RIFF.Underground

It's been forever since I updated this blog. Main reason being is that I'd moved away from film-making for a bit, to concentrate on covering live events and the films were getting shared around enough not to care about updating this.

However, in the spirit of casting the net far and wide, I figured I should give this a bit of a brush up, although I'll probably be creating a proper website sometime in the not too distant future.

RIFF.Underground has been running now since early last year, covering live events around London. Same old stuff I used to shoot, just more frequently and with a more consistant B&W style.

I've been working closely with the promoters for Cosmic Carnage, who very kindly let me do my thing and that's brought some welcome projects from other promoters in town, such as Chaos Theory and a few others. I should be updating with even more varied work soon.

Until then, check out all the work in this Mega-Post compiling everything I've shot this last 8 months or so.

Til the next time, stay loud, stay raw.

Riffs

RIFF.Underground from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.

Luminous Bodies from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.

Blown Out from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.

Hey Colossus from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.

Conjurer from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.

Desert Storm from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.

Bismuth from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.

Ommadon from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.

Bodies on Everest from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.

KYLVER from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.

Silent Front from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.

Meadows from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.

Old Man Lizard from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.

Zolle from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.

11 Paranoias from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.

PART CHIMP from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.

Razoreater from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.

Hag from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.

Necro Deathmort from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.

Death Pedals from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.

No Spill Blood from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.

Casual Nun from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.

Britney from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.

Primative Man & Sea Bastard, Live at The Uncicorn, London

Some new video works for you too watch.
I'm happy with how these have turned out because it was a helluva busy night and it was difficult keeping a good spot that was out of the audiences way. I only had coverage from one side of the stage, resulting in a bit of murkyness in the background but the foreground shots turned out real good so it evens out.
I'm happier with the audio now I'm using the Zoom Mic, too (could still improve upon it, though)
And the actual shots I got, especially during Sea Bastard's set, really capture the feel of the gig, I think.
Also, and this is just a small thing, but I'm pleased with the thumbnail's on both films, too.
Overall, I'm happy with how these turned out.

Heavy stuff

Enjoy

Primitive Man from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.

Sea Bastard from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.

Hot Cops - Climbing For Daollars with Jean Claude Van Damme

Hot Cops - Climbing for Dollars (OFFICIAL VIDEO) from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.

I was asked by some friends from The Atrocity Exhibit to help them with a video for their new band, Hot Cops, starring the one and only Jean Claude Van Damme. This was the result.
The audio is live and rough. Once the band record properly, this will probably get a re-do.

It's a fun piece, that's kind of supposed to look crap.
The song is about bands that are crap, who pay over the odds for video's, records and photoshoots - without actually being good enough to play.

Check these lyrics out.

Our demo CD cost us nearly a grand, 
We’ve not even played our debut show, 
It’s all cut and paste ‘cos we can’t do it live, 
But our stage moves are all well rehearsed. 

Check out our new music video (woah-oh) 
We’ll make it big one day. 

We paid for our song on a magazine CD, 
Look we are on track seventeen! 
We paid to be on this forgotten band’s tour, 
Look we are on just after doors... 

Check out our new music video (woah-oh) 
We’ll make it big one day (our manager says) 
We have a cool promo photo (woah-oh) 
Yeah we’re a pretty big deal (check out our weekend long tour) 

Metal to the masses, battle of the bands 
Please vote for us, please vote for us. 
We’ll show you our new song if we get a hundred likes, 
Please vote for us, please vote for us.

Perfect.

Enjoy.

Cosmic Carnage, and other live events.

I've been quiet of late, concentrating on my musical project, MERRIN.
However, I've still been busy at making some films.
Below is a collection of live works I've taken over the last 3/4 months at Cosmic Carnage shows in London, at either The Windmill, or The Black Heart.

Video-wise, I'm really happy with how these have turned out (and there are more on the way), editing with one camera to look like two, or three camera's is demanding, but feels great when I pull it off.
However, audio-wise, it's still lacking a fair bit.
I finally managed to borrow a Zoom mic for the final video and I was blown away by it's clarity and deep, clear low-end. I'll be investing in one for myself next month, which can hopefully push me towards even better works.

