VJ Magazine?

[PilotX]

DJ magazine this fortnight had a supplement reviewing soft/hardware for music making (logic Audio, reason, cubase etc), and also included a review of Visual Jockey and the new Matrox triplehead card.

It got me wondering if DJ magazine are starting to position themselves to cover the VJ market in the future, and that got me wondering if anyone reckons that a magazine aimed purely at VJs could succeed in the future, or if we get all we could want from vjf/vjc/audiovisualisers etc?

Personally, I don't feel the need for a magazine for VJs, as product reviews, which I would find most useful, can all be found here.
But I'm kind of curious what others think.

Tom
Syzygy Visuals

[AudioVisualizers]

I'll tell you what I really want to see. Something I have been thinking about for many years, but never got off my ass and done yet - maybe some of you have done it already locally, or maybe we now can come together and make something like this happen.

What is it you ask.....

umm...gimma a second...

umm....damn that short term memory chip version 0.666a

oh yes, I recall now, it's the NewMedia Arts VCD Magazine (or a similar facimile thereof) if you get the idea.

I figure we are mixing visuals @ events, so no doubt have taped some killer sets that rock - so we pick the best of the best, send it to a central hub (AudioVisualizers/me, or/and other hubs across the world - who have time and a fast burner, and a bit of cash) - and sort of like our After FX Tennis project, we colaborate on each VCD release (up to 78 minutes), and pool video mix segments, remix each others work, etc, etc.

We could highlight a local DJ/Producer's music in a mutually agreeable cross-promotional manner, there are so many possibilities it boggles the mind, but I gather you get the idea.

Sound good? Let me know. Let's get the show on the road!

-D.

[AudioVisualizers]

I figure replying to myself is just as good as editing my msg, so...:

And then we can distribute them locally. So we post the master file for the month or whatever timeframe on the shiningpaw server, then anybody can take that nero/toast image file and burn their own vcds locally. CDR's cost approx 25 cents USD each, so that means that even someone working at McDonald's can still probably afford to burn a few dozen of our VJCentral VCD Magazines, and distribute them in their own neck of the woods to record and clothing stores, etc - anywhere where event fliers are normally distributed.

Individual VJ's could take the month's master VCD file and show it around to those local clothing and record stores, and ask for some sponsorship if they wanted to, then optionally package it a bit more professionally, or remix in some sponsorship stuff - I know that opens up a whole new kettle of fish, but I figure once you put something into the wild - who knows what's gonna happen right? - so as long as the idea is out there - you can choose how to go about it locally once you have done your bit.

We could distribute them mail-order too, I'd be happy to burn em and put a price of $5 each w/shopping cart button, and sell em along with whatever else it is I seem to be selling at the time. I still wonder how I got into this whole mess in the first place - was the internet just some weird extention of my ego or what? - speaking of which, I've been meaning to remix my ego for quite some time now (from the original video, shot in 1991) - so if anyone else is up for some remixing action, lay it on....

[PilotX]

:) Quality idea.
We could incorporate a regular VJ battle onto it.

I reckon we could find producers who would let us use their tracks. There are plenty of small, new or unkown producers of a high standard who I reckon would be up for it, and of course those on the site who are AV....

Is there any reason not to format it like a (virtual) magazine on VCD? ie: have articles/reviews etc.? Can we make a VCD that'll play in a DVD player that can also have stuff for the computer? I'm sure i've seen music CDs that have music for the CD player and computer stuff for on a CD-Rom, but I don't know enough about VCDs.

I also don't think it would be a problem in Birmingham to place them in the independant record/clothes stores that are appropriate.

I say lets get this ball rolling.

Tom
Syzygy Visuals

[LEVLHED]

yeah, that is an interesting idea...and you know I'm down with VCDs...
not sure what kind of local market I'd have for them...
I'd be willing to try, though!

[LEVLHED]

oh, and I'd also be down with remixing your ego, Dave :) I even have a degree in Psychology so I assume I'm the most qualified....

[sofarok]

other than visuals and my ?real job? I run a small graffiti/ lifestyle zine called ?the special goodness?, currently I am researching the possibility of developing it in to a full on print based publication.

The mag is U.K. based, the initial idea was to create a magazine for ?graffiti writers? rather than another ?graffiti magazine?. I don?t know if you have ever checked out one of the myriad of ?graf? publications but on the whole they veer towards the ?picture book? approach, i.e. lots of photos of graffiti and the occasional interview. With my mag we try and put graff in to a more intelligent context. Most heads have more to there lives than graff, to this end we have covered everything from antidepressants to backpacking in morocco, from hello kitty to beat writers, from Chinese cookery for one to Atari Teenage Riot?.eclectic. so on top of features, we have reviews of pretty much everything and anything, music, snack food, shoes, films, books, bars, shops, club nights??..again eclectic. And on top of all that we have the very best of U.K and international graffiti, street art.

