Winter was on its way. Summer venues were going into hibernation and our steady flow of performances ended abruptly. Apparently, we couldn’t simply rely on gigs falling into our laps. We would have to actually do something to promote ourselves.
Before long, the website was started and pictures were taken. When no poor, desperate videographer presented himself, we had to take matters into our own hands. I’m not sure which stars aligned giving us the gumption halfway through a photo shoot to dream up the makings of an improvised film studio and then pull off a video before the night was through, but you can’t argue with destiny.
We were already dressed and our faces were painted. As soon as the camera was through with us we headed out for supplies. 4 sets of black sheets, a few shop lights, and a pack of thumbtacks later, we were ready for Hollywood. The sweet elderly woman at the cash register wondered what we could possibly be doing in our costumes with such a strange assortment of items. When we told her we were making movies she raised an eyebrow but kept whatever images that came to mind to herself. We were off to the races.
Using the thumbtacks to hang the sheets on the walls, we commenced the transformation of our practice room/guest bedroom into a makeshift film studio. We had 4 phone cameras and 2 digital cameras between us. With only one working tripod, we resorted to using whatever we could find lying around. Between the stepladder, some cardboard, twine, and styrofoam, we crafted enough camera stands to make magic happen. The rest was easy, plug in and play.
I think everyone would agree, by early 80’s music video standards, we completely pulled it off! Move over David Bowie,
there’s a new band in town.