Not progress related, but we thought we’d add it to the blog as the news hit the ManINsuiT camp pretty hard.

Colin Mercer passed away last month.

To most of you, you never know him by name but by “the old guy in the Battle for the Sky music”. To us we knew him and his wife Maureen and a bit of their life story.

To fill you in on how we met, Colin and his wife were forced out of Zimbabwe by that monster formally known as Robert Mugabe. They took everything from their cars, property and money. Their daughter, living in North Canada at the time, advised they move into an old age home in Cape Town as where she was staying was far too cold for a lifestyle an elderly couple could enjoy.

They were put into a retirement village in Hout Bay, the same as Rob’s gran at the time. This was totally funded by the daughter.

When the concept of the Battle for the Sky music video was set, we needed an old person for the intro scene. After asking Rob’s gran, she insisted we ask Colin as he and Maureen needed the money more than anyone in the retirement village. Colin and Maureen accepted.

We’ll never forget the excitement in Colin’s eyes as we drove around Chapman’s peak from Hout Bay to Kloof Street in Town. He had no transport where they were staying and could not enjoy the beautiful scenery of Cape Town.

Colin led a good life until the end. It’s sad to think that this is one of probably thousands of stories coming out of Zimbabwe. If we were running the UN there would definitely be one less person living today.

We met Maureen last week and gave our condolences and she seems like she is doing alright on her own in Hout Bay.

Apologies for the sad news, but we thought you should know.

Take care,
ManINsuiT

Sunday was the final day of shooting and it was at City Varsity, which was thankfully decked out with a foosball and pool table. Today the first shots of 91 year old Colin Mercer who was to be the man looking at old photos that serve as transitions for the various locations we shot at.

He gracefully sat through the heat of the lights and the long morning of shooting his takes. Thank you very much! As to what the vid is trying to say, well, you can make that out for yourself.

In the studio we filmed the intro and 1st verse of the track and then did various close-ups of the band members.

I think its safe to say that everyone was knackered from the previous days and when the last shots were taken there was a great sense of relief.

Thanks so much to the crew from City Varsity for being cool, patient and fun to be around.

Thanks also go out to Music Connection, Sound Works, Bryan Swanson for facilitating, Lynchburg, Tennessee, Zack for taking photos, Colin Mercer and his wife Marie for being willing to help out, and our too damn cool friends for pulling through and making it a cool day in the cemetery!

And a special thanks goes out to Mieke, the makeup artist, from Bryan..

Thanks guys for reading this, look for a video launch in the next couple of months if all goes well and things look good. Battle for the Sky is now being mastered overseas in the UK, so look for a snippet and a full release over the internet in a couple of weeks. Other news, our EP is in full pre-production mode, we are currently shopping around for studios nationwide. Look for a release date early next year.

Cheers, have a good one!

ManINsuiT

All photos were taken by Zack Viljoen and have been reduced in size and quality for your browsing convenience.

THE CREW:

Wade Olckers Director
Shaun Inskip Director of Photography/CameraOp.
Dirkie Uys Assistant Director
Dale Hunt Assistant Camera
Theo Kronke Editor/Continuity
Bernard Sterk Gaffer
Jason Gould Grip
Mieke Young Makeup Artist
Stefan Meyer Second Assistant Director
Zack Viljoen Still Photographer

Saturday saw us shooting in Plumstead Cemetery among ancient gravestones and massive molehills. Today we would be shooting the last Bridge and then the last Chorus. Feeling the burn from the previous day we applied factor 40000 to our blistered skins until our pores couldnt absorb anymore.

We hit a few snags in that we hadn’t taken into account that funerals would be taking place..DUH!! We had to wait until after 1 o’ clock before the cemetery was clear and we didnt have to disrupt mourners with great catchphrases such as- “Our memories are moments past, what weve done will never last.” Insensitive would have been the understatement of the century.

Close-ups and individual shots was the first work for the day, Bryan T was first up and sufficiently locked and loaded he went on to perform admirably. Playing leads that were from different songs we have no idea how the Editor will deal with Brains cockiness. As they say, The edit is where films are born or killed.

