approaching club management

[loftus]

:help:
just recently ive noticed that a club operating close by has a projector installed in their main room. they dont use it for much besides the odd anime flick.

ive been doing shows for friends birthdays, 21st and a few weddings over the last six months and thats been great, but now i want to dive into the deep end.

my question is who and what do i ask the owners of this event to see if theyll let me play there. i really wouldnt mind playing for free. just want to perform really. but need to know which people, what questions to ask and what to show them.


cheers.

will.

[unjulation]

2 points......

1) you talk to the managment of the club its self, personaly i have found them to be hard nose bussiness peeps, fair play to them they have to pay their rent, but which in tern will not make them nesecerily open to your cause/desire

2) you talk to the peeps who are puting nights on within the club, genraly they have more to lose/gain if their night is shit/good

take your pick as to which to aproch initialy

[julez]

yeah the promoter is a good place to start.

I find that to justify getting them to hire you (and therefore paying u) u have to prove to them that the money they're gonna spend is gonna be worth it. So take a bit of time to develop ur style and then compose a demo tape that will (hopefully) be so good that they'll have to hire u.

Make sure that if u do do a demo that u can reproduce the same quality that u put into the tape or they wont want u back again.

have fun...hope this helps:D

[LEVLHED]

IMO its OK to do the first one free...but please, for the good of all VJs don't do them all for free.

[loftus]

thanks for the advice guys.

is there an archive anywhere where people have
put their demo reels up for others to view?

[brain]

check http://community.audiovisualizers.com/

[PilotX]

also this thread for links to showreels if you have them up elsewhere:
http://www.vjforums.com/showthread.php?threadid=2275

[Woodyfang]

I find a good way is to approach promoters and offer to the first night, asking them to pay only your expenses e.g. a few drinks and cab ride home if you need it.

If the night goes well, they will want you back, and what more the punters will expect you to be at the next one!

If you offer to do work for free, (this applies to many professions) you may find that people don't take you seriously, or worse, take advantage of you.

[Psytwin]

Hi every one

I do agree with Woodyfang. If you want do the First Gig for free! Well it?s a good way to get into! But be careful and don?t spend any money! Make sure they will refund your cost! (Cab, Hide equipments etc?) Free does not mean you have to spend money instead of get money from them!

[JodyDigitalMan]

Hello all,
My personal experience is that the best way - as some of you said - is not to do the first gig for free but to ask for a fee that is lower than what you setup for your normal fee to be, and make sure that the promoter understands that you are giving him a discount - a trial price if you want to put that way.

Promoters are more easy to approach than club owners (75% of the gigs going on in clubs at the moment are done by promoters that rent the clubs and not by the club itself), but in my experience I found that if you can approach the DJs themselves or live-acts crews and show them your material and tell them what you can do for THEIR act they will push you into the gig as a part of their team. This also means that you have the possibility to get more bookings via those DJs/Live-acts.

Another piece of advice that I would give is that one should not constrain him/herself to just one style of music. Try to diversify your contacts and try to make specific material for those "clients" of yours.

This will make it easier.

Blue skies,
jody

[videoteque]

the promoter understands that you are giving him a discount - a trial price if you want to put that way.

Let's say you should clear that you are a shareware VJ...:D :D :D

[JodyDigitalMan]

Originally posted by videoteque
Let's say you should clear that you are a shareware VJ...:D :D :D

:D i was laughing hard at this comment! Brilliant :-) But on contrary to shareware, the promoter should pay something first ;-)

[ricki]

i'm kind of new to this whole vj scene, but i am a promoter of a club night my advice would be

1.) approach the promoter - if they are local guys or a relatively small club night they will be more interested in what you can do to make there night different/better then the competitors.

2.) pick a decent night/date - find out if there are any special dj's etc... lined up in the near future. after all you want as many people as you can seeing what you can do.

if the club is going to be a garunteed full house one night then you want to be that night.

3.) first one/few free - i would expect someone approaching me to do at least the first one free possibly a second. if your first one is to a huge crowd and it goes well then there would be no need to do a second one free. you've proved you worth.

if people come again the next time and there are no visuals they will be very dissapointed.

4.) no bullshit - if the promoter knows what he wants and asks you to do specific things DO NOT tell him you can if you can't.

we were stung this way, a couple of local guys approached us promising all these things they could do. when they turned up they were useless. needless to say they were never invited back.

be honest if they ask if you just starting out tell them the truth about what you can do etc...

5.) promoters mates - you'll probably find that one promoter will know plenty other promoters who different nights in different towns etc.. if you do a good job for one chance are the will recomend your services to there mate.

6.) getting paid - i'm the first to admit that promoters will always try get something free. this is you specific field of expertise YOU tell them what the going rate is. as long as you are willing to negotiate i'm sure you'll get a fee that your happy with.

remember get a few under your belt and the work will start coming in..

sorry about the long post but i hope it helps


:D

[peet]

demo tapes and stuff. it won't give the real feeling which you give in your perfomance. i'd ask to speak to the club or bar manager or chief and propose your offer to them. ask them if you can show off one night. i mean, what can you lose? if everyone's totally impressed and overwhelmed then they for sure would love to see you back a couple of times.

you can't go ask money if they don't know you and don't know what you do.

good luck.!

[peet]

demo tapes and stuff. it won't give the real feeling which you give in your perfomance. i'd ask to speak to the club or bar manager or chief and propose your offer to them. ask them if you can show off one night. i mean, what can you lose? if everyone's totally impressed and overwhelmed then they for sure would love to see you back a couple of times.

you can't go ask money if they don't know you and don't know what you do.

good luck.!

[rickmaersk]

JodyDigitalMan said:
My personal experience is that the best way - as some of you said - is not to do the first gig for free but to ask for a fee that is lower than what you setup for your normal fee to be, and make sure that the promoter understands that you are giving him a discount - a trial price if you want to put that way.


I totally agree with this. Just put it in writing, something like:
Standard gig fee: ?750 ;)
1 off first gig discount 90%
Balance ?75

However I would advise you never to work for less than your expenses. If you get paid zero you are actually losing money.

My experience of loss leader marketing is that it simply doesn't work. I've NEVER had a client (in any field visuals, AV , screen printing, photography, film making) that needed a free/cheap deal to start with then eventually turned into good payer. I was talking about this to a pal who owns an AV company. He started out doing club visuals 10 years ago. His experience was totally different. He has actually had ONE client that started as a freebie and grew into a regular payer.