Hop Along - How Simple (music video)

Ummmm, this music video is amazing.

Such a striking and 'simple' idea. I'm just so in love with the crossover of budget and conceptualisation. Using just simple lighting set ups, but in such an effective and beautiful way. Solid visuals, solid message, solid concept and solid realisation of concept. The transition of scenes is seamless and each new part remains interesting, but maintain the look / style of the piece. They don't have to come up with new ideas to maintain interest, but the scenes simultaneously doesn't drag or become overused / monotonous. This video's perception of the world is not a new idea, even its method of displaying that perception is not new, but it feels fresh. Partly this is probably because of the lead Frances' perfect delivery and execution of choreography. I loooove it, and feel so inspired by the ability of of low budget film making!

I was watching a whole heap of Michel Gondry, Spike Jonze and Jonathan Demme music videos that other day (btw how good is this, but also how much do you reckon Spike Jonze just wants / needs to make a another music video?), and I feel like this is on that same level of purposeful and experimental film making, but obviously on a much lower budget scale. Not all of the above film makers always use huge budgets either (especially Spike Jonze, and Jonathan Demme who came up through making low budget films), but there is a distinct difference in the freedom of their respective budgets, even if Demme, Jonze and Gondry sometimes choose to use small budgets. I think this music video shows such creative thinking that considers how to best use what they have. I guess film school focused a lot on doing the flashiest, latest thing, and I'm so excited when I see people think creatively within their means and still produce effectively emotive and unique pieces. 

House of Aama

Just came across this new brand, House of Aama, everything they make is completely stunning.

Most of these picture are from their Instagram page, but a couple are from their website. The styling of their shoots is so great too, and I seriously want one of the fans they have throughout the images so badly! I really like fans as a tool that women have used over the centuries and I seriously think every woman needs a glorious fan (I'm still searching for my perfect one). I've seen fans in galleries that are exquisite artworks, and I love the idea of beauty in otherwise ordinary objects. Maybe I will write more about my love of fans in a later post, for now feast your eyes on this glorious clothing:

A post shared by House of Aama (@houseofaama) on Nov 27, 2017 at 7:45am PST

A post shared by House of Aama (@houseofaama) on Nov 27, 2017 at 5:30pm PST

A post shared by House of Aama (@houseofaama) on Jul 27, 2017 at 4:41pm PDT

A post shared by House of Aama (@houseofaama) on Sep 13, 2017 at 3:53pm PDT

Ogun Corduroy Military Pants

A post shared by House of Aama (@houseofaama) on Jul 7, 2017 at 3:02pm PDT

STORYTELLER V-NECK SILK TOP

A post shared by House of Aama (@houseofaama) on Jul 2, 2017 at 10:20am PDT

Also, take a read through their descriptions of and meanings in their clothes, the designers are a mother and daughter duo and they have a lot to say on the cultural and spiritual inspiration behind their pieces.

Thoughts Swirling Around In My Brain

This is a post I wrote a few months ago, but never published:

Just came off a really great film shoot for a music video. Got asked to do production design super last minute and then didn't get a proper description of what I would be doing exactly until the evening two days before the shoot. So basically had one full day of preparing, plus a few hours the evening before, and then a full day of shooting! (Full day meaning 12 hours, and for me pretty much no break besides stuffing a sandwich in my mouth at one point while I walked around different rooms assessing my next plan of action.) I've somehow made this sound not so good, but the truth is that it was a really fantastic shoot, and everyone working on it was so lovely and great to work alongside. I didn't know anyone there besides the DOP, and it wasn't an issue at all. Everyone was so easy to get on with. Which, when working in potentially stressful situations, is not always the case. Right now I'm adding up receipts and working out my hours to write my invoice. They offered me a token payment, which was so wonderful, but I just figured out that it comes to being paid roughly $3.70 an hour. This is just so, I don't know... eye opening. That I can feel so positive about a shoot, feel blessed that I'm getting paid, feel so glad about how well everything went, and how great working with that group of people was, and realise just how hard being a film maker is. I am not blaming the people I worked alongside, I agreed to come on for that amount, and they were so thankful and aware that it was not much money, but it was all they had (they're not getting much either). I guess I'm just thinking about the state of survival as an 'artist'.

