Lights, Camera, Action - Ashtray Electric & Gazelle Shoot

Tomorrow Ashtray Electric & Gazelle will make their way to The Assembly and finish the last shoot for the music video, "Take A Seat". This shoot will be added with the animation piece we did to bring you one of the most anticipated music videos. As of now we're looking at a mid December release online and on MK. Xander Ferreira will lead tomorrows shoot and I can assure you he will deliver an amazing piece! See more of Xanders' work here: http://xanderferreira.withtank.com/about/

Here's more on the location for tomorrow; The Assembly has grown from new kid on the block to well established giant within Cape Town's live music scene. In times to come the venue will maintain its massive following simply by doing what it does best: consistently showcasing only the best and brightest musicians and DJ's from all genres, be they local or international, rising stars or household names.

The next Rodney Mullen

It's rare to find skaters as technical and precise as the great Rodney Mullen, but in my opinion his new successor is Kilian Martin. This short film was directed by my fellow Full Sail University Alumni, Brett Novak.

Purple Gorilla Interview with Orlando Live

While enjoying the festivities at this years Rock For Hunger Festival (which we did the branding for) we did an interview with Orlando Live. Take a look.

Purple Gorilla from Concrete Lion Pictures on Vimeo.

Special Delivery

The animation piece for the new Ashtray Electric & Gazelle music video left Orlando today and is on it's way to Cape Town, South Africa. Can't wait for the turn out of this video, and we're very excited to show it to you! Keep posted as I'll post updates.

Ashtray Electric & Gazelle Music Video Update

I'll be updating you throughout the next few weeks as we build up to the release of the new Ashtray Electric & Gazelle Music Video "Take A Seat". The song played on South African radio for the first time last week and was a major hit so we're even more excited for the video now. The video animation will make it's way to Cape Town, South Africa tomorrow where the bands will add a little something to it. SO as of now we're set for a December release on MK & the web. Keep an eye out as I'll post making of webisodes up until the release.

Making Of - Thieve Ft. Die Heuwels Fantasties "Way To Go"

This is the making of the new MK MVP music video, Thieve Ft. Die Heuwels Fantasties. The African Attachment did an amazing job once again and it was a lot of fun to help with location scouting on this video. After a long search we finally found a container yard to shoot in. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did to be part of it.

MK Music Video Project (MVP)

Lights, camera, action! MK (South Africa's version of MTV) Music Video Project gave ten local artists R50 000 ($7000). Aiming to invest in and uplift the South African music and production industry, MK recently commissioned 10 local music videos by putting a tender out to pitch. 196 pitches were submitted in the space of a month.

To enter, bands had to partner with a reputable and registered South African production company and conceptualise a superior quality, creative music video concept for one of their as yet un-filmed tracks.

The videos are done and were released recently. I'm posting some of my favorites, like mentioned in a previous post, I did location scouting for the Thieve ft. Die Heuwels Fantasties MVP video with the African Attachment.

Some songs are in Afrikaans, English or mixed, just a heads up. The video quality of all these videos is amazing and has to be watched in HD.

Skateboard Art

Haroshi makes art out of used skateboards, like this Nike Dunk shoe. Very creative! Check out his site. http://haroshi.com/

Live shows make more money then album sales

As a manager it's your responsibility to find the best-suited venue for your bands' genre since the venues location and music style will sell your band. In a recent study it was shown that artists make most of their money playing live then actual album sales. So it's even more critical to get the venue right.

The most recent study shows that the music industry generated just over $1 billion in 2008, while the live music scene generated over $1.3 billion. We now have a situation where live has officially taken over recorded. In this day and age where music piracy plays a major role in music sales it’s a band managers job to book as many financially successful shows as possible.

It’s important for bands to realize that their main revenue stream will be live shows and because of that, bands will have to reflect on their live stage performance. Playing on key live is one thing but now bands will have to look at other things like lights, stage props and visuals. Putting these 3 things together in a unique, interesting way will attract more people to your show. Any band/artist can set-up stage with their instruments and play but only a few can master a theatrical performance. If done right, word of mouth will spread about your stage set-up, so now your not just known for your music but a great live theatrical show as well.

A good resource of venues is the Musician's Atlas. (It's also has a lot more information other than venues). They put one out every year, with City by City, State by State listings and contact info.

References:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7945998.stm

The African Attachment

Together with MK, South Africa's own MTV, The African Attachment made a new music video for Thieve ft. Die Heuwels Fantasies. While I was in South Africa a few months ago I helped out at the African Attachment and did location scouting for this video. It came out great and once again Dean Leslie and Greg Fell did an amazing job.

The video features ultra marathon long distance extraordinaire, Ryan Sandes. The African Attachment team is in Antarctica right now with Ryan Sandes, filming a documentary about him called Wandering Fever. Follow their journey here.

The African Attachment also has a new website. http://www.theafricanattachment.com/

The Imaginary Zebra

The Imaginary Zebra is an independent clothing brand from the golden state - California. Davis to be exact. Brain child of Benson Chou,

The Imaginary Zebra encourages the use of imagination, but there is no particular theme or notion to their apparel, the designs have always been spontaneous - from a soda can to break dancing animals. Which is why aside from crafting the apparel graphics, time is invested heavily on their blog to keep the audience connected with the design process behind each shirt and sources of inspirations for each shirt. Collections come out randomly with no predicable seasonal restriction.

To maintain the personal connection with their supporters and to ensure the authenticity of there products, everything from receiving the order, packaging, and to shipping are all carried out with their own hands. The Imaginary Zebra products are sold exclusively on their official website.

Recently they released a red balloon shirt where 50% of the profits goes to the UC Davis Children Hospital.

Purple Gorilla T-Shirts

When I first started Purple Gorilla, it was going to be an independent T-Shirt line but snowballed into more of a design studio. You never know how things are going to end up. Planning out a few designs, I'll post them on the Facebook page when they're done, maybe I'll print the design with the most 'likes'?

Please Stand By

The release date for the new Ashtray Electric & Gazelle colab, "Take A Seat", music video we did has been pushed back till December for now. After a discussion with the bands we all agreed that we need to take this video a step further; make it bolder, cooler and more badass. The animation piece will be mailed to South Africa this week. The bands will do a shoot together and add that into the video. I'm not going to give you all the details now but it's going to look amazing, all I can say. Once I have a definite release date, I'll release the making of footage so you can enjoy this much-anticipated music video to its full extent!

Rock For Hunger Festival 5 - Nov 6th, 2010

"When you think about Rock For Hunger, you've got to start with the cause because Rock For Hunger is all about helping out the homeless people in Central Florida. So first of all, you're purchasing a ticket to go see artists, but you're also helping out people in need at the same time."

As some of you know by now we did all the branding for the Rock For Hunger Festival 5 and this past Saturday it all came together. The festival was held at the Citrus Bowl field in Downtown Orlando. Bands performed all day while Zach Deputy, Keller Williams & Lee Boys ended of the night.

The PG crew had a blast, we hula hooped, played volleyball and just had a good time. We also did our first Radio and TV Interview. Once I get a hold of those I'll post them.

Our very own VIP All Access Badges with the logo we designed. Proud moment, tear.


Our First Radio Interview with WPRK

Our friend, Jamison Albritton (far right), stop by. Jamison is a great artist, I'll post some of his work later.
Chris Zuppa and myself got hulu hoop lessons.

People were dancing everywhere with hula hoops, dolls and other random stuff.

Zach Deputy killed it, he was so good and personal with the crowd.

I got a personal Frisbee Golf lesson from Zach, I might take it up as a sport...

More pics to come...