JARV IS

JARV IS… BEYOND THE PALE: LIVE FROM THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH

Encouraged to make their own entertainment in lockdown, JARV IS... led by former Pulp frontman, Jarvis Cocker, marks the release of their debut album with a unique performance in the underbelly of Peak Cavern, Derbyshire – backed by a core crew of creatives working to a tight deadline and an even tighter budget, as TPi’s Jacob Waite discovers…

With all live events on hold in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jarvis Cocker, Serafina Steer, Emma Smith, Andrew McKinney, Jason Buckle, Adam Betts and Naala – known collectively as JARV IS… – performed the world’s first seven-song album launch party inside the underbelly of Peak Cavern, Derbyshire on 22 July, premiering for free on YouTube for 24 hours only, before dissolving from the digital ether.

With touring postponed, Jarvis Cocker was searching for a way to still play his new record, Beyond The Pale, live. He called upon Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard to direct the film JARV IS… Beyond The Pale: Live From The Centre Of The Earth. “We worked with Jarvis and his Manager, Jeannette Lee, to put this together. Directing a show like this means being involved in every aspect of the production, from creative ideas to budgeting. We’re responsible for what the audience sees when the film is broadcast.”

Forsyth and Pollard explained that their first step was to invite Prettybird to produce the film. “We knew they’d be responsive and able to work with the time and budget limitations of a project like this. They came on board immediately, and our Executive Producer, Ted Thornton, enlisted a service company in Manchester, Sugar Free TV, to assist with local crew and logistics and keep the costs down.”

The duo then brought Cinematographer and Director of Photography, Erik Wilson; Editor, Olly Stothert; Colourist, Katie Dymmock; and Lighting Designer, Douglas Green onboard. “Rather than bring on traditional film lighting, it made sense for us to work with Douglas, who had been working towards the postponed JARV IS… tour.”

Th e extensive technical supplier list included Christie Lites UK, ER Productions, Flare Lighting, Static Light Company, STS Touring Productions and Shift 4. Post-production was handled by Coffee & TV, an independent visual content studio in London.

“Our process is to work with people we trust, keep crew numbers down, source local and consider the impact of the project,” Forsyth and Pollard said. “We’re very hands-on directors – the intention and spirit in which you set up and deliver a project always seeps onto the screen. This was an ambitious, fun, experimental project and we hope that shines through.”

Having performed in Peak Cavern, Derbyshire, as part of his last tour, excerpts of Beyond The Pale stem directly from that performance. With no audience, the team was able to delve deeper into the cave system. “The idea to shoot in the cave came from Jarvis – then we built on that, first starting the introduction in darkness, just Jarvis’s voice, then the strike of a match. We wanted to give each track a distinct look and feel, so that the film is a cinematic, immersive journey through the tracks on the album. We decided to use only in-camera effects that could be generated live.”

Fr om there, Forsyth and Pollard were able to plug in the ideas Jarvis and Green were already planning for the postponed tour and form a complete shooting plan. “Throughout lockdown, we’ve all been robbed of human contact,” Forsyth and Pollard quipped. “Events and experiences like this are about trying to find a way to fill that gap. That’s as important for performers as it is for audiences. And as it seems unlikely that live music will return to anything we’d recognise as ‘normal’ anytime soon, it’s vital that we continue to experiment and find ways to build virtual communities.”

Shift 4 provided the camera package, while Camera Operators: Olly Driscoll and Tom Williams; First ACs: Simon Ospina and Sean Lomax; Second ACs: Henry Northrop and Sarah Hibbert; Camera Trainee,

Cameron Browne; and Grip, Damien Roberts were recruited in and around Manchester for the unique project. “We’d worked with a number of them before as we were in Manchester on a BBC job last summer.”

The team shot 4K on Sony FS7s as well as a range of still lenses. “We have a box of tricks we take to every shoot, as does Erik. This enables us to produce all the visual effects in-camera,” Forsyth and Pollard commented. “Our approach and ethos are very much aligned with Doug’s – who helped to carry across this approach into the lighting design.”

Th e space had to be not only fit for broadcast, but also COVID-19 safe. “The humidity and low temperatures needed to be considered. However, the major issue was access. Reaching the chamber we were shooting in was only possible via a low tunnel, maybe 3-4ft high,” Forsyth and Pollard noted. “Everything and everyone had to go in and out via that tunnel. Allowances were made for extra crew and a slow load-in and out, but this cut the amount of time we had. The biggest challenge was the turnaround time – we had less than two weeks from shoot to broadcast.”

