Seeing Red Media

05/06/2023

Back in February I went up to Auckland on a whim to collect some footage for a self-produced documentary idea that I have been toying with for awhile. As I continue my research and figure out what the film will eventually be, I decided to cobble together a short clip from some of the footage that I shot over that long weekend. For someone who grew up in awe of the legends who explored the limits of life on two-wheels, the last ever classic motorcycle meeting to be held at Pukekohe racetrack was pretty darn cool.

This is "Farewell Pukekohe" by Seeing Red Media on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

24/04/2023

Last year I travelled to the other side of the world and captured the Northern Lights...now the Aurora Australis is happening across the road from where I live.

20/04/2023

It has just come to my attention that the legendary Filipino Tattoo Artist, Apo Whang-Od has graced the cover of Vogue Philippines. Its a great article...though somewhat concerning to hear that the hordes of tourists beating a path to Buscalan to get inked, is changing the dynamic of the beautiful Kalinga village.

https://www.vogue.com/article/apo-whang-od-and-the-indelible-marks-of-filipino-identity

However, I was one of those tourists when I traipsed up the hill in 2017 to meet Whang-Od....who must have been 100 then. I guess I feel fortunate that 6 years ago it wasn't such a 'must-do' on the backpacker itinerary, so hopefully the benefit of preserving the Butbut heritage via Batok, outweighs the pressures put on this community.

I was also fortunate to spend some time with Whang-Od chatting about her life via a translator and making a short video afterwards. I still wear my centipede tattoo with pride and will never forget the experience of getting ink delivered via a bamboo stick and citrus thorn...it also took a good two months to heal. I still have the rudimentary Batok stick that Whang-Od used for my tatak.

16/02/2023

After what seems like a lifetime since I was last a music-festival type environment (thanks Covid), last weekend I had the good fortune to get up close to one of my all time favourite bands. All of the bands on the day were awesome, but ZZ Top have been there for me since I first starting rifling through record bins way back in the day. They didn't disappoint with a selection of tunes that tracked way back to the very first album 'Brown Sugar'...through to Tres Hombres 'Waitin' For the Bus' and 'Jesus Just Left Chicago' and even the quirky cool of 'I Gotsta Get Paid' off La Futura. Definitely missed 'The Dust' on bass and vocals, but respect to Billy for not trying to sing T**h in his absence and Elwood who one reviewer comically called Kevin Bacon with a beard, is no slouch at holding down the low end either.

24/12/2022

I've had some cool shoots recently with the Conservation Dogs...and one of my favourites is Zach, a Pig Dog turned Hedgehog detector. He has just become certified:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/130832200/new-zealands-only-certified-hedgehog-detection-dog-hits-the-beat?cid=app-iPhone

24/12/2022

With a tear in my eye, yesterday I said goodbye to the best piece of work equipment I have ever owned...and it wasn't a camera. Its no point having great gear, if you don't get to the job and my trusty Scuberoo never failed to get me there.

So, I drafted up an advertisement for the car (see below) and Dan from Dunedin answered the call. He has taken on the task of driving this trusty wagon the final 8,000 km's it needs to register, to reach the moon.

ADVERTISEMENT:

So here it is, offered for sale for the first time in 15 years. To say it is the best car I have ever owned (not driven) would be massive understatement. I never intended to own this car for as long as I have...but it quite simply refused to give up, so that when I discovered that I had almost driven it to the Moon (384 400 ks) that became my goal. Then, Subaru stepped in with an offer on a new one that I couldn't ignore, and this mighty beast of a wagon is now surplus to requirements.

It's known as a Subaru Lancaster which is kind of appropriate as it bears all the hallmarks of the most effective British Bomber of WW11.
Fully manual and equipped with a Hi-Lo ratio gearbox option, this wagon has never shirked any roads or trails that I have pointed its nose at. Ski-fields, mountains, back-country roads, highways and supermarket carparks, there isn't a place that this icon of motoring hasn't travelled.
Regularly serviced with a fresh sump of oil every 5000 k's, I have no doubt that this car will live to see another 300 000 ks. Kept in the driest part of NZ, there is not a skerrick of rust...though the 'Desert' paint-job would not look out of place in a Queens of the Stone Age video.

