I have spent a load of time trying to help out with a couple of video projects for The March Violets recently. I am pretty new to video and spending as much time working out how to get the best out of the Canon EOS 5D Mk II and Canon EOS 7d as I can. The capability of both cameras looks pretty good when filming from a static position with a fairly fixed subject.  The autofocus system of both cameras is not up to much more though without loads of manual wrangling.

Of course the one thing that a learner video maker should never do is start making videos with folks with wild imaginations. This would  mean never making a March Violets video, so that particular rule book has been chucked well and truly out of the window. Si Denbigh is not short of creative and interesting ideas when it comes to the music he crafts with the rest of the band, or the imagery surrounding it.

I am not going to share anything about the first video, other then to say that I am fairly convinced that it captures something never seen before on either video or still photography.

The second song involved a video and photo shoot at the fabulous Club Lash in Manchester. I could write the longest blog in history about this particular event and the mistakes I made, but the more I try promo work the more I realised how important the experience of the subject/model is. The willing volunteers for the video and photo shoot all asked for direction, and that is a really tricky thing to give to an inexperienced model (no matter how fabulous they looked). It took a while to get into the swing of it and give the right level of direction. Each of the volunteers did brilliantly and I think we came away with some really interesting footage.

The last person to step onto the backdrop was Rosie Garland herself. In her guise of Rosie Lugosi, vampire queen of Club Lash, she had to feature in the shoot. The difference when working with a seasoned performer is noticeable.  The only direction needed here was 'Be Rosie' and fabulous shapes and poses appeared from nowhere....

Huge thanks go out to the amazingly undiscovered talents of the folks of Club Lash. They were gloriously fabulous!