Aurora is leaving Left Eye Blind!

We would like to inform all contacts that Aurora Fearnley has made a departure from Left Eye Blind to concentrate her energy as an Independent Artist under her own working name of 'Little Northern Light'. Left Eye Blind will continue to be led by Directors Matt Maude and Jamie Donoughue.

Left Eye Blind would like to acknowledge all Auroras hard work, talent and contributions over the last three years. We wish her well in all her future projects!

Northern Futures

LEFT EYE BLIND HAS BEEN SHORTLISTED FOR THE FILM NORTHERN FUTURE AWARDS 2010.

THE RESULTS ARE ANNOUNCED ON TUESDAY THE 17th AUGUST AT A CEREMONY HELD IN BARNSLEY CIVIC. WORK FROM ALL SHORTLISTED ENTRANTS IN EACH CATEGORY WILL BE ON SHOW IN THE CIVIC UNTIL SEPTEMBER THE 9th.


WORK SUBMITTED IS:
ELIZA DOOLITTLE
THE GRAMMATICS
THE DREAMERS (SANJARI)


THE DREAMERS IS CURRENTLY IN THE VIRGIN MEDIA SHORTS COMPETITION AND GAINING GREAT FEEDBACK. WE FIND OUT AT THE THE END OF THE MONTH IS IT HAS BEEN SELECTED INTO THE FINAL 12.

Eliza Doolittle

Three Virals made for Eliza Doolittle, EMI.


Having fallen in love with our new canon 5D we decided to push it's limits in integration with RED footage. And also to push ourselves with a foray of stop frame animation, which surprisingly became some of our favourite footage of the year. We enlisted the help of a local animator Kerrie Mackinnon to help create and make the money origami creatures.

The snails kissing was Jamie's idea! which I think settles the argument that we are all three romantics at heart. Eliza was a real star in the making and it's no surprise you can't walk past topshop without her original songs chiming out.

Talking of romance left eye has collectively started a love affair with Steve Annis who was our remarkable and energetic DOP with Eliza Doolittle. We owe him enormous gratitude for his insight and  just sheer awesomeness. Our first video with Steve was The XX - Islands video shot last November with XL recordings. Due to changes in the band the video has not been released, however we will post up some pics from that shoot and as always a big shout out to the windswept crew who made it happen.


Eliza Doolittle -Money Box from LEFT EYE BLIND on Vimeo.



Eliza Doolittle - Rollerblades from LEFT EYE BLIND on Vimeo.




Eliza Doolittle - Go Home from LEFT EYE BLIND on Vimeo.

Sanjari

A beautiful short film shot in Serbia on the Canon 5DMKII

Matt Maude has just returned from the Serbian Film Festival after talking about the production of this film Sanjari and it's creative process working in the country. Look out for more information about our continuing ideas to develop the themes here in our future projects. 


Sanjari from LEFT EYE BLIND on Vimeo.

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Johnny Foreigner Video

Johnny Foreigner - Criminals from LEFT EYE BLIND on Vimeo.

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Johnny Foreigner Video

July saw Left Eye Blind shoot our latest music video. It’s been a strange six months since our last video. Signing with Academy in March we’ve found ourselves in the world of ‘pitching’, and other than getting involved in our own personal projects, the collective identity of Left Eye Blind has spent it’s time either writing on tracks or travelling to London. Having not made anything for a while, we decided it was about time we got out there and produced one. And what better band to do that with than ‘Johnny Foreigner’?

These guys are serious rising stars with a huge fan base and we all felt we needed to create an impacting video. The song allowed us great scope for a narrative within it, but to pull it off we needed to build a set, get access to great equipment and find some brilliant collaborators to work with. Not easy on a low budget.

I’m not going to go into detail of how we did it but nevertheless we had the time of our lives trying to achieve the near impossible. None of this would be possible without every single person on the shoot. Al

though this reads a little like an Oscars speech, everyone needs mentioning. Without the finances to say thank you, we hope this writing goes someway to saying how much we appreciated the hard work you put in.

THE HANDYMAN CAN AWARD

Winner – Kev Marchant

We’ve never put up a set before. And without Kev, we would still be saying it. Handy with a drill, hammer and chainsaw, Kev has an instinctual ability on a shoot.

He’s also responsible for building

the majority of the set in amongst a million other things I can’t even begin to list. More so, you really can tell the true measure of a man if he is willing to get up before 6am for you for 5 days running.

