GIVE THE GUY(S) A HAND!!!

Yo! Just a quick update on a couple of things over the last few weeks.

Big releases for the bands I've made music videos for showcasing their new albums.

First up - BLACK NEON KNIGHTS

The band dropped with first album 'RISE UP' on the 19th February. And yes, while I could be very biased about it, I still like to think I know bad music from good.  As for this album?  Its a belter full of riffs and energy.  It's a must listen if you're a fan of Pearl Jam, Black Sabbath, and Alice in Chains.  The band are tight, the songs well written, and chock full of great riffs.

I'm genuinely happy with the work I did for the band.  I tried to give them something new and original than the usual rock music videos, to try and show the energy the songs have while being visually arresting to the viewer.

I honestly feel the band can take that next step and hopefully get signed up.  So if you like any of the videos and more importantly the music, show some love and buy the album from the links below to help em out and keep them going.

Buy on AMAZON
Buy on iTunes
Buy the CD

Follow the guys below -
TWITTER
FACEBOOK

And here's my contribution below.  You can check out behind the scenes photo's and promotional guff over on our FACEBOOK page.

Next up - MERRIN

I've known the band since my University days and see them go from strength to strength.  Their second EP is called 'MIDNIGHT MOVIES' that was released 1st March.

Again, could not be more impressed.  In the genre of bands that emerge from movie soundtracks of the 80's heavily influenced by Tangerine Dream, John Carpenter, Goblin, MERRIN have moved up a gear with this album.

The album is more focused and balanced than their previous release 'DOOM CINEMA'.  With the added percussion and synth arrangements widening the scope, the album has a lot of prog-rock influences behind it with the likes of Mogwai being a major influence for me.

As for my input you can read about the history HERE.  It's a video that is dirty, grimy, and not for everyone as it's very uncomfortable. This is something that fits the band and the new album, especially with the redux version of the song Henry Kane.

Again, show the band some love and pick up a copy of the album.  And for you budding filmmakers, if you love the sound and want them to work on your films, give them a shout!

Buy the ALBUM

Follow them here -

TWITTER

FACEBOOK

Here's some publicity from SLAUGHTERED BIRD too

Enjoy the video!

Stay tuned for more new updates for a few projects we've got lined up!

See ya on the flip side...Danny

Year in Review...PART ONE

Well, well, well.  Its the end of 2014.

Whatcha got to show for it?  For me it's a case of a few steps forward, one or two back.

The whole thing kicked off with the release of the music video "My Little Fantasy" by Braver Than Fiction in January. Check it below.

   

Read the previous blogs about it HERE

Responses to it were very good.  It seemed to give the band a little boost and something they could use going forward.  They've gone from strength to strength (tours, gigs, playing Sheffield's Tramlines festival) and hopefully will get better in 2015.  Check their OFFICIAL WEBSITE

The video did a few screenings.  Sheffield's Showroom Shorts and Manchester's Kino Shorts where it received some favourable responses.  Mainly a lot of "That was nice" than anything else.  Below is a link to a QnA from Kino Shorts -



Another nice little story came from hearing the progress of a friends band - MERRIN

They released an EP which received some great feedback and reviews called "Doom Cinema" which was accompanied by a trilogy of short films - which you can watch here HERE.

The big news was he received some some mad props on BLOODY DISGUSTING. The website putting them in the Top 10 movie influenced bands to listen to in 2014.

Chris and MERRIN have been gigging lots in London.  So if ya daaaarn saaarf try and check em out. Meanwhile, he's a video I made for them a few year ago.

   
HENRY KANE by -M E R R I N- from Danny Naylor on Vimeo.

Good stuff.  But, all in all...were people kicking down my door for a music video?  Nope.  Should they?  Probably not.  But as I was gearing up to pimp myself out...a few opportunities sprouted their pretty little heads.

The first was to work on Arthur & Merlin being shot in the Peak District.  I applied for a 2nd or 3rd  Assistant Director role not really knowing how big or small the budget of the film was to be.  If its small enough, they don't pay and you help out.  If it's has a fair budget then you're gonna have to be there on time, every day.

It just didn't pan out for me.   Holiday's from my 9 to 5, availability of my car, and funds were its downfall.  Am I sad about it?  Yeah, because I wanted to work on it.  I could've took the gamble but at the moment I have to play it safe.  I've too much on the line.

Then the Creative England Talent Centre happened.  Major coup on this one to a point where I even thought...why am I here?  You had award winning writers, directors, academy award nominated producers...then me - a guy who's highest budget he's ever worked on was £300.00.

I blogged a little about it HERE.  It span over about 6 months or so and overall was a great chance to network and understand the UK industry as a whole.  I got to meet Paul Fraser, who wrote one of my favourite films in 'A Room for Romeo Brass', as well as producers, sales agents, and buyers.

