Earlier this year, Johnny and Beth from Electric Blue Yonder contacted me about directing a music video utilizing the set for a play called The Quality of Life that was at the Cloverdale Playhouse in Montgomery, AL.
That video, the title track for their newly-released album Mourning Sounds, is embedded at the end of an American Songwriter article that features a song-by-song review of the album.
Credits: 1st Assistant Director and Producer – C. DeWayne Cunningham Gaffer and Producer – Jeff McKinney Grip – Ahsen Bilal Production Assistant – Anne Penrose Folkes
Special thanks to Sarah Thornton and the Cloverdale Playhouse. Additional footage provided by Irby Pace.
That’s always the hard one. I think most artists feel an almost constant need to create, so when you’re between projects, it’s easy to feel kind of lost.
Somewhat related, there’s also the “post-show blues” that happens at the end of a project. I know that hit me earlier this year after the close of Sweat. When you spend almost every day for over two months becoming a character, there’s a bit of grief when the play closes. Or at the end of a film project. People become like family in a short amount of time, and then everyone is off to something else.
Towering Above is about to return to Headless Dinosaur Recording to begin work on a new album, so that’s something to look forward to as a “next,” but I want to do more acting, make more movies and music videos, write more songs, write more screenplays… and I don’t know exactly where to begin on any of it at the moment.
Sometimes the initial idea is the hard part for me. Hopefully something will spark soon.
If you’re wondering about a point I’m getting to here… um… I don’t really have one. This has been on my mind recently, and I haven’t blogged in close to a month, so it was time to express my thoughts. Hopefully it was an enjoyable read anyway.
Thanks for reading, and for your support and encouragement. Hope to see you at a show soon. Much love.
Last weekend, a music video was filmed for the song “Jumper” by Barrens. As with any film project, it was a group effort, and I want to take a moment to thank the folks who helped us out:
Thanks to my fellow band members – J. Slickwood and Clay Smith – for supporting my vision as director. Many thanks to my friends Jeff McKinney and C. DeWayne Cunningham for coming through as assistant director and assistant camera.
Special thanks to the stars of the video – Greg Loggins and V. Serrano. Y’all did a wonderful job.
Thanks to Johnny and Beth Veres and James Weddle for providing locations for the shoot. Y’all be sure to check out Johnny and Beth’s band Electric Blue Yonder and go get some food and beer at Goat Haus Biergarten. (Ooh, their weekend brunch, y’all… so good.)
Thanks to Yvette Hochberg and Glenn Grant for helping us out with props for the shoot. Thanks to Sharon Sanders for coming through for us at the last minute, to Rod Williams for helping us get in the last location, and to Lou Wood for helping out on set.
Now, since I mentioned Electric Blue Yonder, that happens to be one of the bands – along with our buds in V-8 Death Car – that will be performing with us at our album release show on Friday, Aug. 16. That’s coming up at Commerce Beerworks. Click here to see the Facebook event.
In film news, the Foolish Henry Films short Bad Deal, by writer/director Shane Gillis, is premiering at Sidewalk Film Festival in Birmingham this month. It’s in the “Alabama Narratives” short film block on Sunday, Aug. 25 at 4:55 p.m. See the full schedule here.
The writer/director of The Song You’ll Never Hear – Stephen Poff – has started an IndieGoGo campaign to raise film festival submission funds. (Any indie filmmaker will tell you – those get expensive.) You can see the campaign and take a look at the perks here.
And Secret Weapon from writer/director Christopher S. Hubbard will be part of the Lanett City Film Festival and the Central Florida Film Festival this year, so congrats to him and the entire cast and crew on that!
And… check out some new music and video performances from my friends in the Abusements and The Last Thing You Remember, courtesy of the Montgomery Advertiser. Links to those below:
Also, I helped out writer/director Sharisma Bell in the audio department on her web series Adulthood Cancelled. She held a special screening party for the first two episodes recently. Check out the YouTube channel for that. Here’s the first episode:
josh carples 