THE MASTER OF DIGITAL AWARD

Winner – Rich Bennett

There is nothing this man can’t do or fix when it comes to the technical

stuff. Before we came to shoot, the studio we were using had no electricity beyond 13Amp sockets, by the end of it we were running 3 Phase 32 AMP, a dimmer board across two sets, and a PA system over the entire building. Rich is that guy that makes 1970’s electronics work again.

He’s also a fantastic RED operator, and anyone needing such a brain on set, Rich Bennett is that brain.

BABE AWARD

Winner – Rudy Riveron Sanchez

Every shoot we have a surprise crewmember who appears on set last minute. The ‘baby faced Cuban’ Rudy Riveron Sanchez (is that not the coolest name ever?!) instantly

became part of the left eye family. Rudy helped out with everything and although his wallpapering was pretty dode at times we couldn’t have done the set without him.

A constant flirt, a brilliant grip, It was like working alongside Tony Montana with toothache.

INSOMNIA AWARD

Winner – Adam Conlon

Our own Christopher Doyle, Adam’s lighting and operating was brilliant throughout the shoot. He’s one of those rare operators that has great

filming instincts, listening to the music to time a crash zoom or pull focus. Since working with Adam we’ve seen him grow as we have, and to say the least, he’s a very talented and hardworking chap.

LAST MAN STANDING AWARD

Winner – James Rhodes

James didn’t leave set once throughout the shoot. Lending a hand and eye to every shot, he was also the on set photographer. His energy was insatiable throughout the weekend and we look forward to him working on our shoots in the future.

BIG FOOT AWARD

Winner – James Bridger

Working with Rich 24 hours before the shoot, Gaffer James turned up and turned everything on.

No one would question that James

is very tall, but that isn’t the pre-requisite for climbing up to very high places to change out lights. Quite often we’d see James just out of shot, dangling from the roof changing a light.

He was also in quite a considerable amount of pain during the shoot, and he’d struggled on possessed with a Bear Ghylls / Will Farrell fighting spirit.

BEST FAMILY

Winner – The Hunt Family

The studio’s managers, Pete, Ron and ‘Mum’ worked tirelessly over the 5 day prep, shoot and dismantle to keep us fed, watered and happy. We can’t say thankyou enough for letting us use the space, but we’ll try:

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

BEST NEWCOMER AWARD

Winner – Anna

Following around our normal 2^nd AD Sophie Dowd on Saturday, Anna learnt the ropes and replicated them on Sunday. Keeping the band happy, the crew fed and the set organised, she excelled as the hours got longer and everyone began to lag

ANIMAL CONTROL AWARD

Winner – Pete Trifunovic

2^nd Place – Ron Hunt

3^rd Place – Anna / Matt Maude

A previous Babe winner, Pete took this shoot’s Animal Control Award when trying to catch a bat in a cardboard box for 45 minutes. He finally trapped the flying miniature beast in a set of curtains. In a close run competition, second place was awarded to Ron Hunt when removing a 4 month* dead squirrel (*awaiting autopsy report) from the studio. 3^rd place went to Anna and Matt when unearthing a sleeping hedgehog in a mound of duvets

SPECIAL MENTIONS

Sophie Dowd

Sophie is quite possibly the best 2^nd AD in the world. Every time she’s on set things just go smoothly. She’s like the opposite of Jonah

Lami

Lami, our new camera assistant, impressed all of us with her inquisitive nature and hard working attitude. She’s welcome back anytime.

ASH (Surname unknown)

For donating his bass guitar for senseless destruction. Nuff said’

THE BAND

Finally the Band. Alexei, Kelly and Junior were great to work with. Patient, passionate, and fun to be around, they were all up for anything we asked of them (including destroying their instruments with chainsaws, axes and sledgehammers)

all photos by James Rhodes

jamesrhodes.co.uk

Johnny Foreigner

www.johnnyforeignermusic.com

Shooting a music video for johnny foreigner tmrw. A RED camera shoot with added elements of slow motion.

watch this space for more information.

Tweets

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Signed to Academy Films

Good news

Left Eye Blind is now represented by Academy films for Music Videos and Commercials.



Oh and Liam Henry took a cute snap for publicity.

http://www.academyfilms.com/flash/#/academy/music_videos/

Silverfall - our first Red camera shoot

Vessels - 6 months in the making

It took six months to get this video made. But i feel it was worth the wait. Vessels are a band whose music i find visually encompassing, so it's difficult to say my idea was to cover them in cake.