Although I call it a zine it is a lot more than a few sheets of photocopied A4, the first one was 32 pages of full colour digital prepress A5, i did a few hundred of these and he it cost me dearly. Rather than sacrifice quality and revert to the photocopy option I created the second issue in director, it was pretty much a basic slide show but with a few extras and a nice little interface. I distributed it on those Mini (80mm) cd-r?s. It cost me much less and it meant people could copy it and pass it along to others. Rather than just a straight vcd wouldn?t something more interactive be an idea? Im willing to help out with design etc if anyone feel like collaborating?

[vjpixylight]

I'm down too...
Viva 2-2 step had a DJ vs. VJ show that did a similar run of this in germany, only it was broadcast TV...I think we could do a similar model of VJ battles on this, and distribute it with VCD's thru Audiovisulalizers...

Jymn

[Primebase3]

like to give some audio tracks ands special vids :) like it !!1

[wellREDman]

count APT in, this sounds like the most viable of all the "lets remix/ share each others work" and the "we need to be doing more publicity for our artform" threads that have been bouncing around for the last few years.

lets do it

[hamageddon]

would like to contribute audio and maybe mix visuals for other ppl too....

[PilotX]

Excellent. It's good to know there will be support for this.

I think then we should put together a small team to do the 'editorial' for it (I just need a term to seperate those who put it together from those who are contributing material, I don't think we should actually be editing pieces).

Obviously I'm up for playing a role, so anyone else who wants to get involved in it at that level let me know, and we can discuss the many issues that arise before we can go to publication.

For those who want to contribute (esp. audio) keep posting.

:D :D

Tom
Syzygy Visuals

[eXhale]

It would be cool to submit articles to VJC too, there aren't many of them compared to the amount of active members in the forums...

[stevefromNewcastle]

Can I suggest if we develop a magazine we make it as professional as possible.
I would suggest if this magazine is done properly there is no reason my software and hardware developers would not lend the magazine equipment for testing purposes. This would allow the magazine to test products back to back against each other, thus resulting in more accurate comparisons. The other benefit is the magazine can review hardware without anyone having to part with hard-earned cash.
This may sound all very corporate, but at the moment most reviews have not had the benefit of being compared directly with the competition, and I certainly would like to see reviews like that.

[RayV]

Whould love to contribute materilas & participate.. but so far we have the positive reactions. what about getting started, how where when & what??? :nod:

[sofarok]

Like I say in my earlier long winded reply im down, think it should definitely have more to it than just showreels and dubs of good sets, even is its just articles from this site or what have you?..a friend of a friend is a journo for sound on sound (very well respected uk music production mag) he was saying that they have started to get lots more press releases etc about vj softs, he may be a useful contact for getting more contacts, I will follow it up asap.

[PilotX]

There are many, many questions to answer before this moves even close to production phase.

My intentions were to get the team together and go through them, hashing out a few proposals to put to everyone.

I'm happy to open it out to general discussion at this point if it is wanted, but I am firmly of the opinion that we need a team to produce the final vcd.

Sofarok and RayV I'm counting you in. I'll PM you shortly. (I've just got back from a gig and my eyes are closing fast :zzz: )

For my opinion on the points made:
Exhale - yes, definately.
Steve - I agree that professional is the way to go. Start as you mean to go on.

I think this will work best if it remains community based and led, so comments, suggestions (and eventually feedback) will be much appreciated.

:D :D :D
(just wait until the magazine is launched. my post will be full of these)

Tom

[MoRpH]

Hmmmm yeah sounds like a good idea, this project has been begun a number of times via eyecandy like james' recently aborted Opticum zine. Perosnally I would like to see ALL content on the CD/VCD, made available as streams/html on the web, maybe VJC can front end that... I dunno.

MoRpH, your aussi VJ correspondent :P

[GodOnlyKnows]

we would be interested in contributing some audio

www.godonlyknowspropaganda.com
propaganda@godonlyknowspropaganda.com

[PilotX]

Just to let ppl. know things are happening.
I've started a couple of new threads:

http://www.vjforums.com/showthread.php?threadid=1599
on the a/v side

and

http://www.vjforums.com/showthread.php?threadid=1598
on articles

They're in the talk with vj section 'cos I think its probably the most appropriate place, and I want some threads to moderate ;)

Tom