Back in May a company by the name of Green Hippo located in London posted a job for a sales position within their company.
The job required travel to foreign territories, setting up displays at conventions, trade shows and demos. Having previous experience in shows and sales are a primary requirement. So I figured with my past sales record with VJ Loops and visual artist performance background I thought I would give it a shot. I sent in my cover letter and resume and in July I received an email from James Heron one of the original founders and top salesmen of Green Hippo. He gave me his number and said to give him a call. I called James shortly after and we spoke for a good amount time on the phone which ended with James extending an invite to interview at their London head quarters. To top it off, James said they would fly me in and put me up at a hotel nearby. As you can imagine feelings of happiness surged through my body. It was a great feeling to know that a company of this caliber would consider me for an interview let alone fly me in and put me up for a night. I was eager and nervous at the same time. I haven't interviewed for a job in years as I have been self employed with VJ Loops and touring as a visual artist for the last 9 years. So the dates were set and I was packing my bags for London.
Arriving in London I had to fend for myself. I had been in London only once before but not nearly long enough to know my way around the city. I extended my stay a few extra days so I would be in London from August 5th until August 11th. I wanted to take advantage of the free trip. As usual on any journey I embark on I packed my VJ rig just in case I got lucky and managed to find a gig or two. I tried to touch base with several VJ artists from the London VJ Forums and hoped to crash on a few couches. I didn't have much money as *Ryan Unfair charged me for the extra weight I was carrying on the flight.
*<strong>Note to reader</strong>: should read Ryan Air- A low cost airline company that charges you for any weight over 15 kilos. I was a good customer that day. On my flight over I gave them €165 in what they call excess baggage fees.
<Rant>Ryan Air is a great airline if you travel with the clothes on your back and nothing else as there are fees for carrying bags and extra fees for anything over the 15kg weight allowance. So the advertised low airfares are quickly inflated with hidden costs. Caveat Emptor! </Rant>
So while in London my first "Couch Surfing" host would be a very talented VJ by the name of MENO. We had met through our mutual friend Dubassy. After a talk on the phone, Meno and I decided to meet at a local VJ meet up going on that night at T-Bar. The VJ London meet-up was hosted by Dr. Mo a fellow VJ that I also admire and respect for his fantastic stop motion video work. At this particular meeting I met some local London VJ's from VJ Forums. You communicate with these people online and read their posts in the forums and finally putting faces to the online personas was really nice. It takes away the coldness and misconceptions that the internet portrays. Also there were a few new characters. The names that stuck out the most for me were Zambari, Dr. Mo, Mowgli, Bopa, Prick Image, Deep Visual, Meno and Pixel Pusher. Spending a few minutes with each of them you quickly realize what cool, unique and distinct artistic personalities each person has. Each with knowledge to share! Pixel Pusher another American living in Europe invited me to an open slot at Immersion. It’s another monthly visual meet up with performances along side live audio experimental noise glitch musicians. It would be taking place at the Flea Pit a few days later. It seems that London is indeed the visual hotspot in Europe.
So Meno and I made our way around and did some introductions. Dr. Mo insisted that I set up my gear and I would have to say the biggest icebreaker for visual artists is VJ toys. I brought my Vixid unit that I had just recently acquired from Gary of Analog Recycling.
This unit is the latest video mixer packed with powerful features that will give any VJ goose bumps. Gary from Deep Visual famous for his excellent YouTube video tutorials on just about everything from video mapping to hardware and things in-between was kind enough to give us a few tips. He gave us a few video feedback tricks with the Vixid and a mini DV camera. Dr. Mo was floating about documenting the evening with his digital photo/video camera which he edited and uploaded to Vimeo. This pretty much sums up the night. Click link to visit Vimeo to view video.
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London VJ Meeting - 6th of August 2008 from VJ Dr. Mo on Vimeo.
After a night of drinks, visuals and good conversations Meno and I made our way back to his cyber techno visual artist warehouse loft. This place was so cool. The top floor had a flat that was shared by several roommates from different walks of life. A few artists, an IT tech, a writer and a gourmet chef shared the creative living space. Below the flat was a huge warehouse that was used by several artists for various creative endeavors. It was a truly unique space and I was envious.
