Swimming With The Sharks

Social media is a vast ocean, teeming with tweets, apps, photo filters and angry birds. Making a drop in this ocean is hard enough at the best of times, let alone during recession, yet Manchester based multimedia production company Tunafish Media have made some serious waves over the past 18 months.


Formed by Salford University alumni Smudge Jones, James McDonald and Richard Brooks in January of last year, Tunafish sought to offer something fresh and vibrant to the corporate film making industry. Quicker than a Sailfish (ok, last fish/ocean reference, promise) they had built up a client list including Harvey Nichols and the charity Forever Manchester, not to mention being featured as the North West company to watch by GQ.

Aside from the world of corporate film making however, it has been Tunafish's work behind the camera of several music videos which has most caught our eye.

The trio have directed videos for Manchester artists Daystar, Danny Mahon and The Last Party with many more still in the pipeline. To discuss these videos, rap battles, an unhealthy obsession with tuna and more, one third of Tunafish and resident Indiana Jones enthusiast, Smudge Jones ( the bearded one on the right. No relation to Indiana).

The Soul Kitchen: First things first, what was the inspiration behind starting Tunafish?


Smudge Jones: None of us really fancied starting at a bigger production company and working our way up. I imagine it can be quite soul destroying doing a degree and training to do something only to have to make coffee for a couple of years before you get given anything creative or interesting to do. Starting up ourselves has been quite liberating in the sense that if something goes wrong it's all on our heads. Learning how to handle things yourself and working out how to do all the 'running a business' things that running a business entails has been interesting too. I think having a grasp of all that stuff can only stand you in a good stead for everything that you plan to do in the future.




TSK: Also, and I'm guessing you get asked this a lot, but why Tunafish? Why not something a bit cooler and dangerous like Swordfish, Piranha or Narwhal?


SJ: I never thought it would be so hard naming a company. At one point we had a list of about sixty names that were in contention but the three of us could never really agree on one. We were planning on being called 'Chase the Sun Media' for a while but my Dad started slagging us off for sounding like a holiday company so that got binned pretty quickly.

We ended up going for Tunafish because Ric eats Tuna for every meal of every day and it had started to become a running joke to the point that we were in the cinema and Macca and Myself could smell fish. We turn around and there he is eating a Tuna baguette whilst everyone else is tucking into their popcorn.

There were some dangerous names on the list. I can remember suggesting 'Baddaman Media' but those two just stood up and walked out of the cafe that we were in. I never mentioned it again after that.

TSK: Starting your own company is a risky venture even at the most affluent of times, nevermind during a recession. Was that chance of failure daunting in the beginning or did it in fact spur you on to make Tunafish a success?

SJ: It spurs you on I think. I don't really think it was that big of a risk. We're all young, none of us have children or mortgages so there wasn't really any external factors stopping us from having a go at it. It looks like we're in a double-dip recession now too, which is frustrating. Someone recently told me that we started Tunafish in the worst possible time in history to start a company, which was nice. I've never had good timing.

TSK: You've recently directed music videos for Manchester artists Danny Mahon and The Last Party. How did these collaborations come about?

SJ: We've known Danny since we all worked on Manchester Radio Online. It was our first big job and I think when it came out people started taking us a bit more seriously. I think the danger of starting a company whilst you're young is that people think you're messing about but I guess that video showed that we weren't.

The rest of the music videos we have done have come off the back of that really. The Last Party liked that video so we did their's. It was the same with Daystar and Endeavours too.

TSK: The music video seems to be something of a dying art form nowadays, with the majority of bands settling for sub standard 'live' performances instead of something with any artistic integrity. Is that something you had in mind when shooting these videos?

SJ: I still think there are a lot of good music videos being made but there does seem to be a lot of performance videos at the minute. I guess it's because they are easier to make. When we got started we just wanted to create videos that were fun and had a bit of substance. I think the videos are just as important for us as they are the artists. They promote the single and the band but they promote us as well and that's why it's important that each of them is as good as it can possibly be.

TSK: Who's next for you to shoot (on video, not with a gun/crossbow)?

SJ: We have quite a few music videos coming up. There are a few more Danny Mahon videos in the pipeline and one for Kingdom Lost. We have started working with 12 Dirty Bullets from London as well, which I really enjoyed. They're a great band and I have been a fan of their's for a couple of years so to be asked to do their videos was great news. But it's not just indie bands we're doing videos for. We've got a really good dance video coming up with a DJ called Alan Conor, which is different to what we usually do but we're really excited about sinking our teeth into something different.

TSK: Ideally, who would your dream musician be to collaborate on a project with?

SJ: I would say Elvis Costello or Damien Rice but I imagine you would get a different answer from Macca and Ric. I'd like to make a Sigur Ros video too. I think out of all the bands around at the minute, they have the best music videos. They are incredible.

TSK: Social media seems to be evolving on an almost daily basis. How do you manage to keep up?

SJ: Social Media is chaos. We just keep an eye on what's going on and chip in when we can or have to. It's an exciting time for bands though, they can potentially reach an audience of millions without leaving their bedroom.

TSK: Any plans on the Tunafish Group to form a band of your own and jump in front of the camera?

SJ: We are the least three musically talented people walking the earth. Although, saying that Macca has just started guitar lessons. He knows how to play the G chord and he is quite good at rapping. We do seem to spend a lot of our time battle rapping each other. Life is just one big rap battle, it's better to be prepared.

TSK: Finally, what does the future hold for Tunafish? Documentaries? Feature films? Something in 3D?

SJ: I guess we would like to do all them things, except maybe the 3D films. Them things are just confusing. We have been working on a ducmentary about vinyl for a while which we will hopefully be releasing into festivals towards the end of the year. Personally, I'd like to carry on doing music videos, they're great fun.

*You can visit Tunafish's website to see more examples of their work at http://www.tunafishmedia.co.uk*

.Until next time,

Keep on Keepin' on,

Baia

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