CLARAGH KEAN & JJ GILMOUR
EK OK - MAKING OF VIDEO - CLICK ON IMAGE FOR LINK
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
How do you get the attention of almost 80,000 people? What has always been a good way to boost people when morale is low? How do we spread the positive energy vibe?...................Music!
Music is a universal language that almost everyone understands, it can bring comfort in times of need and inspire and drive people. Its for the young and the old and a good song can bring unity, and with this in mind to mark the 70th Anniversary of East Kilbride, local girl Claragh and singer songwriter JJ Gilmour have written and recorded the song EK OK. They have gifted the song to the town in the hope that it will make people realise just how much is on their doorstep and show just how much the hard work of so many people within the sporting and art communities has helped to inspire the youth of the town. They hope that the song will be in your head whilst watching/playing any sport within East Kilbride. Football, Rugby, Hockey, Cricket, Tennis, Bowls, Judo, swimming, American football the list is endless.
Use it to get behind our own professional East Kilbride Football Club as they make their way up the leagues to one day play on the main stage of Scottish football, all of which brings a positive light to our town. Sing the song when we support young artists from the town and for the famous that hail from EK that have come out to perform and join in the making of our music video.
EK OK has created a platform within the creation of the music video to help boost the business' of the town. There are opportunities for advertising sponsorship on the video, the website and the social media pages. Everyone involved with the video have donated their time for free, the only costs are the hire of the recording equipment. Local film maker Steve Mackay has negotiated the hire of equipment and has helped keep the making of the video costs to a minimum, which means that every penny raised after those costs will be donated to the East Kilbride Community Trust.
EK OK..."We can turn this whole thing around" song lyric
This was scheduled to launch just prior to 2020 and the Pandemic halted the publishing of this venture publicly.
ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
‘EK OK’ CHARITY MUSIC PROJECT, WILDSCOT.TV - Image creation & research project to uplift the image of Scottish town East Kilbride. 6 x month design and film production. Design, Director, Producer, Director of Photography, Editor. etc. Concept to completion design and direction by Steve Mackay. The tasks were as follows;
Brainstorm and storyboard ideas and concepts for the 75th Anniversary of the new town East Kilbride.
Research, source successful individuals of the town East Kilbride; locate appropriate studio to shoot concept video.
Green screen & infinity room source and book, Prop and costume sourcing.
Lighting & 4K & HD Camera equipment hire
Locate appropriate external location within East Kilbride.
Hire Drone Operators
Discuss budget and ideas with Executive Producer
Source the following: Community groups, sports clubs, celebrities, local personalities, autistic kids and charity groups, secondary schools, historical figures, musicians, actors, comedians and artists.
Build 40 foot x 30 foot green screen in studio.
Risk assessment paperwork. Health & Safety.
Post Production editing and Graphics/Effects.
CONCEPT TO COMPLETION
Having the control of the concept and seeing it through to completion is a real luxury in terms of Image Creation, Branding and Marketing. EK OK allowed me the freedom to take control of the contributors, the backdrops and the post production editing. Therefore, planning all shots was essential.
Knowing you had a community group to shoot say East Kilbride Football Club, then allowed me to shoot individual backdrops that related to the persons or people that were performing in the foreground. For instance when shooting 'Vincent Deighan, AKA Frank Quitely' I had to reference his line of work. This came in the form of green board that I asked him to hold so I could add his Illustrations he produced for DC Comics and Marvel. His background was St. Brides High School, where he went to school in East Kilbride, so both foreground and background would be in synergy, this was important to me. This rule would be applied to all contributors forthwith.
The challenge was to fit in all contributors into the four minutes we had for the soundtrack. The original track was three and a half minutes and I asked for the recording to be extended by 30 seconds so we could accommodate all the people invloved. We had Scouts, Tennis, Football, Handball, American Football, Hockey, Cheerleaders, Gymnastics, Bowling clubs etc etc to factor into this so this was tricky indeed.
The backgrounds I had a real challenge with as East Kilbride was predominately concrete and I had to make the town look attractive. I used a wide-angled lens on a minicam to give the angles and perspective I wanted, this gave the background more depth and complimented the foreground.
Using Drone material was also a must, and we hired a couple of drone operators to achieve this, as East Kilbride was famous for its roundabouts and skycrapers, plus I had to get as many landmarks as possible to feature like the Village, Calderwood high rises, and Hairmyres Hospital, etc.
The backgrounds This production was created over seven months from May 1st 2017 to the final few days of December 2017. I was so involved and we also approached so many other successful names that had a connection with East Kilbride, like: John Barrowman, John Hannah, Lorraine Kelly, Sir Alex Ferguson, Craig Hills, Del Amitri, Aztec Camera, Primal Scream, and of course The Jesus and Mary Chain. For those who snubbed the project or were unavailable, I decided to use images of them in the background also as to just making reference to them as East Kilbride has produced some very successful people indeed. Again, these had to be planned and I had to source good locations and walls for this to work.
CONTRIBUTORS
For those who did take part we were extremely delight with the calibre and commitment of these individuals and their backgrounds. This was after all a community anniversary celebration of the town East Kilbride. It's 70th Anniversay had to be marked.
Charity and Anniversary Music Promos have been described as “aesthetic-cultural” social movement “artefacts” (TV Reed in Davis, 2015). The EK OK Charity Music Video was a project that aimed to promote personal pride in the town East Kilbride in Scotland and raise money for local youth creative arts charities. My challenge was to make a tired old ‘new town’ look like a hub of burgeoning creativity, no mean task as the town had been neglected for many years. Using a range of techniques in cinema verite style, I produced such an artefact for the town.
EK OK - TIMELAPSE OF PRODUCTION CLICK ON IMAGE
With Hindsight, It was truly an honour to execute such a wonderful production, great cause, great people, great music and a budget any Director would welcome to embrace creative knowledge. I'd love to do this again sometime what a buzz it all was! EK OK, OK, OK EK! EK OK OK OK EK!....!
Please click on the image below to view the final EK OK branding....ENJOY!
EK OK - CLARAGH KEAN & JJ GILMOUR CLICK ON IMAGE
Update. Bryan Larkin enjoying presenting the weather so much that he has now given up his BAFTA award-winning actor lifestyle and taken up a career at STV as Weatherman.
