Darren Hanlon: Folk Insomnia from shoottheplayer.com

Sydney singer-songwriter Darren Hanlon sometimes hosts ‘Under the Clothesline’ gigs in his backyard; for $5 you can get a veggie burger and see great local & international musicians play to an intimate audience of friends. It’s at these little gigs where we connected with many of the bands we first filmed for Shoot The Player;  people like Ned Collette, Pikelet & Laura Jean.

We’ve wanted to film Darren for years, Jonathan and I are big fans of both his music & his funny stage banter – he’s a great storyteller.  How can you not like a guy who sings songs about the greatness of squash?

Darren Hanlon: Scenes from a Separation from shoottheplayer.com.

Darren wanted to make a film in an office in Sydney, but we never got around to making this happen.  When Amelia literally ran into him on the street in Portland Oregon the timing just seemed right.  Amelia was in town working on a documentary & Darren was recording and competing in pinball tournaments.

Amelia filmed Darren over two days – one typically grey and chilly, and the other gloriously sunny and warm.  For the first, a cold Darren took us to the iconic Portland 24-Hour Church of Elvis and across the street to a pinball arcade.  For our second shoot, we all enjoyed a sunny emerald-green lawn overlooking Portland’s train yards.

We’ve posted in this blog two new songs and a Darren Hanlon classic.  Keep an eye out for the pinball video and Darren singing to some native Portlanders in another blog soon, as well as a video of Darren and Andrew Bird playing in the famous backyard.

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

Rachael Cantu: Far And Wide

Emily joins the Shoot The Player team from LA and is the only other filmmaker we’ve had on the site so far. Via Emily, we’ve been introduced to a heap of new bands, the first being Rachael Cantu; a singer songwriter from LA who’s worked with many names & has just released her album “Far & Wide”. I love that this video of Rachael doesn’t really look or sound like anything we could have made in Sydney. I mean, maybe if we were to shoot something on the roof of Hibernian House overlooking the bright lights of Chinatown it would look & sound a little like this, but essentially, it’s exciting to be able to open up Shoot The Player to new locations & artists on both sides of the camera, it’s great for us to discover a new musician set against a new skyline with new colours and a different feeling of being present in the world.

- Amelia & Jonathan
www.myspace.com/rachaelcantu

Tender Forever: My Love (Justin Timberlake) + Boyz II Men outro.

I was in Portland for 48 hours. On our first night there Tender Forever happened to be playing a gig in a square downtown along with Nurses & some other bands. Her passionate Wii drumming & offstage unplugged ukulele playing had us hooked. We arranged to meet up the next day & shoot a couple of tracks – when we arrived at her place she suggested we drive to a pretty location she knew, and 20 minutes later deep in the suburbs of Portland, we found ourselves in the aptly romantic setting of an enormous rose garden.

Tender Forever: Every Monday & Boy Life In America

Tender Forever: Take It Off

These films where shot with Emily Richmond, a part time filmmaker and full time adventurer from LA who got in touch with us about a year ago. She flew up to Portland and together we shot Nurses, Tender Forever & Lovers – all bands I wasn’t really familiar with until i found myself standing in front of them trying to film something meaningful. The shoots were a lot of fun, the bands were a great discovery, new friends were made and Portland’s laid back creative air was infectious.

- Amelia & Jonathan
http://www.myspace.com/tenderforever

Musicians seem to be by nature late-night creatures. Their gigs start late; then when the gig is over there’s always the long night ahead fueled by their post-performance-high & the perpetual jet-lag so often felt as the result of constant traveling. That’s why their days generally start long after the rest of us have had lunch.

David Ross Macdonald: Pepper Tree

So we were very grateful that David Ross Macdonald agreed to wake up early and play for us.  (We’d tried to shoot the night before, but had been rained out.) David is also the drummer for Australian band The Waifs – which explains his comment about being more ready to play drums than to sing first thing in the morning!

Paddington’s Trumper Park was a perfect setting for David’s achingly soulful music.  His songs about longing, loss, and love floated out into the shadows of the forest; and even the kookaburras quieted down to listen to his haunting voice and his intricate guitar-playing was beautiful to watch.

David Ross Macdonald – Til I’m Gone

- Jonathan & Amelia
www.davidrossmacdonald.com

Vivian Girls: Never See Me Again

Just days after the iconic Hopetoun Hotel was closed, the Vivian Girls arrived in Sydney on a wave of hype and anticipation only to find that their gig had been relocated to everyone’s favourite fire trap, the Hellen Rose-Schauersberger LabOratorium. I hadn’t made a shoot the player film since New York and was excited to be trawling the back streets of Surry Hills with Michaella, looking for a perfectly quiet backdrop; a painted wall, a empty building, an urban cave. When we arrived at the warehouse the girls were in the middle of their soundcheck, thrashing away on a stage made of blue and orange milkcrates. We watched for a while, then picked up a couple of stray crates leaning against the wall and took the girls outside where a dedicated crowd of fans was starting to gather.

Vivian Girls: The End

- Amelia & Jonathan
www.myspace.com/viviangirlsnyc