Bros. Mogg Blog

This blog has moved

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:49:00 +0000

This blog is now located at http://brosmogg.blogspot.com/.
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Hello there, new decade!

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 01:04:00 +0000

Happy new years blog readers!

Well, it's officially 2010 now and here's to a new year, and a new decade. We were up in Gisborne again this year at the Rhythm and Vines three day music festival.

It was the third time for us up Gizzy way for the new years celebrations, and the town always delivers on the weather side of things, while the people and partygoers of Rhythm and Vines do the delivery business with the music and vibes. (check out our first R and V post back in 2005/06)

So i will leave you a small selection of pictures i took to mark the occasion. Here's to another magic new years. And all the best to you on your 2010, may you have an excellent and fruitful one.

-Bros mogg.

Finishing Beanz: diary 08

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:13:00 +0000

Rowan shoots a bit of footage to digital-8 tape on his single CCD Sony Handycam circa 2001. About 40% of Beanz was shot on this camera.

Hey guys,

Well its another christmas. We have finished up with work for the year which gives us a bit of time to get down and get some stuff done on the film.

In the last post i was writing about the very first viewing of the whole movie from beginning to end. Since then, Phil and I had another viewing session. Overall we felt pretty happy at least with the cut as it exists... and yes, that it is worth finishing! There were some minor changes that we made to a couple of scenes though. Mostly just shortening a bunch of shots by a few frames, even removing one or two shots themselves. So now we are working on adding in some missing sound and dialogue bits so the movie is fit for our peeps we have chosen to be test viewers. This is when we will cop the real critical heat!

The other thing we are working on is the batch conversion of all the video footage that makes up the movie, from standard definition interlaced video to high definition progressive scan video. There is over an hour and a half of footage to upscale and convert. To do this, we are using Apple's "Compressor" batch processing software which is shipped as part of Final Cut Studio. So in between christmas shopping, sitting in the sun, bbq'ing, drinking and decorating the christmas tree, we plan to get all this video converted and verified over the course of the next two weeks.... or so. And then, it's onto finishing and grading, as well as a bit of 2D paint work here and there, removing the occasional boom mic that popped into shot.

So thats where we are at Beanz-wise.

I thought i would also take a moment to talk about the cameras we have used to shoot Beanz with.

Back in 1999, a good friend of ours by the name of Rowan, (or Rowox as he is otherwise known) purchased a flashy digital Handycam video camera. It was pretty much the first digital video camera i had used. It basically recorded digital video onto the "video-8" sized tapes that Handycam's had used up to that point. It was a pretty damn simple camera, just the standard built in lens, as well as a little wide angle conversion lens that could be screwed on for wide shots. From that i remember it was actually a nice little camera to use, very small and balanced as it sat in the palm of your hand. Its small size was also advantageous as it allowed for the occasional dramatic or awkward angle that a larger regular "professional" camera at that time would have been unable to achieve, very important for the style of this project.
However as you would expect, it didn't have the resolution or image quality that you would get from a more professional camera at that time, but that didn't really bother us too much. After all, it was our first attempt at a feature film and its how you use the tools.. right? Its all about ideas, story and character... right? And besides, we didn't have much money to spend, so its either make this movie with this camera, orrrrr.... make no movie at all. So we decided to make the movie.

The Sony PD-150 (with added velcro, and a bent mic from a shoot involving people in gorilla suits - long story)

The second camera is the Sony 3CCD PD-150, which Phil and myself purchased sometime in 2002. This was a sweet camera, and we still use it today. And hey! David Lynch used it for his awesome interview project. But anyway, as a prosumer 3CCD camera shooting standard definition onto mini-dv tapes, it is about as good as cameras get. We have shot most of Beanz on the pd-150, around 60%.

One of the issues on the surface we had in shooting with effectively 2 different classes of cameras was how to get the scenes shot on one camera to fit in with the scenes shot on another? The answer here lies in how we approached the movie in terms of it's shooting style, which i guess you could say mixes planned/composed shots with shoot-from-the-hip-documentary action. Beanz is a film set in the late 90's in a largely modern urban environment. So while to the conscious eye the difference between scenes will be noticeable, the effect should not be too distracting because of the overal DIY low budget documentary feel of the film itself.

I hope to talk a little bit more about my approach to the shooting in a later post, when i have a couple of shots to show on the blog. So i will leave it at that for now. Merry christmas y'all!

Finishing Beanz: diary 07

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:50:00 +0000

Ok so for the first time i sat down and watched through the entire movie tonight, and i thought i'd blog a couple of quick thoughts about it.

This initial viewing wasn't really a review per say, it was more like a test that all the temp movies (one for each scene) rendered out from Final Cut were working and playing together correctly. Yes they all rendered out ok, But however there are still a couple of minor glitches in the files that we still need to iron out, but the movie is fit for watching... albeit in a very rough and raw state. Mind you, only for Phil and myself at this point, as there are a few points in the film where sound effects need to be added that better describe what is actually happening in the scene. We can sit there and assume that these sounds exist as we watch. Would be a tad distracting for anyone else though.

