Thursday 30 April 2009
Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday from I'd Prefer Not To TV on Vimeo.
This week In Your Face celebrates 1 year of lies, scandal, bad vibes, hate, love, laughter, friendship, zealotry, stupidity, calumny, patois, cheap writing, pointless content and general amazement that we haven't been fired for it yet.
I'm going to have a pint at The George tomorrow night to make merry.
Tuesday 28 April 2009
Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
Firstly, Johnnie Cochran's off the In Your Face TV versus Vimeo case. I didn't realise he was dead. Instead we've hired Robert Kardashian and he's now acting as appellate advisor. Fuck. He's dead too. Are any of OJ's lawyers still alive?
Anyhow while we try and get this ornery business licked, all hi-jinx content will be uploaded to I'd Prefer Not To TV, which is the pornography division of In Your Face TV.
Director Matt Lenski was in town over the weekend to run the London Marathon. We caught up with him and Flipped this candid portrait of a true athlete.
Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner from I'd Prefer Not To TV on Vimeo.
Anyhow while we try and get this ornery business licked, all hi-jinx content will be uploaded to I'd Prefer Not To TV, which is the pornography division of In Your Face TV.
Director Matt Lenski was in town over the weekend to run the London Marathon. We caught up with him and Flipped this candid portrait of a true athlete.
Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner from I'd Prefer Not To TV on Vimeo.
Blackberry Hype
The Little Boots video for 'New In Town' has now been delivered and is on telly. Let the hating begin...
Little Boots - New In Town from Nikke Osterback on Vimeo.
And here's the Susan Boyle re-rub:
Little Boots - New In Town from Nikke Osterback on Vimeo.
And here's the Susan Boyle re-rub:
It wasn't me...
Some of you may have noticed that In Your Face TV no longer exists. That's because the cunt-bags at vimeo have frozen the account on the grounds of violating their upload rules. Yep. We're like Eddie Murphy - too raw for vimeo. (Incidentally 'Raw' contains the most uses of the word "fuck" in an 80s film.)
I'm trying to get it re-instated - Johnnie Cochran's working on it as we speak. But in the meantime I'm going to use Nikke Osterback's account; he's the digital co-ordinator at Atlantic; he's also Finish which makes him inherently wicked.
Here's the finished video for Paolo Nutini's forthcoming single 'Candy':
Paolo Nutini - Candy from Nikke Osterback on Vimeo.
I'm trying to get it re-instated - Johnnie Cochran's working on it as we speak. But in the meantime I'm going to use Nikke Osterback's account; he's the digital co-ordinator at Atlantic; he's also Finish which makes him inherently wicked.
Here's the finished video for Paolo Nutini's forthcoming single 'Candy':
Paolo Nutini - Candy from Nikke Osterback on Vimeo.
Thursday 23 April 2009
Nez Nez
Hey, can anyone spot director Nez in these photos?
I've been to some epic wrap parties over the years (Berlin 2007, Vegas 2008), but Havana 2009 surpasses them all for total, blessed buckness - comfortably the hurtiest 18 hours of my life. Here are some of the key ingredients that create the distinctive flavour of a Cuban wrap party: snouts, cigars, Bucanero, Cristal, rotgut, Cuba Libre, juice, dirt weed, nasen-tutter, the jittery horrors, extras, a 15th storey hotel bar with a retractable roof, dancing to the Macarena and knowing all the words, reggaeton, taxis, a dive bar full of jineteras, playing Snoop and Tupac, the Eric Maddison dirty bop, hot stepping, taxis, tourists, negotiations, impromptu sunrise acoustic session at the Nacional, Neil Balls, lyrical gangstas, breakfast bites, poolside Bloody Marys, check in rum, Xanax, aeroplane sleepy time.
I've been to some epic wrap parties over the years (Berlin 2007, Vegas 2008), but Havana 2009 surpasses them all for total, blessed buckness - comfortably the hurtiest 18 hours of my life. Here are some of the key ingredients that create the distinctive flavour of a Cuban wrap party: snouts, cigars, Bucanero, Cristal, rotgut, Cuba Libre, juice, dirt weed, nasen-tutter, the jittery horrors, extras, a 15th storey hotel bar with a retractable roof, dancing to the Macarena and knowing all the words, reggaeton, taxis, a dive bar full of jineteras, playing Snoop and Tupac, the Eric Maddison dirty bop, hot stepping, taxis, tourists, negotiations, impromptu sunrise acoustic session at the Nacional, Neil Balls, lyrical gangstas, breakfast bites, poolside Bloody Marys, check in rum, Xanax, aeroplane sleepy time.