Among Forsyth and Pollard’s favoured looks was the track, Swanky Modes. “We talked to Doug about creating a single laser tunnel effect using smoke. Doug really got it. Then Erik managed to get a beautiful, smooth single-shot of the whole song. It wasn’t the intention – all the other cameras were filming too – but we love how that one song really disrupts the format of the filmed performance, stripping it down to one continuous shot with sustained eye contact. And for a moment the cave disappears, to great effect. It’s a stunning performance from Jarvis.”

Th e track Children of the Echo was also one such happy, collaborative accident. “Doug ordered a hexagonal fish tank to experiment with lights. When he shared his iPhone video tests with us, we knew we had to film through it. A camera shot through the tank, which has mirrors submerged in the water and is spinning on a lazy Susan. The result was a mixture of refracted light, blurs and warps, which brings these gorgeous vertical folding panels into the live visual.”

Su mming up their experience, Forsyth and Pollard reported: “This ranks among one of the stranger places we’ve filmed a live performance. However, we love a challenge and have directed sessions in many strange places. The show was a challenge, but a rewarding one. Long days of incredibly hard work,” they said. “It was great to work with Jarvis again, and a brilliant team of old and new faces. For most of us, this was our first job out of lockdown, which added an extra dimension to proceedings and seemed to mean everyone brought their A-game. We’re incredibly proud of the film we were able to make together.”

MUST I EVOLVE? “I was halfway through designing the Beyond the Pale album tour when we got the news it was going to be postponed because of COVID-19; I decided to turn the R&D I was doing into a bit of an extended art project to fill time during lockdown, hoping that the work would come in handy at when live shows returned,” Lighting Designer, Douglas Green described. “I kept the creative dialogue with Jarvis going, too – sending him videos of the lighting experiments I’d been doing in my living room with my irreplaceable associate, programmer and housemate, Aaron Veness.”

Ve ness was a week into the pre-programming and visualisation process for System of a Down’s latest tour before the crisis hit. “It felt natural to

team up for this project. We started workshopping and doing the R&D at home, with light experiments, waving around bits of tin foil and laser pens in our living room,” Veness reminisced. “The cave opportunity came around, and we developed it further and took it from there.”

During the lockdown, Jarvis Cocker embarked on a series of Domestic Disco sets on Instagram Live – scrappy, D.I.Y mobile phone footage capturing his modish wit, disco lights draped on a plastic pineapple and even the occasional amplifier explosion were among the highlights.

Ho wever, it was these lockdown sets, complete with the release of lockdown anthem, House Music All Night Long and a reading list – books on the science of light, the history of colour and installation art, as well as caves, obviously – which were the starting points of Green’s lockdown research. “We get caught up with presenting perfection and keeping up appearances, when actually the real-life version of events is often more interesting,” he hypothesised. “I admire Jarvis’ confidence when presenting his ‘un-photoshopped’ self; it’s both magnificent and levelling. This project is an extension of that concept. We’re all just human beings doing things to pass the time and make ourselves happy.”

In fact, the day before the UK lockdown, Green visited ER Productions HQ in Dartford, armed with crystals, mirrors and broken glass. The LD worked closely with ER Productions Laser Tech and Programmer, Seth Griffiths to provide laser effects and haze to proceedings. “The cave inspired the whole album artwork, so it was nice to revisit that idea and bring it to life with Doug by providing a laser package,” Griffiths said.

The resulting laser packaged comprised five BB4s, Phaenon 30W RGBY lasers and hazers. For control, Griffiths employed Pangolin BEYOND

software. “We used new ER data racks at FOH, which were compact, and half the size of a normal rack – ideal given the cave,” Griffiths explained, his tone enthusiastic having completed his first project post-lockdown. “It was great to get out of the house and work with some friendly faces again. It was an interesting space to work in and the lasers looked fantastic.”

Th e show opened with Jarvis lighting a match, reciting the NuTroglodyte manifesto in his famed dulcet tones, up close and personal, where in front of an audience, the intimacy may have been lost. “I had some abstract ideas for the tour that I just didn’t know how to make impactful for a big live audience or feasible for a daily touring schedule,” Green explained. “I shared them with Erik the DOP and he came up with some really great solutions in-camera. The possibilities that that collaboration created were amazing, I learned a lot from Erik, Iain and Jane.”

Among Green’s favoured looks was what he dubbed a ’60s James Bond meets sci-fi aesthetic, courtesy of a BB4 laser setup – a trick spawned directly from living room experiments, bouncing lasers off mirrors and melted plastic, to create a ‘northern lights’ inspired effect across the cave.

