Highly Contrasting

Watch: Kid Adrift Music Video by High Contrast

High Contrast — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 16:34:24 +0000

Well, here it is at last! It’s very satisfying to have this out there finally after all the hard work that went into making it (you know, stubble continuity, ass-wig construction, importing Japanese school uniforms etc).

CREDITS

Starring - Richard Norton & Jiajia Lika Wu

Writer / Director / Editor – Lincoln Barrett

Director of Photography – Nathan Mackintosh

1st Assistant Director – Joe Lipscombe Noble

Makeup – Nel Bat

Runners – Rob & Tom Healan

Car Driver – Paul Spencer Biggs

Corpse – Dave Shaw

Special Thanks to – Fumie Kamba, Simon & Adrian Troy, Brad, Shelley and all at Island Records.

Would love to hear your reactions and I’ll post about more behind the scenes stuff once people have had a chance to check it out…

Kid Adrift Music Video: The Shoot Part 1

High Contrast — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 16:02:26 +0000

I can reveal that the music video I shot recently was for a new artist signed to Island Records called Kid Adrift. I played one of his tracks when I covered for Rob Da Bank on Radio One at the start of the year and have really been into everything I’ve heard from him since then. He is a very unique and hard to categorise artist, a singer/songwriter with a brooding electronic edge. And very cinematic, so totally up my street. I was amazed and overjoyed that his management and label were so into the idea I came up with for it. As is always the case with these things, time was of the essence and I sprang in to action, pulling together a great team of people for the production.

It was such a good thing that the first location I found was ultimately unusable, as looking back on it now the shoot would have been almost impossible in such a tough location with no electricity or running water or even somewhere to sit that wasn’t covered in glass. The second location turned out to be more than perfect in the end. We had to fit a lot in to just two days of shooting and I can’t thank the cast and crew enough. They all worked so hard and didn’t complain about the less than glamourous conditions once. And when the shoot ran on into the night and we all started getting a bit delirious, they just soldiered on and got the job done.

I’m in the latter stages of editing right now and so far the response from those who have seen it has been very promising. I’m really excited to get this video finished and put it out there for everyone to see. I’ll post more pics from the shoot after the video is unveiled (should be very soon), the ones I’ve included here purposefully keep things about the content of the video vague as I am trying to avoid spoilers. Click for larger pics.

Jiajia Lika Wu gets ready for her closeup.

Joe, Nathan and the jib.

My old pal Dave Shaw looks on with understandable trepidation at what I had prepared for him. The wonderful makeup lady Nel Bat stands by with the props.

Their expressions would make perfect sense if you knew what I was doing just out of frame.

Caught on camera.

Brilliant Director of Photography Nathan Mackintosh with the fully tricked out Canon 7D.

All pictures courtesy of Rob the runner and set photographer, he was indispensable!

Location Scouting: The Last House On The Right

High Contrast — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 16:31:10 +0000

Ah, the slings and arrows of outrageous film-making. The wonderful location in the last post has fallen through due to Asbestos. Pah! But thankfully I seem to know enough people who own spooky, derelict houses and we have a new location. We are set dressing it at the moment to make it look more run down but this one has a stone cellar which is even better than the last house. Shooting this Saturday and Sunday…

Reminds me of The Evil Dead a bit.

Or maybe Blair Witch Project.

Stairway to Hell.

I've now scraped off most of that wallpaper and uncovered the black n white tiled floor.

Debris left over from a Halloween party.

Need some ceiling wax.

Location Scouting: Creepy House

High Contrast — Thu, 20 May 2010 16:11:21 +0000

And so we spring into action once again – a music video is afoot! This time for a singer/songwriter, not dnb, a great track with a very cinematic feel, so I cooked up a filmic idea for it and the record label have said ‘all systems go’. More details as we progress.

Here’s some pics from the location scouting mission, click for larger.

A little bit Gregory Crewdson?

Burn out.

Hi you.

Of course.

Ugly beautiful.

Intriguing. Anyone still got a vcr?

We're already there, baby.

Make yourself at home.

Vintage melt.

Pick up a penguin.

Tropical South Wales.

Scribble Scrabble

High Contrast — Fri, 14 May 2010 14:01:45 +0000

The track I worked with Underworld on, Scribble, was unveiled to the world last night on Zane Lowes Radio 1 show – you can listen again here for a week or you can actually download the track for free from Underworlds website here but again just for one week. In both cases its a radio edit – great for checking out the tune but I would definitely recommend getting hold of the full length version when it’s released as the track has quite an epic structure that needs the full 8 minutes to build and deliver. But anyway, after a long (but fun) creation process it’s very cool to finally have the track out there. Underworld have been a massive influence on me and so getting to make a track with them was a dream come true.

