My Denton Music Showcase and Denton Rocks developments

Denton has been a Rockin'...

Alot, I repeat, ALOT has happened since I last spoke about Denton ROCKS and the Denton music scene. More than ever I've found myself more involved in the scene and am loving every minute of it. My ties with My Denton Music namely have increased in a number of ways. From my initial introduction to the group, Tony Spiro, the owner has requested my assistance in the inclusion and creation of video media for the My Denton Music website. Last weekend was our "first in a series of greatness" as was described by Sarah Crisman who I've just recently become acquainted with. I produced what, I'm pretty sure, was the first live streaming broadcast from a venue in Denton, Texas. Saturday July, 18th from Hailey's we broadcasted the following show...

Video clips at Ustream
this stream will only be available when it is being broadcast, check My Denton Music for more info.

I had been preparing for this broadcast for a number of months prior to our launch that evening. I knew that this was an excellent opportunity for me and I knew I didn't want to half ass it. I wanted people to watch our stream and experience a professionally shot program. I wanted it to be more than just a camera set up at a bar; I wanted it to be a show. It took a great deal of effort on my part to make this all possible, but in the end it turned out great and I can't wait to shoot more.

Tony had booked a number of great acts for the first My Denton Music Showcase, some of which I had never heard of. Oso Closo was to be the headliner. So I did some research, found out when they would be playing and I went to a few of their shows to get some footage of them rockin out. A few weeks later I met Tony at The GreenHouse in Denton, where he introduced me to Sarah Crisman. She was interested in interviewing bands in Denton and creating a web-series that would appear on My Denton Music. I grabbed a microphone and a camera, and she grabbed the band Oso Closo for an interview. We shot that interview out side at The GreenHouse and then we had them preform some songs inside...

OSO CLOSO from Bombastic Media on Vimeo.

After this we booked it over to Hailey's. I wanted to map out how we would shoot the My Denton Music Showcase and at the same time I wanted to get an interview with someone that worked at Hailey's. Sarah grabbed Heath Squires and pulled him outside, where we shot this promo for the bar...

Hailey's Interview from Bombastic Media on Vimeo.

I was so happy when Heath mentioned the Monotonix show that happened there a few months back. It was probably one of my favorite Hailey's experiences as well. A band that plays on the shoulders of fans and takes the music literally to the streets gets a gold star in my book. With most of these interviews and segments I've shot with Sarah I'm not only meeting lots of great musicians and interesting people, but I'm asking questions and finding ideas for my documentary I'm shooting about the scene. This project gets bigger and more interesting every day I'm a part of it. I'm excited about the possibilities that lie in the future and what this town has become.

little bit of extra footage we shot for the MDM showcase that never found its way into the program

Definitely check back here periodically for updates on bands Sarah and I are interviewing and shows that are coming through Denton. My Denton Music is putting on another showcase in August, this time Live from The Boiler Room. Trebuchet is set to headline and they know how to kick it...

Cooking Show: CLEAR production

Yum yum…
I’ve been working at the University of North Texas in the CLEAR department for over a year now. While working there I’ve been given a number of tasks while I've been an Audio Visual Assistant. I’ve shot a lot of online classes and spent a lot of time editing these with Final Cut Pro and Motion. Lately, due to repetition and prior knowledge of these editing applications my editing time has been greatly reduced. I can edit a class in a fraction of the time it took me to edit one before. When I first started using Final Cut Pro I spent a few days attempting to learn how to use the Multi-Camera editing feature. It didn’t take me long to do so, but I never really had a need to seriously apply it, until recently. A lot of the videos that I edit in the CLEAR department contain a number of different angles on the same subject or material. Rather it be a PowerPoint presentation and a presenter or a classroom instruction with a number of different angles. I had for the longest time just gone back and forth between the two to pick out my angles, but with this last project I had decided to actually try and apply the Multi-Camera feature to my editing. It took me a bit to figure it out, but after awhile of troubleshooting I was able to cut between a number of different angles in this cooking show quickly and finish the project in no time.

What was cool about the Cooking show is that we brought in what we dubbed our special effects camera and set it up over the stove as our chef was cooking and over the island to get some really neat shots. It turned out really neat in the end and became a 45-minute show, with 6 parts, for students to browse through for one of their classes. The house that we shot in was really nice for a home in Denton and the kitchen was completely decked out. Just recently our department procured 2 new HD Panasonic 150 cameras and a number of lenses. So I imagine in the next few months we’ll start pumping out a few HD programs, which I’m really excited about.

Cookin' Show from Pat Flaherty on Vimeo.

Muse Art?

I just got served…
It's been awhile since I've posted, for a number of reasons. Mainly, more than anything, I've been a busy boy. School is out for summer and finding work is harder than ever. On occasion I've found work on craigslist.com where film or tv crews post ads. I've heard from these crews that responses to postings on craigslist are sometimes overwhelming. One person for instance told me she had over 50 responses to a posting within the first 30 minutes it was available online. Yet for a recent graduate and film makers alike this is probably the easiest way to find work, aside from word of mouth.

A little over 3 weeks ago I received a phone call at 7 in the morning from one of my friends that has helped me get film work here and there for some time now. He informs me that a guy from Dallas is shooting a TV show at noon and needs a crew to film. Half awake I rolled out of bed, grabbed some gear, met up with a friend and booked it to Dallas to shoot a TV pilot.

The premise of the show, as we soon found out, was simple: Expose the community to underground art in the Dallas/Fort Worth community. We shot the show sort of like MTV Cribs and had the guests show us around their venue and talk about what they had to offer.

After we shot the show, the producer pressured us into quickly editing and making the show available. We had to act fast cause he wanted the show to air on channel 52 the following week. We also had to work quickly because investors had to view the program beforehand and contribute their commercials. Following a series of lengthy editing days I was able to finish the show. It was totally ready to air, except our producer disappeared. When this happened the show in a way fell apart.

A few days later I was able to get back in touch with the producer, but the trust that was there before had faded. We had the show ready and at this point we had serious doubts if it would ever air. I was hearing all different kinds of stories about what was happening, asked to change the show to air on a different network, payment issue after payment issue...

To make a long story short I learned a number of lessons while shooting and working on Muse ART:

1. Get everything in writing
2. Keep track of your hours and what it is you're working on exactly
3. Pay attention to everyone that is working on your crew
4. Understand that trust can be misleading

In the end we were never paid for the work we did on this show, and I imagine we never will be. I busted my balls to get this show finished and ready to go on TV and I'll be damned if it's going to sit on a shelf and collect dust. This project alone forced me to move out of my apartment, have my phone shut off twice, and my back account overdrawn who knows how many times. With the economy how it is ambition makes failure seem impossible...

Muse Art Episode 1 from Pat Flaherty on Vimeo.