Taken in my apartment on the first night of the shoot, where we slowly got our heads around the equipment, assembling the mannequins, dressing them, laughing at their weird mounds and trying not to drop them.

We shot a variety of stop-motion and puppetry sequences involving the main character as he prepares for his night out. We also shot two green screen shots, a leg-crossing shot and a TV screen replacement.

The leg cross was improvised and rushed so it never really worked out in post and was scraped. There’s a slight camera movement in the TV screen replacement shot (featuring Dave running me over in Turn Around!), I tracked the shot for the mask but couldn’t manage to get the colour/shine right on the screen before the television turns on.

Other random trivia:

• For some reason the gels kept melting on the lights all night.
• Mannequins can take a good slap when dropped on their faces.
• One of the mannequins had a very strange hole in a very strange place… before we took him out of the box!?
• One of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen is Dave & Der showering a mannequin!?

You can check out my favourite photos from the bunch here on the Oss237.com Homepage with links to the rest on Flickr and if you haven’t watched the music video yet then click here.

More photos coming soon!

I can’t find any sort of web-presence for the band yet but it features two former members of Mata Hari who I did a shoot with last year.

The new band are currently working on their debut E.P which will be released this Summer and they needed some clean promo shots for the artwork.

Shot on my 18-135mm at F8 160 with a four light setup in the studio. The lads got clean images but I’ve added some vignettes to mine.

You can check out my favourites here on the Oss237.com homepage with links to the rest of the shots. I’ll post some links to the band when they discover the internet!

The video for “Fast Way” has just gone online; awesomely shot and cut by student filmmaker Ivars Burtnieks.

As I mentioned before, the video was shot in a freight container in the Hebron industrial estate but it also features footage of the classic rockers in the studio recording. Much to my surprise I even make a little cameo in the video, if you look really closely at around 3 minutes and 30 seconds you’ll spot me setting up for my promo shoot with the band.

If you missed it before then you can check out my behind the scenes video and promo shots from the shoot with Mata Hari here.

Well done to Ivars for doing a great job with the video for “Fast Way”, you can check out more of his videos here on Youtube and you’ll find Mata Hari here on MySpace.

After seven months and countless hours of street music, the final round of busking for the competition took place on the streets of Kilkenny on Saturday with finalists Quintet Tarantino, Sean Watmore, Vicky Day, Beef Supreme (above), Annie Chambers and Fionn O’Hargain all competing for the €1,000 cash prize.

As always voting is open to the public so please go to Busker2009.com to watch the six video performances by our finalists and cast your vote for the best busker of 2009.

You will get an email asking you to confirm your vote and please note that only confirmed votes will be accepted.

Voting closes at 23:59 GMT on Friday November 13th.

For my second promo shoot with Clive, we returned to Woodstock in Ennistioge, where we had shot the promo images used for his 2008 tour with Jeff Lang, but it quickly became apparent that anything we shot there was just going to look too much like the previous photo-shoot.

So the following Friday morning, thanks to the lovely people in Rothe House, we did another shoot throughout the 17th century merchant townhouse. With no real solid concepts or ideas, I played around with different styles.

At that stage the name of the upcoming album was hanging between ‘Window West’ or ‘The Ghost Country’ and so myself and Clive moved throughout Rothe House trying different things; from extreme close-ups of hands playing the guitar to headshots and full body shots.

Using the various large windows throughout the buildings to shoot in natural light; my favourite area being the attic room in the back building of Rothe House, with two small windows back-lighting Clive and a large window to the right of the room providing nice light to the front. I played around with textures on these shots.

The result of the shoot was a staggering amount of shots that I was very happy with, but I’ve uploaded the top 14 shots selected by Clive Barnes which you can see here on my flickr (my favourites are on the Oss237.com homepage).

Clive Barnes ‘The Ghost Country’ is out now and available from iTunes and AmazonMP3. You’ll also find four tracks from the album, reviews of the album and a long list of upcoming tour dates here on Clive’s MySpace.

First up is the shot from the test shoot in my sitting room; having spent a lot of time in the Mill studio with the lads during recording, we had worked out some ideas for the cover; the main ideas involving the band, a couch and a big old television.

With the recording finished and the tracks in the mixing stages, we met up for two photo-shoots on the last weekend in May. The first on the Saturday night, I re-arranged the furniture in my sitting room and used every lamp and light I could find around the house to try different lighting techniques, while the lads chilled out on the couch finding gross things on the internet.

Most of the lighting set-ups were a disaster but the set-up for the finished shot is as follows: there’s a household lamp positioned behind the couch to back-light the lads, another lamp positioned to the right of Ken as a side-light and another lamp lighting the back of the television. The glow from the television wasn’t bright enough to light all three faces so I used the screen from my Powerbook G4 and my Sb800 positioned on the floor (I can’t remember the setting).

The resulting shot was the best thing I got on the night but wasn’t exactly what I was going for or suitable for the album cover, but that’s the great thing about test shoots. The following afternoon we drove to the new HotShotz Studio in Callan (thanks Benny) and having a better idea of what we were now going for, I set up the studio for my first ever shoot on a Canon (EOS 5D with a EF24-105mm Zoom).

My first proper studio shoot was a lot of fun, I spent some time spotting the lights and we spent the afternoon tweaking positions and poses as you can see in the behind the scenes video from the photoshoot (above).

If you haven’t got your hands on a copy of Insula yet then the video features the awesome track  ‘Acid’ and a look at the finished front cover design by Ken McGuire.

The album will be available online in the next few weeks through SouthOfficial.com but until then if you want to purchase a copy of Insula then just get in touch with South on MySpace.

