Shot & Echo

Shot & Echo

Motion. Pictures. Music.

  • On a personal note: to Claudio and Glenn

    • 22 Nov 2009
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    • Claudio Encina Glenn Corneille Hotel Inspiration Jazz Music Talent friends
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    Can you dedicate a post to someone? If so, this one goes out to Claudio and Glenn.

    Yesterday evening most of my closest friends were over to drink some wine and have some cake, it being my 36th birthday and all, a very homely affair with kids laughing, running and dancing around. "Look at that," said my mate Zak, standing in the study with my acoustic bass guitar around his neck, pointing at an old picture of us with Jurgen from Jazzanova while I was picking some oodles on a Charrango. After a while he paused for a moment and said "This is what we should be doing all day, making music, creating things, not wasting time at some office." Around that one snapshot were others from times past, and I came to realise that two very good friends were missing from our get-together.

    Claudio was some thousand miles away living his happy life with his lady and baby boy, by now running his own one-man creative design company by day and playing gigs with his band HOTEL at night. I've known him since we teamed up at high school, jamming songs in the music room during breaks.

    Glenn was also living his and to a certain extent our dreams, a very gifted pianist and composer, on the road with various bands including his Jazz trio, a musical director for major artists and TV shows, writing tunes with his love Chantal, and goofing around with his two dudes whenever he had the chance. But life can be so cruelly short for even the brightest of us, and we have all been sadly missing him since a fatal crash in 2005.

    I write this in the middle of the night while my baby boy gently sleeps. If he had half the talent of both Claudio and Glenn he would know how much fun making music is. Somehow I like to believe it's already in him, that hearing them play went into my consciousness and became part of his DNA. And when he sits down behind his little red baby piano, plinks a short tune with both tiny hands, looks round at me and smiles, that right there is the proof.

    The following clip is an amazing rendition of Astor Piazolla's Oblivion by the Corneille Roelofs Trio at Gouvy Jazz in Belgium. It was the band's last performance, two weeks before Glenn's death. If you're reading this, pursue whatever you enjoy doing most, don't let your talents go to waste.

    "Do I know it? I wrote it!" - Glenn Corneille

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  • A suggestion to the HFPA

    • 10 Nov 2009
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    • Academy Awards Elmo Golden Globes Ricky Gervais
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    So Ricky Gervais is going to host the Golden Globes next year. Considering the 82nd Academy Awards have a white-haired Clouseau impersonator doing the honours, this might actually be the year the Hollywood Foreign Press Association wins the ratings AND viewership war from AMPAS. Seriously, how witty can Steve's co-host Alec be without Tina Fey? It's Complicated.

    But may I just make one suggestion, HFPA? Ricky already has a hilarious double act with a little red monster. No, not that one. Elmo! Watch this clip and tell me the two of them presenting the show in polka-dot pyjamas won't bring the house down..I dare you...

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  • Who needs CGI when you have nature?

    • 3 Nov 2009
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    • greece photography
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    Sometimes the sky just blows my mind.

    Stormsky

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  • The making of a headshot

    • 2 Nov 2009
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    • actor casting headshot photography
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    Marqheadshot-makingof

    Beba watched silently from a dark corner as I was being shot. "She knows all the poses," says photographer Irini Michopoulou of her trusted canine. "In fact, they used her for a TV publicity shoot. She's a model too!" There is something comforting about having a photographer's pet witness your headshot session. No grunt of judgement nor a bark of support but purely objective observation, exactly what's needed for an Actor's headshot. You need to be you, a blank face on which a casting director can project a character, but with enough expressiveness in the eyes to catch attention.

    It is of course up to the photographer to bring out your best look, whether neutral, dramatic, cheeky or jovial. One only needs to look at a photographer's portfolio to know if matches your concept of mood and style. Now Irini has been a pro fashion and music publicity shooter for several years, and her attention to detail is immediately evident in her actor portraits. They convey a unique personal atmosphere with each individual, not an easy task considering actors are not models: stage presence does not always equal photogenicity.

