Inspiration, It’s a Funny Thing…

There are all kinds of moments and events in my life which have given me inspiration to become a filmmaker. It sounds kind of corny, but one of those inspirational moments occurred last week I went to the Fly My Pretties concert held in Dunedin's Regent theatre. I know everyone in my class the next morning was decidedly sick of me ranting about how fantastic the gig was, but I think I am going to take this opportunity today to continue my ravings.
It has always fascinated me how images can suddenly become so much more powerful when they are coupled with music. Consider any of your favourite movies or documentaries and I would almost guarantee that they have an excellent soundtrack. Music is used to reinforce the images by creating a certain mood or heightening the emotion of a film. For me, it is truly one of the most important tools in filmmaking.

What I though was just so great about Fly My Pretties was that, in comparison to film, music became the primary focus and a variety of images were used to support this music. Fly My Pretties is a group that was formed in 2004 in Wellington by a group of prominent Wellington musicians. The idea behind the group was to share ideas, perform in front of a live audience and record the results. What was unique about the group, and one of the reasons that they were so well received in New Zealand during their second tour in 2005, was the multimedia performances that they gave. Not only was the music stunning, but there were three screens set up on stage that played a complete visual narrative to the music. This narrative, which was produced by multimedia artists Nektar films, all related to unique aspects of New Zealand culture and included footage from as early as the 1920's. Gathered from the New Zealand film archive, this early footage from the New Zealand film unit was intercut with more recent footage and used to tell stories about our spectacular environment, our indigenous culture and our everyday life. It came across as a really emotionally and powerful performance, something that I think would not of been easily achieved without using film.
For me this film footage really enriched the whole music experience, and more than that those images made me really proud to be a New Zealander. When you come away from a gig with that kind of feeling, how could Fly My Pretties be anything but a success.