joamo's blog

Claire in Marketing is brewing a plot that sounds rather cool for Calvin.  Themed around the single 'merrymaking at my place' they are going to ask fans on the website to have there own party, video it and upload the footage to the calvin website and then the lovely Calvin Harris himself will judge who's party had the most 'merrymaking' fun!  The winner will get Calvin to perform live at their house!...

All sounds very good indeed but did get me thinking about how easily things could get out of hand ... going from 'tut tut, keep the noise down' to 'call the police', to 'is that squirty cream up the wall or something else' etc etc

I read about a similar story in the metro the other day where a sixteen year old held a party at her parents house when they were on holiday.  She advertised on my space as a 'skins' type party and then wondered why 3 million teenagers turned up and 'merrily' wrote on the walls with excrement.  I think there was £20,000 worth of damage and I think the insurance company just shrugged their shoulders and chuckled under their breath.

Imagine the destruction which going to be caused when hundreds of teenagers from all over the country take part in similar escapades in order to create the best video footage to win the competition!  There will be distraught parents cursing the existence of this 'harris' person and saying that it was not acceptable in the 80s and it is most definitely NOT acceptable now!

hehehe!

Thought I had better fill you in on the results of the Jade Ewen shoot ... well, it basically went really well and we got some beautiful pictures from it.  Must admit I was a bit worried about doing a shoot outside all day without having a studio as back up but we managed to pick one of the few days of the summer when it wasn't raining so the light was great.

Now I've just began the process of retouching all the shots which takes ages.  Retouching is sort of brain numbing work so you need to be in the right mood ... I've done all the press shots now just have to do the artwork shots now.  To be honest they haven't needed that much doing to them - not like some of the retouching I've done in the past.  I remember doing a shot for that crappy opera band before il divo came out where 4 heads out of the 5 band members had been swopped to heads from different shots.  That's when it gets silly.  But for these Jade pictures I've just had to clean them up a bit which makes it alot easier.

Now just have to get to work on the logos and we'll get a sleeve! 

Bmg sony 8-043_e

I've been really terrible lately and haven't blogged about anything ... trouble is, James is now on our floor so every time I walk past his desk I think how I haven't blogged and its a bit like getting a small shot of guilt injected into my arm.  Not being a junky, this hasn't been pleasant at all so here I am ... blogging about, erm ... the fact that I'm not blogging....

I'll go now ...

Got a ticket last minute to see George on Saturday night ... and of course it was fabulous !  That was the first time I'd seen him live and I was so impressed with his voice ... it was so good!  I'm your man and Careless whispers (in the encore) got the whole crowd singing ... my only complaint was that he didn't play wake me up before you go-go - which bizarrely reminds me of a journey from Wiltshire to Scotland in which we got caught in a storm, broke down and got picked up by the RAC (extremely exciting stuff when you're 7!)  I think we played it continuously ... much to the distress of my parents!

The stage visuals were also really cool ... just wish he'd done a more intimate version of a favourite - like making it acoustic or something just to draw you in as sometimes I felt the situ was a bit overwhelming as it's such a massive venue ... but maybe it wasn't that kind of gig - no one else seemed to be complaining!

Went on a shoot yesterday around Portobello for Jade Ewen.  To be honest I was getting a bit nervious about it all working out ok as everything was pushed right up to the last minute with regards to styling and locations but we had a really productive day and I think we're going to get some amazing pictures from it. 
Dean Freeman was shooting it - we choose him as he's got quite a grainy reportagey feel and we felt that we wanted to avoid Jade looking too like the usual glossy R&B act.  Lucie Manning styled it.  She is amazing - managed to get hold of some seriously beautiful clothes and shoes.  It was all 60s inspired mini dresses and ultra skin tight jeans which enhances one of Jades best features - her legs (lucky c....) ! ;-) 
I have high hope for this shoot so hopefully when we get the pictures in tomorrow it will be what we all want.

Not being a massive fan of fantasy fiction and having fallen asleep during the movies, you could understand my concern about going to see The Lord of the Rings - The musical ... I had this image that it would be a bit like a Wagner Opera (and maybe even a bit longer) but as soon as we entered the theatre I knew that this would be the most magical sceptical I had very seen.

The stage was a huge mass of twisted branches splaying out into the ceiling and around the boxes over looking the stage. This had the affect of drawing you into this magical world so much that you almost felt part of  'middle earth'! The stage was an incredible feat of engineering.  It revolved and had different sections which varied in height which allowed so much versatility and was continuously evolving. The depth and detail of the stage set was something I had never seen before in the theatre. Which makes perfect sense as it is apparently the most expensive stage set ever produced.

The special effects, lighting and costume was on a par with a hollywood movie - projected films, massive wind machines whirling mist and leaves onto the audience, actors on huge stilts and of course (the now standard) actors on suspension lines and bungee ropes!  Although, when Frodo was given a glowing magical torch from the elves a lady behind me in the audience whispered 'that looks like a dildo'  ... which made me chuckle.

However, the music was intergrated really well and the story was well paced ... but my only concern is that those LOTRs geeks might find it all a little bit too light for their taste.... But who cares about them, I absolutely loved it - might even go back a second time ...

Very impressed with Newton Faulkner on Friday afternoon.  You can just tell it will appeal to that Jack Johnson, sitting on a beach smoking a spliff crowd.  He is someone that you have to see perform live really - so I hope they really make sure he gets in on all the festivals.

Although I was quite surprised to see the long dreads - thought he was a roady type bloke when he first appeared on the stage... but it really will add to his individuality so I hope they don't try to persuade him to chop them off.

He tried this audience participation thing with us where we had to sing bom-bom-bom etc underneath what he was playing on guitar ... not sure about that ...  a bit too frogs chorus for my liking.  But it does show that he doesn't take himself too seriously which is good - then he won't get mixed up with Damian Rice or anything!!

His version of Teardrop by massive attack was amazing!