✶ ✶ ✶

Having now worked on a few more sets with similar money / love set-ups, I'm still feeling these thoughts big time. I just want to make clear, I've loved these sets that I'm working on. I've met some of the best, most incredible and beautiful people; people that I want to collaborate with forever! These are people who are now so integral to my life. Friendship-wise, future plans wise, it's amazing to find people who you get on with, as well as work with so seamlessly, and who aspire to similar artistic expressions and ideas. Also, big kudos to the fact that all of these projects have actually paid people - not a for granted situation. So, I'm not at all down on film work right now, but I am pondering, where is my journey to go, what is it to be?

Just pops up in my head from time to time...

This clip, always makes me laugh. 

I love how his life is so much better, like he's so much happier in this dream than he is in real life, and yet the idea of being a 'loser' office worker who's content with being a 'loser' makes him totally horrified. Dreaming of being happy makes him terrified. At the same time... I get it... haha! All those weird, cynical feelings that we all have.

Laughed out loud remembering this today

Every time I'm watching something like a promo for Poldark and I listen to the words as if I'm coming to the show for the first time and I think about how wonderfully cliche the dialogue / scenarios in it are... this mini storyline from Gravity Falls always comes to mind. It's a different style of period drama to the ones I like to watch, but I super relate / love this SO MUCH!







I am so, so happy that Poldark is back! I love Demelza to bits, and am always hoping she'll have a scene where she sings. Also, how evil is Elizabeth these days? She's all, if I have to be unhappy and screwed over by the patriarchy then every other woman has to be as well! It's like, babe, you have the power to help people. I feel like it's eventually gonna click and then she'll swing into action, and I'll be watching going, 'no duuuuuuuuh Elizabeth'. I think this show never really knows what to do with Elizabeth. Like... Ross was completely horrible to her, so she's justifiably really angry with him, but she always seems really oblivious to things that everyone else cottons onto in a second. And I know part of that is because she's so isolated from the world as a gentlewoman, but I feel like the show just always puts her in this annoying role. It's so obvious how horrible George is, so like, she can be angry at Ross and that doesn't mean she has to be an ignorant baddie... At the end of the last episode she had this smug little smile on her face about making her cousin marry that huge pompous arse, and I'm like... why would she even have that emotion? It reads so false. I hate when they make women who have had shit handed to them into bitter, evil characters. C'mon Poldark, you can do better than a stereotype. But mostly I think it's that the show doesn't commit to Elizabeth's personality enough. She always does weird stuff without them giving proper context, or like, going into a better understanding of why a woman in her position would have to do the things she does. Please Poldark writers, give me a more sympathetic and realistic view into the world of Elizabeth!! I am so into how dramatic this show is, and I am really into melodrama, and melodramas and romances as female expression. Like, stories about women, dealing with their wants and desires, and mostly written by women. Maybe this is why Poldark is slightly off, source material was written by a man. Obviously women can write some truly sexist tripe too. But still, it's so good that woman still have a place to express their desires even if I don't agree with them. Also so many period dramas (my true love in life) are romance based, so it's a win-win!

I'm still so wrecked by life, but starting to pick my way through maybe

The birds they sang at the break of day
Start again I heard them say
Don’t dwell on what has passed away
or what is yet to be.

Ah the wars they will be fought again
The holy dove she will be caught again
bought and sold  and bought again
the dove is never free.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.

We asked for signs the signs were sent:
the birth betrayed the marriage spent
Yeah the widowhood of every government –
signs for all to see.

I can’t run no more with that lawless crowd
while the killers in high places say their prayers out loud.
But they’ve summoned, they’ve summoned up a thundercloud
and they’re going to hear from me.

Ring the bells that still can ring …

You can add up the parts but you won’t have the sum
You can strike up the march, there is no drum
Every heart, every heart to love will come
but like a refugee.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.

Life, life, life!!

Life is all go, go, go!

I suppose it almost always is. I have the sort of mind that even when things are not so busy, I'm in a panic regardless. Being busy can be good that way - you can pour your anguish into activity.

