dan heaver

busy and not busy 2

So the veg patch is go. But it's not all been dig dig dig you know.

There was time to finish No More Milk - the short I've been putting together with creative partner Dan Saunders. We were really lucky to get some uber talented people in for the post production, like Chris Rodgers - senior colourist at Splice tv. The film needs to go around festivals for a while before we can post it in full, but here's a sneak peek at what Chris can do:

MMmm mm.

Also indebted to my favourite audio engineer / sound designer Jamie Thomas who put in loads of time on an awesome mix. And then of course there's Bon Iver and their manager Kyle Frenette at Ambledown management who've been enthusiastically behind the project since we showed them the first offline.

Oh dear. That sounds like a credit list. It's not, because I owe a number of really talented people a number of strong drinks for the work they've put in. I just mean to point out that if you need creative work doing of the highest order, these are the guys to take it to.

It's already entered into the inaugural Vimeo film festival, and about to submit to Leeds International film festival. Here's hoping for an official selection...

I also managed to fit in a brief appearance at 2000trees festival. I played early on the third stage to a very friendly crowd. Still no recorded stuff to hand out. But soon. Then it was off to enjoy the best of the rest of the fest. Top new bands (for me) were the Dawn Chorus who come with a Frank Turner seal of approval (including a standout collaboration on their new album) and Goldheart Assembly - a kind of blissed out Mumford & Sons.

Other hot sets were late night Jim Lockey who grows in stature - and retinue - each year, Ben Marwood, and the perfect-for-a-sunny-sunday Joe Summers. 

But best of all were unbelievable sets by the best folk band around right now Johnny Flynn and the Sussex Wit, and then a 90 minute headline from Frank Turner.

Still the best festival there is. If you want to get down there, get tickets early.

So, it's been a good summer. Need to earn a bit more money, and then the projects start again.

  

busy and not busy

I've taken a summer break. From May 1st I moved from Self-Employment to self-employment. I built this in my new back garden.

2011 is the year of the Wiltshire Patch. 

I'm ready.

Goodbye noughties. Hello... Teenties

Two months since the last blog. Two months? Not sure I'm cut out for this. 

The two month gap was mainly because the back end of 09 saw me come pretty close to putting in the hours required for what my enviro friend Andy calls 'a proper job'. I shot my first ever short film. It was a collaboration with my creative partner dan (I like working with people called dan). That's him, holding the camera.

It's about an old lady who's living alone missing someone. Then she gets in a bath of milk and dies. There is a bit more to it than that. /and it's not as funny as it sounds...

Actually, I'm really proud of it. We have our first cut and once we beg some post production time, we'll show it at as many  film festivals as possible. We were really lucky to get Huw Walters - a two time bafta award winning DoP to film it, and Margaret John - best known as Doris in Gavin and Stacey - to brilliantly play our old lady, Cleo. Her younger self was played by Elin Leyshon who stepped in for us very late, but was more than we could have hoped for.

 

It's called No More Milk and will be playing at a film festival near you soon. 

As well as that, I was also doing the day job. So, a little bit of this

some of this

 

and plenty of this

 And to keep myself sane, the ubiquitous country walk.

2010?

Bring it. 

keep it local

I was up in the Highlands a couple of weeks ago. It looks a bit like this

but better.

Whilst we were up there, we listened to two lochs radio, a community radio station (britain's smallest) broadcasting out of Gairloch. You can listen to it through the website. And you should. The music is eclectic with a heavy Gaelic lean, and - weirdly - a propensity for country. 

The best thing about two lochs radio is that it's local. We were staying in Aird House on the other side of the loch, and word reached the station. Amongst reminders of the ceilidh at the community hall that night, and announcements for parents of the local school, a message to all of us staying at the house drifted across the water. Clearly not everyone listens to the station, but enough people listen to warrant it, and use it to stay in touch. They even have listeners who've left Scottish shores emailing in with requests. Why? In the first place, it has it's practical incarnation - the announcements, the advertising. But much more, it's about belonging. Residents of Gairloch get what they want and what they need from the station. It works. And the ability to be directly plugged into something appeals to the most basic human instinct. It's why a small agency is more fun than a large corporation. It's why Twitter is successful. And it's why two lochs radio is great. 

All that positive community thinking made me think of this brilliant article written by Brian Eno. 