Round 6 saw the return of Pete to the Market Lane (he’s been in every round so far but has yet to win the public’s vote). He was joined by Shane in the ButterSlip (making his 3rd appearance) and Liam outside the Bank of Ireland on Parliament Street (making his second appearance). Pierre (above) makes his debut into the competition (making it our 2nd Harp on the streets for the competition).

As always one of these buskers will walk away with €200 so don’t forget to cast your vote. The videos are now online and open to PUBLIC VOTING on Busker2009.com.

If you think you could do better then why not register for the competition which runs until September, there’s a further €1000 up for grabs in the final. You can watch the videos from Round 6, cast your vote or register for the competition on www.Busker2009.com.

The official launch of The Battle Of The Bands 2009 is also underway, registration is now open with this years competition taking place throughout July and August. The competition will run for four weeks, including the showcase final performance from last years winners South on Sunday August 16th.

As with the previous two years, I’ll be providing photographic (and possibly video) coverage of the competition, along with sponsoring a photography package to this years winners. Full details of prizes will be announced in the coming days.

Full details about registration for the competition can be found on BattleOfTheBands.ie.

NOTE: For best results view the above video in HD.

Personally I can’t wait to have it finished; my first real solo-project has taken quite a lot of work but even at this stage I’m really happy with the results. Every single aspect of the project; from operating the two camera shoot by myself to cutting the episodes together has been an awesome way of “learning by doing” and I can’t wait to see what people think.

As I cut through all the footage one of the hardest things was having to let go of something good; cutting footage out for one reason or another, usually time constraints.The overall structure follows South in the Mill Studio throughout the recording process for Insula, but it will pay particular attention to some songs more than others.

I made this decision from the start for several reasons, mainly due to the sheer volume of footage I would have shot over a two week period, on two cameras covering guitar, bass, drums, vocals and all the in-between stuff. At present I just wouldn’t have the ability to edit it all. We’ve also got lots of plans and ideas for videos for certain songs so there’s no point in saturating everything with too much coverage.

In the case of previously unheard (and awesomely titled) South track ‘Zombie Attack’ which will feature on their debut album; I only had one single take during the recording of the song (it wasn’t on my list). That being said, the song is awesome and I really wanted it to feature somewhere in the whole thing and so I’ve cut together a second trailer (above).

The new trailer offers a sneak preview of what ‘Zombie Attack’ sounds like, direct from the mixing room in the Mill Studios. Featuring Alan Dawson on drums, Thomas Donoghue on guitar and Ken “For the ladies” Farrell on bass as the lads from South were laying down a rough version of the song before tackling each individual instrument. This is the only time you’ll hear any preview of ‘Zombie Attack’ before the album gets released as even the above footage won’t appear in any of the episodes.

You can also check out my brand new promo shot here on the Oss237.com homepage. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts; the entire shoot was also my first real attempts working with off-camera flash triggers and the new shot is another addition to what I’m being told is “my style”. The usual camera display type thing with focus thrown on the background and sharp on the monitor (on a Canon XHA1), shot on my 50mm with my SB800 positioned across the room, full power directed at Ken’s hands as he plays the bass. I’ve add some textures afterwards in the same style as the first promo image. Check it out here.

As always any feedback or criticism would be greatly appreciated. Plenty more coming soon!

Please watch the above video in HD for best results.

I’ve got one more segment to tackle; the footage has been synced and I’m going to try out yet another style for this video, with each of the episodes having a slight difference to cutting patterns and style based on the songs themselves.

I’m hoping to have them fully assembled in the next week or so before doing the fine cuts and then looking at some colour correction and after effects. Then a proper sound mix. My “to do” list is still fairly long but I’m happy that the project is running roughly in time with approaching deadlines.

As it stands the tracks for South’s debut offering are in the final mixing stages, soon to be mastered. South should also be announcing the launch & tour dates very soon, so keep an eye on their newly revamped MySpace.

Two weeks ago I did a series of photoshoots with the lads with the intention of shooting the cover & promo material for the album. The first shoot took place on a Saturday night, transforming my sitting room, moving the furniture around and confiscating every moveable light source I could get my hands on to test different lighting techniques and ideas. Shooting on a 19-35mm wide angle lens (thanks Ken) for the first time. The resulting photos & behind the scenes videos may never be seen!? I’ve still got a lot of work to do on them and the content may just be too funny. Maybe the less I say about it… the better!?

The following Sunday we hit the new HotShotz Studio in Callan (thanks Benny), continuing with the same ideas from the night before we shot a series of cover possibilities. The shoot was my first shoot using a Canon 5D using a EF21-105mm macro zoom lens with a full studio lighting setup behind me. And although I can’t publish any of the shots online yet, rest assured they’ll be coming in the next few weeks.

I have uploaded a sort of teaser image from the studio shoot, a bit of filler until the rest goes online, a brand new behind the scenes shot from my studio shoot with South. Shot on my Nikon D80, 19-35mm wide angle lens, on a tripod, using the timer. Then a bit of playing around with texture layers.

Check it out here, plenty more coming soon.

Voting has closed on Round 4, with Annie Chambers announced as the latest winner. She’ll walk away with €200 and now has a chance to compete for €1000 in the final.

The competition runs until September so there’s still plenty of time to register. You’ll find all the details on www.busker2009.com.

Check out the videos from the first 4 Rounds on the KilkennyMusic YouTube and my photo coverage of the competition on the KilkennyMusic Flickr.

Round 5 kicks off this Saturday so plenty more videos and photos on the way soon.