NEW VIDEO: David Cameron Met a Black Man

This entry was posted on
Monday, May 3rd, 2010
at
3:11 pm and is filed
under Tories! Tories! Tories!, Video.

Thank you to everybody who responded to my request for ‘head on a stick’ footage.

Here’s what I did with it.

David Cameron Met a Black Man (soundtrack: ‘Common People’)

Of course, this is an Art, and subsequently I am forbidden by law to explain any of it outside of a wine and cheese party, but I will provide some production background for the ‘DVD extras’ crowd.

Cheers all.

I know there are already campaign videos with this song in it (even one with this cover by Ben Folds, Joe Jackson and William Shatner from the album Has Been), but I stuck with my original* choice of soundtrack as there wasn’t anything fresh on the field that conveyed the emotional intensity of the original. I’m hoping that now there is.

(*When I say ‘original’, I should mention that this project started off with me wanting to mask up and freak you out with ‘Just Dropped In’ by Kenny Rogers & The First Edition.)

Below is a picture of the device that made most of the footage uniquely freaky; the camerambulator (or, if you prefer, ‘wobblecam’).

The Camerambulator

The document box attached to the special extended shaft (steady!) contains the hands-free mask used for most action shots, which allowed me to drop in and out of disguise very quickly (making things like the supermarket shot possible). The teeny tiny camera no bigger than my thumb that captures up to 40 minutes of 640×480 .AVI and dances so delightfully on the end of the 8mm sq. pine upright is a Micro Digital Video Camera from Maplins; car’s convex ‘blindspot’ mirror served as a proxy viewfinder.

Most of the special effects in the video (aside from the speed, direction, a basic zoom and two minor incidental effects) are organic special effects that are a direct result of the camera’s software attempting to interpret anything from vibrations from ridged/rough surfaces to a range of wobble types (that were easily prompted and controlled, especially when the unit was strapped to my waist… it’s all in the hips, baby).

The ‘walkabout’ footage was shot in London with the help of Soho Politico using a Samsung VP-MX10 with monopod.








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