Retrospective: Gossip

So most of you know Ashleigh Ashley 'does Music'...and more of you still know that making music is an expensive business unless you're spending someone elses money lol! Anyway to pay the bills and fund my crazy music making schemes I work in video production and a recent job saw me working for Black Dog (a music video divsion of Tony/Ridley Scotts production company RSA Films) on a production for the Gossip.

We shot in an old disused boarding school OFF of endz lol, an enchanting/labyrinth-like building that looked liked it belonged in the Hogwarts. I would have explored the entire place if hadn't of been for the "Beware Asbestos" barriers lol. My main job for the day was making sure the band and the dancers got to and from set when they needed to (a 2nd AD of sorts) so of course I adopted my best American accent and 'chilled' with team Ditto and the Glam Sqaud lol!

Working with a band that have essentially done all the things that I'd like to achieve in my music career was enlightening...and for a second it was easy to visualize what my life could be like if I keep on my grind! Seeing shoots come together has always amazed me and I felt the dancers/costumes and location completely nailed the spirit of the song.  Well done to Director Price James for getting it just right hehe, I only just got round to seeing the results...

   

 There's more to the day of course...but if you want to know about that you're gona have to check out the Gossip's behind the scenes video *slow smile* HERE

@sh.x

Retrospective: STREET DANCE 2

Between Roofhopping, one/two commercials and the ants in my pants I've not had time to fill ya'll in on my recent adventures :o   So starting with the Street Dance 2 premiere at the O2, I thought I'd fill ya'll in on the madness over the next couple of posts!   Having been invited by my mate Hedgehog I was WELL excited to be attending my first premiere! Walking up the red carpet to camera's flashing left, right and centre was exhilarating!...and a figment of my imagination lol!  It was actually a short uneventful walk, so much so that we thought we'd missed something?! 

 Having not seen the first installment of Street Dance I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this movie (IN 3D of course)..and after waiting 30mins for it to start I was already beginning to hate it! 20mins in and I still wasn't convinced...was this going to be yet another cheesy teen flick??  Well...yes...in short lol!  But something magical happened when the latino TWIST kicked in, I suddenly found myself laughing and crying with the lead protaganists (albeit inside), and even looked forward to the inevitable happy ending!!

At the after-party we smoozed amongst the cast and crew, busted some new moves (you know what I'm talking bout Hedgehog hehe), I got a snap with lil dancer boi Akai, and stuffed my face with mini-burgers...in fact theres some lurking in the background!

My FaVE bit of the evening though was when, true to form, the dancers from the film put on their very own dance battle! Flawless tore up the dancefloor and even Delphine Nguyen who was clad in a dashing evening gown was body popping all over the shop lol! Nuff respect to Maykel Fonts, the don choreographer who did an amazing job crafting the Lantino dance scenes, and in real life set the dance floor on FIRE!!  It was a pleasure to witness such passion and energy!  I still feel warm and fuzzy from the experience lol.

So...back to the film!  The script was average, the lead chica Sofia Boutella is  smoking HOT (I'll admit to memorising a few of her moves for the next time I writh around half naked :D) the soundtrack was fantastic and the bad-ass dance moves from Flawless and co. had me thoroughly entertained!  In short...Street Dance 2 is a must see if you're into music/dance...I'd give it a generous 7/10!

@sh.x