FEATURE:
A Career I Don’t Have. A Life I Don’t Lead
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The Pains of Having a Visual and Ambitious Imagination
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THIS is a bit of a move away from…
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focusing on music purely and other artists. I wanted to shift it to myself but also look out at the creative industry. That will include music and film. I realise that I am lucky get to write a blog and have access to all sorts of videos and photos. It is great to be able to illustrate features with aids like that. Bring them to life. I would hate it if I did Substack or just wrote and there was no option to bring words more to life. One of the most important parts of music journalism is photography and the music itself. I recently published a feature about music photography and how important it is. How it is an artform and integral aspect of the industry. How the professionals need to be valued. It is great that music photography flourishes at this time. I do think that a lot of music photography does lack imagination and concepts. A too busy photo can be a bit too much to take. Portraits are important, though it can be limited keeping it purely on the face and expression. I will never be a music photography, though I have so many ideas for photos and concepts, I wonder where that will go. Ideas that could go to waste. Maybe not just myself in the photo, I often scour clothing websites and imagine pairing this and this. Envisaging a room with some vinyl and some cool retro stuff in. A whole composition that would be eye-catching. Maybe a shot on the streets of New York with this chaotic rush going on behind but this calm in the forefront. A look that is intriguing and complex. I have ideas like this all the time and envy music photography. I think about album covers too and visualise what I would do. I have so many different concepts and images.
It is almost like a music video, albeit it one set to already-existing music. I can imagine the rest of the film, yet it is the opening titles that really excite me. That imaginative and ambitious split-screen. How the left and right then synch and we get this satisfying conclusion. I have another film idea which is a one-take. A dance number through the streets of New York. It is a film set during the last months of Disco. Around 1979. The songs, like the other film, would be more of a mixtape. Various songs from 1979, including Disco numbers merging and building. A colourful and growing dance routine. Dazzling and bright. The central character dancing to each track before ending with Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk. Almost impossible to realise, we go through the streets and so many different locations with this incredible soundtrack. The sound builds and builds with the noises of the street and people. It then goes down and down right at the end. This idea of street sounds creating this urban symphony that sits with the soundtrack. The third and final filmed title sequence could be a music video. It starts with a close-up on a pair of eyes. There is this single take where the camera than move slowly upwards and sideways so that we uncover parts of this larger view.
Like a jigsaw being made. Revealing more and more of this unravelling and unnerving scene. Some beauty and horror alongside striking images. I am not sure of all the details, but I like this idea of panning up and wider bit by bit. The camera then comes back down and goes side to side and down so it closes back in. It is set to this one song – again, not sure what -, until we get back to a close-up of the eyes as they close. Not sure if it was a dream or they were on the ground. I guess this was more about me sort of getting things out. Airing stuff. It is a frustrating experiencing having ideas and visions that you cannot really put anywhere. I am a very visual thinker and that is one of the advantages of music journalism. However, if you extend that and have these ideas that are outside of journalism, what do you do?! It is a bit frustrating. I love imagining various photos, filmed things and even an album. I don’t think that they are worth forgetting about and being seen as rough sketches. Instead, they all have potential and roots that could grow into something bigger. It is what to do with them and how they will be realised. I am really keen for them all to…
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COME to life.