Anyways, the shots are pretty much as they are straight from the camera tapes - raw as. The sound is rough and sometimes choppy, temp music tracks and some other sounds are slapped in just to get a sense of flow for editing purposes. Its rough and gnarly at times, but it plays and it now has a beginning, a middle and an end.

I have to admit i was always a little bit anxious about getting to this point, its the anticipation of sitting down on a couch in front of a big 46 inch screen, playing a nearly-finished edit of a movie that we shot the majority of around 5+ years ago, on standard definition camcorders. There is nowhere to hide now. Yes this has always been a side project. Yes you can leave this moment for a later time, and goodness knows we have. But this moment will come, and it has to be dealt with. Watch the damn movie. Deal with the inevitable!

And so, the inevitable thoughts and questions arise... Is this going to work? Will it flow? The quirky and experimental style, will this style/feel that we were toying with and trying to achieve come through? Will we stay in the scenes? Does the filmed and edited product sitting in front of us live up to what we were imagining when writing of the script? Will we be interested in what happens ...or is it going to suck?? And if it does not suck, will it feel like its worth the effort to carry it through in cleaning up the technical rough edges to make a presentable finished piece?

After the last scene concluded and i sat there, i thought.... well... that wasn't so bad.

The movie as it exists right now certainly needs a fair bit more work. There is still one more song that needs to be either written or acquired to serve it's role as a story piece as an example. There are a handful of shots that need paint work to remove things like the tips of boom mic's that momentarily dropped into the top of frame, amongst other things.

But as the whole, yes, i can see a movie in there. Sitting there by myself watching it i am reminded that Beanz certainly has its oddities, but we always knew that. But it plays. There are one or two scenes in particular that still need some serious edit TLC to get to work and flow better. But we will find out in more detail when Phil and I sit down together to watch and critique it properly over the next couple of days.

Next post: Finishing Beanz: diary 08 >>

Finishing Beanz: diary 06

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 08:25:00 +0000

A shot of Phil editing on the laptop for prosperity - finishing up the last edits for sc25, the last scene in the movie to be edited!

So whats the status?

Well, it's been quite a few weeks since the last update - so here's just a quick update on the status of things.

We have been mostly working on finishing the edit for a scene we shot earlier this year, which as it turns out is also the last scene to be cut. And now its done! yay! No rest for the wicked though, there is still heaps of tasks left to do.

The first of which involves working towards getting a final lockdown of all the edits for all the scenes, as well as how all the scenes work together as a whole. It is basically this point where we go over the film one more time, as an assembled whole, to try and work out what is working and what might not be, and to make the changes where appropriate. Once we have this, then we can get started on the proper sound mix. This will make up the meat of the post production and finishing work on this project. Beanz is a movie that has quite a reliance on its sound and music in order to convey its story and style properly, so its important that we take the time to get this as good as we can from within our resources.

The cut we have for the movie so far (pre-lockdown) is approx 1 hour, 20mins. So its not the length of most feature films, its more like a short feature. :)

Need a shave?: Here's me taking a tourist shot of myself for prosperity with Phil working on the edit in the background. In terms of the editing duties on Beanz, Phil and I usually sit down together to work on the cut. Phil tends to take the controls for scenes where dialogue is king, whereas i tend to be on button pressing duties for scenes where action takes prominence. But we always feed off each other for critiques and balance of opinion - from the outset we were always on the same page as to what the movie is and what its vibe should be.

Next post: Finishing Beanz: diary 07 >>

Aquatic Lab Sessions Vol.1

noreply@blogger.com (philmog) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 07:49:00 +0000

Aquatic Lab's debut compilation is in stores now! Featuring tracks by Zed Bias, Caspa, Cotti, P-Vans, Rusko, Spherix, and more!

The dubstep virus has spread and mutated over oceans and across continents in the past 5 years. At its furthest point, the virus has reached Austrialia and it's premier dubstep outlet, Aquatic Lab. Label owners Farj and Paul Fraser have assembled a stable of top UK producers mixed with the best Australia and New Zealand have to offer. 'Sessions Vol.1' showcases the talents of new producers Flash, Vista, P-Vans, Twitch and KIla Mega Giga Tera next to established UK steppers Zed Bias, Cotti, Seven, Caspa & Rusko. The set is well balanced between rampant club joints and home listening use, moving from Moving Ninja's ominous beatless opener 'Ankoku Butoh' to the mellow vibes of Flash's 'Right Here' onto runnin' techno-step from Vista and Zed Bias' with forward leaning killer 'Colditz', while outright anthems come on Cotti's dancehall message 'Nah Go Dung Deh' and Caspa & Rusko's 'King George'. Based on their quality values and tune selection, we'd have to rank these guys up next the likes of Tectonic or Tempa for all the Dubstep heads. Recommended!

Available on CD, Vinyl and mp3
Listen and purchase online here

The State of Georgia HD

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 04:08:00 +0000

Hey guys, I just uploaded a HD copy of "The State of Georgia" for you guys to check out.

Click here to download the original high definition copy or to view at a smaller size if you have a slow connection.

This is a film we made as part of the 48hr filmmaking competition here in New Zealand. As the name suggests... Film makers are challenged to make a short film over the course of 48hrs, within particular constraints such as genre, prop usage, and the inclusion of a particular line of dialogue.