Also the shorter version for the Directors reel



Directed and Produced by Left Eye Blind - http://vimeo.com/channels/lefteyeblind#2899917, lefteyeblind.net
Aurora Fearnely

Vessels - "A Hundred Times in Every Direction" was released in June 2008 Cuckundoo Records. - vesselsband.com

ALBUM OUT NOW

"Vessels - White Fields and Open Devices"
Experimental rock band who formed in 2005, and have since played over 100 gigs including the Leeds and Latitude festivals, released two 7"/download singles, one download-only single & recorded a full length album.

Starring:
Martin Teff
Tim Mitchell
Tom Evans
Lee J.Malcolm
Peter Wright

A Left Eye Blind Production - http://vimeo.com/channels/lefteyeblind#2899917 , vimeo.com/LEB

Lets Talk About ... The Sugars

THE SUGARS - GOSSIP
Aurora Fearnley

What a lovely bunch those Sugars are, the name truly fits. From day one in Leeds I've heard about and seen The Sugars continually, ironically it's when they are in London when I get the chance to work with them. The day started with the band arriving from an overnight drive, bless em. They still looked fab all day and were in great spirits throughout the shoot.

It's always a bit nerve wracking to meet the band after pitching an idea, being on such a short time scale we hadn't had chance to meet up and chat yet. The video was conceptually post modern, with the film crew all part of the cast. The narrative was based around the interaction of the crew discussing the musicians, mainly the uncomfortable atmosphere created by gossiping. Hopefully a reflection of our modern day obsession with celebrity and gossip magazines.

On this shoot we had the always reliable support of Joe Mcdonald as our DOP and Camera operator, with the joyful Jason Torbit on Steady cam (all day!!). Again the brothers T came up trumps, spending the day in every role required, it would be unjust to call them runners. George, Sophie and Kelly the all female AD team, dubbed aurora's angels, were consistantly amazing. I can't help but mention Kev, the everyman. There isn't a role for Kev, he's onto it before you think to ask it, a superstar on set. Joe costello also put in a welcome appearance,

It has been a fun shoot. One moment that stood out was all of the crew standing around yelling insults at the band to get genuine close up reactions, what good sports. Think i might need to buy them all a pint next time in in Brick lane.

Grammatics - The Vague Archive

Grammatics - The Vague Archive from LEFT EYE BLIND on Vimeo.

The video is for the forthcoming single 'The Vague Archive' by Grammatics. The single is released on Dance to the Radio and is available on 7 inch and digital download from November 17th 2008.

Available from
townsend-records.co.uk
7Digital.com
iTunes
&
All good independent music retailers

Directed by Matt Maude
Produced by Jamie Donoughue
Edited by Aurora Fearnley

DOP: Joe MacDonald

1st AD: Aurora Fearnley
2nd AD: Kelly Ross

Production Assistants:
Kev Marchant
Mark Trifunovic
Peter Trifunovic

Gaffer: Alex McCormick
Best Boy: James Bridger

Left Eye hearts Adam Conlon

We're lucky in our work that we get to shoot with a bunch of brilliant collaborators. Without them, our videos would just be ideas. Due to their talents, passions and abilities, they make our work realisable and desirable.
In the first of our 'look at us' series, we take a peek and a poke at Adam Conlon, DOP extraordinaire.

We've worked with Adam on three of our biggest shoots. Firstly on Mother Vulpine's Keep Your Wits (DOPing with Rob Gardner) then on subsequent shoots for Wintermute and Grammatics, he's worked in woods and shot in studios, slowed down super slow mo and run with wolves. His vision, ability to communicate and charismatically qualities to offer up great ideas have made Adam a brilliant sparring partner in the work we've done. His website can be found here, and we ask that if you're looking for a DOP in the future, Adam is your man


Here is Adam's profile:

"If you’re reading this, chances are you already know me or have heard of me from somewhere. However for those who do not know me, I will tell you a little bit about myself. Primarily I'm a Cinematographer / Lighting Cameraman / Camera Operator based in Leeds, Yorkshire. I'm freelance, shooting Music Videos, Commercials, Dramas, Corporates and recently a Feature Film. Although my principal love is for the photography of a production, I have also been known to direct, produce and edit, usually on lower budget Music Videos. My site is a collection of some of my work to date, with all available videos linked to for your viewing pleasure. I hope you enjoy the work, and if you’re interested in working with me, don’t hesitate to get in touch."

http://www.adamconlon.com

Production Diary - Rochelle

Rochelle - Fer De Lance

I should let you into a little secret. It’s a small one though so don’t go clearing out important memories or pin numbers to hold it within your brain space.
This video was made on nothing. And by that I don’t mean it was made on thin air and candy floss. I mean it was made for very little money. I’ve been lucky enough to work on some pretty high budget work. In music videos and adverts where budgets are so big that money gets thrown in the air and people dance on king sized beds naked, rubbing themselves in dollar bills.