    And so it was that I found myself with several changes of black and white shirts at her central Athens home studio last week. Irini's allround experience meant she had stylistic facets covered. "They don't give you an assistant any more, so I do everything myself," Irini told me. The conditions for photographers in Greece are far from ideal, and so she frequently takes on projects abroad.

    From a technical point of view, Irini's set up is basic but effective. One umbrella strobe and one flash diffuser aimed at the subject and a rolled-down backdrop respectively is all she needs in her 4x5. "The reflective black granite floor also creates an effect, as do the walls, so I know exactly what the room can give me." A Canon 1D Mark II fitted with a 100mm f2.8 prime lens rounds off the headshot equipment specs.

    A pro set-up alone won't create great pics. Actor's need to be directed, so a photographer's coaching ability is just as crucial to getting great headshots. Irini knows what she wants and guides you through the motions smoothly, with the added advantage of digital being hat you get to see some shots immediately on the camera's screen, instantly setting your mind at ease that the shoot is going in the right direction.

    My contact sheet will arrive within the next few days from which I will have to choose five favourites. Irini will then slightly retouch and adapt these to black and white where desired. A week or two later my smug mug should be hanging on a casting director's wall, or at the very least filed in one of their books, and round two of my quest for an IMDb listing begins.

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  • 10 essential tips for self-promoting artists

    • 13 Oct 2009
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    "Hey Joe, what you doin' with that iPhone in your hand?"

    Had Hendrix lived today he would have been baffled by the way contemporary musicians get the word out about their latest album, upcoming gig or a recent interview. The folks at Gogoyoko have compiled 10 insider tips for the networked artist (signed or unsigned) and yes, it does include twitter. But the times they are a-changin', so read it while it's hot...

    http://go.gogoyoko.com/?p=788

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  • Imam Baildi

    • 11 Oct 2009
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    • Imam Baildi Music greece
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    Shot & Echo has been collaborating with Greek groovers Imam Baildi on publicity imaging since their live band started gathering crowds in early 2008. The international media has steadily been picking up on their modern reworks of classic rembetika and Greek folk tunes, the band most recently playing at Denmark's Roskilde festival. Brothers Orestis and Lysandros Falireas are preparing their second album which will be 99% original material, dropping it by the end of 2009.

    Imambaildisony_4

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  • For Joaquin Phoenix, it's a (w)rap...

    • 11 Oct 2009
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    • Joaquin Phoenix Music actor movie
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    To anybody who saw Tropic Thunder and wondered if Robert Downey Jr.'s super-involved actor character was far-fetched, I can convey that indeed there are film stars who take their roles that seriously.

    So when the great Joaquin Phoenix announced his retirement from acting last year to concentrate on music, it did send a bit of a shockwave through the entertainment world. I remember thinking at the time that having garnered high praise and adulation for his work, perhaps he didn't want to fall into the same viscious, downward-spiralling cycle as some of his contemporaries, most notably those that tragically ended the careers of Heath Ledger and Joaquin's own brother. Both Heath and River succumbed to drug-related overdoses.

    But this latest news http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedishrag/2009/01/joaquin-phoenix.html makes me think the Joaq Man is high on something. A rapper? I could have understood a foray into Country & Western after his spotless portrayal of Johnny Cash in Walk The Line, but this Phoenizzle? wtph? Maybe the big giveaway is bro-in-law Casey Affleck with a video camera. Perhaps this is Joaquin's next cinematic project, done all rough and documentary stylee, and he's really going deep into the soul of an actor-turned rapper, and the destructive path it leads him to. I only hope that's the case, because the man really would be headin' for Oscar bling this time...

    N644026825_1886694_9624

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  • The Shot & Echo Blog

    • 26 Aug 2009
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    So you've found Shot & Echo, where movies, music and other madness is right in the line of blog-fire.
    Of course the passion for performance and visual media don't necessarily bite the bullet. If we love something, you'll know it. I for one have often wondered what the point is of divulging a viewer's opinion onto the masses. The beauty of blogging however is that you can choose not to care or you could be pulled into a discussion. So we're not just shooting our mouths off here, we hope our posts will cause some resonance. Fire away!

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    The creative resonance of making movies, music, images and digital designs.

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