James May: Sharp Dressed Man

This was one of those slightly mad projects that crept up on me when I had a bit of free time, and ended up being something a bit more than a bit of fun. I'd toyed with the idea of using 'Sharp Dressed Man' before in a different fandom, but rejected it as a concept because it's such a tricky song to use. Although the premise is great for a really visual, literal vid, there simply aren't enough lyrics in it! The guitar work, while phenomenal, is also the dominant force in the music, making it rather tricky for me, as someone who tends to vid to lyrics, to execute convincingly. Anyway, with a bit of chopping, I managed to get the song down to a manageable 2.41 from 4.30, which solved the lyrics vs. guitar problem, and Im pretty pleased with the result.

I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a slightly cracky tone to this vid - after all, James May is more notorious than famous for his sartorial sense, but to a dedicated fangirl such as myself, and thousands of others around the globe, we love him all the more for his slightly left field approach to fashion! This vid aims to show why we all adore him for his wardrobe choices ;).

For the first time, I've also broken two of my own vidding rules: firstly, never use stills and moving images in the same video, and secondly, never use a flashy transition as it'll detract from the story. In my defence, however, Ive tried to use the stills in as dynamic a way as possible, and the transition was needed to bring a bit of life to the stills. And since I've recently been accused by a class of students of having FAR too many pictures of James May on my computer, what better way to use them than this?!

Many thanks to the people who supplied the stills for the video - most were found on The James May Board, some were pinched from Photobucket (thanks especially to Laura_221 and puppieloved, who both seem to have an endless repository of stills!), a couple were personal pics taken by Kathryn, used with her permission, one that seemed to come originally from www.james-may.co.uk, some from James-May{dot}Net, one from www.simonpbarlow.com and some more came from rootling around on Google. All are used with humble thanks :). If Ive failed to credit you for an image, please do let me know :).

Also thanks to the wonderful Sealgirl for the fab footage of both Killer Sharks and The RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2009, without which, this vid wouldn't be half as much fun :)