The following day I had my interview with Green Hippo. I put on my best (only) suit and headed through the overcrowded and overheated subway to Wood Green which was north of London. All the while making sure to MIND THE GAP!
Upon arrival to the Green Hippo headquarters I was promptly greeted by James and introduced to the team. After a few handshakes and hellos James, a few key staff and I headed to the conference room for the interview. I admit I was nervous and I wasn’t sure how the following hour would turn out. To my relief it was really relaxed but professional. I was able to answer their questions and convey my thoughts in a professional manner. Keep in mind I haven’t been to an interview in years. After some questions I did realize some of my weaknesses and I made sure to make mental notes for future interviews. Personally I think my weak points in this case were my inexperience with sales. Although I have years of experience running VJ Loops and online e-commerce I felt that maybe Green Hippo was looking for a more professional sales background. James did mention that my resume was unique in the fact that I work with digital content and distribution as well as perform as a visual artist. All of these factors did entice them to fly me in which was good.
As the evening came near and the work day ending James and a few of the staff invited me out for drinks at the local pub. After a few rounds of drinks and some delectable snacks, Nobbys Nuts being my favorite we talked and joked for a few hours.
It was nice as the Hippos paid for everything. A relief after suffering baggage fees from Ryan Air. The alcohol was taking its effect and you could see the social barriers being broken down and everyone seemed more relaxed and gregarious. After a few rounds James invited the staff and I to an Indian cuisine restaurant. That day I tasted my first Indian beer called Cobra.
Things were going well and I felt really welcomed. So far London seemed like an ideal place to live and work.
After dinner and feeling quite inebriated James and I headed to the hotel where I would be staying. He also had booked a room for himself as he lived a few hours north of the Hippo headquarters. After checking in James and I parked ourselves at the bar and proceeded to chat over a few more drinks. We talked about the future of visuals, Green Hippo and VJ Loops. At this moment I planted the idea of a future collaboration between Green Hippo and VJ Loops. This was my PLAN B and ulterior motive if the job didn’t pan out. It made perfect sense. Green Hippo makes media servers which without content are just machines. VJ Loops creates and distributes content which will fit perfect in media servers. So James agreed that it could be beneficial for a future collaboration between our companies. After a long chat we decided to head to bed as we would be getting up early to head back to the Hippo HQ.
As morning hit so did the alcohol from the night before. Slightly hung over I met James in the lobby of the hotel we checked out and we made our way to the Green Hippo HQ. Today I would get my hands on demo of the Hippotizer.
Arriving at the office it seemed everyone was well adjusted to the night out before routine and everyone was busy keeping the Green Hippo gears oiled and working. For the rest of the workday I played with the Hippotizer and it was the first time I have ever had any experience working with a machine this powerful. It’s basically a super computer with superior graphics output and responds faster than any piece of visual hardware I have used. It was like using VJ software on steroids. I could easily mix and add effects to high quality video in real time. Also while hanging out in the Hippo HQ I was privy to see the other job applicants coming in for interviews. It looks like there was a lot of competition for the position.
After spending the day playing with the Hippotizer I decided to head out and make my way to the next destination, the Flea Pit in downtown London for the next VJ gig.
Tonight I would be playing a guest slot at Immersion hosted by Pixel Pusher. This is a bi-monthly VJ meet up featuring performances with some live audio experimental noise glitch music. I would be taking stage with Jamka and put my self created visuals to the test. I didn’t know what to expect and wasn’t sure if my style would fit the music but surprisingly it went really well and I received excellent feedback from several people. My organic and abstract stop motion style seemed to fit perfectly with Jamka’s music. You can see a few screenshots below.
Dr. Mo also made his visual cameo that evening and he gave me positive feedback on my visuals. He said “Kyle your stuff is really good!” I replied “Really, I don’t think it’s that good.” To which he replied “You’re just being modest!” This really made my day. To receive nice comments from the people who you view as your peers is definitely good for self esteem. I also managed to get a spot on Dr. Mo’s sofa that evening. So far I haven’t had to pay for a hotel or hostel while in London. Bonus!!!
