FILM MUSIC: In Auteur of Appearance (My Friend Mingus)

In Auteur of Appearance - Written and performed by Carl Denham

Another track in the bag (more or less) for 'My Friend Mingus'. At present this is going to be on the credits. I recorded it in my bathroom and edited and mastered it on Garageband. Most of the images are related to the project so I thought I'd shove 'em there to stop your eyes getting bored.

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Poster for film festival

Courtesy of Leanne Buckler

Character Playlists

For a little but of fun (and I do consider this fun) I made a playlist for each of the main characters in the film. Every track is a nice slice of musical cake so if you haven't heard any I suggest you pursue, you could even make the playlists yourself and wander around to one of these bastards soundtracks (or sit down the choice is yours).

ELGAR

1. Ramblin' Man - Hank Williams
2. Big in Japan - Tom Waits
3. Isla de Encanta - Pixies
4. Verbal Anime - The Herbaliser/Rakaa-Iriscience
5. Haute Tropique - Man Man
6. Samurai Jack (theme song) - James L. Venable
7. We Are Not Alone - Frank Zappa
8. Flute Loop - Beastie Boys
9. No Milk Today - Hermans Hermits
10. Cello ~ Adagio - Elgar
11. Crying All By Myself - Wendy Rene
12. You've Got Maelstrom - Blockhead
13. It Ends (Ch 5 Light World) - Danny Baranowsky
14. Movement Two (Optzay Pertruder): Letter to Castro (Costumes for Tonight) - Gogol Bordello
15. Go Go Cactus Man - The Seatbelts
16. Everybody Needs A Ninja - Matthew Ebel

MINGUS

1. Nellie the Elephant - Toy Dolls
2. Troubled Friends - Gogol Bordello
3. Rhuubarbidoo - múm
4. Boogie Woogie Man in a Black D - Gabby La La
5. The Rhythm of Life - Sammy Davis Jr
6. Me Myself And I (OBLAPOS MODE) - De La Soul
7. That's What Friends Are For - The Sherman Brothers
8. Poo Putt Platter - MF Doom
9. Swing Set - Jurassic 5
10. After Laughter Comes Tears - Wendy Rene
11. Myself When I Am Real - Charles Mingus
12. Cuttin' Headz - Ol' Dirty Bastard/RZA
13. 환희의 도주 - Dalparan/Jang Yeong-gyu
14. Nature - Like The Animal You Are
15. Les Fleurs - Minnie Riperton
16. I'm Your Boogie Man - KC And The Sunshine Band

LOUIS TARANTELLA

1. Napoletana Tarantella - Traditional
2. Thief's Theme - Nas
3. Life Of Crime - The Weirdos
4. Protect Ya Neck II The Zoo - Ol' Dirty Bastard Ft. Brooklyn Zu,Prodigal Sunn, Killah Priest & 60 Second Assassin
5. Cunt Renaissance - R.A. the Rugged Man Ft. The Notorious B.I.G.
6. I Ain't New Ta This - Ice-T
7. Peepers - Polar bear
8. Smokey - Funkadelic
9. Purple Man - G-stack
10. Supervillain Theme (Inst.) - Madvillain
11. Wu Banga - Ghostface Killah Ft. Raekwon, The Genius/GZA, Cappadonna & Masta Killa
12. Little Drop of Poison - Tom Waits
13. Five to One - The Doors
14. Spitting Out The Demons - Gorillaz
15. It's All Over - Dead Residents
16. Moon River - Louis Armstrong

MINOR WALTZ

1. Minor Swing - Django Reinhardt
2. The Spook Walks - The Spooks (Joe Meek)
3. Problems - Desmond Dekker & The Aces
4. Put A Curse On You - Quasimoto
5. The Last Waltz (Mi-do's theme) - Choi Seung-hyun/Lee Ji-Soo/Shim Hyun-Jung
6. How's It Gonna End - Tom Waits
7. Meddle - Little Boots
8. Goodnight Moon - Shivaree
9. Dirty Night Clowns - Chris Garneau
10. Cuts and Lies - Acoustic Ladyland/Anne Booty
11. Repetition - The Fall
12. Tu Mens - April March
13. She Reminded Me With Science - Terry Scott Taylor
14. Bam Bam - Sister Nancy
15. Celebrate The Bullet - The Selecter
16. Freedom Of Speech - Immortal Technique

Concept Art, Again... (SPOILERish)

Here's more of those pictures I did. The last one suffers from being rushed and as a result doesn't adhere to a conventional human skeleton.

