Lars Schlichting, Season 4 "contestant" of MTV's "The Real World: London," is an adept DJ/VJ, who also creates various visual presentations for the folks at Pioneer DVJ DVD Systems. Lars held court for the How To Create A Music Video in 20-Minutes seminar, something that unfortunately didn't take twenty minutes to create—more like one hour. But wait, who am I to complain?
Even though I don't have any prior knowledge let alone desire to create a music video, I thought that it would be interesting to see the various what's and how's involved for someone like me, a novice, to at the very least try to make a video.
It was assumed that participants in the panel already owned the necessary hardware and even software in order to marry the two mediums and thus create a video. I have neither. Well, I own a laptop but it's a wee bit slow (now) and as for my DJ apparatus, I'm using Numark's iDJ2 console, which, while it works for what I want to do with it, I have not used it with other peripherals.
Lars provided some of the financial commitments one would need to spend:
Animation Software – PC & Mac
Adobe Flash - $700
Adobe Director - $1,000
Adobe After Effects - $1,700 – CS3 Prod. Premium
Synthetik Studio Artist 3.5 - $380
Apple Motive - $1,300 & Final Cut Suite
Content sources – Promoonly.com, for example—getting a subscription,
at least to start, utilizing videos
Had I at the very least had a digital audio recorder, I wouldn't have abandoned my note-taking after Lars showed the above pricelist, which subsequently discouraged me. Granted, it is a great deal of coin that one would have to drop but if good at it, the possibilities are truly endless. The number of DJs incorporating various visual videos and/or music videos is growing and especially DVD video mixing, for which there are no visual artifacts or other image quality snafus of any kind. Lars' affiliation with Pioneer's various DVDJ Systems are pudding-proof that top-tier DJs from all around the world use a huge assortment of various visual video applications in their DJ sets to make a night out that much more fun and enjoyable.
The only thing that I didn't like about this seminar was that it wasn't hands-on; the audience sat, watched Lars and watched various PowerPoint presentations and videos all the while taking notes.
Perhaps a future seminar could see Lars teaching a more intensive "class" with Pioneer and another corporate sponsor sponsoring a seminar whereas a class of say 20 participants have hands-on show-how.
Remixing & Producing: A Path To Success
For the Remixing & Producing: A Path To Success panel featuring Phil Moffa, moderator and DJ Times editor Jim Tremayne, Paul Gadbois, Chris Cox (formerly Thunderpuss 2000), Masi & Mellow, Russ Harris, Klubjumpers, DJ Skribble, Earl Young (The Tramps), and a few others, this would be my final panel/seminar of the conference.
Some suggestions, musings and things overheard during this panel…
- For beginnings, it was suggested that you buy one synth program—three the max as opposed to a program that offers say, more than 50. This way you can learn to master several but not inundate yourself to the point where things become muddled.
- Sometimes it takes a little longer to achieve one's dreams and/or goals and therefore you may have to do other things—not necessarily settle on something less but partake in other projects until your "A" dream can be realized.
- Take music appreciation online tutorials along with learning the accompanied vocabulary to go along with it. While part of the old adage of its 'who you know' as opposed to 'what you know' is important, 'what you know' is perhaps even more important because if you don't possess the necessary know-how to be able to show what you're capable of doing versus telling someone, you might as well pack your bags and move on.
- Procrastination is the biggest creativity killer. Y'know that other known adage: 'Don't put off tomorrow what you can do today, because if you enjoy it today you can do it again tomorrow," by James A. Michener? If not, just Google the very word procrastination. ·