I also got to meet some great people - writers, producers, and directors - all wanting to make things happen.  It was a nice bubble to be in (as well as the ale).

It was all well and good.  Got me interested in applying for iShorts, the short film incentive they have.  Failed miserably as I expected but the feeling that it "maybe" could've crept through was a bonus.

So a load of ifs, buts, and maybe.  But there's a shining light on the horizon.

I'll hopefully get a few meetings up and running and see where it takes me based on the Talent Scheme.  There's always the music video and short angle I'm going to tackle if things begin to dry up.

But a big thing was hitting the Black List and getting some feedback from some industry professionals.  Basically it validated the writing.  Some ridiculous praise for certain aspects of it. Really mindblowing stuff that just pushed me further.

I've got some options now when I could've just gave up.  Lets see where it goes.

Oh....Check out PART 2 for my flicks and movie going of 2014 me arle china plates....

-MERRIN- Screening

What a busy week. Always a good thing as it generally improves the monotony of the week, but as it drains the life out of you I've been taking shares out of Red Bull and Maxwell House.

My last blog I told you that there's was a screening of the music video Henry Kane -MERRIN- at the Black
Lion in Manchester on Wednesday

.

"Cut to the chase you blub, how did it go?" Well...Where were you? Just joking. In answer to the question, it went well. But it's an odd thing to gauge

It was only a small turn out, about 30 at a push in a upstairs screening room above a nice boozer not too far from Piccadilly station. There was some great music video's and experimental pieces that were shown throughout the night with most of the filmmakers there who took part in a Q and A after each screening.

As with most of these screenings I generally turn up to, something odd happens when I bump into someone I know or at least have working/know someone who has worked with them. In this case it was a director called Lee Bolton who runs Elerby Studios in Bolton. He had directed a music video for the band Blackheart who are, surprisingly enough, close friends of my wife's family and are currently on tour in Europe. Anyway, it was a good to break the ice so to speak, especially when I was flying solo with the worry that my video was going to make me look like a sadist.

As mentioned, there were some good videos. A short by Jason Wingard-Hasford who animates the rants of Artist Taxi Driver had me in stitches. A big highlight was screening of Biting Elbows video for Bad Motherfucker. Never seen it before and while its an already done concept, its execution is golden.

Anyway, back to Henry Kane. It was the last one of the night. Don't know if it was because of the tone and it suited a late night show, but hey, it meant I was getting home at half 1 in the morning after missing my train anyway so I was beyond caring.

The titles came up and those first bars kicked in....

 

I said before it was hard to gauge the reaction. It was similar to my Univeristy screening of Random at the Showroom Cinema, Sheffield in 2005. As the tone is dark, there's never any vocal reaction. There's no gasp, shock, or jumps (something I thought I'd get with Random back in the day) just pure silence. I can't even remember if it got a round of applause. I'm sure it did as everyone elses did, I just can't remember as I was going up for the Q and A and thinking out how to deflect the idea that I'm not some kind of fetish sex offender.

It was only in the Q and A that I got an idea that the video worked.

The Q and A was with another director from the night, his a far more personal and experimental series of films. I gave a brief overview of myself, what I've done, and the film itself. Hopefully the interviews get put up online as I'm sure I'll get rinsed for the blatant movie nerd cock-up (saying Henry Kane was a character in Phantasm rather than Poltergeist) as well as coming across like a whinging wannabe. 

Why do I say that? Well, I mentioned I want to get away from Horror genre and do something different because...I don't think I'm very good at it. The reply and consensus was? "It was pretty scary, mate."

And with that, I know it worked.  Silence can mean engagement, can mean they're "getting" it.  The biggest thing I'm enjoying with these screenings seems to be the fact that elements are working. Sure, there's loads to improve, but when you set out with a goal and it generally pulls it out the bag, you know you're on the right track.

Big thanks to Chris Purdie for letting me do the track, John Kino for putting the night on and showing the film, and everyone else that watched and "enjoyed" it.

And as for thanks...it always surprises me the amount of readers each post is getting. So if you're reading this, I say thank you. I seriously expected it to be about 5 people accidentally reading it. But no, 2000 views so far, nearly 300 of them last month. The short films too getting an insane amount of hits recently. Henry Kane hitting 500 views, Another Film in Woods 300. Imidiwan 800...True, its no Gangdam Style or Panda Sneezing hits, but its a start.

And you're from all over the world. So you American, Canadian, Russian, and European readers...drop a few comments, leave a message or two, good or bad. Its 2013 so social interaction won't get you convicted of abuse charges 30 odd years down the line, Opertation Yewtree style (Google it). And on that note...

See ya on the flip side...Danny

Mr Kane Returns....

