Take one ambitious cinematographer who loves music. Add one established audio professional who is also a musician with his own audio studio. Lock in a top venue with a great reputation for hospitality and innovation. Throw in a major sponsor.
And you have the recipe for The. Act. Newcastle.
Newcastle cinematographer Bailey Watts, who operates under the moniker Bones Collective, and audio engineer Clint Topic, the owner of Sawtooth Studios in Newcastle, have combined their talents to create a new concert concept set to launch in Newcastle on October 25.
The event, billed as The Act. Newcastle, will be at Earp Distilling in Carrington, featuring four Australian music artists in an intimate setting.
The audience will be treated to four solo performances, with the entire night filmed and recorded for the exclusive use of the musicians in the line-up.
And no phones allowed.
"You will be able to feel the energy, the emotion, the intimacy," Watts says. "I want people to walk away, saying 'what was that?'. I get goosebumps just talking about it."
Watts has been earning his credibility as a cinematographer, with credits including director of photography for two Jye Currie films (The Promise and Beat) and music videos with Boy Soda and Edith as well as projects with the ABC.
Topic does on-location sound work and audio post production at Sawtooth for a wide variety of projects and clients. The Tighes Hill studio is also a popular recording and rehearsal space for musicians far and wide. Topic is also a professional bass player, currently with SF Wrens.
Watts and Topic have worked on a couple of music projects that made them realise they have the chemistry to produce something truly special, as in The Act.
The first experiment was with Rum Jungle in 2022. They captured the band for a day at a hall in Cooks Hill, making two videos (No Hotels, Figure It Out Someday).
"We put it out on YouTube," Watts says "It was just an easy breeze.
"Everyone enjoyed it."
Then, earlier this year, they had another joint music project.
"We brought a friend through the studio - Hein Cooper, and just jammed at Sawtooth. He came for a day, and cut three tracks, with some musos," Watts says.
"One song [98 Toyota] was with a cello and sax [Joshua Lukerea and Ben Morgan]. Sitting there, watching a song happen then and there - they work-shopped in the room. It went out on Spotify, there was a visual video. What it did for me, I thought, 'Wouldn't it be awesome if an audience could see this?' See a performance that isn't an agenda, almost like a jam, it's almost like an internal experience like we just had."
So Watts and Topic put their heads together and The Act was born. They've already been teasing it on social media. The four artists will be announced within the next two weeks when tickets go on sale.
Earp was keen to play host to the show. Audio-Technica came on board as a sponsor, providing state-of-the art recording equipment for the event.
"It's all coming from the right place, the right mindset," Watts says. "We are doing it for the industry, doing it for the music. Doing it for ourselves, yes, but not like large promoters who are in it for themselves. We're not taking any profit out of this first one, we're just getting it off the ground.
"Fortunately, with the support of Sawtooth and Bones and very experienced individuals like Earp and other vendors and establishments, we've got quite a collective special event. They want to see an industry flourish, creating a new stage that allows out-of-town musicians, and local musicians to come play on a new stage that's a totally different environment, that's a new experience for an audience.
"It's intimate, it's real."
Watts expects to shoot the show with eight cameras, Topic and his crew will record all of the audio and do the post production on it.
The sets of each four music artists will be given free-of-charge (complete with post production) to the performers.
All musicians will share a common genre, setting a template for future shows which will explore various sounds.
