CD Release Party Review
Last night was my first attempt at live-mixing videos for latin night at a local dance club. My brother had asked me to create high energy mood videos in “light-show-fashion” style, to accompany a room full of spanish artists and club goers. He teamed up with a local bar and threw a huge party/concert in honor of his debut CD release, La Herencia de la Familia Real.
I spent the week gathering clips that I thought would fit the mood element he was looking for, a bit more texture and beat-based than the cinematic stuff I’m used to using, but fun to experiment with. The show ran smooth once evening came, but I had some stressful setbacks along the way. From this moment on, I will always make sure I do a dry-run before the day of my show. I had prepared for gathering all of my equipment, but I did not prepare for the unforeseen issues that can occur. In short, I blew a fuse on my video mixer yesterday afternoon and my program would not output to full screen without the mixer!
I remedied the problem by downloading an entirely different program, which didn’t require my mixer to use. I wish it didn’t have to come to that, as programs are pretty costly, but I didn’t want to let Chris down, and I wanted to keep my word of being able to project visuals live for his show.
From this one event, I’ve now accumulated a whole new lot of toys:
-Universal projector ceiling mount
-35 feet of VGA cable
-10 feet of VGA extension cable
-60 feet of black gaffer tape
-Arkaos GrandVJ software
I don’t even want to think about the cost of all of this. I’m just going to look at it as an investment towards running more smoothly in the future. My mixer should still be under warrantee, so I need to deal with that today.
All in all, the show was fun. I ran video for 2 hours, for over 500 people, but unfortunate for me, half the time 35 guys were on stage covering the screen. However, in the end, I was able to keep my promise, and had fun with the experience. Having never VJ’d a dance club before, and having never used this new program before that afternoon, this was all an experiment for me. I’m happy it went as well as it did.
Photos & video from the show to come! Thanks to my very supportive family, and all who made the night a success for my brother. I heard it was a sold out show and I’m really proud that I was a part of it. Every show is definitely an experience in and of itself.
Here is a snapshot of the crowd & stage energy at the party Sunday night