ELGAR

Concept Art

Should have probably scanned these in before I uploaded the photos but oh well what are you going to do? That's what I thought, anyway...

MINGUS

LOUIS TARANTELLA

MINOR WALTZ

Their names link to the photos we took. If you want to see more of my pen and watercolour nonsense go here I guarantee you can find a picture of Dumbledore fighting a Nazi Wizard.

Character/Costume Photos: Mingus

And here's the last of our main cast, James Lewis Thomas dressed as Mingus. I got the poifect little bear costume for him to mooch about in.

Character Bio: Mingus

Mingus was created by Elgar to deal with his loneliness but that doesn’t stop him being ‘real’. He knows he his here to cheer his friend up and accommodates accordingly he is fun, if a little mischievous.

Character/Costume Photos: Minor Waltz

Here's Siwan dressed as the character Minor Waltz for the moving picture project I wont shut up about. We still need to go shopping for a hat but that's pretty much how she's going to look in the film. Luckily I got hold of an old Nikon FM2 with a couple of lenses that are perfect for the character.

Character Bio: Minor Waltz

Minor Waltz was growing up like any other happy child. Her father was a professional photographer, her mother a lumberjack. With her Mother working long hours, she spent most of the time with her father and after awhile got a good grasp on his trade. By the time she was ten she was already developing her own pinhole cameras in their bathroom/darkroom and knew her way around all manner of lenses and films. Her world collapsed one day when her pregnant mother was raped and murdered. Her father seeking revenge and justice enlisted the help of the local mob: The Tarantella’s. Revenge was served and the people responsible were found by the Police castrated, hanging in the same alleyway they committed their crime. However, revenge does not come cheap and Mr. Waltz was unable to pay The Tarantella’s what he owed. After his wife‘s death he fell heavily on a drug habit and a few years later was found dead in the living room. It is unsure whether his overdose was accidental or suicidal. In the Will everything was left to his daughter, the mob of course figured this also meant his unpaid debts. Now her father was a good photographer but Minor was excellent. This was exploited by the mob for all kinds of things, mainly snoop jobs, set-ups and the occasional dabble in pornography.

It is a common believe amongst the Red Indians that by taking a picture of someone you take a bit of their soul. Minor as a child staring up at her father cradling his old photos of her mother was inclined to agree. When photographing people she felt she was stealing their moments, capturing them and making them hers. When your in your late teens with no friends and working for the mob you need to clutch at the tiny bits of control you have. However, the psychological idea of stealing anything you shot made the transaction from shooting with a camera to a gun fairly easy. This led to more ’interesting’ jobs from the mob. Sadly no matter how much she worked she couldn’t clear the debt. Over time she learnt how a debt to the Tarantella’s really worked, she was getting by but would never come out on top. Trapped in this world for years she has grown wise but weary, tired and somewhat numb. She has seen the worst in man and has become repulsed by it. Behind a lens she feels a level of distance (and therefore escape) that she hasn’t been able to find anywhere else.

Character/Costume Photos: Louis Tarantella

Here's Lloyd Thomas dressed as our antagonist Louis Tarantella. Its made up of clothing we already had, personally its the use of the coat and hat that really sells that mobster look. The more observant of you will notice his shoes are huge, we had to borrow Lurch's for the shoot.

Character Bio: Louis Tarantella

THIS BIO CONTAINS A HUGE SPOILER TO THE FILM, I WOULDN'T RECOMMEND READING IT UNTIL YOU'VE SEEN THE FINISHED FLICK.

The youngest of three possible heirs to the Tarantella empire Louis learnt to be ruthless from a young age. As a result of this he created the meanest, toughest imaginary friend, Sasquatch. One day when playing make believe with his siblings he made his imaginary friend murder theirs. Initially distraught they soon forgot. Louis didn’t, he saw the advantage and power keeping Sasquatch could have. Keeping him a secret he grew up like his siblings. He started learning the family business quickly, much to the approval of the older members. Still remembering the old playground tactics Louis became a master at manipulation and extortion. His brothers had different fates. One left favouring the clean life the other met a gruesome end (found at the bottom of the Thames with concrete shoes). This left nothing to stop Louis getting to the top, once there he started pushing the Tarantella’s into a new direction. Still maintaining his imaginary friend from childhood he was able to see other peoples and it was only a matter of time before this and his talent for crime led to him finding a way of exploiting them. He contacted some Nazi scientists and developed a plan. Through some arcane science he learnt they were made out of pure imagination and with the right technology they could be turned into pretty much anything that requires it. The scientists build a machine that could do just that: kill a child’s imaginary friend and turn it into, musical score, a novel etc. Settling on screenplays, Louis then commenced his ‘Harvey’ racket. A large number of the family thought of him insane and either left or tried to seize control, neither of which boded well.