So, what will you get when purchasing this classic piece of motoring:
-Near new tyres
-Brand New battery
-CD radio
-Towbar (pulls more than the skin off your rice pudding)
-Momo steering wheel
-1 star safety rating. Car has never been in an accident so any more safety would only be surplus to requirements

This jalopy is the ultimate in no-frills driving experience that will really reward the driver who likes to feel every nuance of the chip-seal beneath them. Has never failed to fire on the coldest Central Otago morning and with a heater (and air-conditioning) that still works, you will not need a puffer jacket or fresh canister of body deodorant to enjoy your journey.

When this car is finally driven away, I will certainly shed a tear. Will you be the new owner who can finally make good on my goal to take this Scuberoo to the Moon?

08/10/2022

Still making my way home…and still to process a heap of photos and video, but here’s another Aurora snap…I can thank another middle of the night toilet stop for happening upon this one

03/10/2022

I’ll often remark that the journey is better than the destination, and this certainly adds up with my current commute. Here are a few snaps from the daily 60 minute drive down roads that are certainly less travelled.

26/09/2022

Since I scrambled to get home from Sydney when Covid became a reality for New Zealand in 2020, my international work has been severed for the past two years. Thankfully, due to the tight controls and relative normality at home (before Omicron changed the ledger), I was able to tap into work on some great local productions and stay busy...always hoping that I wouldn't fall off the radar of international production companies. Fast forward to now and the international landscape feels relatively normal...well as normal as shooting a show in the back of beyond can be classified as normal.

28/02/2022

Whiskey For The Holy Ghost

I wouldn't usually start by plagiarising the title of an album for a post...but it seemed the most appropriate title, when considering the life and times of Mark Lanegan. After all, it was the album that made me sit-up and seriously consider what an amazing singer and storyteller Lanegan was.

Upon discovering a few days ago that Lanegan had passed away at home in Ireland, I was pretty shocked. Not because Lanegan's lifestyle was in anyway clean...just that he always seemed one of those vagabonds that would somehow always dodge the reaper while continually using death as his muse.

While the circumstances of his death are not clear...it seems that complications from contracting Covid in 2021 may have been the cause. Indeed after reading an excerpt from his 2021 memoir, where he describes a tortured 6 weeks in ICU (that should be required reading for any lingering Covid skeptics out there) I would be surprised if he wasn't critically scarred from the experience.

The thing is, Lanegan always seemed primed for self-destruction. Having once said "That he**in stopped me dying from alcoholism", Lanegan was in my eyes a modern day outlaw...a troubled soul with an innate ability to channel raw emotion through one of the most distinctive voices of my generation. Flirting about the edges of the Seattle Grunge explosion, Lanegan stood out for me in two ways...he had long red hair which I did at the time, and for a skinny dude he sure had some pipes...a voice that sounded like Johnny Cash gargling gravel.

The Screaming Trees were never fairly lauded for their early output (which was pretty awesome), primarily because they were shadowed by other giants of the 'grunge' scene. So when Lanegan stepped out on his own, it was with little fanfare, except that I was working at Tower Records in Piccadilly Circus when his second solo album dropped and based on the allure of the CD cover alone I took it home for a listen. I was sold.

That revelation, would lead to many years trying to keep up with Mark Lanegan's sometimes very prolific output and amazing collaborations. From his songwriting contribution to the amazing Mad Season album 'Above' to his brief tenure as a full member of Queens of the Stone Age during their most dangerous period, Lanegan certainly had a great pool of friends to call upon. Likewise they used him like a gun-slinger for hire who somehow was able to bring the grit while still staking out his own territory within whatever genre he saddled up to.

PJ Harvey, Josh Homme, Duff McKagen, Slash and Kurt Cobain all collaborated with Lanegan, but the two pairings that had the most profound impact on me was with Greg Dulli from the Afghan Whigs on 'Saturnalia', and with ex-Belle and Sebastian songstress Isobel Campbell on 'Howl'. Actually, while I'm thinking about it, his efforts on the Soulsavers 'It's Not How Far You Fall, It's the Way You Land' is pretty darn impressive too.

For the uninitiated, getting sucked into the Mark Lanegan void will seem quite daunting, especially as a cursory look at the Wiki page for his discography tells the tale of a restless creative soul (with ADD)...rendered even more impressive given the fact that he only got sober a decade ago?

