It’s fair to say that sometimes we find ourselves involved in some rather unusual projects. Last week was no exception as Artes Mundi came calling. Artes Mundi is one of the world’s most prestigious contemporary art competitions and it’s held biannually in Wales.  One of the featured artists in this year’s competition was Cuban performance artist Tania Bruguera. We had the pleasure of filming her famous piece Tatlins Whisper #5.

We set up our cameras around the great hall in the National Museum of Wales before the 150 strong crowd arrived. We then slipped in amongst the unsuspecting crowd before the piece began. Suddenly two impressive horses appeared with South Wales Police officers mounted on top of them. Within the amazing backdrop of the National Museum the audience were controlled and herded around for 20 minutes in a fantastic emulation of police crowd control.

This was a definitely one of the most surreal projects we’ve worked on but this made it even more enjoyable and exciting for us. Take a look at the video to see this incredible piece of contemporary art.

Atlantic College is part of the United World College and is based in St Donat’s on the south coast of Wales. The school is set in the stunning location of St Donat’s Castle, which overlooks the bay. This year the school celebrated its 50th Anniversary. To celebrate this occasion and share the events with the world we were asked to live broadcast key events online.
Using state of the art equipment we streamed the events live across the globe. The feedback has been fantastic with the USA College Principle stating, “it was like being in the same room.”

We were also commissioned by the College to create their brand new promo video and document the 50th Anniversary celebrations including a visit from Queen Noor of Jordan. The school is in such a beautiful part of the world, which gave us a fantastic array of imagery to use. We filmed a wide collection of different events ranging from rock climbing to workshops and a performance from their choir.

Our aim was to capture the beauty of the college alongside the fun and laughter the young people were having there. We definitely achieved our aims with the video, see for yourself below.

At Like an Egg we love making music videos but we never get to make enough of them! We’ve found that artists are struggling to fund their videos after the expense of producing their music. This is a shame, as a great music video can do so much more than act as another format to get people to listen to your music. We approach music videos in the same way we approach any promotional video. We ask what is the artist trying to sell? While a promotional video for a business may lean heavier on the substance over style, when it comes to music video the style informs the substance. Meaning what you’re trying to say needs to come from the style portrayed in the video. Recently a fantastic opportunity arose to create a video for a Cardiff rap group called the ‘Astroid Boys’. Our brief was to make a video that captured their lives as skateboarding, care-free, young kids. The influence of Larry Clark’s ‘Kids’ on the lives of the band perhaps makes the undercurrent of the video a little unnerving. We used the 90’s heavily in our style choices bringing a bit of grunge to the dubstep sound of the band. Any excuse to play with aspect ratios and filters! Adding layers to music video is what makes them stand out. We felt the song has a certain carnival feel so we decided to shoot them skating in the funfair at Porthcawl. To continue the carnival atmosphere we thought a clown party would be a great scene to cut in. It was a fun day of filming that gave us some brilliant memorable images. A big thanks to our team of clowns, they were all amazing! We are so pleased with the final result, especially in achieving the brief that was set. Enjoy the video and let us know what you think. Ten points and a bag of popcorn for those who spot the film references!

Last month we had a very exciting job opportunity offered to us. Most people consider London  to be the centre of filmmaking in the UK, but Wales is beginning to make it’s mark too. So when Londoners Doc Brown (comedian/rapper) and Josh Cole (director) asked us to produce two of their projects, we leapt at the chance!

The first project was a comic music video called ‘Balls’. The video was shot in contrasting locations, varying from the crack of dawn on Aberavon Beach to the middle of the night on an East End estate in London. It was such an exciting project to work on. We had a small crew with the fantastic Luke Jacobs as DoP and Mark Holownia as gaffer. The shoot also gave us a chance to work with the Red Epic with Matt Allsop on Stedicam. Admittedly having all that equipment on a London estate was rather nerve wracking but the presence of a few locals put our worries at ease.

We are delighted with what director Josh Cole has done with the edit and we hope it gets the exposure it deserves. It was a great experience producing someone else’s work and proves our assurance that we can produce anything needed within a weeks notice. Although for these two jobs we were only given three days notice on each shoot.

The second shoot with Doc and Josh was for a sitcom pilot idea for Sky. This was far more challenging and included finding a mansion with three kitchens and four girls willing to get covered with olive oil. With such short notice this certainly tested us, but we rose the challenge.