Hello folks. Very long time since my last blog post.

You wanna know a reason? Well...nothing's been happening. Oh, apart from the personal life of getting married to my beautiful wife, honeymoon, work etc - you know, the non-interesting stuff that you didn't want to read on here.

Anyway, mixed in with all the jubilations, I haven't been slacking. In fact I've been getting up to speed with my festival submissions for...well, everything worthwhile. It may burn a hole in the pocket but I'm being selective on where I send them. The plus side of this is...

The music video HENRY KANE I directed for the atomsphereic, instrumental metal soloist -MERRIN- is going to get a screening in the city of Manchester next Wednesday.

"Where, you utter tusk!" I hear you say? Well, its for the KINO SHORTS 33 for this month (clicky the link). The venue is the THE BLACK LION in Salford and it kicks off at 7:15pm till 10:15pm.

My North Western buddies, come along. You've gotta pay for a ticket but you'll get to see me (worth the admission of course) because I'll be there. There's even a QNA session so if you do come, you can heckle the shit out of me and call me a sadist (I'm prepped for that question by the way, so come at me bro). If you're lazy, here's directions and it should be a stormer of a night.

Pretty cool and always a good feeling to get a flick shown as it makes it worthwhile. Will be throwing shout-outs to my good buddy Chris Purdie and his band and having a few mild-ales.  But if you can't make it, spend a few minutes checking the video below out and feel free to comment and support (if not boo to you). 

Hoping this is a good omen for other festivals later this year. I'll keep you all posted.

 
HENRY KANE by -M E R R I N- from Danny Naylor on Vimeo.

See ya on the flip side

Another Blatant Promotional Push...

Another day, another amazing sales pitch for the short film for people who haven't seen it and a few more updates.

Just like to say thanks to the people who have watched the short and given some good feedback. Hey, people enjoy it. Made me a happy bunny. The cast are happy with the film too which is always a good feeling. (shout out to the lead actress Amber Brookes, follow her on TWITTER).

Bad news first...the film didn't get into the 2 Days Later film competition that the film was made for.

Now, there's a variety of reasons as to why I think this happened, and I take full responsibility. The DVD screener I sent isn't the final version for one, and it wasn't rendered correctly. It had a jittery effect due to a interlace problem (tech geek bollocks) that was eventually fixed for the version you see online and sent to the cast & crew. My mistake for running out of time and not being able to fix it.

Another reason? The film is sound heavy. A lot of scene transitions and dialogue scenes are linked with a lot of sound FX. The screener I sent wasn't 100% with these tracks and therefore is rather jolting and amateurish. Not to say the final version is on a level to David Fincher, but its a difference that sets a level of watchable and unwatchable.

Yet another? They may have collared that it wasn't shot slightly within the 2 day timeline? It was shot in a day, but had a couple of days of pre-production and a couple for post. Sue me.

Final reason? They may have thought it was shite? More than likely this one...but compared to what was screened and won last year...ah, well, its all subjective.

Semi-good news...Even though I've missed the deadline for halloween film festivals this year, I'll be sending this out for next year so hopefully it has a life in the future.

Good news...we're on the IMDB. Yey! Check it out and vote/leave comments/whatever. Another Film In The Woods IMDB 

Another plus point was seeing my good buddie Chris Purdie aka MERRIN playing a live set at the Playhouse in Northampton. In his set-list he played Henry Kane with the MUSIC VIDEO I directed for him as the visuals for his stage show. Check it out HERE.

Anyway, its time to wind-down preparing for Christmas. Will be attending the Celluloid Screams festival at the end of the month to check out some horror flicks and shorts. Followed up by a trip back to Liverpool and seeing Rob Zombie in Manchester at the end of November. In-between that will be writing and movie watching.

Anyway, as the title suggests, below is another blatant promotional push. We're also on VIMEO. Thanks.

ANOTHER FILM IN THE WOODS from Danny Naylor on Vimeo.
See ya on the flip side, Danny.

When Derek met Merrin....

Easy now!

Having reconfirmed my ultimate disbelief in humanity and society in general (thank you Monday), its time to dive into some Music Video business.

A good friend of mine Chris Purdie has a rather tidy Doom/Metal band called MERRIN. Check out some tracks on the link and get all moody and shizntis as the band is ripping up some gigs daaarn saaarf.

Anyway, I dropped him a message to see if he needed or wanted any visual/music video pieces doing for any tracks. He said he has so Bob's your Monkhouse, Derek's are getting it done. Should be good fun and unconventional, which is how we like it, and a good piece to get back into the swing of things for 2012.

Also, if you've got some love to give, go check out MERRIN on Facebook for tours and gig stuff (give it the like, what harm can that do?). And also Chris' BLOG to check out some of his performances and video work.

See ya on the flip side...Danny