Thursday 20 March 2014

Coma Wall - Summer

I had the pleasure of working with the band Coma Wall over January/February to create a video for their song Summer, from the split record Wood & Wire with their alter ego, Undersmile.

The genesis of the video was natural. I was interested in the band and invited them down to Northampton to play a show (which turned out to be pretty unsuccessful due to a double booking at the venue) The aim of the night, much like the other night's of music I've put on, is to create images which I feel relate to the band's themes, musically and lyrically.
Coma Wall's music is heavily influenced by the acoustic side of the 90's grunge scene, but which a distinctly doom-ridden style of song/riff-writing. Both atmospheric and also very relaxed. Inviting, yet dangerous.
It wasn't difficult finding images for the evening, the inspiration was right there and I connected with it instantly.

The band themselves were lovely and completely understood the angle I was coming from in regards to the correlation between a certain kind music and imagery. They were enthusiastic about the work I was planning on and gave me plenty of input. The final images lasted 30 minutes and consisted mostly of stock footage which reflected the sleeve image of their record.











The footage is again comprised of stock footage, and also some I shot myself. I added numerous grains and colour alterations to give it a washed out, vintage feel. This was tricky due to the footage from being all over the place. Some of it was in full HD, and some of it was cruddy old VHS so it was a tricky learning curve but I'm very pleased with the results.

The video itself was premiered on the Sleeping Shaman website to promote the record before the band go on tour. The article, which features an interview with yours truly can be read here - http://www.thesleepingshaman.com/news/coma-wall-premier-video-for-summer-undersmile-gig-dates-announced-including-kin-hell-fest-leeds/

And the video itself can be watched right here

Coma Wall - Summer from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.


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