In this short coming of age story, a young woman named Georgia goes out for her first taste of the nightlife with her hypochondriac friend Jerry, where she meets a mysterious woman who invites her into the VIP area of a nightclub.

Details:

Year: 2007
Duration: Approx 6 and a half minutes.
Genre/Style: Experimental/Abstract.

Coki & Loefah at Sandwiches

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 09:00:00 +0000

Sandwiches very proudly present two of the biggest names in dubstep:

Coki & Loefah (DMZ / UK)

Coki is a dubstep producer and DJ hailing from London, UK. He forms one half of Digital Mystikz, a dubstep partnership together with Mala, also working alongside Loefah to produce DMZ, a dubstep sound and night deep in the heart of Brixton. Perhaps best known on the commercial scene for the smash hit 'Night' which was co-produced by fellow dubstep DJ/producer Benga, Coki is constantly carving out the future of bass culture. The beat was so catchy that it was massive in the club and rave scene, and barely a grime set passed without hearing the distinctive sound at some point.

Loefah is without a doubt a bastion of dubstep. His contributions to the DMZ imprint could be considered key moments in the evolution of the genre; whilst his remixes for Skream (on Tempa) and his recent Tectonic outing only serve to enforce this belief.

Unlike other producers, Loefah's bass excursions don't venture into the wibbly wobbly sub-aquatic realms. Instead they attempt to shatter the listener's rib cage with frequencies that could be used by French riot police.

Local support from Wellington's own bastions of dubstep, the Strictly 138 crew:

P-Vans

Thief

Kaps

& Steppa D

Thursday 15th October - 10pm.

Tickets: $30+bf general. $20+bf for members of Club Sandwiches (online only)

Available from www.sandwiches.co.nz, Real Groovy, Samurai Store, Cosmic Corner (Manners Mall), and Empire Skate.

Finishing Beanz: diary 05

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 09:01:00 +0000

Back in our first Beanz diary entry i mentioned that the origins of this project stemmed back from a little film we made as students called The Wrong Side of Bed. Todays diary entry casts a bit more light on that little movie we made all the way back then!

If i am to be utterly honest i can not really remember that much about the making of this film. However. I do remember around 1995-96 Phil making a little video (also) called Wrong side of Bed, which basically involved me filming him (and sometimes him filming himself because i had a hangover from the night before or something) playing a character where by chance, all these horrible and unfortunate things would happen to him. I recall in that original video we made we did some really really super crude digital effects on our Commodore Amiga 1200.

One such effect was taking an animated dinosaur loop from a Playstation 1 demo and superimposing it over some footage we filmed of Phil on the street outside the house. Thankfully because it was supposed to feel all depressing because of this characters horrible day, we filmed it all in black and white, making the effects relatively easy to do with our Amiga computer, "Vidi-Amiga " capture card and copy of Deluxe Paint.

Anyway, after having a bit of fun with that we thought we would redo it. From what i recall we wanted to make something that was quite simple to do, a pretty simple story that was made up of mostly visual gags and involved one person as the main character. Then we put in a series of secondary characters where we could just get whatever mates we had around at the time to come and play them. So one day, sometime around 1997, we made The Wrong Side of Bed.

We shot the movie on a standard, run of the mill Sony digital 8 camcorder, and used a Power Macintosh 8500 to capture the footage. We edited it with an early version of Adobe Premiere (5.0 i think) at a sub-broadcast quality resolution of 384x288 pixels (our computer didn't have enough memory for anything bigger). So this weekend I managed to dig up a copy of it, upscaled the resolution a little bit and uploaded it to ExposureRoom.com.

If the above clip is loading too slowly for your internet connection you can watch a smaller version here

So how does this little movie relate to Beanz?

Well basically, this film and Beanz have very little in common. When we set out to make Beanz all the way back in late 2000, we really liked the Angus, Bum and Yawie characters. Bum is the big scruffy guy and Yawie is the annoying guy who sneaks into Angus' house. So we took those characters and wrote a whole new story from scratch featuring them.

The music you hear in that film (except for the cheesy opening music haha) Was all written by Phil and the ending credits music with his band "GoFellas" that he was in at the time.

Next post: finishing Beanz diary 06 >>

Finishing Beanz: diary 04

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 22:29:00 +0000

(Warning - another overly geeky post!)

It was a pretty productive this last weekend gone, I managed to find some time to crack into my 2nd go at doing some colour correction. My first attempt went ok, it was mostly involving rolling up my sleeves and getting stuck into trying to work out how to use a software application called "Color" which is part of Apple's Final Cut Studio.

The newest version of Color has fixed a couple of issues that I encountered on my first attempt to import a Beanz scene into the application from Final Cut. Previously if you had an edited sequence which contained still images, such as overlaid type created in Photoshop for title credits, the imported sequence would appear all messed up in Colors timeline, making it almost impossible to select clips for adjustment. So with that fixed we are now cooking with gas!

Working on Beanz sc10. The colour correction process is particularly important for this project i think, Working with Color to help define the overall visual style, and to make the most of the available image data in a complementary way.

