music

Update
Don't you just long for summer, when it's this cold? =)

It's been some time since I've updated the blog, that's because I've been very busy over the last months. In my regular life, I have a job and in October, that job changed. I now have to travel up to 4 hours every day back and forth from work. It's a fun job, but the traveltime kills me (and much of the things I plan to do).

I haven't yet found a good solution for mobile blogging to Drupal, so as long as that's not possible, the updates to the site will be sporadic, probably... However... That does not been that I haven't been filming. No sir. Let me tell you what's going on.

The Space Between
In my last post I talk about the auditions for our new short film The Space Between. Well, after a few more rounds of auditions we've finally managed to cast all the actors for the film. We needed three male and two female actors, preferably from various countries, to make it an international cast. Well, we succeeded in that! We have actors from Ireland, the United States, the Netherlands and Brazil.

Up first is a last overhaul of the script, writing the shooting script and then rehearsals can start. I hope we'll be able to start rehearsals in March and I would love to start photography in May at the latest. Not that there's really a rush, but I'm excited to get started on this. I'll keep you posted!

Distel Promo
My friend Distel asked me to shoot a promo for his upcoming Ultra performance. I loved his idea for the promo, so one Sunday afternoon we set up in my bathroom and started shooting. Strobe lights, a TV set to white noise and a part of the stagedesign used by my old band IndusTree were all packed into the tiny bathroom. Have a look at the result here:

Zeno & Rodèlle
Zeno van den Broek, a soundsculptor and visual artist, for whom I've previously filmed one of his performances, has asked me to help him with a new art project, where he will present his paintings. He's asked me to film the paintings and make it an almost tangible experience. I was excited at the concept, so I told him I'd do it. Unfortunately real life got in the way a bit and we haven't yet had time to discuss details, but I'm hoping that we will soon be able to make some plans.

In the last couple of months I have been talking to another artist and sometime collaborator of Zeno's, Robert Rodèlle. Robert and I have been discussing doing a musicvideo for one of his tracks for quite some time now, but unfortunately we haven't yet had the chance. I consulted on his latest musicvideo (see below) and since we've been talking about what we want to do for his next video.

There's an idea floating around to push the boundaries of decency as we might let ourselves be inspired by one of Marquis de Sade's lesser known works. I'm really excited about the prospect of working with Robert on this. Hopefully we'll be able to find time this summer. Have a look at Robert's latest musicvideo:


Last thoughts
I've been talking to my friend Marko Martens about entering a film into a national filmcompetition, mainly because I want to work with him on a project. We're not there yet, but I'll keep bugging him.

My friends from Hong Kong, Robot Entourage, are working on a Zombie film, for which they've asked me to do the soundtrack. I've asked my friend Distel to help out and one of the tracks is close to completion. I'm still waiting to see the footage (and frankly to find some time) to start on the rest of the soundtrack. I've seen stills and from what I can tell it'll look amazing. I'll see if I can show you a still sometime soon.

Last night I submitted two videos to the Vimeo Awards competition. Unfortunately I couldn't submit Heroes for Ghosts, because it was too long. I did enter these though: in the category "experimental" I entered my sci-fi short 9 and in the category "music video" I entered Distel - onde, the promo I shot which you can see above. So fingers crossed and wish me luck! =)

Well, that's it for now. I still plan to do a series of articles on the shooting of the Heroes for Ghosts musicvideo, so watch out for that. Now I'm off to enjoy my Sundayevening!

The video for the new The Gathering track Heroes For Ghosts

is LIVE NOW!
on The Gathering's Youtube Channel!!

Check it out and let us know what you think of the video!

An easy URL to remember the video is http://tinyurl.com/heroesforghosts ! =)

The Gathering will be touring South America this summer with their South American Ghostride tour. To help them promote the tour, they asked me to shoot a promovideo for their tour.

Last year I also produced two promo's for the benefit concert they did in Chile for the victims of the earthquake. Them doing a benefit show like that is one of the reasons I like these guys so much!

The promo was shot handheld on the Canon 5D MkII with Canon primes during one of the band's rehearsal sessions. The "Weatherman" bit was shot on a tripod. There was some nasty rolling shutter as I pan at the end, but for this kind of quick production it's not that big a deal.

Since it was all quite impromptu I didn't have an external microphone with me, so I ended up using the on-camera mic. It performed better than I expected, actually, although the rehearsal itself was too loud for the mic. I got some nasty distortion as soon as the drums and guitars kicked in. We had fun shooting this thing and hopefully the tour will be a great succes! Look out for more info on the upcoming musicvideo!

