From the Mind of Ed Coyle – Bones

From the Mind of Ed Coyle – Bones

Posted by Administrator at 5:39 am

I find it interesting how these things happen. One minute I’ve drunk too much red wine and its three in the morning and I’m desperately trying to come up with a pitch for a music clip and the next minute I’m on the edge of a cliff-top watching a nine-year-old boy smash a keyboard piano with a brick. This, I assume, is the nature of the beast.

When shooting “Bones”, a song for new artist Seth Haapu who was recently signed to Sony New Zealand, I was apprehensive about two things. One, working with a child, and two, working with New Zealanders. I can say now that I was pleasantly surprised by both.

Not only was the Kiwi to English interpreter a complete waste of money but the nine-year-old, Josh was a pleasure to work with. But really, what kind of kid doesn’t want smash the bejesus out of a piano? I know I did, and the rest of the male crew too. In fact, when no one was looking I kicked the piano a bit too.  This could be something to do with the similarities of the workings of a nine-year-old’s brain and my own. I guess we’ll never know.

Anyway, I digress.

The turn around of “Bones” was swift. This, I can definitely say, was only due to the professionalism and ability of the crew. I can also say that this had nothing to do with the 25 hour days our producer, Cam D’Arcy, was pulling to get my Scotch-soaked idea together.

The green light was given a week before our shoot date and thanks to some serious flirting from Cam D’Arcy, the good people at Botany National Parks decided to return our call and eventually put us in touch with the actual ranger in charge of the area we intended to shoot in. However, it’s good to know that if we ever do need to shoot in Botany Bay at a week’s notice, its only a two week notice period, handing over a small sum of money, as well handing over power of attorney and we can shoot there, so thank you National Parks and Wildlife.

As Cam selfishly worked away and I sobered up Seth and his manager Matt flew over from NZ. Upon meeting them in the lobby of their hotel in the city we were greeted with the usual apprehensive looks, which from experience is usually (and was) followed by “Huh, you two are young,” expressed verbally and “Shit, why the fuck have we just flown over the Tasman to let these kids produce and direct our video,” expressed internally. To be fair, Cam does look seven and I do act 5. So we press on.

As much as these things are about the process they are ultimately about the result. That being a video worthy of being played nationally and internationally to parallel the work put into the song by the artist which will essentially sell the artist across a different media. Through the skilled work of our crew (with a special mention to Gabe Dowrick, who had almost finished a cut the day after shooting) it would appear we have reached that goal and hopefully helped Seth and Sony to create more of a platform for Seth to propel himself into a commercially successful artist.

Now, back to my computer to open a bottle of red.