One of the things I should point out for any newbie colour graders working with this software for the first time is to bare in mind that Final Cut and Color display their Colours on screen quite differently. ...James says after image grading a whole scene only to bring it back into FCP with all the colours wrong - gah!

Basically, Color conforms to the Mac's system wide Gamma setting (which by default is 1.8) whereas Final Cut, apparently, overrides this and displays its colours at 2.2. However, FCP7 does assume that footage being imported into it is at gamma 1.8 by default. Confusing? yes, yes it is!

Long story short, I have found Color to be a pretty powerful grading tool when you have the will and give it the time to get to know it, and can look past its prehistoric caveman looking interface. I was able to write out a dvd-ready mpeg-4 file which looks correct when viewed on a standard Quicktime movie player, but it remains to be seen how it looks on an actual dvd playing on a random TV screen. I'm sure if I don't succeed I will moan about it here on a future post :)

Next post: Finishing Beanz diary 05 >

Finishing Beanz: diary 03

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 12:22:00 +0000

Ravers firing on all cylinders busting out the glow sticks + grooves. No narcotics were consumed in the shooting of this scene.

Back a couple of months ago, on the 2nd of May 2009, We finally completed shooting everything we needed to shoot to complete the edit. Here is a series of images by photographer Karim Sahai, who was there to document the action. Cheers Karim!

Now, while most of the "principal photography" of this project was completed a good 2 years ago, there were still a few little bits in pieces, or "pick-ups" that we felt we still needed to do in order to tie up the story a little bit better. So this was one of those shoots.

Hmm, well what else can i talk about on this post without giving away too much about the story and where this scene fits within it? Ok, i will state the obvious here that this scene takes place at a rave - In a nightclub, in the very early 2000's :). We learnt quite a bit about how to deal with doing a scene which involves working with a large group of extras. Directing was especially tricky, as i was shooting the action while Phil was performing as Angus. Normally when we were shooting the rest of the movie we could get away with not having someone acting as an assistant director, not so in this case. So we got the help of Sophia Elizabeth, who took on the juggling tasks of keeping the extras happy, dealing with misc production issues during the day as well as being an extra herself. Cheers Sophia!

Juggling tasks is the order of the day: Phil ques up a portable DAT tape recorder to record the audio feed from the Sandwiches mixing desk shortly before shooting the first take. The idea here is to actually use the audio from the microphone that Angus is MC'ing into for the dialogue in the actual scene. This will be incorporated into the sound mix later on.

An extra patiently waits between takes.

An extra applies some hair gel whilst others chill out before the shooting begins.

Phil looking happy as he gets ready for shooting the scene while Sophia is wettening his hair for a more hot and sweaty appearance.

Extras stand by for shooting to begin.

Home made: Rachel holds up our makeshift slate for the camera. For this scene we shot in a very "freestyle" manner, so yes, we were very loose with our slate naming conventions :)

Phil as Angus: Working the decks.

Ravers in full swing during shooting.

Girls on the dance floor.

Quickly discussing some notes between takes.

Crowd shoot complete.

James downloads and quickly reviews a couple of takes as Clare looks on - its in the can!

Chatting with Hamish (cowboy hat), Who plays the character "DJ Danny Reed". This scene was actually shot on a high def camera, a Panasonic HVX-202. The media will be down sampled to match with the rest of the standard def DV footage. The idea here was basically: "well we have one at our disposal, so might as well use it. Better to have more information to work with than not enough"

If you would like to see more of the brilliant photographic work by Karim Sahai, check out his website - where you can browse his portfolio and order prints.

http://www.karimsahai.com/

Sending out a BIG thanks to all who helped make this shoot happen, including: (and not limited to) The owners of Sandwiches, all of those who helped organize costumes, the lovely extras, Rocket Rentals for their sweet rental deal on the camera and microphone equipment, Grouse lighting and everyone else we may have missed writing here - thank you!

Next post: Finishing Beanz diary 04:

Finishing Beanz: diary 02

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 22:05:00 +0000

Yay! My adapter arrived today! geek blog alert!

So to some this may seem a little weird to be getting excited about a little piece of plastic & metal, but i'm stoked. The adapter in question is a MiniDisplayPort to HDMI adapter that i ordered from a company called Monoprice in the USA.

So whats so great about it then?

Well to provide the answer for that requires a bit of background info on the setup i am using for adjusting the color grade for the movie.
I am working on a 2009 model Apple Macbook Pro. Anyone who uses these computers are probably aware that if you want to be able to output an image from one of these babies to an external display, it has to be output via it's Mini Display Port.

The display i am using for grading is basically a Panasonic plasma television. These plasma screens are better than their LCD equivalents for this sort of thing because of their superior contrast ratios and wider colour gamut. The problem with it being a television screen and not a computer monitor is that it does not have the usual DVI style input/s you would expect from a modern computer monitor. It does have VGA input though, however thats an analogue connection and for the purposes of image accuracy i am aiming for a digital to digital signal connection.

So this is where the new adapter comes in. Previously i only had the option of using a combination of adapters that i purchased from Apple. One being MiniDisplay > DVI, then another cable that went from DVI to the HDMI input at the back of the Plasma. I found this not to work very well as all sorts of weird image artifacts would appear on the outputted signal. Upon research online i found that i was not the only one and others have encountered this issue.

