The past 6 months have been very busy for us at Babblefish Productions. Here is a look at projects we have been working on from October 2008…
Soundpad
In October 2008 Babble Fish had the opportunity of a life time. The British Council, Mumbai asked us to document The Sound Pad Project which is a project aimed at bringing together the musical talents of both India and England, to see what sound could be born through the experience. Two of the world’s most renowned producers John Leckie, who has worked with bands like Muse, Radiohead, My Morning Jacket and The Stoneroses along with Dan Austin, who has produced acts like Massive Attack and The Doves, were flown down to India to produce 4 of India’s most promising young bands.
This project was an endeavour on the part of the British Council to promote new and upcoming bands in the country. After a preliminary search earlier on in the year John Leckie selected 4 bands from the numerous others who had applied and decided to produce 2 songs with each of them and put out a compilation cd as well as a U.K. tour.
The four bands selected were Medusa from Mumbai, Swarathma from Banglore, Indigo Children and Advaita from Delhi. The bands recorded in the world renowned Yash Raj Studios for 3 days each with John and Dan. This entire experience, along with their live performances at Blue Frog, exclusive interviews with John and Dan as well as all the fun, work and music that happened in the studio was documented by us.
We shot edited and uploaded Sound Pad video pod casts everyday on Sound Pad’s Youtube channel, which provided a daily update of what happened in the studio,John and Dan’s reactions as well as the fantastic learning experiences the bands went through. To watch any of these podcasts or interviews, you can go to http://www.youtube.com/user/BritCouncilSoundpad
Swarathma, John and Dan at Yash Raj Studios.
Mukul Deora Music Video – Love Rears It’s Ugly Head
Following his frst album ‘Stray’, Mukul Deora is about to release his second album later this year.
In January of this year, we produced the first Music Video from this album called ‘Love Rears It’s Ugly Head’. Like in all indie artist music videos, we managed to work it in as low a budget as possible. But it turned out, interesting to say the least!Between our attempts at choreography, taking over Mukul’s house, and chiken tikka rolls from Nooranis, we managed to pull it off! Watch out for the premiere of the video - his album will be launching very soon.
Baajaa Gaajaa
Baajaa Gaajaa, was the first Independent Music Expo in the country. Organized by Shubha Mudgal and Dr. Aneesh Pradhan, the Expo took place in Poona over the 6th, 7th and 8th of February at Ishaniya Mall in Pune.
This expo provided stalls to anyone interested in being a part of this one of a kind musical experience. From record labels to bands, shops that sell musical instruments to yes, even us! Anyone who wanted to showcase their work and sell their merchandise to a music oriented audience was there. This along with several conferences, discussion panels, music documentary screenings coupled with live performances from bands around the country every night made Baajaa Gaajaa a unique and un -missable experience for people interested to know more about the music industry in India.
As far as our experience there was concerned, it was eye -opening, to say the least. Having set up a stall at the fest, not only did we meet numerous people interested in learning more about Babble Fish, but working with us as well. Meeting similar minded people is always a pleasure and through the experience we hope to be working with them in the near future too!
We are currently creating video podcasts for Baajaa Gaajaa and are excited about putting it up on their website www.baajaagaajaa.com very soon.
Tough On Tobacco @ Press Launch of Baajaa Gaaja at Bonobo, Mumbai
Inauguration Session Pune
CCR Stall
I-amtv at Iron Maiden
We got to see Iron Maiden! Thanks to I- amtv, Asia’s first indie music channel online who decided to send us along with Pman to cover it for their web site. It was exhausting but that didn’t matter because we got to catch a lot of great Indian bands and interview them, watch people bunjee jump (yes a well rounded concert, this was), eat some terrible food, drink loads of pepsi (cause the water stalls were too far away) and actually shoot Iron Maiden Live in Concert. We were blown away. Not only by the band but by the audience reaction to them. Incredible to say the least. All in all, a fantastic experience we would do again in the blink of an eye! A shout out to Karim from I-amtv who spent Valentine’s day with us at a noisy restaurant in Bangalore! Hope to work with these guys again soon.
Check out the site http://www.i-amtv.com/. The iron maiden gig should be up on it soon
Shooting at the Iron Maiden gig.
The South Asian Bands Festival 2009 (Delhi)
March this year saw the second South Asian Bands Festival at Purana Quila,New Delhi. This musical endeavour was an intiative on the part of Seher in association with the Ministry of External Affairs and The Indian Council for Cultural relations and witnessed the performances of 14 bands from 6 nations.
We worked in association with Seher to shoot, edit and produce a documentary on the South Asian Bands Festival which included interviews with the bands and organizers as well as coverage of the live performances. It was an intense 3 days of shoot followed by 3 weeks of edit - yes people, that’s really how long it takes to edit! Try going through 24 hours of footage and squeezing it into 30 minutes. It’s challenging, to say the least. Which is why we love doing it so much. The project is still underway. In fact, a trip to Delhi is planned soon so we can wrap it up and hopefully showcase it to you guys soon!
SAARC 2009
P – Man Show – Short Film
The P – Man show is an online show that we direct, shoot, produce and edit. We make no money from it, but we love to do it because we love P man for one, and we have a ball everytime we work on anything to do with him and the show.
We have, for almost a year now, been hoarding episodes of the show, not releasing them, and driving fans up the wall! Believe us, it was for a reason and we promise, you’ll won’t have to wait for much longer! The episodes will be on air sooner than later.
While you wait though, here’s something we shot with him recently. A 9 minute film noir starring, you guessed it, P man. And some very talented people in the OML staff. Big up to you guys for being a part of the project - you’ll made it even more fun. And what can we say about the film? Well, Extremely intense. Extermely heart felt. A film a lot of men may identify with. We’ll let you reach your own decisions when you’ll see it.
The show usually revolves around the Indian Rock Scene but hey! what’s a few digressions here and there? Plus, P man was quite passionate about the project so so were we!
Mr. Rohit Pereira a.k.a The P-Man
Goa Fest With Campaign India
Known as the second most prestigious awards in the advertising world, second only to Cannes, Goa Fest was a one of a kind experience for us. We shot this festival for Campaign India that launched it’s online video content with Babble Fish at the fest!
We were pretty excited at the entire prospect of shooting editing and uploading everyday, not that we haven’t done it before, but only this time, we’d be doing it in Goa! Let me tell you, the view from our editing suite (aka hotel room at the Leela) is something we could get used to!
The Campaign India team were great to work with and we hope to do a lot more work with them in the future!
Interview with Starcom MediaVest's Sean Finnegan
Pentagram Live at HRC
One of our favourite things to do is capture a live music performance. And when it’s for a band like Pentagram, we jump at the oppertunity! It never lets us down. For us, there’s nothing more satisfying than to be able to capture the energy of a bands live performance on film. We love the fact that people can now go online and, at the touch of a button, be able to see what they may have missed, or what they are dying to see again. Granted, it’s not as good as being there, but we try and come as close to it as possible!
Most recently, we covered their performance at the Rolling Stone One year Anniversary at Hard Rock Cafe. It was incredible amounts of fun. They surprised everyone by doing a couple of tracks without the groove box and actually played some of their songs off We’re not Listening and Up which no one expected.
All the songs have been uploaded on http://www.youtube.com/user/BabblefishProd