What was really great about Saturday was that we had a small crowd scene in the day, a funeral of hip, young twenty-somethings attending a service for an old man. The meaning? You decide

So around 1:30pm our buddies began to arrive all dressed down in black and looking spiffy.
So basically we held a little party in the cemetery. Again the day was absolutely perfect, spring had definitely returned, like Superman exceptnot gay.

The tracks were again set up so that the camera could encompass the mourners, the awkwardly cardboard coffin and the band.

The heat was blistering and Rob during a take fell over onto his back. He reckons it was sunstroke, I reckon it was Beer. I suppose theyre both golden so the argument is void.

The small crowd had obviously studied Stanislawskis Method Acting and each one of them pulled of a stunning, emotive and touching performance.

Props go out to Warren Lino and Nick Appleby for the one, lonely tear of grief sliding down their cheek. Perfection.

After the group left, tracks were set up for a shot sliding past the drums as the song comes to the explosive end. Scott was worried because being superstitious, he thought his drums were over a grave and didnt want to play over one. But on closer inspection we realized that we where behind a gravestone. No ghosts for Scott in this life.

Upon walking around looking for a cool place to shoot Robs close-ups we discovered that every grave we had shot around had the name Robert on it.

Freaky, but the clincher was when we discovered a stone saying-Robert Hope died age 27. That took the cake, Rob burst into tears and not even Coke o Cola could comfort his lost soul. Only four years to go Robwell miss those technical bass-lines, better draw up that Goats contract up now.

Final shot of the day was Brent Heiny the Tailrider van Rensburg smoking a cig and playing his guitar, and with his new found confidence, and the alleviation of a certain weight brought on by a certain unwarranted dry spell, he was looking damn fine, channeling Dimebag from beyond.

Day 1 : THE BROKEN DOWN BRIDGE Friday 25th of August was the first day of shooting for our track The Battle for the Sky.

We, ManINsuiT, found ourselves fully prepared and on our way to the Unfinished Bridge in the city, packing a couple of Jackie D’s and a bevy of Bevies, we felt adequately stocked for a day in the scorching sun with no hope of shade or even a fresh breeze to sate our dehydrating bodies.

Upon arrival we found that the cool crew from City Varsity had already set up the tracks for the first shot, a full band shot of the Bridge and 1st Chorus.

The day was perfect for a video shoot, clear skies and not a hint of the Cape Doctor.

Problems up to this point included Scotts fear of heights, he said- “the edge keeps pulling me towards it”.. like the idiot was in some horror film or something!

Another problem was finding cups for our beverages, which was immediately alleviated by the film crew having Styrofoam cups on hand. Great, things were already rolling smoothly.

Upon trying to shoot the first shot we realized that the speaker we had brought for the track playback was too soft and we kept losing time with the song. We had to find a replacement quickly. Clemens and Music Connection were awesome, they let us get a sweet huge motherfucker of a speaker which was perfect and pretty much drowned out any noise, including Brents high pitch girl whine about his unfortunately scheduled exam directly after the shoot. Shame.

Once the ball got rolling, the crew got into their groove and ManINsuiT started to move to the music, grinding and rolling like true Rock Stars sweltering under the lava-like sun.

During the course of the day we started to note something strange, Bryan T always seemed to be getting his make-up reapplied by make-up artist Mieke. Hmmm? We were sweating a lot but really, double trips seem a bit overboard Brain

With close-ups being shot, the other band members got to chill out a bit with Photographer Derek Zack Viljoen, Manager Bryan and Kirsty, who all came for the Jackies and not the band. Good choice.

The first close-ups included Rob standing on the edge of the bridge with Table Mountain in the background and a crane placed purposefully in position.

Brent followed and finally Bryan was awarded his time Under the Sun.

The last close-ups of the day were gifted to Scott.

When the sun finally started to give way we called it a day and left to go for a couple of pints, feeling fresh and amped that we had put a dent in the work for the video