The 26th of July Movement
"Condemn me. It does not matter. History will absolve me" - Fidel Castro
On 26th November 1956 Castro and a group of fellow Cuban exiles set sail from Tuxpan in Mexico, aboard the yacht 'Granma', with the purpose of initiating a coup in Cuba. They went under the sobriquet 'The 26th of July Movement', named so after the failed attack on the Moncada Barracks, an army facility in the city of Santiago de Cuba, on 26th July 1953.
The seditionaries landed at Playa Las Coloradas near the eastern city of Manzanillo on December 2, 1956. They immediately sustained a remorseless attack by the Cuban Air Force. Of the 82 that travelled only 15 survived. Forsaken and without food, they wandered for two days until they found sanctuary in the Sierra Maestra mountain range.
Among their number they counted Fidel and Raul Castro, Ernesto Guevara and a young man named Miguel. From their encampment in the mountains they began to wage a guerrilla war against the Batista government that would last the following two years.
Miguel turned out to be the proprietor of the location we were shooting the Paolo Nutini video at. He was such a hospitable, generous man; on wrap he invited the entire foreign contingent into his house and gave us each a cigar, a slug of his potent coconut rum moonshine, and a piece of florid tasting Persian nougat.
Here I am blazing a cigar with him:
And here's Nez proving that sometimes a cigar isn't enough:
On 26th November 1956 Castro and a group of fellow Cuban exiles set sail from Tuxpan in Mexico, aboard the yacht 'Granma', with the purpose of initiating a coup in Cuba. They went under the sobriquet 'The 26th of July Movement', named so after the failed attack on the Moncada Barracks, an army facility in the city of Santiago de Cuba, on 26th July 1953.
The seditionaries landed at Playa Las Coloradas near the eastern city of Manzanillo on December 2, 1956. They immediately sustained a remorseless attack by the Cuban Air Force. Of the 82 that travelled only 15 survived. Forsaken and without food, they wandered for two days until they found sanctuary in the Sierra Maestra mountain range.
Among their number they counted Fidel and Raul Castro, Ernesto Guevara and a young man named Miguel. From their encampment in the mountains they began to wage a guerrilla war against the Batista government that would last the following two years.
Miguel turned out to be the proprietor of the location we were shooting the Paolo Nutini video at. He was such a hospitable, generous man; on wrap he invited the entire foreign contingent into his house and gave us each a cigar, a slug of his potent coconut rum moonshine, and a piece of florid tasting Persian nougat.
Here I am blazing a cigar with him:
And here's Nez proving that sometimes a cigar isn't enough:
Tuesday 21 April 2009
Bucanero or my friend the pirate
This is the only way to deal with a red eye flight from Los Angeles to Havana via Toronto. Sweet Canadian Jesus.
I was in Cuba to shoot the video for Paolo Nutini's comeback single 'Candy'. Nez from Colonel Blimp was directing and Georgina Filmore produced it.
We were all staying at the Hotel Nacional. While you're there it's hard to escape the feeling that at some point Buster Keaton, Errol Flynn, Marlon Brando, Ernest Hemingway, or another of the Nacional's many famous guests, was probably doing some deviant, heretical, but fun shit in a room not too far away.
This was the view from my room:
Here I am in the lift:
Neil from Big Balls flew out to shoot B-roll and stills. I found him hard at work sitting by the pool with Paolo supping Pina Coladas.
(Funny. I only just noticed the weird guy to their left with the really erect nipple.)
Later we segued into a few tins of Bucanero, which along with 'Cristal', is one of Cuba's local beers.
Shooting in Havana was a wonderful experience; the warmth of the Cuban actors, extras, crew and production was enough to make you well up. Arriving on set in the morning was one of those overwhelming moments when you remember why do this shit in the first place, why you put up with the management crackheads and label diddlers, for scant remuneration or thanks, and why making music videos is still a vital, invigorating experience full of adventure, comradeship and most importantly fun, a unique form of film making that is basically well buzzing.
Paolo couldn't get enough of the yellow breakfast rolls:
D.O.P Eric Maddison came on all Chuck Norris in the back of his Escalade. Check the raggo grip steez: blanket gaffer taped to the bumper.
Nez took refuge from the merciless sun:
Paolo watched the sun set:
Good times.
May cause drowsiness
What do you do if you've got a day to kill in Los Angeles?
You visit one of your oldest friends, who's lived in L.A for the past couple of years, chill at his apartment in Korea Town, get your sip on with a couple of malt beers, watch the first leg of the Champions League quarter final between Liverpool and Chelsea, and then get him to show you round his ends.