Unfortunately we aren’t able to show this yet but we can only hope that Sky picks it up. When it comes to low budget filmmaking Like an Egg is definitely the place to come!

Promotional videos aren’t often considered a high priority in a businesses marketing strategy.
However it would be wrong simply dismiss what a well made targeted promo video can achieve. The most important element of this equation is “targeted.”  Aim, audience and platform. These are the key elements to making a promo video. When we make your video these are the points that we will discuss in-depth. Tell us what you want and we’ll make it happen. Generic factory line videos aren’t what we do, what we make will be completely different from the any other video we’ve made before. Every client is different and we reflect that in the array of videos we make.

A video made by Like an Egg can make you stand out. Your objective may be to inform or excite, you may want to endorse your professional status or your approachability. We are here to achieve your aims in a video that will make you stand out from your competitors.

Here are two of our very latest promo videos that we made this month.

The Lawless Girls Promo

Warning – The following video contains partial nudity and sexual scenes that some viewers may find offensive.

The Lawless Girls are a female fire-breathing trio from Swansea who are at home on stage performing live at gigs and events

They needed a promo video to promote themselves as sexy, slick and stylish. It’s impossible to describe their act in words, so a promotional video was a perfect way to demonstrate what they can do.

The audience that they’re looking to attract are young alternative males so we made sure to make the video appeal to them.

We shot the video at a sun soaked Aberdare skate park and a fiery Newport bar. We caught some amazing footage at both locations. A critical ingredient for this video was the sound score. Our sound department created a heavy rock track that flows perfectly with the stylish images.

To end the video we designed and added an animated logo, which states clearly who the group is and where to find them.

Torchbearers Promo

As part of Wales’s contribution to the Cultural Olympiad, the charity Valleys Kids are producing a show incorporating communities from the South Wales Valleys and the township of Langa in Cape Town, South Africa.  A live spectacle of entertainment at the Wales Millennium Centre between Wales and South Africa is to be preformed in July as a culmination of the project.

The brief was to create a promotional video that could be played in cinemas that would excite and intrigue the audience into buying tickets for the show.

Like An Egg have documented the group over the last two years as they’ve prepared for the show. The array of different shots we’d amassed was mixed together with scenes from a flash mob advert we’d shot of the group. This has created an action packed video giving audiences a taste of what the show is and what it involves.

Along with this promo video we shot a short 30 second advert one morning in April on a cold wet Aberavon beach. The video stars Mel Stephenson, who’s a top Welsh sprinter who’s also a torchbearer for the 2012 Olympic games; therefore she was perfect for the part.

Just before Christmas we had the pleasure of filming a Flash Mob on behalf of one of our community clients, Valleys Kids.

The flash mob was used to promote a Community play entitled “The ‘Torchbearers’ which will be bring together Welsh & South African performers in the Donald Gordon Theatre, Wales Millennium Centre in July 2012. The project called Mzansi Cymru is part of Wales’ Cultural Olympiad – The Power of the Flame and is supported by Legacy Trust UK and is featured in the London Festival 2012.

Local charity Valley of Kids organised the flash mob, bringing together the Mzansi Cymru Choir and individuals from Coleg Morgannwg Performing Arts, Rhondda Cynon Taff Community Arts, Valleys Kids, Elemental Force and Zumba classes.

The five-minute invasion of the centre began with the Mzansi Choir singing, before the music started and the dancing began. Natalie Spiteri choreographed the dance. The groups only had two sessions to work on the routine, coming together once for a final rehearsal before the flash event.

We used this fantastic opportunity to use our talented network of camera men and women to create a video that captured the Positive Feeling that ran through the Flash Mob. Filmed with 10 Cameras in one take and then edited over 3 days the result is a video that we hope touches viewers as much as the unsuspecting people who saw it live.

Check it out on youtube, share the video and spread the word!

Here at Like an Egg productions we aren’t strangers to making music videos or working with the community.  When Communities First Blaina approached us about this project we jumped at the opportunity. We looked forward to guiding four talented teenagers to write, record and produce a song accompanied with a music video to raise awareness about domestic abuse.

Matt Wiggins, Liam Hiley, Lillian Hart and Ieasha-Marie Withers all attended a weeklong workshop with Alex, Head of our Audio Productions. They learnt valuable song writing and recording skills in our studio here in Blaina. They applied these skills to create an original song, which they wrote and recorded themselves. Each worked enthusiastically on the project and created a moving piece of work.