I once knew a wonderful commune—40 or so people—which conducted its affairs according to strict anarchist principles. All issues were thrashed out over the muesli, and things ran pretty well. Later I got to know a similarly sized commune which operated from almost the opposite philosophy: there was an authoritarian boss, and there were underlings. Oddly enough, it too ran pretty well. All issues were also thrashed out over the muesli.
I surmised that world peace might be down to the right breakfast choices, but now I think the key was scale. Those groups were small enough for everybody to know everybody else, so what really kept them in order was not the particular set of principles they espoused, but the ever-operating human instincts for honour and shame—for reputation. Honour and shame, not law, are the real constraints among people who know each other. So long as there is a tangible community—where everyone knows everyone else —people tend to behave better.

That segued nicely into the (now old) news that Brixton is launching it's own pound. Nice idea. Hope it works. 

And maybe all this is why I'm moving back to a village.

love this too.

This is all over the tube right now.

Look at it. It's brilliant.

Brilliant writing. Makes the inoffensive John Lewis seem up its own arse with just two words, then BANG - dixon's straight down the line normal kind of guy.

Brilliant design. So simple. No doubt some will mock it for being crude or unsophisticated. BUT THAT'S WHY IT WORKS.

And the tag line. The tag line! How did they get that through? It's the very best kind of play - you kick off with a negative, blink, and end up with the desired message. Reel em in, then reward. Classic.

The client deserves a medal. This kind of idea is normally the Creative's favourite, then the client goes with the third option, probably tagged 'Dixon's. The better place to go'. 

Have a pint of warm ale on me.

starting a different ending

I remember loads of public information films: Green Cross code man, 

one with deep sexual undertones about a car overtaking a bicycle , 

and Charley.

But this was a more honest world before multichannel tv, before sky plus, and when men with puppies were only beginning to be eyed with suspicion.

COI still spits out some great public information films, but I doubt they get the same kind of audience charley and sexy bicyclist did. Why? In simple terms it has to be distribution. No longer is there a medium to play films over and over to gain affection by attrition. You've got to get people engaged. Horrible word, but it's the best there is. That's why creative has got so much better. People are interested in it. Engaged.

Now creativity has been woven into the means of distribution. Simon Ellis has directed a brilliant campaign for the Met (presumably through Central Office of Information?) which uses Youtube annotated notes to give you a choice at critical moments in the story, each choice links through to a different video. The tale unfolds as you click through and, once you reach the end, compels you to start again and reach a different ending. So for most people who watch it, they watch it a minimum of two times. Genius.

It's a nice execution using the massively under-used Point of View conceit to great effect. But it's the method of truly interactive distribution that's brilliant. Whether or not the yoot think so, or whether it reveals itself as ultimately gimmicky can only later become clear. Personally, I think it has a limited life-span and genuinely unusual / inspired creative will remain the enduring option. But right now, this campaign deserves bigging right up.*

Ay.

*Oh yes.

upgrade your leotard.

Regular leotards are so 2008. Check out Wrestler Studio's Creative Leotards.

They'll be talk of the town come September.

new places to go

Scamp is no more. It was always a good read, and delving into the comments page made me regularly pleased I wasn't in the viciously ego fragile world of advertising. It's been gone for a while, and I guess many people like me dip into if this is a blog...  as suggested. 

But the blog that's floating my boat right now is lets be human beings. I haven't met Ted, but he's written some of the smartest words about the future of marketing I've ever read. He was the first to blog about my favourite rebrand of the year, and despite being all, like, digital, is always bang on with what [I reckon] people want to engage with.  No surprise then that he's an Innocent protege. 

And all this despite the glaring lack of apostrophe that hits me like fingernails down a blackboard covered in eyeballs every time I visit.

Let us, Ted. The u is missing. 

pic nicked from ted's post about Puccini's rebrand

The other blog that's made it onto the 'I'll start this just after I've checked this' list (seen on the rhs of this blog) is Mr Nick Hand's Slowcoast. Mr Nick Hand is awarded a prefix through sheer admiration. Mr Nick Hand is currently cycling around the coast of the whole of the British Isles (well, most of the bit on the right anyway - N Ireland lost out) blogging and tweeting as he goes. I was hoping I might get to intercept him in Badachro in August where I'm running the Great Wilderness Challenge, but he's already sailed past.

Slowcoast is one of the finest websites around at the moment. It looks amazing (LOVE that wood-cut banner design), and is both simple to navigate around and dead clever which is definitely the most difficult thing to execute. But best of all are Mr Nick Hand's soundslides.

Part of Mr Nick Hand's self set mandate for the trip was to visit artisans on the route. He makes audio recordings of these meetings and sets them to photographs he takes of them doing their thang. Mr Nick Hand is a wonderful photographer, so what you end up with is charming life-affirming accounts of people living rather than earning, set to beautiful images of them engaged in their craft. 