Here's Oliver:
Here's the view from his living room window:
We walked a couple of blocks to Wilshire Boulevard and waited at the bus stop. Anyone who tells you that the only way to get around Los Angeles is by car is a fucking liar. They have public transport. And it's pretty good. How do you think the impoverished get to work? For 5 bucks you can get a tap card, which is basically a cross between a one day travel card and an oyster card. It lets you take as many bus journeys as you want for a day - you just have to 'tap' the card reader when you get on board. And when the other passengers aren't talking to themselves they talk to you, which is infinitely better than listening to the geezer off of Sat Nav.
We rode the bus up Wilshire. I love Wilshire. Everywhere you look you see a skate spot that you recognise from a video; '20 Shot Sequence' seemed particularly well represented in my memory. We 'alighted' at the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax, right where Biggie got shot, 50 yards from the Petersen Automotive Museum, and of course poured out 40s for our dead homie.
The rest of the day passed in a cloud of fragmentary fun; we walked past CBS studios, where they still film 'The Price Is Right', hit Supreme, stopped for half a Coors at the secret bar in Canter's Jewish deli, drifted round a 'farmer's market' that felt more like a theme park, drank Stellz in a gastro pub on Melrose Avenue and generally shot the breeze.
Amongst many other things, I learnt that pharmaceutical weed is legal in the state of California; most obliging doctors will give you a certificate for even the most tenuous, unrelated ailment:
"Hi doc, thanks for seeing me. I'm getting these real bad headaches and I'm having trouble sleeping".
"Well sonny, don't worry. It's nothing that a little marijuana won't clear up. I'll write you a script".
"Gee thanks doc. I dunno what I'd do without you".
"That's OK sonny. Now run along home and smoke up some of that icky sticky".
"You betcha".
Once you get your diploma, you can roll to one of the many Medical Marijuana Dispensaries and pick up your Kush weed; you even get a free gram on your first visit. It normally comes in a green plastic vial that carries the following advice on a sticker - WARNING: MAY CAUSE DROWSINESS.
Mega.
You visit one of your oldest friends, who's lived in L.A for the past couple of years, chill at his apartment in Korea Town, get your sip on with a couple of malt beers, watch the first leg of the Champions League quarter final between Liverpool and Chelsea, and then get him to show you round his ends.
Here's Oliver:
Here's the view from his living room window:
We walked a couple of blocks to Wilshire Boulevard and waited at the bus stop. Anyone who tells you that the only way to get around Los Angeles is by car is a fucking liar. They have public transport. And it's pretty good. How do you think the impoverished get to work? For 5 bucks you can get a tap card, which is basically a cross between a one day travel card and an oyster card. It lets you take as many bus journeys as you want for a day - you just have to 'tap' the card reader when you get on board. And when the other passengers aren't talking to themselves they talk to you, which is infinitely better than listening to the geezer off of Sat Nav.
We rode the bus up Wilshire. I love Wilshire. Everywhere you look you see a skate spot that you recognise from a video; '20 Shot Sequence' seemed particularly well represented in my memory. We 'alighted' at the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax, right where Biggie got shot, 50 yards from the Petersen Automotive Museum, and of course poured out 40s for our dead homie.
The rest of the day passed in a cloud of fragmentary fun; we walked past CBS studios, where they still film 'The Price Is Right', hit Supreme, stopped for half a Coors at the secret bar in Canter's Jewish deli, drifted round a 'farmer's market' that felt more like a theme park, drank Stellz in a gastro pub on Melrose Avenue and generally shot the breeze.
Amongst many other things, I learnt that pharmaceutical weed is legal in the state of California; most obliging doctors will give you a certificate for even the most tenuous, unrelated ailment:
"Hi doc, thanks for seeing me. I'm getting these real bad headaches and I'm having trouble sleeping".
"Well sonny, don't worry. It's nothing that a little marijuana won't clear up. I'll write you a script".
"Gee thanks doc. I dunno what I'd do without you".
"That's OK sonny. Now run along home and smoke up some of that icky sticky".
"You betcha".
Once you get your diploma, you can roll to one of the many Medical Marijuana Dispensaries and pick up your Kush weed; you even get a free gram on your first visit. It normally comes in a green plastic vial that carries the following advice on a sticker - WARNING: MAY CAUSE DROWSINESS.
Mega.
Friday 17 April 2009
L.A Story
"I stab it like a true no good nigga should
I do it the way a down OG nigga would"
Thus rapped Eazy-E back in '93.
I was in Los Angeles last week shooting the video for Little Boots' debut single 'New In Town' with two OGs of the production world: director Jake Nava and his producer Ben Cooper. Here they are in the parking lot of the Debbie Reynolds dance rehearsal studio throwing up signs like a Crip:
The concept behind the video was to create a choreographed three act musical about the underbelly of downtown L.A - imagine 'West Side Story', but with hobos and gangbangers. Raw, ventral, silly.
