Adverpology

The Adverpology.

February 22, 2011 – 8:34 pm

We live in a time where the channels to communicate an idea, concept, or message to millions of other people have never been so open.  It’s a dangerous thing for people wanting to advertise their product or service.

If a guy jumped out of a bush and shouted “BUY MY SHIT” as you walked past, you’d probably be a bit irked.  And you probably wouldn’t buy it.  That’s how uninvited advertising can feel.

I say “can” because the answer isn’t to stop advertising. The answer is to give something to your audience.  And to really, really mean it.

Think of it as an apology.  You really want ten seconds of their time, to be noticed and to be understood, but you’re not going to ask for their time first.  But they don’t owe you that opportunity.

For example – give me a flyer and it’ll go in the trash. But give me a cookie with your weekly special printed on it and you can literally ram that ad down my throat.

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Music The Best Thing I've Seen on the Internet Today

Thom Yorke Can Do No Wrong.

February 21, 2011 – 1:58 pm

Radiohead’s new album came out on Saturday. It’s awesome.

The first single, Lotus Flower, was realeased on the same day. Also awesome.

The video to Lotus Flower, featuring Thom throwing up some crazy shapes, get’s remixed by hundreds of people and posted to this Tumblr account. The most awesome thing ever.  Fact.

Download the new album here. It’s not free, but it’s only $9, which is basically free.

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B-roll Music Photography

B-roll Shot of the Day

February 17, 2011 – 4:02 pm

B_Roll_091004_1478.jpg

Just over a year ago we headed down to Seattle with a good friend to shoot Datarock performing live at some venue we’ve long since forgotten the name of. The thing about shooting bands is that the images rarely find a home on our site.

We should probably change our site (it’s in the pipes) as it’s some of the most interesting work we do.

On that note, after the gig we headed to an underground karaoke bar at about 3am.  It was slim pickings – not many places you can sing, drink booze and get edible food are open at that time in the morning, and this place fulfilled two of those three requirements.  There was a menu, but “unidentifiable on a plate” didn’t look too appealing.

Either way, Freddy started wailing to Bowie, a mini-keg appeared from somewhere, and the rest is a distant blur.

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Photography

A photo of someone taking a photo of two people taking a photo of themselves.

February 15, 2011 – 3:11 pm

It’s all gone a bit Inception.

A couple of weeks ago one of our neighbors at the studio came by to show us a photo series that he’s working on.  As a side note, this neighbour, Jonathan Dy, is the art equivalent of that kid you went to school with who could play any sport just by watching it for a few seconds.  I guess I always thought of him as a painter, but in the last year or so he’s become pretty prolific with a camera.

He’s currently shooting a series called “Shots in the Dark”, which plays on a trick that used to be more common in the days of film photography – using a long (up to 60 second) exposure and multiple strobes of a flash to create a composite in one frame. Essentially painting with light, but not as lame-sounding.

The thing about Jonathan is that once he starts something he dives right in, and in a few short weeks he’s already shot a bunch of these with the likes of human beatbox/poet CR Avery, Polaris long-listed Vancouver six-piece Brasstronaut, and Studio 304′s second finest photographer Adam Blasberg.  And now us.

We were pretty honored to take part, and so the three of us had a production meeting where we started planning what turned out to be one of the most technically tricky things to do in a pitch black room with white walls – take a photo of me and Adam taking a photo of ourselves on a 4×5 camera.  Sounds simple until you start thinking about how much light you need on the “subject” me and Adam to get any kind of registration on the ground glass.  Yep, stupid amounts.

Not only did he pull it off, he also managed to run a second camera shooting him shooting us.

That’s showboating.

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The Best Thing I've Seen on the Internet Today

The Best Thing I’ve Seen on the Internet Today #1

January 28, 2011 – 2:28 pm

Ke$ha, Katie Perry, Kanye.  Not to my tastes.

In the spirit of showing that being adored by millions takes about a day of work if you’re surrounded by enough talented studio techs and producers, two guys from Calgary and Victoria gave themselves 8 hours to record a pop song.  From scratch.

The end result starts at around the six minute mark.  Awesome.

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Free Music Music Vancouver Music

A Night To Remember – Coming Soon. And Free Music.

October 25, 2010 – 10:30 am

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All images ©2010 Adam and Kev Photography. Unsurprisingly.