So yea, top tip! If you need to connect your Macbook pro to a big screen TV using this method, avoid! Buy a proper MiniDisplayPort to HDMI adapter. :)

Now that we have a decent 1080 digital feed into an external display, i can now start on working to achieve a good colour calibration for the screen to allow the image grading to commence. Because Beanz is shot using (mostly) older footage shot on "standard-def" DV video, the aim here is to try and get as much as possible out of the lower resolution images so that they gracefully translate into the now ubiquitous high-definition format. I will cover this in a bit more detail in a later post.

Next post: finishing Beanz: diary03

P-Vans on Aquatic Lab release parties

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 09:16:00 +0000

Strictly 138 & Beatmerchants presents:
AQUATIC LAB SESSIONS VOL.1
CD & VINYL RELEASE PARTY
Aquatic Labs debut compilation featuring tracks by Caspa, Rusko, Cotti, Zed Bias, P-Vans, Seven, Spherix & more!

In celebration of Aquatic Labs debut compilation release, DJ's Paul and Farj (AUS) bring an exclusive set of forthcoming material fresh from the Lab along side P-Vans showcasing a slew of original dubs and specials. This night will guarantee hype dancefloor pressure.

AUCKLAND - FRIDAY 31ST JULY @ FU
with support from: Jason Howson, Frosty Boy and Future One
limited presales $15+BF available from Beat Merchants & I Ticket

WELLINGTON - SATURDAY 1ST AUGUST @ THE GARDEN CLUB
with support from: Strictly138's Thief & Steppa D
+ guests Alectron & Evil
limited presales $15+BF available from Real Groovy, Cosmic Corner & Samurai Store

Links:

Aquatic Lab Records:

http://www.aquaticlabrecords.com/

P-Vans MySpace:

http://www.myspace.com/pvans

Kode 9 with Strictly 138

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 12:45:00 +0000

Update: check out the gig review for Kode9 on niceup.org.nz

The absolute evolutionary godfather of dubstep, KODE 9 is on his way to Aotearoa to take everything you thought you knew about the sound and flip it around, bringing you symphony of sonic seduction!

Kode 9 has nurtured dubstep music since day one, shaping its definition through founding the record label HYPERDUB. This imprint has given artists BURIAL, ZOMBY, IKONIKA, FLYING LOTUS and KODE 9 the strong voices needed to deliver an even stronger message: music that drowns out your expectations and resonates with your emotions.

In 2006 the underground music world was astounded by Burials groundbreaking debut, which was awarded 'Album of the Year' status by THE WIRE magazine, and described as an absurdly addictive sonic opiate - a feat that would not have been possible without Kode's support. Out of this success, the HYPERDUB label has brought many ruff and revolutionary artists to our consciousness, and is refusing to adopt a formulaic approach to the sound.

Kode's critically acclaimed debut album, 'Memories of the future' featuring Spaceape, has also been at the forefront of his exploratory approach, establishing his role as an artist, author, and lecturer on audio culture. It's an interest that spans from grime emcees waging war with a mic to the US army waging war with advanced sonic weaponry. "It’s about the use of sound as a weapon. It’s about collective grass roots, tactical media, pirate radio, network culture, DIY media...”, an attitude that will ensure a night of auditory adventure.

KODE 9'S WELLINGTON DEBUT is your opportunity to witness an evocative artist that "vibrates the bits that other djs don't reach". The Strictly138 crew, KAPS, P-VANS, STEPPA-D, THIEF and EXCELLE will support the night with a selection of explosive New Zealand dubplates for the courageous dancefloor soldiers. Nothing else matters but this night!

Get hyped for the HYPERDUB and get ya HYPERDANCE on!

warning: heavy sub pressure inside the ride

Limited presales $30 + bf from Samurai Store, Cosmic Corner, and Real Groovy

Bros Mogg blog update

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Sun, 24 May 2009 08:27:00 +0000

Hi readers,

Well its May 2009 already and we thought it was a good time to add a few changes to the site.

Now in it's fifth year as a blog, we are now going to take the site in a more established direction as an "online diary" of projects we have been involved with personally, as well as showcasing the occasional bit of info about stuff happening around us here in Wellington and NZ as well. Definitely with more of an emphasis on personal creative projects and original content though.

So to start this update, It is worth me mentioning that NZ director James Cunningham has completed his latest short film "Poppy" recently. I worked on this project doing Motion Capture and Motion Edit work with the team at Weta Digital. It was a great project to work on and the finished product looks great!

You can find more info on Poppy at the official website at http://www.poppyfilm.com and/or if you are a facebook user, become a fan on the official facebook fan page.

The Official Poppy poster.

Another 48hr furious film making contest has come and (almost) gone, i went and took part this year helping out team Puppyguts with some camera operating. We got the "revenge" genre and the team ended up making a short about a Mime.

Titled "Mime and Punishment", we still as of yet have not seen the finished product! This is due to us missing the heat screening last monday. Anyways, check out the Puppyguts page on Vimeo to see more of their stuff.

