The Tennents - Hey (Working Title)

This is the first edit of The Tennents - 'Hey' (Working Title). There are a few little edits that need to be ironed out, and some camera movement which needs to be replaced with something else before it is fianlised; but I do think that overall it works and capture the lively feel which I wanted for the recording parts of the documentary.

At the Warren The Tennents were originally going to only be recording two songs - 'Touch The Sky' and 'I've Been Waiting' but they also recorded this track, 'Hey'. I have decided to use a sample of this video as the first track on the documentary because of the introduction - which is longer and will therefore stretch over the opening titles, instead of having no sound at all. The downfall to using this track however is that I have less even footage - i.e. not all the members of the group share a similar time in the video because of battery running out, or the memory card unable to carry more as I had only planned for two tracks. Over the two days at The Warren I shot around 40GB of footage because I was shooting in full HD (1920 x 1080) because if the quality wasn't good then the documentary would loose a lot of versimilitude It would also mean that the little focusing tweaks through the video would not be noticable due to the quality and I think that these work well - making the shots more interesting whilst also making the subject more intriguing.

I editied the whole piece of footage in Adobe Premiere CS4 after going through the clips in RealPlayer choosing which were usable and which had to be scraped - or at least put in a miscellaneous folder. In Premiere I cut the clips and placed them in the order I wanted them to appear in then put up the brightness and contrast to realistic levels so that the lights look right to our eyes because I think the ISO on the camera was a little sensitive with the aperture. Other than that I didn't add any other effects to make it better quality - I wanted it to be as close to how it was shot as I could possibly; which I think makes the footage more point of view and as if the viewer/audience was actually there.

For the actual documentary, only around 30-40 seconds will be used rather than the whole video - otherwise the documentary would seem very dull and repetitive for every band shown. Instead I want to make sure that every video is just a taster of the band - therefore showcasing the musicians around Hull much better. This means/encourages the audience to listen to and remember the band later because they haven't heard all of the track - therefore meaning that the documentary is doing what it is supposed to; presenting a snapshot of loac bands.

Recording Photos

The Warren Records

Warren Records started up in September 2009 with a release of 'State of The City'. The label is a branch of The Warren, a charity organisation set up in Hull to support young people; the records branch of the charity was set up after 'Secret Millionaire' Martin Stamp donated £20,000 to songwriters Jody Mckenna and Keith Hagger who then set up the recording rooms in The Warren.

'State of The City' is a 41 track showcase of bands from in the city; covering a wide range of genres and styles to try and really put some of Hull's musical talent on the map - aiming to get Hull bands heard of around the rest of the country.

Some of the bands included - The Paddingtons, EndOfLevelBaddie, The Notebook, Novocaine, Counting Coins, Abbie Lammas and more...

Disc 1 -
1. SubSubSub - Resin vs James Pyke Mr Covo
2. Somewhere In This World - The Holy Orders
3. Turn World Around - Ras Greg
4. The Howling - Jody McKenna
5. Been in Love - Nightfall Feat Mr. Prez & Alexis
6. Running Out Of Laughter - The Talks
7. Moto - Hekima & The Bongo Flava
8. Smile - Abbie Lammas
9. I Remember - Tyler Morgan feat Mr. Prez
10. Can't Ruck With Us - Project Feenix
11. Live Fast, Die Young - Keith Hagger
12. Plastic Toy - Sara Sanchez
13. Razor - Novacaine
14. Rupert The Bears On Crack - The Ruperts
15. Vehicastra - Morningstar Productions
16. We Livin - James Pyke & Ysabelle Wombwell
17. Pem Bile Giyane - Dilzar Shanga
18. Only You - Luke Keegan
19. Bang - Mr. Beasley
20. Counteract - The Neat vs. Mr Beasley

Disc 2 -

1. No Mundane Options - The Paddingtons
2. Wonderful Woman - Keith Hagger
3. Line Of Poverty - Kill Youth Culture
4. Real Rap - Grey
5. Break Apart - Storm The Banquet
6. Natural High - Nightfal vs. Y.P.
7. Second Guessing - The Cliques
8. Crazy Show - EndOfLevelBaddie
9. Eves Of Green - Someone & The Somethings
10. Bending Reality - Jody McKenna
11. Bank Roll - Asteroidboyz
12. Eat Your Greens - Counting Coins
13. Falling - Ysabelle Wombwell
14. Whatever It Takes - Outspoken Silence
15. Crystals Of Pyrite - Mountain Goat Frenzy
16. Falling - Ysabelle Wombwell
17. What We Gonna Do - Rad Greg & Ysabelle
18. New Ending - The Notebook
19. Going Sailin' - Joe Duncan
20. Bison - Awash With Antler
21. March Of The Lords - Morningstar Productions

The Warren currently record bands for free - then release the single through SoundCloud for free too, in order to give the band more of a coverage and so that bands can get gigs or send demos.