UPDATE: Here’s footage courtesy of Igor Sedo from my gig at Roxy, Prague,this past weekend, where I opened up with Scribble.

Q: When is a book like a pill?

High Contrast — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 16:41:24 +0000

A: When it’s hard to swallow.

Or when they both are green & white and aren’t what they appear to be, in this case the pill is a Hospital USB device and the book is really a blank notebook.

NHS Pill USB available here. Penguin Notebook here.

Top Ten DnD Tunes: April 2010

High Contrast — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 01:15:04 +0000

1. Secret Agent – Netsky – Hospital (Like your fave game on the Commodore 64 jamming whilst it’s loading.)

2. Climax – Camo & Krooked – Hospital (Holy shit, I’m at the Berlin Love Parade!)

3. Fearful Symmetry – High Contrast – Hospital (You know that thing I opened up with at Matter that was like 90% done? Well now it’s 95% done hah! But at least it now has a name.)

4. You Do Scribble – Underworld & High Contrast – ? (What more can I say?)

5. Penamana - Taxman & Original Sin – Ganja (Savage halfstep jungle biz. Hilarious track name!)

6. New Technique – Nu:Tone & Logistics – Hospital (‘Sounds like 1993 to me.’ That was one of my old MCing lyrics. Peyow!)

7. Stronger - Sigma – BBK (They’re back with a stormer.)

8. Life & Music – ASMA – ? (Cool thing Roni Size sent me, an orchestral stomper.)

9. Tomorrow Like Today – S.P.Y. & Illskillz – ? (Heavy bassline groover with stepping breaks. No, really. I haven’t just inserted random buzzwords like on a promo sheet.)

10. Badred / Surprise – Culture Shock – Ram (Both sides of this 12″ deliver the goods. Really think it should be called Surprise Surprise for extra win.)

Short Cuts

High Contrast — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 14:04:09 +0000

Ok Ok Im back. Been making headway with the new album and have made two tracks with Underworld for their next album. I’ve also written a couple of shorts, gearing up to shoot very soon. So I’ve been looking at quite a lot of short films lately. Here’s three that caught my eye.

The Black Hole – A simple yet original idea executed with absolute clarity.

The Third & Seventh – This non-narrative all-CGI piece was blogged to death at the start of the year but it’s still mind-blowing and I’d sooner watch it over Avatar any day.

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

Various Bits by Mr. Oizo – Yes that French nutter is also a film-maker and is following Daft Punk’s lead – he has a feature length film coming called Rubber about a tyre that comes alive and makes peoples heads explode. Teaser here and more info and pics here. Going by his previous short work I’m certainly intrigued to see this. Check this fake-doc-style short, I’m liking the absurdist David Lynch tone.

MAKING LAMBS ANGER (ok quality) from oizo mr on Vimeo.

Also check the latest Flat Eric short. Found that via Droneboys blog, which I heartily recommend.

If you know of any hot short films I should see then please leave a link in the comments.

UPDATE: George reminded me of this great short riffing on everyones favourite 80s puter games.

PIXELS by Patrick Jean from ONE MORE PRODUCTION on Vimeo.

Nash(point)ville

High Contrast — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 14:04:54 +0000

So, I’m in love with the Canon 7D camera. Bought it to shoot music videos and shorts on mainly (shoots HD video) but it’s obviously a killer stills camera. Took it out for a test run at the lighthouse near me, Nashpoint. As it turned out, got there at golden hour which made for some great lighting.

To the vanishing point

No Country for Old Men?

On a clear day you can see forever

Bring me the horizon

One for the horns crew, when this went off I jumped a foot

Come on, it's Wales

Notes from the Underground

High Contrast — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 02:26:25 +0000

The days go on with regularity until suddenly there is a change. Time to thaw out the Contrast after a winter of disco-tense. Two months off from djing. No journal entries. Barely a twitter.

What have I been up to? Giving my ears a rest. And my twin loves of course. The new album is taking shape, many new tracks on the go. You can hear slices soon when I get back on the djing circuit in March. And I’m on the 5th draft of my film script. M. Night Shyamalan said it wasn’t until the 5th draft of The Sixth Sense that he *SPOILER* realised that Bruce Willis’ character was a ghost *SPOILER END*. I can now understand that. It’s like I’ve only just realised what I’ve been trying to say with it during the last two years of work.

The plan is to balance my time and energy between music and film more than ever before. The duality of man.

End Transmission…