Well folks, 2012 is off to a roaring start – on the first day of the new year, we were the featured video on Vimeo’s HD Channel. As I type this, the video’s been viewed 15K times since the feature! And a few weeks ago, we were featured on the extremely awesome Laughing Squid – bada bing bada BOOM!
Moving right along, wanted to share with you the alternate version of the 360° music video for “Come and Go.” This alternate version allows you to pan the camera around in either direction as the video plays. Makes you feel as if you’re right in the center of the action – pretty wild stuff. And definitely make sure to watch it in full-screen mode to get the full effect.
I’m outrageously psyched to share the first video from PRINTS for the song, “Come and Go (feat. The KickDrums).” As you probably noticed, the video is quite a bit wider than your average video – that’s because we shot it using a single-point capture 360° panoramic video camera! Think of it as ULTRA widescreen… as if you’re looking in all directions at once. When one character steps off the screen on the left side, they simultaneously enter the screen on the right side – it’s a real mind-melter, and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you watch it in full-screen mode to get the full panoramic effect.
The video has already gotten a wonderful response on the web, with features at both Paper Magazine and The Atlantic!
I co-directed the video with my super-talented pal, David Sosnow. David is the co-founder of Kogeto and specializes in making 360° video camera lenses. The company has gained quite a bit of notoriety lately for their DOT, an attachment that allows you to shoot 360° video with your iPhone (TechCrunch and USA Today articles).
I met David serendipitously through a mutual friend (and the video’s co-producer), Tavit Geudelekian. From the very beginning, we wanted to capture the senses of euphoria and over-the-top joyousness of the song. It’s also quite epic in nature, feeling both fast and simultaneously slow, and we knew that slow-motion video would lend itself perfectly to that sensation. As Tavit, David and I discussed the technology David was pioneering at Kogeto, we knew instantly that we had to work together, and that 360° would be the perfect way to create the fully-immersive video experience that the song needed.
As we sketched out possible concepts, we kept coming back to one basic issue: in order to fully-exploit the 360° technology, we had to keep things interesting in all directions at all times. If we didn’t have some kind of action or character movement occupying the full 360° spectrum, we would have giant empty spaces on screen. Our challenge was to come up with something visually-compelling that would surround the camera in a circular form at all times. The image of ladies dancing in a circle first occurred to me on the subway, but it was critical to keep things beautiful and other-worldly, as opposed to crass or heavy-handed. We hoped to achieve that beauty and mystery by the identical costumes. And by having the one blonde actress in a different outfit, we hoped to create a sense that they were a team or unit of some kind with a fearless leader.
We shot the video over the course of two days on location in Brooklyn, first in May 2011 (with the ladies), and then in June 2011 (with the singer, Alex Fitts). Remarkably, our only expenses in making the video were the rental of the dolly ($70) to hold the camera for the walking shots, and then meals at both shoots (thai food & pizza, respectively). David and I then painstakingly edited the video over the course of about 3 months at David’s Brooklyn apartment. We worked incredibly well together and were able to push each other and take the video in different directions. It was a true collaboration, much like the recording of PRINTS.
As we were editing, we thought it would be best to keep the overall image “flat.” With 360° video, there are some players that enable the viewer to pan around the full 360, themselves (for example, see here). We were concerned that by giving the viewer too much choice vis-a-vis which direction to follow, it could feel overwhelming to watch. We also believe that the image is most stunning when you can see the full 360° all at once. We will be making a pan-able version available soon, but we wanted the definitive version of the video to be “flattened.”
David and I poured our hearts and souls into this project, and we had an incredibly fun time making it. None of it would have been possible without our amazing actors & friends, and we are so happy to finally be launching it into the world. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did, and if you have any questions at all, please feel free to comment below – I’ll be sure to reply ASAP.
Lastly, if you’d like to grab the MP3 of “Come and Go,” here’s a link: bit.ly/Wilkis_CAG
Psyched to share the third and final (for now, at least) remix of “Come and Go.” This one is courtesy of the incredible Spacebrother (Jared from Innerpartysystem). It premiered recently over at Some Kind of Awesome, where they said it “will definitely make you feel like you’re floating in space.”
I absolutely love what Jared did with it, and much like the other two remixes, he took the song to a new and completely different place. It almost reminds of “jynweythek” from Aphex Twin’s “Drukqs.”
Take a listen and let me know what you think! And by all means, please feel free to download it & share it far and wide.
Proud to share the second “Come and Go” remix, this time featuring awesome verses from two incredible rappers, Big Pooh (who you might recognize from Little Brother) and The Kid Daytona. The remix premiered earlier this month over at RCRD LBL, where they called me an “indie beat whiz…” works for me!
Ever since I first finished this song with The KickDrums, I kept thinking in the back of my mind how well the beat would feel with some rap verses – was so cool to hear Pooh and Daytona tear it up.
Take a listen via the Soundcloud player above, or download it here alongside the original version. And please feel free to share any and all of it far and wide:
I am proud to announce the unveiling of my new project, PRINTS. I have been hard at work on it for nearly two years, and I am so incredibly happy to finally be sharing it. I have outlined the mission statement and will be debuting each piece over at www.prints.fm, but in a nutshell, it’s an ongoing series of singles, remixes, videos, and artwork – I refer to each collective work as a “print.”
For each “print,” I first write an instrumental piece and then collaborate with a different vocalist, sometimes together in my studio, and sometimes back and forth via the web, until each “print” takes its shape. The goal is to draw both myself and my collaborators out of our comfort zones, in the hopes of pushing each “print” to new and unexpected heights.
We called the song “Come and Go,” and I can safely say that it is one of my favorite recordings I’ve ever made. The song premiered over at Consequence of Sound the other day!
Musically, I wanted to explore the common space between extreme opposites, and specifically in two ways: 1) I wanted to create something that felt simultaneously in slow-motion and hyper-speed, and 2) something that felt hard-hitting – like a punch to the gut – while still feeling uplifting and positive. Lyrically, Alex would be the better man to ask as he wrote the lyrics… but the big themes I take away from it are doing whatever you want, following your heart and not worrying about the consequences.
Welcome to Wilcassettes, the home of everything Alan Wilkis. Alan is a Brooklyn-based music producer and remixer. His latest project is called "PRINTS" and can be found here: http://www.prints.fm
LISTEN:
To hear what Alan's been listening to, subscribe to his Spotify playlist. It's updated every Friday with Alan's hand-picked favorites of that week.
DISCLAIMER:
Every file posted here is for sampling purposes only. Alan encourages everyone to support the artists on Amazon, iTunes, etc... Should anyone object to a posted file, please email info [at] wilcassettes [dot] com, and it will be promptly removed.