The Warren have also released Eps/albums from these bands -
Outspoken Silence
Ysabelle Wombwell
Jody McKenna
Hekima & The Bongo Flava
The Talks
Counting Coins
Mootzoot

The Warren will be an important part of the documentary - not just because multiple bands that I am covering have recorded there but also because it is an integeral part of the Hull music scene. I may even get interviews later on with Stuart Baxter - the sound engineer and one of the managers there or others that work within the Warren Records sector of The Warren. These interviews would offer an alternative view to the music scene at the minute in Hull - other than just interviewing bands. These interviews would also show what someone with real experience - and encounter a lot of local bands daily seeing how the areas taste and styles change over time; therefore they are more likely to give me a more conclusive answer than any currently popular band at the minute. This is not something I would film just yet however, as I think it is more important to record and talk to the bands first as they are the ones who are going through - or at least a bigger part of it.

Band Profile - The Tennents

The Tennents are a rock quartet from various villages around Hull. Having formed only a year or so ago, they are an already well established live act in the city - regulars at Lamp, Fruit and other pubs and clubs around the city. they have also featured in the now Fuel based indie themed night 'Time For Heroes vs Bossanova' - a culmination of two exciting nights after Lamp had to shut its doors for the final time.
Their sound is a mixture of classic rock with undertones of the nineties grunge movement - somewhere between Peace and The Enemy with clever lyrics and great guitar riffs. For such a young band their lyrics are suprisingly clever and work well - giving the songs not nescessarily more depth but still something with more soul than your average pop song. This form of lyric writing - especially caring about what you right isn't seen in a majority of rock bands and lyrics are generally more pompous, egotistical and have no sense of reality. Matty Connor, the lyricist, is no Doherty, Turner or Dylan yet but there are signs that he may develop into an even better songwriter than he already is.

The Tennents have recently been recording their first Ep at The Warren and is set to be released and heavily promoted by Jigsaw Records - a local, independent records company - in the coming months.
At least two of the tracks from the Ep will be featuring in the documentary with the segment about them.
The Ep tracklist:
1. Touch The Sky
2.I've Been Waiting
3. Hey (Working Title)

Members -

Matty Connor - Lead vocals/lead guitar
Sam Mackereth - Drums
Ryan Smith - Rhythm guitar/backing vocals
Barney Wilson - Bass/backing vocals

(At time of writing)
Twitter followers: 446
FaceBook likes: 185
Soundcloud: 0

Reverbnation stats -
Rank: #15 (The rank is how popular they are in their area, which is listed as Withernsea)
ReverbNation fans: 4
Video plays: 128
Total Fans (ReverbNation/FaceBook): 189

YouTube:
Subscribers to the bands channel: 15

'Exits on the Left': 910 views
'What To D'o: 1,085
'Wait & See': 232

2,252 YouTube views in total.

'Exits on the Left' YouTube statistics - 

910 views since February 2nd
7 Comments
11 likes
0 Dislikes

Top Locations - UK, Ireland, Norway
Top Demographics - Female, 13-17 years; Male, 18-24 years; Male, 13-17 years




'What To Do' YouTube statistics -

1,087 views across since February 2nd
11 Comments
17 Likes
2 Dislikes

Top locations - United Kingdom; Italy; Norway
Top Demographics - Male, 18-24 years; Male, 13-17 years; Female, 13-17 years

Fruit also uploaded an acoustic version of 'Ain't Life Grand'

1,103 views across since May 3rd
2 Comments
13 Likes
3 Dislikes

Top Locations - UK; Norway; Malaysia
Top Demographics - Male, 13-17 years; Female, 13-17 years; Male, 18-24 years

Sample of Footage (First Record)

Test shots for microphones (built in and shotgun)

Built in Camera mics

Didn't work because the microphone jack was still in.

Hotshoe Shotgun Mic

Fairly clear left channel - right channel static.

Handheld Shotgun Mic

Clearest with the least static or feedback.

Built in mic

Clear but pics up a lot of other noise - there are two clear channels though.

Hotshoe shotgun mic

(Same as test two)

Clear left channel but static/feedback on the right channel.

 

After these tests I have decided to use the hotshoe mic, however with it mounted rather than held because even though when held it is clearer there is not a long enough lead in order to conduct a group interview effectively. Mounted on the hotshoe it will pick up enough usable sound - and I can then just use one channel rather than stereo, and later spread it across both channels for much clearer sound. 



Interview with Laura Jenkinson about music documentaries