Spitting Out Teeth

VIDEO KILLED THE RADIO STAR


Before I became a hack music blogger I was a hack filmmaker. I went to film school at Penn State University, specializing in experimental film and video installation art. For a while I was fairly productive, creating at least a few short films and experimental music videos per year in a variety of mediums (miniDV, Super8, hand-painted 16mm). You can few most of them at my YouTube site.

After college I went to work doing video production, specializing in 2D and 3D motion graphic design and animation. What was once my favorite hobby soon became my full-time job, and inevitably the compromises and stress involved pretty much burned me out on doing creative video/film work for a job. It also destroyed my interest in doing it as a hobby as well.

While it has been almost two years since I've made my last film, I have started to slowly get back into video. The big change is that I'm now only doing projects that combine my two artistic loves, film and music. I did camera work for a couple of Grace Potter shows earlier this year, and recently directed a two-camera shoot for Oak's performance at Kriya Studios on July 20th. Currently I'm taking on lead D.P. duties on a much bigger project, a music video for the song "Doorstep" by Plattsburgh pop-punk band United Mess.

While I'm admittedly not a big fan of the genre, it's still a catchy tune and the band is comprised of some of the most intelligent, talented & well-mannered teenagers I have ever met. While working on the project has required me to give up my Saturday nights for nearly a month (we start shooting at 8am every Sunday), it has been incredibly fun and challenging.

So why am I bringing this up? Mainly because the video bug has bitten me once again and I am looking to get involved with more projects. While I'm open-minded about what projects I take on, I do have some ground rules:

1) I am only interested in working on music related projects. While I appreciate the passion of directors trying to make their first feature or short narrative or documentary film, I just not into it right now. If you have a concept for an experimental film that requires some After Effects work, I might be persuaded to help, but I need to see a concept first.

2) I am only going to work with bands I like. Sorry, I just can't put my all into shooting and editing a video of some crappy jam band or country-rock cover band. However, I have pretty diverse musical tastes so just send me an mp3 and if I dig it, let's collaborate.

3) While I am willing to work pro-bono on passion-projects (even eating expenses for travel and videotapes), I will only do it if I have creative control and make my own editing schedule. When I freelance I usually charge $500+ a day for me & my equipment (Panasonic DVX-100 24P camera), but I'm willing to cut that substantially (even down to $0) if I like the project & I can get a bit experimental with it.

So that's it. If you're a local musician and looking for some creative, professional coverage via a music video or concert recording, shoot me an e-mail at kinojay33@yahoo.com.