Character/Costume Photos: Elgar

Here's some Photos of Neil Hobson dressed as the lead character Elgar. Below are some of the costume changes he goes through. WORD OF CAUTION some of them give away plot elements so PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Elgars character arc is him returning to his roots. He's been hiding as a chef and from his real self. The idea is as the film progresses he gradually covers up until he appears for the finale as the full blown Ninja he his.

I didn't want this Ninja outfit to look like something from the eighties. It had to look like he'd whipped it up out of the clothes he had. Neil and I got together the black garbs we had and settled on this. The trousers are slightly different from my concept art (I'll upload soon) but I prefer this, It has a better sense of realism.

The hoodie is the one he wears earlier in the film but reversed. From an analytical perspective what was inside has now come out, reflecting the characters tale.

Character Bio: Elgar

The son of a fairly wealthy couple Elgar was set up for an easy life, sadly they left him behind on their first family holiday. So there he was, a young child lost in the middle of Tokyo. His parents tried to find him but it was useless. They went on to have another child and were far more protective over him, possibly a little too much. As for Elgar he was lost in a city armed with only his name. Luckily some street kids found him and he was brought to their master, Fei-Gin. Here he learnt skills he’d never have needed in Oxford, Cambridge or anywhere else prestigious his parents would have sent him. Growing up in the Tokyo sewers Elgar was taught the way of the Ninja, starting off with sneaky stealing before rising to brutal and stealthy assassinations. He soon surpassed his peers, when not wanting to be suspected of being a trained killer in the Tokyo underworld it helps too look like a cockney orphan. In-between these outings Elgar developed another skill, cooking. From watching imported cooking shows (mainly Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall) he quickly became the in-house chef. He regularly cooked for everyone including Fei-Gin. One day his world was destroyed, someone snuck into his kitchen and poisoned his masters food. The rest of the children accused him, forcing him to run. He left Tokyo and started the long journey home. This was the first time he truly felt alone, his cohorts had been like brothers and Fei-Gin like his father.

On this trip back to England he concocted Mingus. Mingus was able to help him readdress his situation, and take a more positive stance on it: An assassin can find work anywhere people cant stand other people, in a country famous for long queues and poor customer service England shouldn’t be a problem. It took about a year of two for Elgar to sneak back. Upon arrival work was fairly easy to find (mainly business’ needing rivals eliminated). Soon though, the tabloids starting reporting of a Ninja slicing the limbs off local greengrocers and once again Elgar had to retreat. This time he fell back on his other skill, cooking. He got a job in a small restaurant in Wales. Deep down though he knows he shall kill again. Soon a time will come where he shall have to return to Japan and avenge his master. Until then he views the world slightly dreamlike, it is almost pretend as he is in a state of mental hibernation waiting for the day to draw his sword again.

FILM MUSIC: Outside Ditty (My Friend Mingus)

Outside Ditty - Written and performed by Carl Denham

So I've started composing the score to 'My Friend Mingus' this track is what Elgar and Mingus play together outside. I recorded it in my bathroom and edited and mastered it on Garageband. The photos are of the chair we made, which you can find out more about here.


All content copyright © ICHITRIGGERFINGER productions

Props I got the most...Part 2: A Trip to Trysordy

In search of props for my film we headed to the outskirts of Carmarthen to a little place called Trysordy. It's a bizarre but handy craft store full of all kinds of weird and wonderful things. It was a bit like scrapheap challenge minus the pressure. Thanks to Mike for the lift.

Follow James (Mingus).
twitter.com/mymindmybiz

Props I got the most...

Before filming starts we have a few little things to get our grubby mitts on. So for the past few days I've been hunting down the trinkets on my list. One thing you cant get over the counter is (!SPOILER!) an electric chair designed for sucking the souls out of Imaginary friends. Luckily I have a friend called Lurch.

Using scrap wood from Trinity's theatre workshop it took less than an hour to get to this:

Minus the 'Science' we're going to stick on later the chair looks exactly how I imagined it. The idea is this machine has been built quickly and uses some arcane technology so I wanted it to have this rough look. Big thanks to Lurch for building this comfortable bit of furniture. He's very good at this sort of thing and when he gets a site up I'll provide links here.