In addition to the song we drafted in Chris and Rob from our film department to assist the young artists in creating a music video. Filmed locally around Blaina, we filmed the ideas given to us by the group. The Like an Egg team were impressed with the maturity the group showed in dealing with such a serious subject matter.

We thoroughly enjoyed working with these young musicians and we are very proud of everything they created in just one week. The invaluable skills they learnt during the workshop will no doubt help them create better productions in the future!

The song and video are to help raise awareness about domestic abuse. The song will be on sale with proceeds being donated to a domestic abuse charity.

We are pleased to announce another new and exciting project. Like an Egg Productions will be producing a brand new music TV show called LockeD from The Pop Factory in Porth. The Premise is simple imagine TFI Friday meets Wayne’s World!

The Factory has three different levels with several different spaces. The show will travel round the building without any apparent “structure.”

The factory will be crawling with people. They will have the run of the building. The presenter will roam the building and walk in on a band playing, an artist painting, a kid playing guitar, or two guys playing chess. Fundamentally it will be a big party.

The show will be anchored in the live music and will cater for all genres, from rock to hip hop and metal to soul. Nothing will be off limits. The key to every performance will be energy and talent. We want to see a good time and pass it on the audience.

Together with the music the show will include interviews with anyone involved in a creative industry, from filmmakers to artists and writers.

And the first show line up? Kids in Glass Houses, Revoker and Martin Carr from the Boo Radleys. Not bad.

Happy Birthday Like an Egg Productions

As August rolls around and Like an Egg Productions enters its second year in business it is the perfect time to upload some of our most recent work and catch up on what the team have been up to.

Spirit of Bevan

We have recently completed two pieces of work with the Spirit of Bevan project in Tredegar. It has been a fantastic project for us so far and working with such a variety of people from the community has been a great experience. We are pleased to announce that we will be making another two films with the town. The first will focus on the most amazing street in Wales. Keep an eye out for what will be very interesting the results. Meanwhile watch the films we’ve made so far: Spirit of Bevan

Blaina Communities First

Another project that is mid way through production are our films for Communities First in Blaina. Making films on our doorstep is brilliant not just because we know where the best breakfast is but it allows us to show off our home town. So far we have completed two films and we have one in the final stage of post-production. Over the next few weeks we will begin training two local groups to make their own films. We think the films are looking great but don’t take our word for it: Blaina Communities First

Otley Brewing Company

We have also added the film we made for the Otley Brewing Company. When making a video for your business it is essential to show your clients the passion and pride that you have in the product and service that you deliver. The Otley Brewing Company are Real Ale drinkers. They love what they do and have a pride in the product they deliver and how it is created. We had to create a video that showed this in a visual manner with no audio or graphic descriptions. Otley Brewing Company

The Future

Right now the Studio is abuzz with the sounds of a cross-cultural Flash dance song currently being composed by Alex. Meanwhile Chris and Rob are preparing themselves for a trek across Mid-Wales. We are hoping to have just as an exciting year as the last.

But what does this next year bring? Or even next week? Well that is down to you.

It has been a busy two weeks in the aftermath of Valley of Kings for the Like an Egg Team. First it is worth mentioning the rounding success of the MMA Event held in the MotorPoint Arena. By all accounts the event itself has been hailed as one of the best British MMA show’s in the Country. Not bad for a first attempt. We’d like to take this opportunity to thank the people who helped make it possible.

On sound were the guys at Spartan Audio who made sure the audience heard every punch and kick. If you need to make something heard make them your first point of call. When it comes to power and lighting 11th Hour Events need no introduction and anyone who was at the MotorPoint Arena saw just what they can do. Check them out for any of your technical and facilities needs and services, they are one of the best in the business.

We would also like to thank the team of people who joined the Like an Egg crew for the very long day. It was a pleasure to be working with such an experienced and wonderful crew. We look forward to working with you all again.

But as summer rolls in we have no time to sit back and relax. With four projects in Post Production, three in Pre-production and some exciting projects in development we are full steam ahead at Like an Egg HQ.

Meanwhile checkout our opening video for Valley of Kings. The track was written and recorded by our very own Head of Audio Alex and features the Astroid Boys Look out for the amazing graphics by Sion Rees. We’ll have a full version up in a couple of weeks.