Lucky You

On October 1, 2011 by vard

One of the cooler parts of this gig is the variety of life I run into while working.  Such was the case last night while doing some recon for a promo shoot with Luck You we’ll be shooting next week.  The guys played an incredibly energetic set in front of hundreds of screaming drinkers, at times having to share the stage with upwards of 20 stunning women at the same time; tis the rough life of a rocker I guess.

Anyway…it was a great show and it was perfect for seeing this band in their natural element.  Should be a great shoot next week.

Rock on!

BriggsFest ’11 – Day One

On July 9, 2011 by vard

Wooooooo! Day 1 of BriggsFest ’11 is in the bag.  Like always, a generally awesome time was had by tons of people.

 

The rain helped keep everyone cool and looking forward to today’s perfect weather!  If you’ve never made it to Briggs before, or just couldn’t make it out last night, today should be one for the ages! :D

 

Hope to see you here…Rock on!

 

Promo Images – The Drama Club

On January 9, 2011 by vard

Got the opportunity to spend a few hours with The Drama Club last week. Nick & I have spoken numerous times in the last 3+ years about getting together, each time never being able to line something up, so it was great to finally make things work.

We started off the shoot at The Purple Zebra in Bloomsburg; rooftop to catch the sunset, then inside to make use of Nicole’s kickin digs. Thanks Nicole! :D

From there we hit up Berwick Brewing Co. for a quick liquid break and a few shots in a tiny room I ran across in the basement. Thanks again to BBC for letting us crash the scene.

We finished the shoot up at the studio on the white wall with some full band and solo stuff. Another great time meeting some interesting and creative people. Thanks guys for making my job easy.

Rock on, and thanks for reading!

…it’s you, not the gear…

On November 16, 2010 by vard

…just a couple of closer thoughts on the Pan.a.ce.a video shoot.

First – this was a team effort all the way around.  Jeff H was all about the nerdy support on quite a few fronts…and did some sweet audio engi-rigging as well.  Thanks Jeff.  DanO was both crucial & essential to this video ever getting done.  Without him on board it would have taken months for me to find the time to get the editing.  That, and he knows stuff I can only dream of.  More so, he’s an awesome photographer and rockin image editor.  That definitely pays off when trying to finish the look of a project.  More than most people, DanO sees images from some of the same perspectives I do (and a whole bunch I never think of).

Second – I didn’t go into 2010 thinking I’d be interested at all in shooting music videos.  After a few bands asked if I’d be interested I started realizing that always saying ‘no thanks’ might not be the best answer.  (Hmmm…might be fun?  Probably be an adventure any way you slice it…)  And, Pan.a.ce.a hadn’t ask…so I asked them.  No expectations…let’s just see what happens. I was still in possession of that little handy Panasonic GF-1 on loan from Barry & Cathy Beck.  It shoots 720HD video and kicks out images that rival any camera for quality.  Sweet…camera for shooting, funky little wide angle lens and a super heavy tripod to act as a poor man’s steadycam.  This entire video was shot with a point-n-shoot camera and it worked well for what we asked of it…

Don’t be afraid to try something based on the false limitations you put on yourself, and don’t be afraid to fail.

{this concludes our current brain-purge…back to editing}

“Don’t Walk Away” – Pan.a.ce.a – 9am!

On November 13, 2010 by vard

Just a reminder that tomorrow at 9am you’ll be able to see the music video we put together with Pan.a.ce.a for their track “Don’t Walk Away”.  What wasn’t mentioned yet was that this is NOT the track from their “Bare Bones” album.  Negative…this is with full on Les Paul crushin Pauly guitars.  Make sure you make the jump to their YouTube Channel and register beforehand….it’s only place you can hear this track right now! :D  Fist pump for exclusive! :D

Rock on!

Live Streaming Event – Sunday, Oct. 3rd

On September 29, 2010 by vard

This Sunday we’re taking a crew down to Daniel Oz Studio’s in Philadelphia to stretch our creative bones and try some new ideas out.  While I’ve had the opportunity to work with Pan.a.ce.a a number of times covering live shows, we’ve never gotten together for the ‘real deal’ promo images.  So that’s goal number one for this weekend.  Rockin’ out a new series for the guys should be enough; but enough is too cliche…so we’ve set 2 other moderately lofty goals for the shoot as well:

  1. Shoot our first music video
  2. Live stream the event (and not embarrass ourselves in the process)

I’ve had a number of bands ask me about shooting music videos for them since January of this year…as I’ve never done this I’ve kindly declined more times than I’m starting to feel comfortable with.  Pan.a.ce.a, on the other hand, hasn’t ask, which is why I asked them.  ”We’ll get your new promo images guys, but give me a couple more hours of your time, and let’s shoot a music video and see what happens”…that was pretty much my pitch.  They agreed and here we are; trying something new, challenging and exciting.

So, with the video idea agreed to I threw the last curve – “let’s live-stream some of the process of shooting promo images and part of the video shoot.”  Let’s make it something people might want to take a peek at.  The guys were in and we started laying out how we might pull it off.  What follows is a brief timeline of what you can expect to see when you tune in on Sunday:

LIVE FEED SCHED:

12:30-1:00 – Band Radio with slide show of stills
1:00-1:45 – Live feed of promo images
1:45-2:30 – Band Radio
2:30-3:00 – Live with Pan.a.ce.a Q & A
3:00-4:00 – Band Radio
4:00-4:?? - Live feed of first two takes
4:??-?:?? - Band Radio

During the slots listed as ‘Band Radio’ you’ll be seeing slideshow images of the band submitted by friends and fans while listening to the entire Pan.a.ce.a discography.  This is were Pan.a.ce.a fans can get involved in this production.  While the guys have a pile of images to work with for these slide shows, the more the better.  If you have any shots of the band handy feel free to post them to the bands Facebook Fanpage.  We’ll take them from there and incorporate them into the feed.  It’s a great way to BE part of the day. The breaks from the live feed also give us a chance to make changes and do the boring stuff that goes on behind the scenes.  So, from 12:30-some time after 4pm on Sunday you’ll be able to tune in and watch the goings on.

We’ll be getting more info out over the next couple of days with the address of live feed – it’ll be a few places and we’ll make sure you can find them all.  Following us on Twitter is a good way to stay up on what’s going on during the shoot as well – the studio Twitter account is @StudioDPhoto and you can follow the band at @PanaceaRock.

That’s about it for tonight…thanks for reading and we hope as many of you as can will be tuned in on Sunday.

Rock On!

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