Here are the tourdates for The Gathering South American Ghostride Tour:

Date	Venue	City	Country
24 June	Auditorio Derrama Majesterial	Lima	Peru
26 June	Teatro 16 de Julio	La Paz	Bolivia
28 June	Teatro Caupolican	Santiago	Chile
30 June	Teatro Colegiales	Buenos Aires	Argentina
1 July	Teatro CIEE	Porto Alegre	Brazil
3 July	Hangar 110	Sao Paulo	Brazil
5 July	Teatro Libre	Bogota	Colombia
8 July	Circo Volador	Mexico City	Mexico

Check out www.gathering.nl for more info on the band and the tour!

First of all: Happy New Year everybody! =)

Recently I had gotten an assignment from my art academy to shoot a short film about a specific space. Which is not an easy thing to do, because you have to have an inspirational space, you have to have physical access to the space and of course, permission to film there. After some deep thought and rummaging in my memory for a suitable spot, I remembered the parking garage I'd park my car in sometimes.

I have a fascination with empty spaces and I'm a big fan of science fiction. These two themes somehow always seem to blend together quite well. So one day as I was parking my car again, I thought I'd drive down to the bottom layer of the garage, to see if it was indeed empty as I'd suspected. What I found there was a world that gripped me immediately. I was entranced by the light, the symmetries and the space.

Next day, I had my still cam with me (a Nikon D3000 with an 18-200mm lens on it) and I started taking some pictures to see if I could capture what was going on here, that made me feel like I was in an abandoned spaceship hurtling through the vast reaches of intergalactic space. The photo's turned out quite well, I thought. I had found my space!

During classes I'd convinced my teacher and colleagues that this was something worth pursuing and armed with my tripod, my Panasonic DVX100B camera and a warm jacket, I one late night drove into the garage and set up my gear.

At first I had a hard time capturing the images that conveyed this feeling of solitude and timelessness, but as I let go of the need and relinquished control, slowly the images I'd been waiting for started to come through my viewfinder.

Unfortunately I have been ill for a week or two and I haven't had much time or energy to work on this, nor on one of the other projects I'm working on. I did work on the sound-design for this film in the CausaliDox studio, adding sub-bass drones, hisses and clicks to conjure up an aural image of an abandoned spaceship.

The film's title will be "9" . The deadline for this project is next weekend. So I'll be posting the film online after that. That is if I don't decide to make another version that is less clean, than required by the academy. Anyway, I'll post it soon.

I've also been writing a plan for this film. It's a first draft of a film-plan, so it definitely can be improved upon. It is in Dutch, I'm afraid. Click on the PDF link below to open the document. Feedback welcome as always.

Remember when I said that I would find some time to get the Monotonix live set at the Nijmegen Summer Festival 2010 online? Well, I finally got it done!

It was madness! These Israeli guys rock out, freak out, go completely nuts. Check it out:

www.monotonix.com

I spent tonite working on the Monotonix footage. It's quite long, nearly half an hour and the sound isn't the greatest, but I'll figure out a way to make sure the madness of the performance comes across.

Without giving too much away, let's just say that Monotonix' trademark move to perform their gig off-stage was executed with fervour and filmed at very close range. My own life hung in the balance as I ventured into the moshpit with the camera to get the shot, the camera's life was at risk when I got so close to the frontman that his sweat nearly burned through the lens.

I need to find some time to finish it. It's coming up soon. I promise...

I've co-directed and shot a film for the 48 Hour Film Project 2010 in the city of Nijmegen. Our film took first prize and then some! It will also be submitted for the finals in Miami, USA in March of 2011.

The movie tells the story of a dramatic last journey of three siblings contained within a flashback.

It was shot on a Sony EX-1 with a Letus 35mm adapter, using an array of Nikon Prime lenses. The whole production took place within 48 hours. We wrote the script, held rehearsals, shot the scenes, created the music and edited it all together, all while dealing with a few (technical) setbacks. Yet we made it in time.

STARRING
Sylvana: Marleen Schamp
Kim: Marissa Schijf
Luuk: Roel Smeets
Customer: Ariana Skverer

CREW
Director: Christian van Duuren & Marcus Moonen
Scenario: De Kijkbuiskinderen
Editor: Merel van Nus
Producer: Xanne Jacobs & Inge van den Broek
Camera: Christian van Duuren & Marcus Moonen
Sound: Bas Olbertz
Music: Peter Johan Nijland & Roel Smeets
Runner: Yon van Lith

We received awards for:

• Best music
• Best use of Nijmegen
• Best cinematography
• Best directing
• Best actress
• Best movie

The movie was also nominated for best sound design and best editing.

Watch it here in HD

For the presentation of the website www.vraaghetlotte.nl I was asked to create some custom sounds to underscore the ceremonies. 2 pieces were made, which were used in the presentation at the formal function. 4Milestones was very pleased with the results.