I signed on to doing production design for a music video at the last minute, but it should be good fun. I've only met one of the band mates so far, but she had such a lovely energy exuding from her that I feel okay about the rest of the band too. It's an all girl punk band, and in their notes for the video they kept referencing songs by Sleater-Kinney and other amazing female musicians. Not to mention that it'll be a mostly female crew on set. Pretty sweet deal! The band is called The Girl Fridas and when I looked them up online I saw an interview where the bandmate I met the other day mentioned she was loving this other girl band called Honeyblood. I gave them a listen and I am hooked! The Girl Fridas don't have a proper version of the song we're filming up online yet, but when the music video is finished I'll post it here.
We film this Saturday, and I think we'll be fine getting everything ready by then (well, we have to be, so it will be!). After that, the very next day in fact... we take off to Bali!

Very exciting, this will be the first time going overseas in a LONG time. Since 2009... wow! I can't wait, it also happens to fall in the middle of Winter. To be fair, I planned it so that it would fall then because I am so sick of Melbourne grey skies and chilling winds. So we are outta here!!

(Okay, so here it looks like it gets sunny right as we are on our way out, but it'll get worse, I promise you! Or at least it better get worse.)

Dave and I will fly out of Melbourne at around 9am, and into Denpasar, Bali at 1:30pm. We then travel a little more into Ubud and check into this beautiful looking place. This will be my first time in Bali, but it will be my mum's fourth... fifth...? Because after we have checked in we'll meet up with my parents who we'll be travelling with! Mum first went to Bali about 30 or 35 years ago, and has been back a few times since with lots of time in between each trip. Every time it gets more and more hectic, which I think is a bit scary and probably a bit sad for her, but she's figured out a plan of where to go and where to avoid. We'll see how it goes!

Back in 2009 I got the amazing opportunity to go to Vietnam with my dad, Kim (the mother of my little sister, and basically my step-mum for years), and her two boys Andre and Matthew. Even though we stayed with family along the trip (Kim is originally from Vietnam) I was so shocked at how touristy the place was.  I feel like Bali will be similar in this way. Travelling can be weird like that; wanting to explore, but not wanting to exploit. Not wanting to just further the problem.

In the meantime I am juggling getting everything ready for the trip, getting everything ready for the music video, and getting ready for uni to start as soon as I return! Thankfully I can say that I have my reading sorted for the holiday! Phew! A most essential task. I am taking Dragonfly in Amber, the second book in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. I just finished watching the latest season of Outlander, which was based on this book. I am more emotionally driven by the tv show than I am by the books so I like to be told the story by the show initially. I do enjoy the books and all of the details they add though; all the bits and pieces not able to be included in the series. So my plan is that I watch the tv show, and then read the accompanying book after the season has aired. I did the same with The Hunger Games, but the last two movies were so bad that I think the book will be much better. Splitting the last book into two also means that I haven't read it yet because it took so long to be able to and haven't been as motivated to read on. I am still looking forward to it though. Maybe I'll bring it with me too... This latest season of Outlander I wasn't nearly as impressed by as I was with the first, and I think that was a lot to do with the format of the narrative. To be fair, I think they actually did a better job with the layout of the story than the book does. I have to say though, I thought the last episode to air was the best of the season... and I bawled the whole way through. Haha! Not going to lie, this is not hard to make me do. The other book I am bringing is Bossypants by Tina Fey. I've been wanting to read this for ages, but it's always out at the library and it costs money to reserve items, so it's withheld my grasp. Luckily, today Dave picked up a copy at the op-shop that's attached to his work, it's even travel sized! I've never seen a copy of it so small, I said to him, 'are you sure it's not abridged or something hideous like that?'. He assures me that it's not.

I'll leave you with some photos that represent the ongoings in my life right now:

You can decide what the things I want to buy are, and what the things I have to buy are. Outlander is obviously Outlander is obviously Outlander is obviously me obsessed with true love / Scotland.

Also this is a video of Honeyblood, it's a kind of a whatever video, but, you know... whatever! I guess it's pretty cute in it's funny little way. Just turn it up loud I reckon. :)

Honeyblood also happen to be Scottish, which is obvs a sign. Oh! Also, if Jamie Fraser was a real person I'd be related to him, 'cause my ancestor is the last guy to have his head cut off in Great Britain for rising up against the King of England, i.e. Simon Fraser (the fox), i.e. Jamie's paternal Grandfather. Cool stuff ey?!