As a result, all of the people who worked on this video, did so for nothing. Nothing at all. NOTHING

Everyone either forgoed their fee or worked at a reduced rate equivalent to giving away their time for free. Every single person.
That should say something for the sixty odd people that are on the credits for the video . All the dancers that rehearsed for hours for it.
The crew that traveled for it.
The production team that has been working on it for months.
For Phil Wood, our brilliant camera operator who drove up from London for the shoot.
For Sarah Hartley, who sewed all of the girl’s costumes for the drones.
For Rob Gardner, the incredible Director of Photography who put off another (well paid) job to work on our low budget shoot.
For Sophie Dowd who worked tirelessly over the weekend as our 2nd AD despite her Monday to Friday, all hours job on Emmerdale; and for everyone else who if I could mention, I would.
Working on nothing, means that you have to work for everything. Every last bit of kit is measured for what it is worth, and every minute is well spent. For that, I am in Jamie Donoughue’s debt. Although I’m lucky enough to call him a colleague, I was blessed to have him work on the shoot as my producer. It is often the role that goes without the most credit, and you deserve the most for your work Jamie. It’s hard to be told to get everything for nothing, but you did an incredible job, especially when most producers do a ’great’ job of getting nothing for everything.

The two days of the shoot we’re probably the best shooting days of my life. More than anything because the crew we had we’re a joy and privilege to work with. The dancers we’re awesome, and a constant supply of energy and enthusiasm, frolicking, licking, friendliness and fun. And the band brilliant both as performers and supportive friends. It was brilliant for me, to see our little idea come to life, see the whole crew perform with such professionalism, the band drill their performances with such energy, that at times I had to pinch myself. It’s what happens when you’re doing your dream job.

For the weekend, where we had to get so much done on such a little time scale, Aurora Fearnley held my head in her hands for the majority of the time. She’s a brilliant first AD (the person who tells you what you have to do, and how quickly) and a fine friend. Her skills as an Assistant Director are only bettered as her work as an editor, and in the ensuing three week aftermath of the shoot, her experienced skills surpass her young age. She is responsible for so much of the finished film, from the cuts to the colour, the pace to the grade, in that, it is your work too Aurora.

Although this video carries my name as the director within these credits, it has been the hard work of Joe Costello, the co-director and SFX creator that has transformed the idea of the video into the video’s ideals. Without him, my brain would have been blown apart many times over, and I thank him for keeping it intact.

During January, I honestly didn’t know if the video was ever going to get made. Over the month Rochelle lost a member, changed record labels, and looked likely to blow out so big on the world that it fully justified them placing the video in someone else’s more trustworthy (or experienced hands). Throughout it all though, I had Joe ringing me and supplying our bodies with caffeine, thrusting the video in front of us regardless of what was going on around us. And it worked. Without him, this would have been a different project.
You’re a talented man Joe, and I thank you for it.

The band too were just fantastic, and considering it was their first time on camera, they did an amazing job. Lydia in particular something incredible in coming in and overcoming some pretty nervous nerves to do so much within the video.

Production Diary - Sky Larkin

Sky Larkin - Molten
By Matt Maude








Katie has been a friend of mine for ages, in fact we go way back to when she was in a teeny band called Saving Lenny. I only call it a teeny band because all the members were teenagers. They were in fact brilliant. I still miss them.

However, new days bring new bands, and Katie's Sky Larkin had been part and party of my Mp3 since I've had one (last month).

When Katie rang me and told me that their London based film crew had dropped out and that their next single now needed a video, I jumped at the chance. Head long into the low ceiling of my box like room. Recovering from a short spell of unconsciousness, I was told, however there was no money. Not a penny.

Apparently friendship is priceless, and I therefore went about creating a video that was priceless. Or another way of putting it, free

I've never done animation before, and using Sky Larkin's track I had the chance to go creative crazy using techniques I'd never done before. I shot the whole thing in Hyde Park to match the LS6 living that the band had all grown up within, and used locations within a moment's walk of their respective bedrooms. In some scenes, their actual bedrooms.

The video involved a lot of walking around my house (or others) with my Z1, looking at the lyrics and thinking what would work for different sections. As the video goes on, I tried to match the lyrics with the visuals as much as possible, hoping that persistent viewers would spot something different every time they viewed it.

The song to me always sounded like the good times you had with you friends, the kind of fun that is seamless and without effort, and I hope the video followed suit.