Mr Nick Hand is doing all this in aid of the Parkinson's Disease Society. You should sponsor him. 

i say, well done.

Love this.

What a wicked way to promote your new product which is, essentially the same thing. Tough brief, but carried off with aplomb. And kudos to microsoft for going with the creative.

Everyone knows that microsoft office is updated every so often, but do you know when? This trailer for the fictional film manages to poke fun at itself and the product it's promoting. The result? Personality. People like personality. What I love the most is it tells you virtually nothing about what's new for microsoft 2010, just that it's out. That's right people, i'm not stupid. Don't feed me the fucking information like a drone. Entertain me. Then maybe, I'll make my own mind up. And I'll respect you for allowing me that privilege.

Good day. 

see the people marching on

at the 2000 trees festival. 

Another scorching weekend of music, if not of weather. I played Friday about 3 o'clock this year. Not before lending my guitar to the super nice Randall Stevens who blended a bit of afro beat (his words) with Dylan-esque (mine) crooning.

My set went off a storm. Kicked off with a cracking intro from Toss. Was a good midland presence that chipped in with some help for 'Uttoxeter', and enjoyed an ace 2 part harmony with the crowd for 'Protest Song'. Some nice words about the music afterwards too. Thanks if any of them were from you. I'm in the process of sorting out a studio for a few days to get it all down.

2000 trees is always fucking brilliant at throwing up new music to get into, and these are the guys I'm going to follow with interest:

Sailorette rocked the acoustic tent on Friday afternoon with some rockabilly-killafilly-hillashilly-skank and not a small portion of slap bass. 

charlie barnes is a guy to watch. Claiming to be playing his first PROPER festival at the trees, he'll be playing many more. He's everything good about Thom Yorke's Eraser, with a little Muse in the voice. Unsigned. For now. 

John Crampton had an improbable number of teenagers pogoing to one of the liveliest blues sets i've ever seen. Unfortunately I wasn't one of them. But I was pogoing. 

The King Blues  were standout for me on the mainstage on Saturday. Looks like they've got quite a following already, and plenty of kind words have been already flung their way. It's a kind of street politics pop thing, and the crowd loved it. I feel a bit bad calling these guys pop, but anyone who can sing 'love, I got so much love, love in my heart' and still sound cool can take anything. I tried that once. Didn't see her again. 

Jim Lockey and the Solemn Sun helped me out on saturday afternoon after an over ambitious friday. Thoughtful folk with fine lyrics and just enough of a kick to get you moving. Word has it he's started up a label out West too. I played with his pick once. Seems a fine man. 

Imperial Leisure My oh my. If the magic roundabout were a ska-hip hop-funk outfit, they might have been called Imperial Leisure. Regardless of what you think of their music (you'll think it's good by the way), seeing them live is like having your wildest night out at 11am; it's a shock to the system, but you'll love it. And want more. Oh yeah, and John Barber introduced them. A career high I think.

Dananananackroyd. Two singers. Two drumkits. From Scotland. Fond of cuddles in crowds. Ever so sllightly camp. Much fun.

Wojtek Godzisz. I don't know much about paganism, but I do know plenty about beards. Wojtek Godzisz has a great beard. Couldn't comment on the paganism, but I do know him and his band lifted the roof on the leaf lounge. It was this kind of music that got me interested in picking up a guitar - heavy but with plenty of melody. Now I'm more of a Frank Turner Mile Davis hybrid. Figuratively a kind of ray-ban-wearing-pipe-smoking-not-sure-where-this-is-going kind of thing

The Brute Chorus have great, great hair. They headlined the Leaf Lounge on Saturday night and were, I'm afraid, miles better than British Sea Power on the main stage. If Edwyn Collins was in Franz Ferdinand, would the result be this? Probably not, no. But they're stomping live.

So that was the best of what I saw, but I missed Loads. Dr Butler's Medicine Hatstand Band were all some people could talk about afterwards. Gutted to have missed them. Click on the name and go to their myspace. It's worth it. 

And go see the full line-up on the 2000trees website. You can click through and hear samples from all of the bands long play records. 

If you haven't been to 2000trees yet, you're missing the chance to see the next great bands before the A&R guys get their mits on them. And in some cases you're missing the chance to see the next great bands after the A&R guys have their mits on them. Point is, it's all about the music. Man. Apart from when it's about the  lovely people you'll meet drinking cider and dancing through the rain (Carla, Geoff Nina et al) in the glorious british countryside.

*all pics taken from myspaces, apart from the first which came from Peak's flickr pool. Peak are the nice people who provide all the sound for the event