January, 2012

Another post from the archives. Thee Emergency these were originally taken for the now defunct glossy Sound Magazine.

A great Seattle band. Be sure to give them a listen.

Twitter: @TheeEmergency

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Here are a few more images of Tilly and The Wall. Be sure to have a look at my other post about them here too.

Enjoy them.

Twitter: @officialtatw

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Remember when all the kids that were to cool for Brooklyn moved to Portland? Well, all the kids that were really cool moved to Omaha. And, some of those super-cool kids got together and formed Tilly And The Wall a fun indie-pop-rock band that has been around for 10 years yet seems to get little attention. I mean fuck…”John In The Morning” doesn’t even play them.

They first came across my RADAR not by US airplay but through Dew Process the label they are on in Australia. It wasn’t until I had the chance to shoot Flowers Forever when they were opening for Elf Power did I realize that Tilly And The Wall had a far broader reach than I could have ever imagined. Guitarist Derek Pressnall plays in both Tilly and Flowers Forever.

Then there is the fact that well. Omaha is Omaha, and if you are in one band from there then you are pretty much in all bands from there. It seems to be one little incestuous band orgy. That’s a good thing.

What make Tilly stand out for most people is the lack of a drummer. Instead they use tap dancers or at least one main tap dancer Jamie Pressnall (nee Williams). As you can see they even made an skit for Sesame Street which is fitting because according to WIkipedia Jamie Pressnall was a kindergarten teacher.

So, to bring it all home. Tilly And The Wall are a great band that is well worth listening to and if you want to dig deeper read their album notes and cross check them with other bands from Omaha and you will see the soap opera for yourself.

Enjoy the pictures. There may be a few more itching to come out in the future.

“O” Album iTunes Link

“Pot Kettle Black” single iTunes Link

Twitter: @OfficialTATW

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As I wrote about in an earlier post I had the chance to shoot some dance recently. The project was for Susie Lee and was a real blast. It was the first time working with artists that controlled the light in such a way as to make the light itself a character in the dance. Visual Artist Keeara Rhoades played the part of the light through a set of LCD projectors and some pretty cool software that allowed her to move the light in real time with Ying Zhou the dancer.

As for the cinematography. There was little time for me to shoot before during rehearsal due to logistics. Which meant most of the shooting was done the day before and right after the final performance. The time we spent shooting during the dress rehearsal meant that lighting cues were still being worked out as well as light intensity and colors. We would start to shoot Ying and midway through a shot the light would go from blue to orange. Or, it would drop in intensity all of a sudden. This meant that as I would watch the footage it was all a jumble of mixed light.

Since B&W is immune to color temperature changes…Voila! Make it B&W! Another thing about dropping the color was the editor Ian Louthan was able to boost the contrast and bring some solidity back to the moving light. On a down note going B&W did lead to some noise in a couple shots which is never fun.

In the end it all came together to make a film that is something that captures the essence of the piece and became a whole new stand alone piece too. Everyone was great to work with and I really hope to work with everyone that was part of this project again soon.