Just a quick note to say that as of Monday the 2nd of October Zebra Crossing will be working out of our nice new offices at 74 Berwick Street, W1F 8TE.
Just upstairs from the dentists.
Just across the road from Sister Ray Records.
Just up the road from The Blue Posts.
Exciting times.
Just have to say a quick word about our latest find on the crew side; on two of our latest shoots (which we’ll write about in due course) we were lucky enough to have a new (to Zebra) make-up artist on board. Michelle Jackson, who somehow had managed to elude us during her years of working, did an exemplary job both on a four-person corporate film and a glamour-model shoot.
Anyone who needs a make-up artist, send us an email at the usual address and we’ll put you in touch.
Just make sure you don’t book her when we need her. That would annoy us.
I wouldn’t ordinarily write a post about a specific part of a project before it’s completed, but our interview with Billy Bragg is worth mentioning, for several reasons.
Firstly his thoughts on the closure of the London Astoria for our ongoing documentary project were fascinating – he shared his memories of the beginnings of the ‘Love Music Hate Racism’ movement, which were launched at the venue, his early career playing The Astoria back in the 1980’s on to his last appearance there with Kate Nash.
We met Billy at the opening night of a series of gigs for the charity he is involved in – Jail Guitar Doors. Taking it’s name from a Clash B-side, the charity works in prisons and young offender institutions, donating guitars and teaching songwriting to inmates. The audience heard songs written and performed by Billy and singer/songwriter Kieran Leonard along with one of the former beneficiaries of the programme, Jonny Neesom.
A very worthy organisation, we at Zebra Crossing fully support the work these guys do and are very grateful to Mr Bragg and his colleague, Alan Miles, for their time.
The Astoria, London’s legendary venue, closed its doors for the last time on the 14th of January this year. We are making a documentary on this piece of British music history and were there to film the entire last night in glorious high definition. With the venue making way for the Tottenham Court Road Crossrail station, we’re getting in front of as many of the bands that played there as possible.
We would love to hear all your stories from the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s.
Let’s kick this off with:
Their May 1994 gig is remembered as one of Radiohead’s seminal coming of age moments prior to The Bends. Indeed the ‘My Iron Lung’ recording at the Astoria was never bettered, and with the addition of Thom Yorke’s vocals dubbed in, was used on the album.
We’re all smiles this week; it could be down to the summer weather or to the fact that the promo we shot for The Standards, “Needless to Say”, is being screened this Friday at DiBa, the Digital Barcelona Film Festival. In their words: “A selection of the best video clips of the year: samples of talent that break with the established rules. The most innovative and surprising music videos compete to win the DiBa Club award”. Giddyup.
For the second year running Phones 4u have won the Mobile News Awards with a set of entries designed by Zebra Crossing. Relating to the TV advertising we help them deliver we took the TV ad characters and used them in a Banksy, stencil style positioned around London, as if interacting with people as they walk by. We are delighted for Phones 4u and pleased that the work we do with them to deliver the TV ads (brilliant creative by WCRS) has been recognised.
With these entries also shortlisted for other awards we hope more success follows.
Last night saw the first public screening of Nic Franklin’s latest short film, Room 32.
Played to a full house of cast, crew and invited guests at the Rex Cinema, Piccadilly the film which is inspired by the Jim Morrison poem Room 32 was well received. It’s an emotional piece where the main character is a schizophrenic battling with his inner demons. The lead role is played superbly by Mark Dymond, (James Bond – Die Another Day; Blackball; Dungeons & Dragons; Northanger Abbey). Thanks go to everyone involved.
Also screened for the first time was the recently completed Music Promo for the fantastic new London Band ‘The Standards’. Filmed in two separate locations, we hired a full size Circus tent and performers during the summer of 07, completing filming in November at Big Sky studios in London’s Kings Cross. The band are performing to their single ‘Needless to Say’ in a ghoulish early 1900’s surrounding.
Directed by Nic Franklin and produced by Luke Hammersley, big thanks go to the band and all involved, but especially to DoP Joel Anderson and compositors Marc Khachfe and Siobhan Bowers who worked incredibly hard to produce such fantastic results. The promo has been entered into various film festivals around the world… watch this space.
Once again we have gone live with the online entry and payment system for the Rotary Club of Great Britain, Forest of Dean branch where they are now accepting entries for the 2008 Trails Half Marathon. Following on from last years success the database has been upgraded and tweaked ready for the many thousands of entrants to use. The race is held in March and we are proud to sponsor this charitable event through our work to help them to organise the event.
“Last Tuesday Night”, a short film commissioned by the NHS is now well underway with the bulk of filming completed recently. Final scenes involving people working across the organisation will be shot soon. Completion is scheduled for early August.
We are totally made up to announce the arrival of a new Zebra to the dazzle (yes the collective noun for Zebra is a dazzle apparently!).
Megan Herbert has joined us to work in a writing and creative role, which she has already been busy in working on scripts for a promotional film for the NHS which goes into production this summer, and conceptualising a brand awareness campaign for a new client.
Meg is an experienced scriptwriter, joining us from the Neighbours (Fremantle Productions) writing team where she has penned scripts for the soap for many years. We love having her around and are sure our clients will too!
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