Wednesday, April 1, 2009

the pitch

Here's how it goes (it's a little half baked for now, but that's just the idea).

We recruit as many as possible Church/Kilbey fanatics as possible (from the ranks of the time being commenters and wherever else in cyberspace).

Each makes a home video.  

The content would be loosely guided by a list of questions/topics that would be worked out here by everyone who wants to take part in the project.  I've deliberately given little thought to what the topics might be - maybe things like 'favourite lyric', 'how I found the Church', 'Kilbey'.  I'm sure that our collective imaginations can come up with some wonderful choices.

Otherwise, there would only be a few 'rules' about the videos.  They'd need to be relatively short (say 5 mins) and in a form where they can be easily 'chopped up' (per topic).  

Visual and narrative style would be entirely a matter for the contributor.  From what I have read from ttb commenters over the last few years, I expect we'd end up with riotous variety - silly, funny, sombre, adoring, philosophical, angry, crude, sad...

Once everyone had made their contribution (and this could involve some helping others with access to cameras, technology etc) all would be collected, chopped up, and reassembled into a sort of mosaic-documentary.  

I have no idea how many might contribute - obviously the more the better.  I reckon (with absolutely no basis) that we'd need at least 20.

Think of that very good pixies doco, only without the pixies and with us as the experts instead of all those journos and musicians, and then give it the look of a Christopher Guest film, and you'll probably have nothing like the finished product. 

There's a whole lot of stuff that would need to be thought through:

  • technical things - consistent format, aspect ratio, resolution;
  • who would do the chopping and assembling, and how.  I'm willing, but there are likely to be others more able;
  • what to do with the result if (as I half expect) it's fucking brilliant.  All I would say here is that the whole point of the exercise, for me, is to let as many people as possible in on something that is much more of a secret than it should be.  Any benefit should be for the band;
  • legal stuff - eg. if we want to use songs (which seems likely); 
  • heaps of other problems; and
  • title? (an early thought: "fiendss of the killer") 

For now, though, I'm just interested to see how many out there might be prepared to come along for the ride.  

Bloggywood anyone?

17 comments:

captain mission said...

i like this idea, a dvd perhaps made by fans. i bet no other band has ever had that happen. yes. i'm in.
i would like to get steves blessing on the final product though.
feel free to contact me 0405181962 there's no reason we can't start asap.

davem said...

I'm happy to do anything to help SK and The Chrunch but access to a camera etc might take me some time.

Some Bloke said...

davem

if we get enough people on board i'm pretty sure that those sort of details will take care of themselves

for the time being (so to speak!) it's a matter of bums on seats and then getting a clearer idea of what we want as the finished product

veleska1970 said...

like davem, i'm more than happy to do anything too, but my video camera is old and does not connect to a computer.

but i'll definitely be keeping an eye on this project.

lily was here said...

Definitely excited about this and ideas are brimming out of my head already!

Copyright roadblocks, yeah a headache and can be a big issue but you just go with the ones you get the greenlight for.

Ryan said...

Richard,

Of course you can count me in. Whatever you need, brother.

ryan

Freddie said...

Richard,
Sounds fun! You can count me in too.
Freddie

Curtis Gaston said...

feel free to use the video clips from the GAF tour that I shot.

http://warmupthetourbus.com/videos.htm

They're at the bottom of the page. On Youtube as well.

C

Thomas Thomsen, Denmark said...

I love it that you guys would really make an effort to bring more exposure to The Church, but I'm afraid that this isn't the way to do it. I think it would be more helpful, if you guys would do what I did - write some of the big music magazines and ask them to write a long article on the career of The Church. They do it with other, older artists, so why not The Church?

Some Bloke said...

no worries Thomas

but don't forget about us - I'm sure a bit of denmark would go really well

even if your contribution were just you saying what you've done with your letters

it's that sort of passion and commitment that the documentary will be all about

Warpedjohn said...

Thomas,
another good idea that one of yours about magazines. Have to written to MOJO ? I did once about an artist /article suggestion (not the church) but heard nothing back.

However I think the DVD idea is excellent. One of my son's friends is a film student and I'll run it by him as I can barely handle a kodak. A short film project for his class.

Slightly related ; the Beastie Boys handed out video cameras ( in excess of 100 I think ) to their fans outside a concert then edited all the results ( totally amateur shot ) into a concert movie that is better than most "proper" ones.

Warpedjohn said...

Thomas,
another good idea that one of yours about magazines. Have to written to MOJO ? I did once about an artist /article suggestion (not the church) but heard nothing back.

However I think the DVD idea is excellent. One of my son's friends is a film student and I'll run it by him as I can barely handle a kodak. A short film project for his class.

Slightly related ; the Beastie Boys handed out video cameras ( in excess of 100 I think ) to their fans outside a concert then edited all the results ( totally amateur shot ) into a concert movie that is better than most "proper" ones.

Warpedjohn said...

WTF ?? !!

Sorry about the double post, people.

how to delete one ?

fandorin said...

i'm in.

Anonymous said...

wow, sounds like a really cool idea, what kind of camera would be used?

Some Bloke said...

HH

welcome!

see post and comments for 18 April 2009 re camera possibilities

doctorwatson said...

Got my HDD video camera and want to use at the Londonderry, NH show but the venue says no video without permission of the band. I have e-mailed Church website but no reply. Got great seats and could get nice video but I'd like to get permission first. Ideas?

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