But it’s not so easy to make Shoot the Player films with musicians who play them:  the instrument isn’t exactly portable, and they aren’t generally found in the sort of places we like to shoot in, public places where musicians don’t usually perform.  (Take a look at our Sydney Festival series if you want to see what happens when pianos do start popping up unexpectedly on street corners!)

Scott Spark: Last Christmas (What Do You Say?).

So when we shoot piano clips, we go to where the piano is – but we still always try and get away from a standard onstage performance.  We’ve shot Amanda Palmer in her pyjamas, playing at the Opera House before her gig, and Parades in their living room (after they kicked grandpa out.)

Scott Spark is our latest.  We shot the funny, friendly Brisbane performer at the piano bar at the Menzies Hotel in the Sydney CBD.

Piano bars are great – the instruments are likely to be in tune, and they are public enough to allow for surprises.  And they were a lovely contrast for Scott’s songs – intimate, heartfelt, personal pieces – not what you might expect to find in a hotel bar, as the post-work business people and hotel guests discovered.

Scott Spark: Keep It Together.

On a weekday afternoon, Martin Place is generally packed – officeworkers in business attire, lunchtime athletes in sports uniforms, bike messengers, shoppers, tourists staring at the spots where The Matrix movies were filmed, hawkers, people collecting for charities – and buskers.

Passenger: What You’re Thinking from shoottheplayer.com on Vimeo.

Passenger – aka Mike Rosenberg – is originally from the UK, but he spends a lot of time in Australia, and he’d done a fair bit of busking in Martin Place. So when he suggested filming there, we jumped at the chance – it’s about as public a spot as you can get in downtown Sydney, and we were excited to see how Passenger’s beautifully catchy melodies and heartfelt, vulnerable lyrics would play against the old buildings and the bustling midday crowds.

Passenger: Golden Thread from shoottheplayer.com on Vimeo.

As it turned out, it was a sunny day but chilly – at least by Sydney standards – so there weren’t as many people as usual. Those who were there were treated to a lovely performance, and we’re sure Passenger found a few new fans – in addition to a couple of old fans who found him!

Passenger: Rivers from shoottheplayer.com on Vimeo.

It’s rare that we get the opportunity to shoot at a piano, we were spoiled by Luke Jerram’s public piano project during Sydney Festival 2 years ago but since then there has been a lack of pianos on Shoot The Player – you can’t easily carry one around with you to a shoot and although we get flexible when someone offers to play a keyboard, it’s just not the same.

Parades: Loserspeak in New Tongue

For this hypnotic, languorous acoustic version of Sydney band Parades’ Loserspeak in New Tongue, we descended on one of the band member’s living rooms – displacing his elderly grandfather. And rather than being surrounded by passing strangers, we were joined by images of Dan’s family, watching over us from inside picture frames – with the real family listening in from nearby rooms.

We hope you like it.

- Jonathan

Jonathan Boulet: Ones Who Fly Twos Who Die

It started with an idea: Jono Boulet wanted do a video with as many of his friends as he could cram into his parents’ garage.

Now, we don’t normally shoot things in peoples’ garages, but we’re great fans of Jono and his catchy, energetic music and this sounded too good to pass up. So we happily made the hour-long trek from downtown Sydney (in the middle of a freak hailstorm!) to Jono’s place. After we shot this one song, we joined Jono and a few of his friends – all members of the band Parades – and headed to a nearby house to shoot an unplugged song in a living room – we’ll post this video on the site next week.

This video is sort of an experiment: inside instead of outside, suburban not urban, plugged in rather than acoustic. Let us know what you think!

And thanks to Ed for setting this shoot up.

- Jonathan

Only problem was, when we showed up for the shoot they’d accidentally returned their rented acoustic guitars. Their management took up the challenge of trying to find replacements but at 5pm on a Saturday night, we weren’t holding out much hope.

School of Seven Bells: Dust Devil.

Meanwhile, we headed to Sydney’s Central Station – earlier in the week we’d gotten permission to film there. Unfortunately, the station manager who’d given us the go-ahead to film had forgotten to tell the duty manager. Things didn’t seem to be going our way.

But making Shoot the Player films has taught us that persistence and faith usually pay off. With a little cajoling we reassured the duty manager that we had a tiny crew and even less equipment, we wouldn’t take long and we wouldn’t go near the edge of the platform – finally we were allowed to shoot. And when we got back to the club, the band’s enterprising manager had found guitars.

So we all gathered on one of Central’s quieter platforms, waited for a noisy train to leave, and filmed this live version of Dust Devil – which the band told us they’ve never done acoustic before. It was a perfect combination of beautifully melancholy song and location – watch for the guy in the background who throws his jacket on the ground after just missing his train.

- Jonathan

Holly Miranda: Slow Burn Treason

Holly Miranda has been in Sydney performing as part of  Vivid Sydney :: A Festival of Light, Music & Ideas.

