Blog

Jade Helliwell @ Nashville Meets London 2018

One day, last summer, I got a DM from Jade. Out of the blue, she said she really liked the tour stuff I’d been producing for Sarah Darling and was wondering if I’d be up for documenting her performance at Nashville Meets London.

It was hard to say no, when she’d asked so politely. Especially after talking on the phone to her the night before and seeing how easygoing she was about the whole thing.

So, I got out of bed early one morning, after signing a lot of intimidating paperwork from the people of Canary Wharf promising them I wasn’t going to be a moron, and headed in to the event.

Turns out, NML is a pretty big deal - which explained the paperwork.

Promo, UK, LiveMatt Allen3 June 2019Jade Helliwell, Live Performance, London, PromoComment

ZERO

This whole story starts way back in 2013 when I wrote a short sketch script about a superhero. It was called “ZERO” and was a big metaphor for me trying to make films whilst working to pay off uni debt coming off the graduation buzz of university - big fish, little pond and all that.

It was fun and I made a cool little mask for the character of “Wonderman”, but I just wasn’t satisfied with how I shot it. I’d never shot anything that should make people laugh before - intentionally anyway. So, it just gathered dust and was always something I’d talk to Peter, the main actor, about maybe revisiting someday.

UK, Short FilmMatt Allen4 May 2019Short Film, Passion Project, Bristol, ZEROComment

Adée - Hold It Against You

Not long after I’d met Adée in Sweden last September, we’d started talking about potentially collaborating when she was working in the UK in November. I’d pitched her a rough idea I had for a music video inspired by the methods and mindset of BROCKHAMPTON.

It was something that had been rattling around my head for all of summer, that idea of how fast we consume new content and how quickly it becomes irrelevant - post something on Instagram right now, it’ll be so far down everyone’s feeds in a couple of hours, a lot of your followers/friends/family won’t see it.

Music Video, UKMatt Allen26 April 2019Adée, Music Video, LondonComment

Amy Odell - Byline Festival 2018

I met Amy a few years ago at a Discovery 2 gig that she performed at. To be honest, I didn’t even meet her there, I messaged her a few weeks later when I was listening to her SoundCloud and editing a video of Amy at that gig.

Live, UKMatt Allen24 April 2019Amy Odell, Live Performance, London, PromoComment

Sarah Darling - Fire

Throughout March, I found myself doing guest appearances on Sarah Darling’s UK tour in support of her upcoming album release, “Wonderland”. It was good to be back working with Sarah after being on tour with her last summer.

Tour, UK, Music VideoMatt Allen16 April 2019Music Video, Tour, London, Brighton, Sarah DarlingComment

Artmongering with Refugees II

To be honest, I never really thought that I’d ever go back to the Azraq camp in Jordan. On a personal level, it’d been such an internal journey for me to be there in 2017, I wasn’t sure how I’d feel, and my professional life had taken me literally half a world away from where I was back then.

Documentary, JordanMatt Allen2 April 2019Artmongers, Documentary, JordanComment