Video: Holly Throsby for Shoot The Player

Shoot The Player do just that, shoot musicians. Intimate moments with the artist, filmed live in one take, on one camera, outside of their normal stage - it's simple but elegant. See Lightspeed Champion playing in a sex shop, or Andrew Bird at Macquarie's Chair with the Opera House and Harbour Bridge in the background.


Holly Throsby: A Shoot The Player Film from shoottheplayer.com on Vimeo.
The one I've selected however is of Holly Throsby playing "To Begin With" during January's Sydney Festival, filmed not far from my old house in Centennial Park. It makes me homesick. Holly's hinted ocker twang helps set the scene amongst paperbarks, as summer's magnum opus at 44 degrees with a storm brewing is about to upstage the local singer songwriter. Under thunder and large cracks and creaks in the sky to warn you it's about to collapse every Sydneysider knows this feeling, waiting for that moment where pre-storm calm turns to torrential downpour cooling the afternoon - the tension to shoot and beat the rain is palpable.
Meanwhile "On Longing" is worth a look as Holly plays on one of the upright pianos scattered about the city for the Sydney Festival - I also love the dogs, Jones who looks like my ol' pal Elvis and a shaggy lab who drinks from a dripping tap in the distance like a Triffids song.