It was a creative blast to work on this video, and as was there no pressure of a big crew it meant it was a lot of fun too. Working with Katie in particular was awesome, and she had brilliant ideas, endless enthusiasm and made great hot dinners. Her gran (June) provided much of the characters within the video, possessing as she does, an entire house of porcelain. It was an all around Harkin help that put the video together.

The video can be seen here. While I was shooting it there very few photographs I took, but I did take some band promo ones, interspersed with the Polaroids that actually featured in the video.


Sky Larkin - Molten from Matt Maude on Vimeo.

Production Diary - Mother Vulpine

Mother Vulpine - Keep Your Wits
by Matt Maude

Matt Bigland has been my best friend since we were small. Think ten years old small. We're the best friends who share each other's names and have, over time, began to look a little too similar to one another.

If I had another brother, it would be Matt

Back in early 2007 Matt approached me and told me about his idea for the video for his band's first single. At the time, Matt was the leader man of a band called Mother Vulpine, a band who within their short shelf life, prospered to the extent that they played to a sell out shows on the stages of the Astoria, Apollo and others like it on a support tour with the Eagles of Death Metal.

His idea featured a rather large butcher being pursued through an ageless haunted forest by a hungry and heartless angry wolf. The band, wolfish in name and wolfish in nature would be in hot pursuit too, suggesting that the band and the wolf were one at the same.

Suffice to say, the idea itself was ambitious and the budget was ridiculous. With no money and no source of funding from any sort of record label, we sat long and hard looking at our respective bank accounts. Signing a grand out each from our accounts wasn't exactly digestible or advisable, but it got us there with fifty quid to spare. From there, we started planning it out, step by step, shot by shot until finally we were sat on the wooded crop of the Otley Chevin, ready to shoot one very wet and early Saturday morning.

The two day shoot was absolutely manic. From the off we were running behind after a very tricky first shot and looking at the watch, we split the crew into two halves to pick up the pace. On the Saturday we had to shoot all of the wolf sequences, all of the slow motion stuff and all of the quad bike tracking shots as we could afford them all for one day. Suffice to say we wrapped just before darkness fell, and not a moment before.

I won't go into too much detail as it borders on unprofessional but you know the expression: Never work with animals or children.
They mean never work with trainers or parents.

Our 'wolf trainer' / dog handler was an absolute twat.


Back as a whole crew on Sunday we charged over the Chevin shooting all the band sequences, cut aways, and the more complicated verse set ups. At one point, about 3PM Sunday afternoon both Matt and I were falling over through to lack of food. Thankfully a chocolate bar and double decker sandwich appeared from the nowhere (or actually from Louise Pracey Smith's good thinking) and we recovered the feeling in our limbs.


In March 2007, after the two day shoot and a two week edit, the video was finished and ready to shine on MTV's 120 Minutes and the Riot. Stedicam work, a high speed slow motion camera, a quadbike tracking rig set up, a wolf, no lights, a crew of fifteen including two DOP's all culminated into a video we are all truly proud of.



Mother Vulpine - Keep Your Wits from

Production Diary - Royal Vendetta

Royal Vendetta - Soothsayer
by Matt Maude

It was my first proper video where I was going to get paid for a budget. A BUDGET! BIG TIME! ACTUAL LIGHTS!?! A CAMERA BETTER THAN MY DICK IN MY HAND AND A MOBILE PHONE IN THE OTHER?

I got three hundred smackers...

My lights therefore came from IKEA (I took them back) my tracking shot came from hanging a camera out of the car, and I shot it, edited it, and directed it. The only help I had was my flatmate who drove my car, and my friend who took the dubious title of first AD when he came down for half an hour and ate a sandwich.

The premise of the video was that of a dodgy looking geezer (played by actual lovely geezer Rob Silva - his dad knows Desmond Tutu don't you know?) out on the robbing. After sneaking into a secluded car park and breaking into a car his actions catapult him into a dark world filled with revengeful repercussions, hooded spirits and no escape. The band play out, narrators of this ghostly world, taunting and tormenting our anti-hero as he spirals further and further down the disturbing rabbit hole.
As the video end, our hero looks on unrepentant and undefined, disturbed, crazed, gazing on to a darkening fading world


Despite no budget, no crew, and lights provided by IKEA, the band were great, the parkour kids fantastic (even the one who nearly got hit by the car) and considering what little light we had, that children as young as 13 were back flipping through the air and that a car was going round and round in a circle at 20mph in an enclosed space I was glad no one died.

I think that was the biggest learning experience of the whole thing. It's all good if no one dies.