P-Vans has another exciting gig coming up that he has been working on with the Strictly 138 boys, more info on that to come in a later blog entry.

And in other news, we have finally finished shooting everything we need for our long running project "Beanz" We hope to post up more blog diary entries over the next few months following progress as we get closer to finishing the damn thing. Focusing on post production info, technical hurdles etc, as well as a little backstory of the childhood legacy that is the movie itself. So stay tuned for that :-)

The weathers shit here in Wellington at the moment, so till next time - stay warm & cosy!

Cheers

-Jamesmog

Ghost Dubs, featuring DUES PAID

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:07:00 +0000

strictly138 presents
Ghost Dubs
featuring
DUES PAID Live Wellington Hip Hop
Po'Cus // Olearly // Ridge Jaggers
www.duespaid.bandcamp.com

STRICTLY138
P-Vans // Kaps // Thief // Steppa D
www.myspace.com/pvans
www.myspace.com/strictly138

+ guests in the bar: Psyrok (uk) & Excelle
www.myspace.com/psyrok

Dues Paid on at midnight
$5 doorsales

DUES PAID

Wellington's own live Hip Hop crew Dues Paid are a collective of MC's and beat makers. Ridge Jaggers on the beats, Po' Cus and Leary are the emcees. And whenever he's in town, Sativa rips shit up like puppies teething. Big Asian's got the mean beats in boxes aww.

Often scattered about the country this local Hip Hop crew are always working hard at the controls bringing a fresh raw Hip Hop sound that is lyrically true to themselves and their surroundings. Tunes like "Wicked Raps" shine with a tight and raw production and deep contemplative lyrics while tunes like "The things that you won't do" bring a humorous laid back vibe. Dues Paid perform live at the upcoming Ghost Dubs event alongside Wellington's original Dubstep talent Strictly138 bringing bare exclusive dubplates.

Artwork update

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 00:33:00 +0000

Artwork and poster design for the upcoming Freq Nasty show in Wellington.

What a great Christmas and New Years it has been! A satisfying ending to what i personally thought was a pretty shitty year, with some exceptions. 2009 is here now, and I'm determined to ensure its utter awesomeness.

What have we been up to since the last update? Other than Weta work? Well, went to Rhythm and Vines over the break, up in sunny Gisbourne - and did some Photography work while we were up there. What a great experience! It was our second time spending our new years there and it always delivers with such a nice vibe, great weather, music and just generally lots of fun.
I am actually trying to find some time to work on an XML/flash gallery to display some of pictures i took, once i am able to work out all the details. So fingers crossed i can get that all together.
In the meantime, here's some of the ones i took amongst those taken by others at the official R&V website gallery or ths link from the New Zealand Herald.

As you can see, Phil has been hard at work with his DJ'ing and production with his Strictly 138 crew with the Upcoming Ghost Dubs TRUTH gig, and we have been working on artwork for the 2009 FreQ Nasty Orientation tour, He's playing here in Wellington on the 5th of March and it shall be a rather excellent night!

So i think that's about it, project wise that's all i can report (without getting into trouble) Belated love and happy new years to all.

peace,
-Jamesmogg

Ghost Dubs, featuring TRUTH

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 00:24:00 +0000

P-Vans - Black Sheep EP

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 07:31:00 +0000

Release date set for 14/11/08 this will be a beatport exclusive for the first 6 months
www.beatport.com

All tracks written by: Phil Van der Reyden
mastered at Transition Mastering Studios
© 2008 Bassweight Recordings

tracklisting

a. Black sheep
b. V Dub
c. Weta cave
d. Panic attack VIP
e. Weight Break
f. Searching for sun

P-Vans debut Black Sheep EP is being released this Friday on Wellingtons premiere Dubstep & Electronica label Bassweight Recordings. The initial release is available exclusively on www.beatport.com for the first 6 months then is distributed to all the wider online music stores including digital tunes, juno download and I tunes. There will also be a follow up CD album hitting the stores next year which will include brand new exclusive P-Vans tracks and remixes by other local NZ Dubstep artists.

The Black Sheep EP is a compilation of tunes that have been tested on dubplate for the last 2 years and featured in almost every P-Vans DJ set around the country. The overall vibe of this EP is a blend of dark and haunting moods, atmospheric and quirky orchestral vibes, to laid back summer dub bass. The EP has received DJ support from many of NZ's finest dubstep DJ's including Jason Hawson, Frosty Boy, L Que, J Red, Oogun, Evil and Undertow and has received radio play from Radioactive 89fm, RDU and George FM. The EP is packed with dance floor fillers including the massive "Black Sheep" which has been called for rewind in almost every P-Vans set. Tunes such as V Dub and Weta Cave bring the highly swung atmospheric 2-step rhythms and deep bass instrumentation while Weight Break delivers a Phat punchy rolling break-beat monster for the peak time dance floors.

The Black Sheep name and cover artwork has many sub surface metaphors. "Although we have been burnt in some way or another we still stand tall and never give up" - P-Vans. photographed by Wellington photographer Paul Redican and chosen by P-Vans himself this dark and moody image gives a visual interpretation of the vibe of the Black Sheep EP. Mastered at Transition studios in South London these tracks shine with crisp warm sound with earthquake worthy sub bass guaranteed to test any gigantic rig.

