Long Grass & Lemonade
July 26, 2006
Even though London’s parks are turning into deserts and the tube has become a rank cattle car I’m loving the weather. I’ve put together a mixtape of the songs I’ve been listening to while I sip pimms and dip my feet in a 99p blow up swimming pool. LA bodies and bikini’s, bollocks, I’ve been craving scotch eggs?
Dj – Mountain Rescue
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Playlist
- Sora – Demo0146
- Chemical Brothers – Where do I begin?
- Thom Yorke – Black Swan
- Fiest – Mushaboom (Mocky Remix)
- Nouvelle Vague – This is not a love song
- Nouvelle Vague – Teenage Kicks
- Peter, Bjorn & John – Young Folks
- Mr Scruff & Quantic – It’s Dancing Time
- Tim Hutton – Colours (FreeForm5 Remix)
- Bebel Gilberto – August Day Song (KingBrit Remix)
- Sora – Demo1114
Chris Keenan AKA Prime Objective
July 26, 2006
Chris Keenan is a Photojournalist / Vjay / Graphic Head who’s worked with the illustrious likes of Vice Magazine and Capsule Records. I got in contact with him after watching his gem of a short film entitled Fidget. To Watch The Film please Click Here
Right so first off – Where are you from and where are you headed?
Born in Coventry many moons ago, I’m currently living in Birmingham and sometimes heading to a diverse mix of places including New Orleans, Vienna, Newcastle, Barcelona, London and New York. Who knows where the road will take me next? Try to follow my lens…
Where did you get the name Prime Objective?
I came up with the name Prime Objective when I was at university; I think it comes from seeing my work as missions. I’m set a brief to shoot something and that becomes my Prime Objective, like Robocop or Terminator with a bunch of cameras instead of guns, totally focused on the mission. I’d say I’m a little more friendlier and light-hearted version though.
You seem to work across a number of mediums, is this a conscious effort?
I think the medium is really determined by the project itself and what best suits its needs. A lot of my work is primarily photography and video. I used to do a lot of graphic design and still have an interest in graphics and typography but this isn’t a major focus for me at the moment. However I have got some ideas in the pipeline for mixing a lot of 3D creations within my films, so weird motion graphics and classic animation are on my mind right now. I’d say my work is often quite diverse ranging from social commentary, straight documentation to music videos and short films. Then there’s live visuals VJ-ing, something I enjoy doing from time to time, like to use my own collection of Super 8 footage as a library to play with and have had great fun and shows with Birmingham based DJ outfit – Iacon at The Cornerhouse in Manchester.
Do you adopt different styles for different mediums or do you have an ultimate goal of uniting all these different creative outlets into a kind of “Prime Objective” brand?
Prime Objective as a brand is definitely a goal I’m working towards and one that’s always been in the pipeline. The mediums I work under are inter-linked and should therefore fit under one umbrella, don’t really want to be pigeon holed as just a photographer, or just a VJ, best to
keep the limits loose.
It may also be that one day Prime Objective evolves into an agency or multi disciplined collective. At present it’s me pushing the helm and planting the seeds. I’m currently working with the talented TakTak to create a new site and Prime Objective identity.
On to Fidget, how did you get involved with film? What was it like handling the film as opposed to digital editing?
Fidget was an idea thought up during a conversation between myself and Iacon DJ & musician Log Roper Iacon, we were trying to come up with an idea for the Straight 8 film competition 2005.
Straight 8 requires its participants to shoot an in camera edit on one Super 8 film cartridge. This means there is no room for error, timing is everything, can get little complicated when trying to work out x amount of ft of film to the point on the track. Anyway the idea we came up with involved a man who constantly fidgeted, increasingly so on his journey from the workplace to home. The reason for all this nervous energy would become clear when the urge to get on the decks and scratch and crab to the fingers delight is released at the end of the piece. Log played the DJ in the film and also created the track, which has weird subtle scratch noises at the start, these increase as the track goes on, set against a really atmospheric background that luckily really suits the action and emotive style of Super 8.It was quite a scary but incredibly fun and rewarding experience, it went on to get selected by Straight 8 for screening at 291 Gallery in London.
Was it storyboarded or improvised?
It wasn’t storyboarded properly, laziness on my part to be honest. I had an envelope with timings scribbled on it, matching set actions based on what the music would be doing at specific times. Knew roughly what shots I wanted to get but kind of freestyled it on the day,
dangerous but somehow pulled it off. I seem to enjoy that way of working, don’t like being restricted too much by a storyboard, although I’m always promising myself and others that I’ll storyboard better in future. Depends on the project, more complex and choreographed then the
more preplanning required.
Music and sound is integral to Fidget, is this drawn from your Vj-ing or did your VJ-ing grow from Fidget?
Sound always leads the visuals, I’ve done a few gigs with Log.. him on decks and me VJ-ing, so we already have a relationship working together with sound and visual. I’ve been involved with live visuals since way back before Fidget. I love sound and music, it plays a key part to what I do and always will. Just look at my Music Hurts Mandolin Man piece for evidence of my love for music, MusicHurts- Issue 2 – Mandolin Man. Let you see and hear for yourself…
Do you prefer the live manipulation of film and Vj-ing, or do you prefer working on more of a film piece over time? Like Dj-ing vs Making an Album?
I like both ways of working, again it really depends on the project. I tend to spend hours editing, even really simple pieces. I think the work involved in VJ-ing is massive in terms of content creation but when actually performing with a clip library then it’s an immediate and
improvised workflow, much prefer that to spending hours editing. Though saying that, after a weeklong edit on a music video the rewards of seeing it come together are worth more than the immediacy of VJ-ing. I think its because your creating something more permanent and recognisable as an achievement in its own right.
Have you got more films or any projects in the pipeline?
Future projects include getting my new site up and running, a few more music videos, short film in the pipeline, another Straight 8 film or two, more New Orleans travels, and a Prague photography project looking into the influence of a band called Plastic People of The Universe and old relics of Western Music that infiltrated Prague before the Velvet Revolution. Staying away from specifics but lots in the pipeline for sure… In the immediate future I’m shooting the Supersonic festival next week and the first weekend in August will be VJing with my New Orleans material for the Fat Tuesday tent at the Big Chill Festival.
To Watch The Short Film please Click Here
Welcome Back
July 1, 2006
Sorry all for the delay and lack of activity lately, I’ve been busy sunning myself on holiday and working on yet another format for Mountain Rescue. This time it’s for keeps, to make things easier I’m using a wordpress back-end for the site so I can concentrate more on mixes, features and other Jembas.
The Sonar mix and also some reviews are now also up.
Prendi Tutti.
