It’s model of the month time on Balloon Chat, this month it’s the Pig design which I rather like with the curly tail. Full step by step instructions can be seen here on Balloon Chat, Pig.
Then over on “A Balloon Club” my paid for tutorial page this months new design is for a three balloon Dinosaur, this is the link if you’d like to join, it’s from just £25 for the full year plus we have a monthly Zoom as well included. A Balloon Club.
It’s back to the Care & Share balloon day write up and my life in latex, this is chapter Eight.
The waffling continues,
At some point in my balloon journey we did a pop video for a group called Parka, remind me later to mention the
other pop video where we were going to be in under wear inside a balloon… ROFL.
I’m not sure where we filmed this but was in an upstairs warehouse that had been turned into a very large flat. They needed 500 11″ balloons inflated and had worked out a way to tie the balloons with a piece of 2 x 1 wood and three nails. The spooky thing was that not long after this a plastic device came out with a very similar set up.
They were a very young group of guys filming the shoot and inflating all the round balloons as well during the day. I was there twisting all the instruments for them, we made an organ, two guitars, a drum kit, saxophone and a microphone for the shoot. We also made a very large skeleton hand, but this was cut from the video. I’m guessing this was filmed before 2008 as that is when we started taking loads of pictures and documenting things for Balloon Chat. This is the pop video if anyone would like to take a look, the record was not too bad. Parka Pop Video.
The set up from this pop video to the next one I’m going on to talk about was like chalk and cheese. And is not all about what you have but the way it’s used and the camaraderie and thought process and enthusiasm that goes along with it. Although all the equipment was basic and not high tech, it actually came out very well, I was impressed with how from basic equipment you could get a nice looking finished product. On YouTube it says this was posted 18 years ago so would make that about 2007 with it being released in 2008 just before we started Balloon Chat.
Let’s talk about the other pop video as I mentioned it earlier, this was for an Australian band but was being filmed in the UK, it was very different and had an un-usual look and feel. The filming was very professional, proper everything and what looked like a big budget. After going up for a screen test and getting in me underwear for the pictures, don’t ask the things we do, I’m chuckling away now down memory lane reminiscing. The plan was for a friend Mike to be in the second step inside balloon, so he had to send me pictures of himself just in his underpants as well. He was certain I was just winding him up and it was not a proper job, but it was… honest. They wanted two pathetic looking specimens inside the 6-foot balloons, so Mike and I fitted the bill perfectly. I’m rolling about laughing just thinking of the image… you couldn’t make it up.
Luckily for us and the viewers of the said video they changed their minds and went with two body builders, now this would cause problems later in the shoot.
If only I still had the pictures of Mike and I in our underwear, he he.
The other thing was, originally, they wanted us naked inside the step inside balloons, can you imagine, and would pixelate things out. They also went on to tell us that this band from Australia were very big down under… so Mike and I had a lot to live up too… ROFL. You could not make this up and honestly this is what happened… I promise, it’s documented on Balloon Chat from all those years ago. This is the link, Men in Pants.
I have to say the build up to this shoot was one of the funniest things ever. Balloon Chat is amazing, just found the thread and it was filmed in 2009 in Camden and for a pop group called Kym and the Presets.
The other thing about this video shoot was I never got paid, well not till I went to Equity and they sorted payment for me. As I understand it the pop group/management were not happy with how the video came out, although they signed off on everything and OK’d the shoot. Because of this the company filming refused to pay me as they were not paid. This went on for months, I suggested a payment scheme and tried to bend over backwards to help and was just getting nowhere. So eventually called Equity and goodness things moved fast, I assume the company must have been on another shoot or filming somewhere as I got a very irate phone call from them calling me all the names under the sun, but I had given them months to pay. I’m guessing Equity put them on their blacklist so no one can work for them till payment is sorted, well payment came through that afternoon, so thank you Equity and I was sorry we had to take it that way but after 6 months of backwards and forwards, I did not think that was fair on me and we had spent a lot of time on the shoot.
The two muscle men were OK in the morning but by the time of the afternoon and about the 5/6th time getting inside the balloons they could not, all their strength had gone so we had to re-inflate the balloons with them inside. I did warn the production company that its very tiring getting inside and out of the balloons and was assured that this would all be done in one take… well that never happened and ten takes later they were still not happy but had to go with what they had due to the two musclemen being totally exhausted. Mike and I could have worked all night though, weedy one and weedy two.
Anyway it was fun going down memory lane and going over things again. Who would have thought that from a one balloon Hippo… what trouble and fun we would have in the balloon world, happy memories.
We also helped David Crofts with a pop video in 2001 for Issy Wood, this had a very unusual sound and feel to it, Issy Wood.
David made loads for the shoot, I think I made the man and woman and large flowers. And one thing that has always annoyed me, the man, at the back of his head you can see a Blush pinch twist balloon and this should have been Chocolate Brown to match the hair, four years of frustration, but that’s the joy of a big build, you just have the one time to sort. The look of the people was down to the director/producer and record company. David can only advise but they had a certain look that they wanted, like the girl with no eyes or mouth.
I had forgotten about this pop video with David but when I was searching Balloon Chat for the other pop videos information this showed up. There are lots of pictures from this shoot, Issy Wood Balloon Build.
That’s me for the moment, but don’t worry…
TO BE CONTINUED.
The random balloon picture of the week, the Pig from the model of the month.