During Swanky Modes, the team harnessed a ‘classic’ laser cone effect. “I wanted to see how minimal we could go, so we lit the whole song with just two natively monochromatic light sources – one low-pressure sodium street light from the front and the laser from behind. Iain and Jane’s genius decision to edit the song as one continuous shot brought the concept together magnificently,” Green explained, adding that sometimes the simplest techniques work the best.

ER Productions’ Marc Webber commented: “Working with Doug and seeing his enthusiasm and laser experiments come to life has been a

pleasure. To witness what has been achieved on this job in such a relatively short turnaround and a limited budget is nothing short of brilliant.”

The LD referenced the similarities between creatives in lockdown, and creatives in caves. “The nation has been making their own entertainment at home during lockdown and caves were the earliest kind of human home and where the first forms of art were discovered – Jarvis loved the parallel, so we tried to make the most of it.”

On Beyond the Pale’s second track, Must I Evolve? Jarvis, bathed in a sea of red light, croons “the mind in the cave, out of your mind at a rave” – the former a reference to The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art, a 2002 study of Upper Palaeolithic European rock art written by the archaeologist David Lewis-Williams. “Jarvis purchased the book in a cave, which is where he first got inspired to do the gig. It unpacks the psychology of Palaeolithic people through art that has been discovered in caves; that book became one of the starting research points for the tour. A man walks into a cave with a flickering lamp, out of the darkness loom shadows that look like creatures, he becomes aware of tangled scratchings on the walls – there’s a lot of rich imagery in the book, which was great inspiration.”

The first time Green saw the cave was two weeks before the show. With no truss on site, lights were placed on rocks and spanned the sides of the cave’s walls, some housed on stands. “It was all about responding to the cave and using the shape and texture of the space to compose the mise en scène of the show.”

Behind the band, inside the cave, was a large tunnel, which “disappeared into darkness”. Green explained: “We used the tunnel to create visual depth that we couldn’t have done on an ordinary stage. We put Jarvis’ mirror ball down there – which he acquired from the charity shop next to his house, and has been at every show we’ve ever done,” he added. “There was also a huge flat bit of rock above the band, which we used as a projection surface for lasers and shadows.”

At either side of the band were rocky hills and slopes, which the team clambered up to place lights, utilising the cave as a central character of the show. “Safety was paramount, so I had to choose small and versatile lighting fixtures, which could not only fit into the cave but could do more than one job,” he added. “Available power was minimal too, we had to run it all about 200m into the cave. Tour and Production Manager, Liam Rippon handled the logistics brilliantly, so we could concentrate on the lights.”

Christie Lites provided a main lighting package, which included Martin by Harman Aura XBs, Axiom Hybrids and an MA Lighting grandMA3 compact control console, as well as all the associated power distribution elements. Christie Lites UK Account Manager, Mathew Ilott, commented: “It is an absolute pleasure to be asked by Dougie and Liam to work on this unusual and exciting project.”

The LD highlighted SGM P5 fixtures and Martin by Harman Mac Aura XBs as the main workhorse fixtures chosen to light the cave, along with batterypowered Astera LED Titan Tubes and AX3s, supplied by Flare Lighting. “There are points where Aaron is on his hands and knees in front of Jarvis following him round with a Titan Tube, so it looks like he’s being lit by a computer screen,” he underlined. “It was all about versatility. Seven songs with seven, individual looks.”

For control, Veness utilised an MA Lighting grandMA3 compact control console, provided by Christie Lites. “The workflow of the MA3 is something

Lighting experimenters: Lighting Designer, Douglas Green; Associate LD and Programmer, Aaron Veness.

I’ve always been familiar with,” he explained, having programmed the console. “Before going freelance full time, I worked for Ambersphere Solutions and was involved in the development of the MA3, so I feel fairly confident on the console. It was more the form factor than anything else because it’s easier to operate than a Command Wing. The size and weight of it meant we could fit it into the cave, given the tricky access to the space, through a 1.2m-high tunnel.”

When the team arrived on site each morning, they were briefed by an on-site medic, filled out health and safety forms, and had their temperatures taken regularly. “We were then given a wristband, as well as a mask and portable hand sanitiser,” Veness explained. “Each day, we followed the same process; it was a surreal experience, however, now I work part time at Tesco, I’m used to COVID-19 regulations and procedures... The closest it comes to transferable skills is wearing a headset!”

Be tween shifts at Tesco, lighting experiments, and little to no support from the UK Government, Beyond The Pale: Live From The Centre Of The Earth was a much-welcomed project for Veness. “It was the perfect environment to return to gigs with your friends. It’s also on the list of oddest places I’ve ever done a gig. How many people have worked in a cave?”