Holly Miranda: Secret Identity

We met Holly at Opera Bar and wandered amongst the tourists & theater goers hanging out by the harbor. Jonathan and I have wanted to film at the Sydney Opera House since we began making music films in 2007, but it never quite seemed possible.

Holly Miranda: Enema (by Tool)

With the iconic sails all lit up with Laurie Anderson’s projections, the House became less of a theater and more like a lighthouse in the night.

Holly’s on tour in July – check her out if you’re in Europe or the UK.

www.hollymiranda.com

Amelia & Jonathan

Frightened Rabbit: Swim Until You Can’t See Land

Within 30 seconds of hitting the sand a team of surf life savers sidled up to us. Getting in trouble with life savers is so humiliating, these are the good guys, the guys that save lives, even while they were giving me a speech about needing permission next time they had their eyes on the surf – practically saving lives while being in a movie while getting us in trouble. I kinda wanted to congratulate the guy in charge cos i’d just seen him on Bondi Rescue a few nights earlier – pulling a 14 year old tourist from a rip and bring him back to life on the sand. What a job.

Frightened Rabbit: Nothing Like You

Amelia + Jonathan
Our friend Byson was behind the camera for this one. Woot!

www.frightenedrabbit.com

The Handsome Family: The Bottomless Hole

The Handsome Family had me in fits of giggles when I saw them play at The Famous Spiegeltent. The first thing Rennie said when she walked on stage was “Don’t you think my husband Brett looks like Colonel Sanders? Or maybe he looks like Rolf Harris?” Brett chuckled and ambled around the stage until they eventually began singing one of my favourite songs, about insects making love. Rennie quipped that she’d originally intended to write a song about volcanoes, but it just hadn’t turned out that way.

The Handsome Family: My Beautiful Bride

When we stumbled through Hyde Park the next day, we just happened upon a bridal party taking some snaps by the fountain. The young bride and groom were hamming it up for the camera so we decided to play a little song in honour of their big day.

The Handsome Family: Darling, My Darling

Thanks to Sydney Festival, Michaella, Bryson & Jefferton who made these films possible.

- Amelia & Jonathan

Washington: Want (Rufus Wainwright)

On January 7th 2010 CarriageWorks launched an installation of Shoot The Player films on the big screen for the very first time. Hundreds of people came to the launch and we were overwhelmed with the warm response to our work. It was great to see people we had filmed over a year ago like Jai Pyne, Aiden from Belles Will Ring, Gabrielle from Dead Letter Chorus and Des Miller turn out for the event. Holly Throsby played On Longing and lead the crowd in singing Happy Birthday to Megan Washington, who had made the journey from Melbourne to be there. At the end of the night, in the spirit of spontaneous filmmaking, we asked Washington to pick two songs for us, and we decided to make a film right then and there.

Washington: Lover/Soldier

The installation at CarriageWorks is free and open to the public until Jan 30th. If you’re interested in hearing Jonathan and I talk about our work, there will be an Artists Talk at 11am on Jan 23rd, please come along.

Thank you.

“Hello Amelia, I usually don’t do things like these but since you want to make something beautiful, I’m in… Some great little films you have there… Let’s talk some more closer to the trip over there, and I’ll know more about my schedule, best, ttmoe.”

The Tallest Man on Earth: Where Do My Bluebird Fly

Finding pictures of Kris is pretty impossible. All that I knew about him I had gleaned from the few songs on his myspace and an enthusiastic rendition of I Won’t Be Found offered by my flatmate Max at the mention of his name. The sweet, throaty delivery of Kris’s songs is a memorable signature style that has him compared to the forefathers of Americana folk, but coming from this striking Swedish poet, the voice marks The Tallest Man On Earth as a performer who can hold his own with the best.

The Tallest Man On Earth: Stepstone (Traditional)

At the end of filming Stepstone a security guard came and asked us if we were professional filmmakers. I assured him we were not. Pointing to Kris the guard said, “but he’s so good, I thought this was for real, for television, are you sure this is not for real? Everyone back at the office is watching this.” Of course; filming in the city means being on camera at every turn. After lots of mutual smiling and head shaking, the guard seemed satisfied. He’d enjoyed the performance too and seemed glad that he didn’t have to let doing his job upset the moment.

That night we saw Kris perform to an eager throng of fans at a packed-out Hopetoun Hotel. In all honesty, I have never seen someone command a the attention of an audience the way Kris did that night. They were silenced. Armed with just a guitar, he paced the stage, stared us down and sang with such clear and pointed determination that you could not help being transported to the gardens, blizzards and streams of his imaginings.

If you like these videos, do what you can to see the man perform live.

- Shoot The Player

ps. The thank you credit in the film is for Evan who sent us an email asking if we would try to film Kris. Before this email, we’d never heard of The Tallest Man On Earth. We love hearing from people like Evan

www.thetallestmanonearth.se
www.myspace.com/thetallestmanonearth