I have always been making films and videos. Between the ages of 15 and 21 I had made around 14 feature length films which I directed, wrote, edited and starred in, albeit badly. With a band of school friends we’d make these on our weekends and school holidays. We’d make armfuls of VHS copies to give out to our families and anyone else who’d have the will power to watch one. This led on to making more films, various music videos and goofy comedy sketches. (photo below of some of the early videos)
Utter Philth
A super mario /eastenders paradoy I made with friends Osymyso and Dominic Hailstone. This was featured on tv show ‘Dara O Brian’s Go 8 Bit’ Plus some more videos made for the website/facebook page. Find tons more at www.utterphilth.com
First Fag – Jake Yapp & kettle of Fish 2020
Another silly video this time with a chain smoking puppet. Puppeteered, filmed and edited over a couple of weekends.
Jolene’s Mad at Me – Osymyso
Potbelleez: From The Music 2011
In 2011 I directed a music video for the Australian pop group The Potbelleez. I also wrote, storyboarded, puppeteered and helped with producing the clip with Ben Falk of Odelay Films.
Antique Bongo
A naughty video I made with Matt Berry. – Edit, film and magazine design.
Antique Bongo from Douglas Pledger on Vimeo.
Uberkaboom – I am not an Automaton 2011
Music video I directed, edited and welded for my friend’s band. Starring Mina Dutton as the sexbot.
TOOL – Opiate
A masterpiece directed, produced, designed, and pretty much everything else by my good mate Dominic Hailstone. I helped out on this video with the puppeteering, photography and the BluRay disc design. Clip below is a short section from the much longer filmBealehood
A spoof trailer I made when the film ‘Boyhood’ was released. A parody showing how Ian Beale (Eastenders) has grown up from boy to man in the show, much like the character in the film. This went viral, as they say. Appearing on front pages of many of the biggest national news and entertainment websites in the UK.
Tom Mansi & the Icebreakers
Various pop videos for the band. Producing, filming and editing.
Boinged
Editing Hanna-Barbera sounds effects over harrowing film clips.These are the only 2 remaining, the rest have since been taken down, curse you hollywood.
Isis – Holy Tears 2007
A brutal music video I star and die in. By the always superduperb writer/director Dominic Hailstone.
The Fantomas Melvins Big Band
In 2006 I went along to see my all time favourite bands Fantomas and Melvins perform as their supergroup big band at the Kentish Town Forum. I asked Greg Werckman of Ipecac Records if I could take some photos which he said was ok. To cut a long story short I went in the end with my mates Matt Rozeik and Alex Gunnis armed with 3 crappy camcoders and decided to film the entire show. We managed to get enough footage between us to knock together a live performance DVD which was (after lots of video and sound editing) released 2 years later. The cherry on the cake was a full length commentary track by the band’s number one fan Danny Devito.
“I have to admit. I am not crazy about music DVDs. Just the thought of sitting and watching a full concert, you know? From front to start is hard enough in person for me. Let alone on a fucking DVD. To me, unless the footage looks really spectacular…Unless it’s a one-time project that I want to document, I have no burning desire to do concert DVDs. That being said, every now and again someone does something really cool. And the next one we will be doing after Patton/Kaada live is The Fantomas Melvins Big Band. That is a similar case. It was a friend of Buzz’s, from the Melvins, that happened to be at one of the London shows. And he said, “Hey, I am going to do this whether you want it or not. You don’t have to pay me, blah, blah, blah.†I was like, “Okay. No harm. No foul.†And he sent footage. It is fucking stunning. He did a bunch of visual effects. It is more than just a concert. There is animation in it. It is really well done. We will be putting that out in the summer of 2008.†– Mike Patton
“At the last minute, Greg Werckman [who runs Ipecac with Mike Patton] came up with this idea of doing a commentary on the whole thing. Mike Patton and Greg are friends with Danny DeVito, and he agreed to come down. So it’s me, Greg, Robby Frazier from William Morris, Dale and Danny all talking. Mostly, it has nothing to do with the DVD itself. We got to ask him any question you can possibly think of — what it was like to work with Andy Kaufman, and who was the biggest a**hole he ever worked with. He told us really great stories — all of which are on there.†– King Buzzo
Here’s a clip.
Photocopy Frankie
A silly clip made with Howard Cohen for his comedy show. I’m doing the puppet.
Rathergood
Whilst working on ‘Putin’s Lunchbox’ I made a few silly adverts for it, for Joel Veitch. (Animation, Photography & Design)
Thistle
In 2008 I made a stop motion animation called Thistle. About a little character who desperately wants to get the last peach from a tree but cannot reach. This swallowed up most of my weekends outside of work and took over a year to complete due to making it alone on my parent’s dining room table.
With a soundtrack by Astrohenge, here’s Thistle.
The 12 Days of Christmas
A Christmas video made at Anomaly. Working alongside Ben White I worked on backgrounds, assets, retouches and a few visual gags dotted around.
Piss About
Filmed, edited, written, produced and starring… (adults only). More here
Bichon & Frise
2000 Filmed, edited and starring. Not sure what we were on back then.
Everything we’ve ever known about…
Motion Graphics and design for Jake Japp’s BBC Radio 4 series. One of the episodes here.