How To Get Your Own Pro-Quality Video

[Editor:  Aussie bluesman Nick Brown, aka Duke Hazzard, has shared the details behind recent and very high-quality videos of his band Dukesy and the Hazzards he has posted on YouTube.  THANKS for sharing.]

We have written before about the essential importance of high-quality video for bands serious about promoting themselves and their music.  YouTube video is the current-day “business card.”  If you don’t have video, you don’t exist.  And, mostly important, the quality of the video indicates the level of the band’s seriousness about its music.  While amateur home videos might fill the void, in the long run, they do NOT advance a band’s career.  Instead they simply underscore that the band is no more than a basement hobby that occasionally creeps out into the public.

But how does a band get high-quality video, especially without spending too much money.  Well, here’s a brief case study.

Dukesy and the Hazzards are a blues-funk band active in Australia, headed up by Nick Brown, aka Duke Hazzard.  By the way, what a great name for the band!  These guys are really serious about their music and are even at the stage of seeking out some overseas gigs.  Top-quality video is essential.

“The videos were done in a studio,” Duke told me, “so we had the advantage of studio sound (mics, pres, gear etc) and then 3 HD digital video cameras (2 fixed on tripods and one roaming). Everything was recorded live so we just did 2 takes of each song and picked the take we preferred. As everything was recorded to ProTools, it was easy to mix the sound and then sync with the video. It was done at Oaklands Studios – http://www.oaklandspro.com.au/modx/ and actually wasn’t super $$ and only took a few hours.”  Of course, the genius of the audio/video techie, Jarrad Gilson from Oaklands, was a key factor.  He organised/ran the shoot and mixed the audio.

Most larger cities and a lot of smaller ones have studios equipped to do this job.  Just shop around and find some trying to establish the reputation of their studio.  And show them Duke’s video as a sample of the quality you are after.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR BAND’S EXPERIENCE WITH VIDEO and its role in band promotion.

Thomas Colvin

Thomas "Tomcat" Colvin is an American expat, residing in Manila since 1986. He is best known in the Philippines as the harp player with LAMPANO ALLEY [now in hibernation], with lots of videos on YouTube. Google will also tell you more than you want to know about him. Currently, he is the administrator of the Blues Asia Network. And he flies around Asia tooting his harp.

Written by: Thomas Colvin on April 21, 2012.
Posted in: Australia, Blog, Promotion How-To