Over the last 4 years P-Vans has grafted away at his own unique sound and has played a major part in shaping the Dubstep sound in NZ along with his crew Strictly138 and other NZ crews and DJ's: Subtle Sound system, Frosty Boy and Dubstep Alliance.

Shouts: my girl Rachel, my family and freinds, Kaps, Thief, Steppa D, Oogun, Frosty Boy, Undertow, Jason Hawson, Ill Figa, L Que and J Red, Ekim, J Kon, Excelle, Josie B, Double Negative, FreQ Nasty, Tayo, Zed Bias, Aquatic Lab, Moggey, Sandwiches, Optimus Gryme, Olly @ Bassweight recs and all the Wellington Massive for coming to our gigs and supporting original NZ music.

Plastician at Garden Club

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 10:36:00 +0000

PLASTICIAN UK

Saturday 13th December

Garden Club

13b Dixon st Wellington CBD

presales $20 available from Samurai Store, Realgroovy & Cosmic Corner from 6th Nov. More on door

Plastician started DJing with UK Garage aged 16, has since played on London pirate stations 2G FM and Delight FM and on Rinse Fm in 2004 . He taught himself production aged 18. His track 'Venom' was his first release on the Slimzos label in early 2002. Releases followed on labels such as Contagious, Road and Soulja in the same year, with tunes "Hard Graft" and "Pump Up The Jam" making no. 1 on the 1Xtra Garage chart. Aged 20, he started label Terrorhythm Recordings and established his name as key producer on the grime scene working with MC's Skepta and JME to name a few. In 2004, he toured the USA with Aphex Twin's Rephlex label and featured on Rephlex's 'Grime' album.

Plastician Currently DJs at club nights in the UK including FWD, DMZ and Fabric in London and has toured all over Europe, Japan and USA. His track titled "Cha" featured on the legendary 2006 Mary-Anne Hobbs - Warrior Dubz compilation.

Recently Plastician remixed M.I.A's URAQT track for XL recordings, Alter Ego's "Rocker" and The Black Ghosts "Some Way Through This" collaborating with Dubstep legend Skream. This year Plastician has released a full length album titled “Beg to Differ” on his own established label Terrorhythm recordings and was chosen to mix the massive Rinse vol. 06 compilation.

Plastician's forward thinking beats and warped deep bass productions have received massive DJ support from the biggest names in the scene including Skream, Hatcha, Benga, N-type, Zed Bias and DJ Chef. On the ones and two's Plastician is a serious bad boy dropping 3 deck mixes on Rinse FM with live sets packed with fresh explosive tunes bridging the gap between Dubstep and Grime. With heavyweight sound system inside Garden Club and local crew Strictly138 & DJ Excelle in support, this will be one of the biggest Dubstep events Wellington has seen this year.

DJ Chef

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 23:01:00 +0000

Strictly138 presents:
DJ CHEF
UK DIRECT / RINSE FM / FWD / DMZ / RINGO RECORDS

support from
Strictly138 + Sketchy B

Friday 12th September
Sandwiches
tickets $25 + bf Real Groovy & www.sandwiches.co.nz

Hailing from the home of Dubstep, Croydon, South London, DJ Chef has been mixing for 12 years.

DJ Chef is one of the pioneering DJs of the sound known as Dubstep, a music that has originated from South London and has now become a global phenomenon. DJ Chef's upfront selection and skills on the decks have led him to dates in places as far as the USA, Finland, Israel, and now New Zealand.

DJ Chef is also a resident at the two genre-defining Dubstep nights in London: DMZ and FWD.
Furthermore, DJ Chef has been playing host on London's leading pirate radio station, Rinse FM, for the last 4 years. Known for his energy behind the decks, a love for subsonic bass, and an ear for playing anything Dubstep as long as it's good, DJ Chef will bring nothing but positive vibes and good music to New Zealand dance floors.

Strictly138 are a crew of Wellington DJs and producers that formed in early 2006. They Regularly host the Home bass show on Radio Active 89fm on Thursday nights from 11-1 bringing fresh New Zealand dubs to the airwaves. Recently Strictly138's P-Vans has had tunes signed to DPR Recordings (UK) and Aquatic Lab(AUS), with a forthcoming EP due for release this year on Bassweight Recordings.

Don't miss this seminal night featuring one of the hardest working DJs in Dubstep with support from Strictly138 and Sketchy B.

Winter Ghost Dubs

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 06:27:00 +0000

In early 2007 the Ghost Dubs nights were introduced to Wellington focusing on the underground roots of Dubstep with Strictly138 & guests serving up a diverse blend of dark garage, Dub and jungle tunes for a dynamic sub bass driven dance floor experience. Since then Ghost Dubs has been known as a quality upfront Wellington Dubstep night embracing producers and DJ's from around NZ.

Featuring Auckland's heavyweight producer Frostyboy bringing original NZ Dubs and Kaps returns from Osaka Japan armed with upfront productions to unleash on Subnine's sound system.

Ghost dubs looks set for a big night in Subnine for wicked vibes, atmosphere and chest rattling Bassweight.