Blown Out, Live in London from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.
Lots of fucking around with colour's on this video. It looks quite simple but took an age to render.
The finished film is a little dull to the eyes, but it sounds great and the camera movements are fluid.

Casual Nun from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.
This turned out okay too. The Black Heart is a tough venue to film at without getting in the audiences way. As a result, half the band is obscured here. I threw a ton of effects on again simply because they suited the piece and added to the spacey feel of the song. The audio was updated later on, so it sounds pretty listenable.

Grey Widow - Live in London 2014 from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.
A hectic and energetic edit. I was pretty far back and couldn't see much, but as the singer insisted on stomping around inside the audience, this was probably the only way I'd be able to shoot him anyway. Fairly happy with the audio, even though it's a little muggy. You get a sense of the place.

Slomatics - Under Canopy - Live in Brixton 2014 from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.
Some gnarly audio here, which is a shame because I'm really happy with the overall look of the film, and with my camerawork and editing. Under the circumstances (Slomatics are a loud band) the audio could have been much much worse - this is exactly the kind of audio I want to avoid capturing in future.

Early Mammal - Live in Camden from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.
I was unhappy with this video - the actualy video looks great and it's one of my better edits - but damn if my audio mic isn't suffering. The problem with this venue is that not only is it loud, but you can't see past the crowd unless you're at the front so there is no escape from the amps.
Everything else I'm dead happy with though. Although the band tell me I cut off half the song (I didn't know) so hopefully I'll get another chance in the future.

Nitkowski Live at The Unicorn 2015 from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.
This was shot over at The Unicorn in Camden and I was pretty happy with how it turned out.
Audio is a little rough again, but there is enough clarity to forgive it that, I guess.
I used a variety of angles to get this film edited, and I'm happy that it, at times, looks like a three-camera set-up. I feel like you really get a sense of the atmosphere in this video. I'm really happy with it.
This is a great band.

With my new Zoom I'm getting in April - expect the same looking films, but with listenable audio (depending on the band, haha)
Many thanks to Cosmic Carnage, and all the bands so far, for letting me shoot them.

Dama / Libra - Stravinsky

Here's something I put together by accident, really.

Dama / Libra - Stravinsky from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.


Dama/Libra are a band from Seattle that I created a film for a while back......

  Dama / Libra : Been to the Water from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.

..... They were called Thine but had to change their name. Anyway, I was compiling footage for another project whilst listening to to this song and I guess I got a little distracted because the footage I found didn't work with the project I was assigned to at all - but it really worked with this.

So I worked a little on it and re-cut much of the footage. de-saturated it, and added some filters to give it it's own feel and I think the final project looks great. The band seemed to think so too.
It's a deliberately hypnotic song, which I think the video compliments. Have a watch and see how it makes you feel.

Live Video's

So now that I'm back in the saddle, I thought best to start with music video's.
It's been a while since I did any of these. The main reason is that I'm generally too busy to want to work for free. However, you can't just show up to a gig, film a band and expect to get paid for it. That doesn't work.
Sadly, the chances of being paid for doing this kind of work is slim, but fortunately I enjoy doing it so expect a few of these over the coming months. They'll be fleeting, but they'll be good.

Anyway, here are three films from a recent Merrin gig in Northampton. We were supporting Karma to Burn (and Desert Storm & The Atrocity Exhibit, again)

The video's are a mixture of synced and un-synced footage and I don't thin you can tell the difference.

Anyway, enjoy.

The Atrocity Exhibit from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.

Desert Storm - Astral Planes from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.

Karma to Burn - 53 from Chris Purdie on Vimeo.



I am toying with the idea of creating a channel specifically for this kind of work. Dedicated & branded, delivering quality live footage of underground shows. Whether I have the time to keep it up to date on a regular basis is another matter altogether though, so we'll see how that goes.

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.