Wickerman Festival with Tom Welsh
I’m gonna do this now while it’s still fresh in my head. Wickerman festival, a little different to what I am use to, but a festival nevertheless! The only festival I’ve ever been to is Leeds fest, where everyone’s drinking far too much, taking drugs and basically just getting fucked up, but managing to have a good time still. Wickerman festival is more of a family festival, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. For instance, an unusual sight to see was the ambulance doing nothin hectic that day, which is always a good sign 👍✌ First off anyway, I just want to say a big thanks to Tom Welsh for giving me the opportunity to do something like this. Not only did I get the chance to work with him but I also got - an all access pass and plenty of food for free, so a big thanks to Tom there. Sooo, where to start with this bad boy? I’ve got so much to say about the day. I think what needs to be said first is meeting Tom Welsh. From reading his blogs on the Internet and looking at the work he’s done, I’ve always found him/ his work to be very interesting. Personally, due to the bands i like, I’d say that he’s quite a big deal because of his work involving artists like you me at six, while she sleeps, architects etc… AND the fact that his brother is Matt Welsh (guitarist from while she sleeps) you can kind of imagine why I’d find him a bit nerve racking to meet at first. I didn’t really know what to expect but to find out that he is such a nice guy was great and made the whole day far better. Thankfully, Tom brought along another companion that would be a reliable source for good footage on the day, because I do kinda suck to an extent when it comes to filming stuff right now… but improvement is inevitable! So, it’s best to leave it to the professionals to get the job done! I don’t think Tom actually considers himself as a professional in this area of work as well, which seems a bit surprising when you look at the level and quality of what he has done. He knows his stuff anyway. For instance, whenever we’d stop off from working, we’d have discussions about gear. But when I say we, I really mean just between Tom and the other cameraman. They knew a ridiculous amount in the subject, which was actually really interesting to listen to and I gained more of an understanding of things here and there from all the tech talk. When the conversation turned to me - I, on the other hand, could literally sum up everything i knew in around 5 minutes, which was pretty shocking and quite embarrassing really if you could listen to what these guys were saying. It was great to see Tom work anyway. Every shot that he’ll use for the final promo is spontaneous and it’s his good eye that gives him the ability to capture such good footage that he’s able to get. His experience obviously helps a lot. During a set, Tom took a great shot filming behind a drummer facing the audience, in slow mo. This wasn’t planned, and it just looked awesome. His work ethic also is admirable (the guy doesn’t stop) seriously, like I don’t know how he does it. I started at 5am Saturday morning and finished/ got home at 6am the next day, Sunday morning. i slept well sunday day, I assure you that, but this seems like toms average lengthy day, because he seemed fine throughout it where as I started to lose interest in it all for sleep. Whilst working with Tom I had to ask a couple of questions about bands and the people that he’s working with. i recently just bought the architects blu ray DVD thats been funded solely by the band’s fans, like me, and I am really anticipating its arrival on my doorstep. So that was my first question, when’s it going to be released? It’s coming out late August - pretty cool that I know the confirmation of that unlike everyone else who are probably still wondering. Tom was saying also that just from the trailer that he created for the film, one hundred days, a lot of interest and work has presented itself to him and he’s now fully booked up until February 2014 because of it! All because of one film trailer that’s around 3 minutes long. How crazy is that? We also got talking about while she sleeps and their current affairs at vans warped tour. It’s cool how he spoke about this because I can imagine that he gets it quite a lot or at least here and there because his brother is in the band and to go over the same subject again and again can be quite annoying, i guess, so I’m grateful that he took the time to talk about it for my sake. There was also talk about you me at six, and Twin Atlantic… All very interesting stuff. Boom! First blog done… Tom welsh is a sick guy and wickerman festival was awesome! Brap, brap, brap!