good sense of the idea – the look, the atmosphere, the narrative trajectory. It has to be appealing to try and win the job, but also achievable, in case I do.

On this occasion, my pitch was successful, and the project rolled into motion. Beth Allan from Forest of Black came on board early on as the Producer, and we worked together closely during pre-production. She brought together all the logistical side of things – organising the crew, the scheduling, the budget, the equipment, the contracts, and probably a hundred other things I never even knew about. Meanwhile, I was working on the storyboard and shot list during the day, and at night, cycling around Glasgow taking pictures of potential locations.

As Beth brought new crew members on board, I would discuss with them what I was looking for. It was my first time working with a professional Production Designer (Moley Campbell), Make-Up Artist (Nicole Stafford), and Costume Designer (Louise Allen), and they really brought the project to life.

The filming technique employed was slightly unusual, and involved the performers having to move extremely slowly while we took a series of photographs. Having tried the required movement myself in the creation of the test footage, I was aware how physically demanding it was. Consequently, I decided that it would be best to cast dancers rather than actors, to ensure that they had the necessary physical control and stamina to create the desired aesthetic. Jen Farmer and Rob Heaslip took the leading roles, with Sarah Swires and Julian Capolei doing an amazing job on the ‘dancing couple sequence’.

The shoot itself was a slog, but by that point, the vast majority of my contribution was already complete. The real hard work at this point fell to Michael Sherrington (Director of Photography), Rory Stewart (Assistant Director), and of course, the actors. The process of filming can be fairly stressful, so I like to have made my creative decisions in advance – I just turn up on the day with a clipboard and stick to the plan.

For more work by Ciaran, see his showcase on Central Station here or visit the links below.

More: Website | Vimeo | Twitter

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You Don’t Trust Anyone music video for the band Sparrow and the Workshop by Glasgow School of Art graduates, Danny Pattison and Sally Sibbet.

Vimeo

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Dam Mantle – Blueberry by Glasgow based video and animation artist, Brendan Bennett.

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Fashion Excerpt edited by Glasgow based videographer Christy Aitken Mears. Filmed by Blair Young at The Forest of Black.

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Kochka – “Carousel-o-Tape” was created by Sea of Lyons, also know as Ciaran Lyons, a music video maker living in Scotland.

We thought watching this video was a good way to start your weekend.

You can find more Ciaran’s work here, check out his website here and follow him on Twitter here.

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I direct music videos, so thought it may be appropriate to share some thoughts I have on the matter.

MTV is dead. The flagship channels of the international MTV brand no longer show any music videos. The UK charts is dominated by phone-vote X-Factor shows.

So where do people find new music these days?

All of my previous videos have been shown on MTV 2 in the UK, and a few on MTV America, although online views have surpassed traditional delivery methods.

The healthiest place for music to thrive is within the democratic Internet cloud. For the first time, everyone has a platform to broadcast their message for free. No other medium can reach as many people as quickly for as little money. With blogging and social news network sites, the audience is no longer passive. So, if the content is good you can be assured that it will be forwarded or featured.

I think that the process of social bookmarking generates a stronger bond between the content and the viewer. An online audience member will have more of a loyal connection with the band, as they actively decided to participate and help to shape the landscape. One internet-viewer is potentially worth more in terms of statistics than a captive TV audience member.

I think that it’s much healthier for a track to survive on its own merits as opposed to the amount of money that the label is prepared to pay for airplay. This means that more focus is geared towards quality content, which can only be a good thing.

So, delivery – where does a music video fit in?

YouTube is such an empowering service.

The problem is that there’s a lot of low-quality content on YouTube. I don’t mean that in terms of resolution and bitrate, but of creative merit. There’s also the feeling that content online is more disposable than TV content. This is partly because there’s a much higher turnover online – really good videos will briefly do very well, before being quickly replaced with something else. The cycle repeats. A greater amount of content means less time in the limelight for each video that “makes it”.

Sparks burn brighter, but for a shorter time. People consume more, so they are quick to digest the video then move on to something else.

Music videos need to change. Partly it’s the entire music industry as a whole that’s leading this transition, but mainly it’s how the viewer now consumes his media. We have moved on from the one-way feed of television. Now we are all hunter-gatherers.

Find out more about James here.

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Mix-Blog: A bit like a mix-tape but with blogs instead. Read more from the series here.