Demo Tapes - What should be on them?

[MoRpH]

Yeah with a good edit and some nicely shot footage you can come close but I'm still yet to see one that truely captures it well. I think another key to getting the gig far beyond just giving the promoter your demo tape you need to talk to them and really let your infectious passion for video rub off on them... @least thats what I do, and normally oonce they have seen me live I have standing arrangements..... once you've had MoRpH you don't go back to winamp

[vjpixylight]

agreed. doing it live is where it all needs to be!! and getting gigs by promoters being present, and being based in a bigger city makes that easier, but don't you want to get out of your scene once in a while and play thousands of miles away??? Well you still need a good way to present what you do, unless you can afford to fly promoters in for your gigs...

[MoRpH]

Well I get most of my interstate gigs by word of mouth with punters coming to syd, then going home and telling there promoters to fly me in... or I know a local VJ and they mention to the promoter I'm interested and if they have heard of me they are normally keen So I do quite a few interstate gigs and have NEVER done a demo tape......

[vjpixylight]

Again, it doesn't hurt to be giging round sydney, so those from elsewhere can see you...It is really quite different in the states... Much more localized...and there just isn't one city for punters to go too...

[MoRpH]

OK enough OT waffle

1.How long should the tape be?

No more than 5 mins and make sure you watermark and brand it properly.

2.Should I have a flashy intro?

Do an intro that you are happy with... don't go over board though you don't want it to look better than the rest of the content, remember your trying to sell your live show, not video tapes (No.1 rule I would say)

3. What kind of music should I have? Should I display more than one style?

I would say maybe cover 2 related genres (eg.house/tech-house) in a tape (about 2-2.5mins of each with a nice clean mix).... do as many as you need to cover the styles you want to mix for.... don't do EVERY style under the sun in an attempt to get work, try to establish yourself with a few select genres then spread out when your ready.

[Meierhans]

To content:
I would like to put more genres on one CD.
Do you think minimal-house/deep-house/tech-house and some smooth techno could fit in a mix of 5 minutes?



To Format:

I will do a demo CD in the next weeks (when i got some time to do it...)
I thought about doing it as SVCD, because you can play em on PC and on DVD players.
But i don`t know how many DVD`s can play it, so perhabs i got to live with VCD.

Do you think this is a good idea???

[MoRpH]

Hmmmm I don't think you can really fit that many genres into a 5min mix, musically..... with good results

[unjulation]

I agree with morph, now there's a surprise, about a 5 min mix, it aint going to show either the visuals or the music to there best, maybe do a tune of each type of music?

but in principle the idea of a demo is good, how meny promoters do you know that will come to your gig, unless it's realy big and they can hob nob with "the stars" so what are you left with? the demo.

or you could do both send a demo and then ask them allong at least by that time they have some idea of what you do and you aint just a voice at the end of the phone.

but as with most things in this industriey word of mouth and being in the right place at the right time seems to count for much more.

[jesse]

I've done 3 'demos':

1) My first tape I recorded at home.
2) My second tape I recorded live.
3) My third tape I recored at home.

They're all on my website at www.subliminalimaging.com

I happen to think they all turned out quite nice.

I think we're gonna try to record our performance this weekend doing visuals for the Planet of the Drums tour and see how that turns out and hopefully put out another tape. I like putting out tapes.

:: jesse
subliminal imaging