Little Boots had a pretty hot whip:
Here she is repping Central City East:
The derelict dance ensemble took good care of her:
Phlex choreographed it, hot off a Britney Spears tour:
We were staying at the Downtown Standard. This is the view from the roof top bar:
Walk a block from the hotel and you hit 'the nickel' (5th street); continue South East for a few minutes and you'll start to notice a change in the habitat; the discoloured tents, the coalescence of cardboard walls, forming a warren of prefabricated homes, the rubbish, the carts, the wheelchairs, the crutches, the liquor stores, the mumblers and ranters riven by schizophrenia, the nappy hair, the sodden laughter, the cracky walks, the disenfranchised, bloodshot lives. This continues for block after block - a favela in the heart of L.A. I'd always known about Skid Row, but somehow I'd developed a romantic, Disney-fied vision of it, refracted through the prism of movies, and not dissimiliar to the video we were making. To see it in reality blew my mind. Here the bums don't get up and start dancing. They stay down.
A day off then we're off to Havana.
I do it the way a down OG nigga would"
Thus rapped Eazy-E back in '93.
I was in Los Angeles last week shooting the video for Little Boots' debut single 'New In Town' with two OGs of the production world: director Jake Nava and his producer Ben Cooper. Here they are in the parking lot of the Debbie Reynolds dance rehearsal studio throwing up signs like a Crip:
The concept behind the video was to create a choreographed three act musical about the underbelly of downtown L.A - imagine 'West Side Story', but with hobos and gangbangers. Raw, ventral, silly.
Little Boots had a pretty hot whip:
Here she is repping Central City East:
The derelict dance ensemble took good care of her:
Phlex choreographed it, hot off a Britney Spears tour:
We were staying at the Downtown Standard. This is the view from the roof top bar:
Walk a block from the hotel and you hit 'the nickel' (5th street); continue South East for a few minutes and you'll start to notice a change in the habitat; the discoloured tents, the coalescence of cardboard walls, forming a warren of prefabricated homes, the rubbish, the carts, the wheelchairs, the crutches, the liquor stores, the mumblers and ranters riven by schizophrenia, the nappy hair, the sodden laughter, the cracky walks, the disenfranchised, bloodshot lives. This continues for block after block - a favela in the heart of L.A. I'd always known about Skid Row, but somehow I'd developed a romantic, Disney-fied vision of it, refracted through the prism of movies, and not dissimiliar to the video we were making. To see it in reality blew my mind. Here the bums don't get up and start dancing. They stay down.
A day off then we're off to Havana.
Wednesday 15 April 2009
I'm an MC not a rapper
I've been out of the office for the last 10 days shooting. But I'm back now and I feel saucier than a Damian McBride email.
So let's get into it.
Anyone remember Mis-teeq?
Before Alesha won that dancing competition she was a 'garage' MC in a 3 piece girl band. She had bars like this:
"Mis-teeq with the bump and flex".
Yeah. I know you remember.
Anyhow, here's a clip of her rolling back the years and spitting an exclusive 'freestyle' for In Your Face TV. (Warning: if you find things embarrassing you might not want to watch this.)
I'm an MC not a rapper from I'd Prefer Not To TV on Vimeo.
And here's the finished video for her new single 'Let's Get Excited', which as you know was directed by Max & Dania.
Alesha Dixon - Let's Get Excited from Nikke Osterback on Vimeo.
Tone Talauega was the choreographer. He discovered krumping and is easily one of the wicked-est people you will ever meet. Along with his brother Rich, he's worked with Michael Jackson, Madonna, Missy Eliot, J-Lo and countless others. We flew him over from Los Angeles and sent him straight to a rehearsal at Huskies in Hell-ephant just so that he could feel the real-ness.
So let's get into it.
Anyone remember Mis-teeq?
Before Alesha won that dancing competition she was a 'garage' MC in a 3 piece girl band. She had bars like this:
"Mis-teeq with the bump and flex".
Yeah. I know you remember.
Anyhow, here's a clip of her rolling back the years and spitting an exclusive 'freestyle' for In Your Face TV. (Warning: if you find things embarrassing you might not want to watch this.)
I'm an MC not a rapper from I'd Prefer Not To TV on Vimeo.
And here's the finished video for her new single 'Let's Get Excited', which as you know was directed by Max & Dania.
Alesha Dixon - Let's Get Excited from Nikke Osterback on Vimeo.
Tone Talauega was the choreographer. He discovered krumping and is easily one of the wicked-est people you will ever meet. Along with his brother Rich, he's worked with Michael Jackson, Madonna, Missy Eliot, J-Lo and countless others. We flew him over from Los Angeles and sent him straight to a rehearsal at Huskies in Hell-ephant just so that he could feel the real-ness.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)