While I am personally making a conscious decision to head back into my Vinyl-CD collections in order to spend less time on streaming services...they do have the benefit of finding albums that I might not be available any other way. With this in mind, if the name Mark Lanegan still means nothing to you, then try checking out these albums:

Solo:
Whiskey for the Holy Ghost
Bubblegum
Blues Funeral

With Isobel Campbell:
Ballad of the Broken Seas
Howl

Others:
Mad Season: Above
The Gutter Twins: Saturnalia
Soulsavers: It's Not How Far You Fall, It's the Way You Land

16/12/2021

So I decided to send some photos to Otago Alumni photography competition and ended up winning two of the categories, and making the top 10 with some others. No prizes mentioned, but hey, thats not why I take stills.

I often snap images when I am travelling to a job, between locations or even taking a breather between takes. Fortunately (prior to Covid changing the global landscape) I was dispatched to some very photogenic locations to tell stories.

One of these days when the moving images work slows down, I will organise my stills and figure out a way to display them better.

https://www.otago.ac.nz/alumni/news/otago835140.html

These are the images that won:

13/12/2021

I keep getting bugged by messages from FB reminding me that I haven't posted for awhile...so I'm giving in. With the borders effectively shut, international work during the pandemic hasn't really been a serious option, so I have been fortunate to focus on some local content. One of the most enjoyable shows that I have worked on over the past six months is 'Moving Houses'.

From the great Southern characters controlling the moves with their epic rigs, to the awesome crew that I worked with, this was one fun ride. The final episode of this entertaining series screens tomorrow evening and it should be a doozy. Getting a church from deepest Southland to Queenstown through the twisty and very scenic roads was pretty darn impressive.

https://fb.watch/9SsjjRmLz1/

07/09/2021

Locked down at home, as New Zealand deals with the Delta variant of Covid 19, actually gave me the perfect opportunity to catch up on a few editing jobs for local clients. One of these, is to promote a new indoor Curling facility in Alexandra. I'm not 100% sure how curling came to be described as 'T...

24/08/2021

Waking up to the news that Charlie Watts had passed away, I initially had a wry chuckle about a quote that Watts made about his tenure in the Rolling Stones, when he described Mick Jagger's backside "as being one of the finest views in the country".

As amusing as it is to think, that for near on 60 years, Watts has had a front row seat to Jagger's cavorting antics, the famously dapper-drummer should best be remembered for his ability to harness and drive home the ragged riffs rifled off by Keith Richards.

While a lot of drummers will lock into the groove generated from the bass player, Watts' dedication to following Richards' lead generated some of the greatest grooves in Rock n Roll. His ability to play just what was needed, sans drum solos and frivolous fills, Watts was a once in a lifetime musician who will be really missed.

Eschewing the limelight and trappings that came with rock stardom, I think the photo session with David Bailey that yielded the cover to Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! is a great image to remember Watts by. It's also one of the finest live recordings of the Stones available, where Jagger can be heard saying the now infamous quip 'Charlie's good tonight inee'...just after they had busted through a raucous version of Little Queenie.

Rest in Peace Charlie...today I'll be tuning my Telecaster to Open G, and then I'll attempt to play along with your impeccable timing.

22/07/2021

I have to admit, spending a whole winter at home is still a reasonably novel concept for me. Snow on the hills, treacherous roads and frozen greens on the local golf course are both beautiful and challenging. For most of the past decade, I had been accustomed to at least a few months telling stories...

02/03/2021

The only positive to have emerged for my work during the global pandemic, is a little more interest in generating localised content. When great swathes of the world are locked down, here in the South Island we are able to function with relative ease. As such, I was contacted to work on a wee video about Eco-friendly wine, focused on three wineries within 50 minutes drive from home. In quite a remarkable contrast to my broadcast television work, where filmed content can sometimes take up to two years to hit screens, the footage in the following video was shot a couple of weeks ago. Personally, I would have pushed the colours a lot more to reflect what my eyes see when looking at the local scenery...but the editor was based in the UK and as such has been very lean on the depth of colour used in the final grade.
https://youtu.be/cJI1YgWrWQ0

New Zealand’s wine industry was the first in the world to have a national sustainability programme and more than 96 percent of its vineyards operate accordin...