In the morning Dr. Mo had already left for work by the time I woke up. So I packed my suitcase and prepared for the next step in my London adventure. I touched base with Meno again and he kindly offered a space on his couch for the remainder of my stay in London. I couldn’t be happier. Everyone I met so far has been extremely kind and generous. So I would head to Meno’s cyber techno visual artist warehouse loft later in the evening. With some time to kill I called Gary (Deep Visual) to see if he fancied meeting up that day. After a few tube rides I ended up meeting Gary by some theater in this nice rich district. We headed to a local restaurant and talked about all things visual. I realized we had a few things in common besides visuals. Our fondness of Asian culture was one of them. I can’t remember how it came about but Gary mentioned he had an authentic katana at his house. My fascination with Samurais and Ninjas go back as far as I can remember. I have always wanted a katana. Without evening thinking I blurted out “NO WAY, Can I see it?” To my surprise Gary said yes and invited me back to his house. That day I held a katana in my hands. I had to suppress the overwhelming joy but you could see a big grimace on my face. Gary and I chatted some more and I mentioned my quest for knowledge in motion graphics. I spoke to him about my attempts to learn Adobe After Effects and he offered a few tips. So we sat down and for the next hour he gave me a crash course on some key points in After Effects. Again I can’t stress enough at the warm welcome I received while in London. It was nice to be in a country where people speak your language and extend hospitality beyond anything I could imagine.
After the free class from Gary he mentioned that there was a nice park near his home with a beautifully decorated Asian pagoda with Buddha statues. Since I was lugging around my camera and tripod I thought this would be a great opportunity for a photo shoot. We walked to the park and my eyes fell upon a massive pagoda that was painted with golden Buddhas.
It was beautiful! Thankful for the educational and inspirational afternoon I said goodbye to Gary and he left to run some errands. I spent the next few hours exploring the park and shooting photos. The bees were hard at work harvesting nectar.
The next few days were spent at Meno’s cyber techno visual artist warehouse loft. Meno had a vision mixer job at Field Day in Victoria Park on the August 9th which was one of many festivals going on in London that month.
I managed to get a production pass while I was there and spent my time shooting photos of the festival and having fun with Meno in the visual trailer.
I also hung out in the electronic music tent and snapped some shots during the sets of James Holden & Richie Hawtin aka Plastikman.
I remember idolizing Hawtin’s music back in 1995 and filling my record bin with all of his vinyl productions. Maybe it’s me and my old age but his style doesn’t satisfy my musical tastes anymore. Richie Hawtin’s set was also accompanied by some visual artist and to be honest I found it very boring, simple and visually unfulfilling. I suppose minimal music requires minimal art. I don’t know I just imagined a headline live PA artist like Richie Hawtin would have a more exciting visual show to enhance his music and persona. I am glad that I didn’t pay to see his set.
For my last night in London it only seemed appropriate that I had head to the pubs for yet another drinking adventure with my English cohorts. On this night Meno and some of his flat mates from the cyber techno visual artist warehouse loft were heading to a very nice pub to meet a few other friends who were celebrating a birthday. I had my camera and captured a few choice moments.
The girl below celebrated her birthday and one of her new toys, rubber ducky with a blue led light was soon making neat pictures with my camera.
The owner of the bar VAL, pictured below was kind enough to chat me up a bit and give me some history on the Palm Tree Pub.
After a long night of drinking and laughs we headed home. We dropped off some of our drinking companions and headed back for the Meno’s cyber techno visual artist warehouse loft. London was quiet that morning and Meno was louder.
After 6 long exciting fun filled days in the heart of London my adventure came to an end. New friends were made which were quickly converted to mates, as the saying goes. Valuable industry and visual contacts were plentiful. New knowledge was shared and insights into the London lifestyle were experienced first hand. It’s most definitely a lively city with a creative and outgoing crowd who know how to have fun and take the piss. As for the job at Green Hippo I was informed that it went to a more qualified candidate with Russian language skills, as this was a territory that the Hippos were interested in expanding in. Thanks to all who made my adventure possible!