For Green, Beyond The Pale: Live From The Centre Of The Earth, was much more than another project; it was a creative outlet at a time of international uncertainty in the live events industry.

“I tend to start shutting down if I’m not creating; it’s been pretty bad for my mental health, as it has for everyone on some level,” Green commented. He referenced British Playwright, Lucy Prebble, who stated that she writes plays in order to bring people together and help them feel less alone. “It’s the substance of life, coming together to experience music and art – whether that’s through a screen or in person – I think it’s the stuff that we live for, right?”

In addition to Christie Lites and ER Productions’ contribution, Flare Lighting’s Ben Cash provided battery-powered lighting and production support, while Static Light Company’s Andy Mamas supplied additional lights. “The suppliers have been amazingly generous, especially so in this difficult time. They’re all so personable, supportive and enthusiastic. I’m totally indebted to them, Seth and Aaron for sharing my excitement for this curious little adventure in Jarvis’ favourite cave,” he concluded.

HOUSE MUSIC ALL NIGHT LONG “This was one of the first shows we have had since March, so it was great to get back to work,” began STS Touring Productions’ General Manager, Richard Knowles. “The logistics of the load-in and load-out made it very hard work, but Tour Manager, Liam Rippon had booked a superb crew from Sheffield Leadmill, who made the task much more bearable.”

Due to the route to the cave entrance, the kit had to be cross-loaded in the carpark, into a 4x4 pickup truck and trailer. Knowles explained: “Once the pickup truck had dropped the gear at the entrance to the main cave, everything then had to be manhandled to a second cave around 300m further in, including at one point through a tunnel around 3ft high.”

Mo nitor Engineer, Ilias Andrianatos is an Allen & Heath user, so STS supplied a dLive C3500 console and DM64 I/O Rack. “We needed to keep the console format to a minimum size in order to manoeuvre it through the cave,” Knowles stated. “Once in position, size wasn’t such a big deal.”

Th e DM64 I/O rack was a great solution for the job due to its vast output capacity in a relatively small format rack. “I like the sound, layout, and

workflow of the dLive C3500,” Andrianatos reported. “The fact you can load your file across the spectrum of the desk from the smallest to the largest, from festivals to caves, you can pick a surface depending on the size of the venue. Although I don’t have a ginormous channel count, I can tailor the surface how I want.”

In t he second cave area where the filming took place, there was not a lot of room for audio equipment. Rather than build everything into one large rack, the team decided to make each rack as small as possible, so that they could be carried through the cave and tunnel and put into position easily.

An drianatos decided to put the band on IEMs, with Jarvis, as always, on a pair of wedges. “This was to limit the amount of noise reverberating in the cave area, to make the performance easier with a more defined sound,” he explained. “As well as fitting the aesthetic, the sound quality and typography of the space was just as important.” The challenging part for the engineer was the wet, muddy and uneven surfaces of the cave. “The sound quality made up for the strange surroundings – this was definitely one of the strangest venues I’ve mixed in,” he laughed.

ST S supplied 11 Sennheiser EW300 G3 IEM transmitters and 18 Sennheiser EK300 IEM beltpacks, six of which were solely for the band. The other five were used, alongside switch microphones, to allow lighting, sound, film crew and band management to monitor the performance during filming and communicate with each other and the band.

Andrianatos specified a pair of L-Acoustics 12XT coaxial wedges powered on an LA8 amplifier. “These were small enough in format to blend into the surroundings, while projecting to Jarvis’ position around 7m away.”

Backline Technicians, Andy Dimmack and Matty Wall made up the audio crew. While FOH Engineer, Andy Pink oversaw the recording side of things. “We supplied the C3500 with a Dante card and a Yamaha SWP1-8 MMF L2 Switch, allowing Andy to record onto a JoeCo Blackbox Multitrack recorder and direct to Laptop to give a main and backup multitrack recording,” Knowles stated. “The JARV IS... band and production crew are a really great bunch of people to work with – they’re all very friendly, professional and real team players.”

Du e to the size of the space, the lack of audience wasn’t apparent. “It was quite an immersive experience; it was also one of the first times the band were in the same room together, following the lockdown of live events, so it was an emotional experience. For me, it was great to see some familiar faces that I have worked with before and bands and artists doing what they do best, and that’s creating art and performing live,” Andrianatos acknowledged. “It is very important to keep the connection between artists and fans alive. Whether that’s through virtual gigs or audience-less shows in a cave.” TPi Photos: Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard www.jarviscocker.net www.iainandjane.com www.douglasgreen.design www.asjveness.com www.christielites.com www.er-productions.com www.flarelighting.co.uk www.staticlightcompany.com www.ststouring.co.uk www.shift-4.com