Ideas to boost the profile of VJing

[evomedia]

Ok, we have seen a ton of thread lately about VJ payment, perceived value of it as a service, and breaking out of this catch 22 situation.

So lets start a thread listing practical ideas,

I see 4 main areas that need to be address:

• How to raise the profile of VJing in general
• How can VJ's land better paid work
• What VJ's should learn to become more professional
• What can VJ's improve to raise the quality of their shows

I'm all ears,

Initial ideas:

I wonder if as a community we should start a fund to pay for a PR agent to raise the profile

Provide a business resource for VJ's, template quotes, T&C's, where to hire equipment etc etc

Talk to AV companies about providing a resource of video performers

I'll add as and when I get a chance

[Scratchpole]

It's bigger than VJ's!

YouTube - Dead Prez - Hip-Hop

YouTube - Dead Prez - Hip-Hop

[SteveG]

1. Start producing the content that the promoters, club owners, event organisers and punters want.
2. Learn new skills in production.
3. Insist on being publicised when the event dictate it ie on club flyers.
4.Be prepared to withdraw from the event should at any stage a promise is not fulfilled ie if the flyer appears and your not on it. Write into you contract or email agreement that should they fail in this aspect you must be compensated £XX or £XXX or even £XXXX
5. Always charge a fee or expenses.
6.Communicate well and often.
7. Consider attending a 2 day business start up course. - Will be more beneficial than any so called VJ course out there.
8. Publicise your work often on the internet

I have discussed VJ's collective advertising in the past. Perhaps re-visit this idea. I have been contacted this week by another VJ keen on taking this idea up. If not advertising as such lets pay for a page or 2 to feature those interested in paying for such coverage. Advertise VJ Forums a place to insult VJ's and find mugs

[sleepytom]

If you want to be successful in the video world the first thing you need to accept is that you cannot do everything!

Many Vjs seem to think that they have to produce all their own footage, learn how to mix it in realtime, enjoy staying up all night, know how to setup a projector... etc

All the successful VJs i know are the ones who have accepted they don't have all the needed skills themselves and have chosen to work either collectively with others, or to employ people to do the jobs where they have a less strong skill set.

I think more honesty from people about this, along with a commitment from people working on bigger projects to give newcomers the opportunities of work experience / mentoring / apprenticeships would go a long way to improve the flow of people from club VJing to video professional.

Up the game, do better work. Produce good demos of what your capable of. See this as an investment in the future.

(recently we watched Gary show off his projection mapping demo. What he doesn't tell us is that this is an investment in his own future. He didn't make most of the content, but commissioned it, presumably either on a collective basis where any future work would be given to the content creators, or as a normal paid commission basis. He hired in the projector, van and generator out of his own pocket. He took the risk to attempt a mapping on a high profile site without any permission. I would guess the cost of producing this demo was between £1000 and £5000 depending on his deal with the content creators. He is happy to pay this from his own pocket as he knows that it will likely see him get some work which will pay him between 10 and 100 times the amount that his demo cost)

[sleepytom]

BTW i still think paying for adverts in dance music magazines is the most insane thing i've heard of...

The mags will happily come down and do editorial pieces for free on VJs if only you press release them correctly.. They are always stuck for editorial content and so getting them to write a piece about how VJ XYZ is taking video out of the clubs and turning it into a realtime immersive interactive experience should not present a massive problem.

[sleepytom]

BTW i still think paying for adverts in dance music magazines is the most insane thing i've heard of...

The mags will happily come down and do editorial pieces for free on VJs if only you press release them correctly.. They are always stuck for editorial content and so getting them to write a piece about how VJ XYZ is taking video out of the clubs and turning it into a realtime immersive interactive experience should not present a massive problem.

[evomedia]

I agree that an editorial is the way to go, not an advert.

I suggested PR exactly for that reason, As a article about the arts said

All artists need to be good publicists otherwise they require public relations people behind them to make it all work.

PR is about raising the profile and therefore increasing its value, adverts are about finding business, but either someone spends the time doing the leg work, which I simply don't have, I really struggle to fit in everything I have at the moment as is, or as a community we task people with something speciific like organising an editorial, or hire a PR agent via community donations

[SteveG]

I agree with the Dance music mag now Tom, only due to their change in direction though ie more electronic delivery rather than hard copy on the shelf mag sales, also I beleive the readership may have dropped considerably due to this...perhaps DJ Mag would like to comment Even if it hasn't I don't believe the "e" reader will bother with the VJ content. However could still be very advantageous for certain VJ's. I wont insult promoters here but it's a cut throat industry where if one promoter starts using triple screen projection it's not long before the others feel the pressure to do likewise, start mapping on their stage and well......

Anyway that was then this is now, I would suggest industry and corporate publications. Nice shots of good video mixes on or off screens normally look more impressive than a few macs with the usual star gobos. My own opinion of course

As far as immersive environments, using more projectors etc etc....looked at the Gatecrashers recently, you couldn't get any more LED in there if you tried...well maybe in the toilets.

[Pixelseed]

Originally Posted by SteveG

7. Consider attending a 2 day business start up course. - Will be more beneficial than any so called VJ course out there.

Re-read #7 again and again and again. If you can't handle your money, someone else will.

[sleepytom]

this is where it all falls down for me.

I don't see the benefit in promoting VJing as a whole. Certainly not compared to the benefit of promoting my own work / projects / ideas.

The world already knows what a VJ is. The idea that we as a group of people can have an influence over the club promoters to the point where they all suddenly have hundreds of pounds for VJs at every little event across the country is absurd.

Promote your own work, build relationships with other creatives that allow you to take on bigger projects. Employ people to come and work on your jobs. Get the press down, make a splash.

But don't pretend that your aiming to altruistically raise the profile of VJs, it's meaningless to do so and will not be that beneficial.

A well publicised high profile VJ who gets press about his activities has the net effect of raising the profile of all VJs. If there are people doing quality work which is seen on national TV or in the national press then you might just find your local club promoter wants a piece of the action and realises that he must increase the visuals budget to get closer to the great work he just read about in mixmag.