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

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La Herencia de la Familia Real

 

I’m quite proud to say that my younger brother, Chris, has followed his dream in pursuit of a music career and is succeeding in ways that could never have been predicted.  Not only has he developed an entire recording studio in my parent’s basement and learned to speak fluent spanish, but he has a number of clients that he records daily for his independent business, Potent Productions.  This coming Sunday night he is having a CD release party for his debut album, La Herencia de la Familia Real.  

This album was produced as a collaboration of various musicians, and has created quite an impressive first piece. I was recruited to design the album, a complicated 6-panel fold out, which I had no idea how to approach when I first began.  The style of music is new to me as a designer – a mix of reggaeton, spanish lyrics & techno beats.  As a result I hooked him up with a David Apuzzo Photography to take a professional mix of high contrast photos and textured backgrounds that I could use to put the design together. 

Recently, with the help of Jeff Schram of SchramDesign, I was able to put up a splash page for my brother to sell the album.

This Sunday, December 28th I’ll be performing live visual projections for his release party at the Thirsty Turtle in Stamford, CT.  That means that this week I’m collecting ideas and brainstorming, what on earth it means to project for “high energy, spanish, club music“. That was the direction I got from Chris. I have no idea what I’m doing yet, but I’m excited to explore it and see what happens when I do.

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