P-Vans Myspace
Strictly 138 Myspace
Frostyboy Myspace

Moggey Youtube Channel

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Tue, 27 May 2008 06:20:00 +0000

Man it sure has been a while.

Well, as usual this year, Phil and I have been SUPER busy. But until i find something else to blog about, i thought i would post a little link to a page we have setup on Youtube, which features a lot of the videos that we have posted on this blog as well as others of interest to us, via our "favourites".

Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/moggey

Finishing Beanz: diary 01

noreply@blogger.com (James) — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 11:23:00 +0000

Welcome to the Finishing Beanz, post production diary blog!

This section of the blog we have put together to document our ongoing process of completing a low budget Indy movie. Hopefully interesting to people, Beanz has been a very unusual and long project for us. Its a project that has served as a learning process about the serious business of film production - and of course just the fun of doing something creative.

Over the next few months we will try and cover in a little bit more detail explaining exactly why this project, as a film, is so unusual. Posts dedicated to various areas and topics, such as shooting, writing/script, editing, directing, producing, music, sound design and mixing, dealing with DV video media, color and more.

So to start things off, here are a few little facts about the movie itself:

Beanz is personally produced, directed, shot, written, edited by the "Brothers Mogg". (James and Phillip Van der Reyden) So in effect, while we have received so much support from so many wonderful friends and colleagues, this has been pretty much a fully DIY project. In addition to all the production tasks, Phil also plays as the main character - Angus Peterson.

The characters and "story universe" were taken from a short 15min movie we made back in 1997 while just having fun/playing around as students. That film was called "The Wrong Side of Bed". Its story was pretty simple - A character named Angus Peterson wakes up one morning only to have a really unfortunate day, possibly one of the worst days of his life.

We started making Beanz back in late 2000, pretty much for the same reason as making The Wrong Side of Bed - basically to have fun and get a little bit of practice on how to make a film, a feature length film. I remember thinking at the time, "how hard can this be?".

Its worth noting this was at about the same time as us starting at Weta Digital, so it wasn't long before we got an answer to that question.
Trying to write, plan and shoot basically a feature length movie, doing things we have never tried before... on top of a 50hr minimum week at a major digital effects studio - on top of all the other responsibilities of life. This was not an easy feat for anyone. So we always wanted to think of Beanz as our little practice ground. We had no real need to make the thing, no set budget, and no deadline. Relax, have fun, work on it while we can, don't take it too seriously. But at the same time, treat it seriously. Believe that it will be something that will be fun to watch when it is done. And as a creative and learning process, it is certainly a worthwhile thing to do.

Beanz is shot in DV video. One of the interesting things about making something slowly over a long period of time, especially in an era where digital technology is progressing so fast, is that the very medium we are making the movie on can now be considered antique!
Basically, back in 2000, DV video was the best format that we could afford to shoot on. There was no such thing as high definition back then, and film was super expensive! Thankfully, the style of the movie lends itself to the lower resolution medium. A quirky late 90's story about a quirky character in love with a quirky song. Shot in a documentary influenced style.
Although the movie is shot on DV (720x576 pixels), the final movie will be created as a High Definition 1920x1080 print, where the footage will be treated to look as good as possible at the larger size.

Check out the next post, Finishing Beanz: diary 02 here:

P-Vans - Twist Perception

noreply@blogger.com (philmog) — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 02:31:00 +0000

With a serious studio upgrade and allot more concentration and effort on the music production front lately I have managed to russle up some new tunes focusing on harder edged spooky atmospheres, energetic bottom end bass weight rhythms and minimal tough beat structures.

With a return to my love of straight up spacial, jiggy, weighty, soulful 2-step and breakbeat influences these latest tunes have been a bit of a reflection of some of my favorite elements in dance music and simply a vibe that strays away from rinsed Ecstasy and bzp muppets with no dancefloor etiquette, sleazy pop cliche's and disinterested party goers.

It's the best thing to have someone on the dancefloor at a gig appreciate and enjoy your DJ set mainly because they are feeling your original music. So my motivation to rock parties is now largely built on that, Playing your own exclusive dubplates to a crowd that cares is an amazing feeling and it really builds motivation not only for you as a DJ, but for the crowd to keep on movin and experiencing new fresh music from the local scene also. Plus it puts a shit load more energy in to your DJ set.

Tunes I have done recently are up on my P-Vans myspace page.
recently "Ghost Pennies" has been signed to local mp3 label "Bassweight Recordings" an upcoming Wellington Dubstep label which will soon be available for purchase at Juno records
in the coming months. Black Sheep, and a new fresh one Twist Perception I'm looking to have cut to Dubplate through Transition mastering studios within the next month.

Ghost Dubs has been happening every season down at Tupelo since late 2006 which focuses on the roots of Subbass driven music known as "Dubstep" featuring a broad variety of DJ's and producers each bringing something unique to a vibing, fresh, open minded and enthusiastic dancefloor with quality heavyweight soundsystem. Next installment of Ghost Dubs "Spring Edition" is happening on Saturday the 10th November featuring Welly's own local lineup: P-Vans, Steppa-D, MC.Tekka, Exelle, UKnw,Theif and Funkdamunk. Stay tuned.