I’ve been dieing to cover an Adele song for a while now and yesterday I finally turned on the camera and did it. Adele’s powerful lyrics and amazing voice have made her the biggest selling artist of the year and will no doubt lead to a pile of Grammys in 2012.
Beyond that, what makes me admire Adele the most is that her songs are not overproduced like most of today’s music. It allows the music to compliment her voice instead of overpowering it.
I am very proud of this cover, it’s the first time I’ve really been able to push myself and I’m feeling a lot more comfortable singing in front of the camera. I think the video showcases how far I’ve come this year with regards to confidence.
I hope you enjoy it, and let me know what you think and what I can do to improve.
Dating is a strange phenomenon practiced by humans to get to know the other sex better and find out if they’re compatible. We strive to find someone to live with, I think, because nobody truly wants to be alone. This leads to many awkward situations and set ups with complete strangers. People have different expectations, and expect certain mannered behaviour.
The date scene is something of a dead horse beaten over and over because even if you’ve never been on a date, you can relate to the awkward situations they create. The challenge was to add a Srizzil spin to it. My biggest concern on releasing the video is that it may be so awkward it’s difficult to watch. But for people with a sense of humour like mine, you’ll find the awkwardness of two strangers trying to find something to say to each other hilarious in itself.
My friend Kate had made some date videos for her youth and was keen to do a Srizzil video, I suggested we do an awkward date video together. Kate and I hashed out some random ideas and my friends Jonathan and Graham added some great laughs. Soon we had a video.
Thanks to some connections another friend, Jared, organised for us to film at Blockman’s Grill in Pinetown. The staff were super accommodating, and let us film for the full six hours it took to get through shooting. At literally a moments notice, more amazing friends Ross and Kirsty (she’s the waitress serving us), dropped everything and rushed over to help us film. Jin, the man with an answer to all your girl problems, was on hand to help direct and record sound while I jumped in front of the camera.
I think what I’m getting at here is this was an awesome collaborative effort, and I’m super grateful to all those involved. Since exams finished I’ve been dieing to shoot another video and we got it done.
I’m most excited to note that the sound issues should be pretty much gone and quality will continue to improve as I get used to my great new sound equipment. I also pulled out the keyboard and weird opera voices to create some background music which you can see me putting together in the Behind the Scenes video:
The last time I recorded myself making musical noise was in May. So I readied my money maker with a good slap across the face, set the camera down and recorded one of my favourite songs: Somebody to love. The song was originally by Queen, of course, but I fell in love with the song after the late Brittany Murphy covered it for the Happy Feet movie.
As with all my singing videos, I immediately hated it afterward and tried not to look as I clicked render and upload. I’ve come to realise that the more I fuss about trying to make it perfect, the less fun I have and the more uncomfortable I look in front of the camera.
I am learning slowly but surely to let go and be more relaxed. It’s a strange thing to be in front of the camera. It changes the situation in the room. Increased time spent in front of it doesn’t actually make it more comfortable, it just gets you used to it. You learn to get over the weirdness of this large eye capturing your every move.
This is why I’ve uploaded the second video, a short cover of Billionaire by Travie McCoy and featuring Bruno Mars. In this video, I was actually just testing how to use and set up my new mic, so I didn’t do the whole song. However, I like the way the song came out. It’s a small glimpse of me messing around with music.
From the brain boxes of Jason Du Randt and Marc Williams comes the outrageous idea that a Granny as cute as Diana Chevalier would rob someone as innocent looking as Byron Langley. Apparently, according to news reports, grannies have in fact been known to rob people. Perhaps, however, none are as flippant as ours.
This time we set up at the Du Randt household, thanks to the amazing hospitality of the family, we took over their entrance way for a good few hours and got to work. Yet again Byron Langley brought his game face and we introduce the amazing Diana Chevalier. If you watch the Behind the Scenes I think you’ll easily agree that she has to be one of the coolest grannies you’ll ever meet. She’s an undiscovered gem of an actress and it was an honour to work with her. Jared Price, a new addition to the Srizzil crew, brought his beautiful granny car and gaffer skills to the shoot. And Christy Kiggan, Diana’s unofficial handler, was there to make sure everything ran smoothly.
After sound issues on the last video for people with dodgy laptops, I tried my utmost to make the sound better in this one. Some people may see an improvement, some may not. But trust me I tried hard to improve the sound with the software I’ve got. I hope you also notice some beautiful shots thrown into this video, if you’re an arty type I trust they made you smile.
For more laughs, maybe even more so than the actual video, watch the Behind the Scenes including discussions and outtakes below:
I’ll be the first to admit that my singing videos on YouTube leave much to be desired. I still seem to get nervous singing in front of the camera. I think I’ve finally grown enough confidence to believe I can in fact sing, but the nerves are still a big issue. Let’s not even discuss in front of people by myself.
So I’ve decided to do something a bit more fun to help me grow more. Today I’m launching the Singing in the Bathroom Series or SBS for short. It’s where, you guessed it, I take my camera into the bathroom and sing some fun songs and act crazy. As lyrics that aren’t mine tend to linger in some difficult to reach place in my brain I’ve started with something I couldn’t mess up. When the saints. Let me know what you think.