I always get just a little bit frustrated reading about another night to remember that has since past. With that in mind – here’s one that hasn’t happened yet.  In fact, I don’t even know the where or when.  But it’s coming. So mark in in your diary.  Somewhere.

The Peak Performace Project (free song download on the site) is one of the best things to happen to local music in Vancouver in a while. Sure, it doesn’t quite offset the conversion of every small-to-medium-size live music venue into a lounge bar (ok, there are still a few left), but it does offer local artists the chance of winning $105,000 to push up a step or two.

Granted it’s a grant (they can’t splurge it all on hookers and blow), and they’re made to work for the opportunity, but hey – it’s potentially a game-changer in the right hands.

Last year’s winners We Are The City were incredible, and my personal favourite Bend Sinister (free songs on their site) came in a bewildering third, and from what I hear this year’s contestants are also something worth shouting about. I say “I hear”, because I didn’t make it to a single one of the six nights where the top 20 bands played. Shame on me.

Either way, public voting is underway, and the final can’t be far off (Jan 22nd @ The Commodore last year). When the top 20 was announced back in the summer I had my money on Said The Whale, but have since heard convincing/near threatening arguments for Sweatshop Union’s Kyprios, former Mother Mother star Debra Jean, Vince Vaccaro, and the young talents of 41st and Home (so young their violinist couldn’t be part of the line-up for the contest). And then who would write off the likes of Adaline, Bodhi Jones, Aidan Knight and Kuba Ohms?

Expect an update when the date/location for the final (where the top three fight it out) is announced, and potentially a few ignored grumbles if it’s at the Commodore – especially from the smokers out there (no in-and-outs and no smoking area can make the tobacco dependent a little bit antsy, and to be fair doesn’t feel too rock and roll).

On Twitter? Follow @KK‘s list of Vancouver acts here: http://twitter.com/kk/vancouver-music

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The Best Thing I've Seen on the Internet Today

The Best Thing I’ve Seen on the Internet Today #66

October 24, 2010 – 11:00 am

We often spend a lot of time in post production.  File management, batching digital negatives, lots of retouching. Hours in front of a screen.

Sometimes music just doesn’t cut the mustard for background entertainment, and we turn to the marvels of TV and film, but the tricky part is you have to be able to follow what’s going on without needing to constantly look at another screen.

Lost did the trick for a while (it was endlessly on repeat until the finale – which left us feeling cheated and used – but that’s another story), we’ve done The Office (the proper one) and Extras a few times, and it’s Ricky Gervais and Steven Merchant who’ve pulled the magic out of the hat once more.

Aided by Karl Pilkington, possibly the most northern northerner who ever existed, they’ve created yet another masterpiece.

Please step forward; An Idiot Abroad.

Genius.

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Music Vancouver Music

Mongoose, Backstage at the Biltmore…

October 23, 2010 – 2:25 pm

Back in the summer (it could have been earlier now I think about it) our good buddies at Mongoose, East Van’s very own prodigal sons of indie rock,  played at the Biltmore.  We had one of those ideas that seems great at the time – to do a quick interview with them before the show.

We forgot two things :

1. An interviewer (their drummer, Marc the Temp, stepped up to the plate)

2. Backstage at the Biltmore is a tiny room next to a speaker stack, essentially making it the world’s loudest closet.

In spite of said problems, Marc the Temp put frontman RC through his paces, answering the unanswered, solving the unsolved, and giving us some insight into the oft-overlooked genre of Japanese rock.

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Photography

Another slightly different stop motion – just for the Rethinkers…

October 22, 2010 – 11:36 am

Posting a video one day and an (almost) identical one the next day is a bit of a cop-out I guess, but hey, a bunch of people seemed to like the Taxi version so here’s the Rethink one for those who hold Rethinking close to their heart.

And if you’re reading this in the Rethink Vancouver office, there’s a magazine laying around somewhere that shows, amongst other things, a gang of unruly-looking thugs in the middle.  The generic digital version (that’s best viewed on a 1080p screen or it all gets very small) is here: http://www.adamandkev.com/veryimportantpeople.htm

Viva la shameless self-promotion.

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Photography

Moving Pictures. Always Trouble.

October 21, 2010 – 11:00 am

Back in the summer we made a few portfolio books for different ad agencies in Vancouver. Each one had a custom made cover. This is the stop-motion story of how one of those cover shots came together.

In truth the stop motion took longer than the shot.  But Adam loves stop motion. And partial nudity.

There are probably more of these to come – one is in the can, with just the editing to do.

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