band needs video + good pics

[Relic]

Hey TB,
Looking for some suggestions and/or recommendations.

My band needs a good-quality video or two. Both live performance and "music video" type things actually, plus we need some good professional pics too for that matter. (as far as pics go, I mean someone who specializes in bands and such)

Dont even know where to start looking or how much $ to set aside for this... we'd had connections in the past fortunately, but we've since lost touch.
Where to go/who to go to to get the ball rolling on making some videos and getting some good professional band pics?

Thanks all!

[tZer]

Got any Community Colleges nearby with a video production class in their curriculum? If so, I would bet there is a student or two who may wanna become video producers...

[ntimkovich]

i think tZer has the best idea -- try and connect with a local school, and see if any audio/visual students would be willing to come video you.

it's my experience that professional photography isn't too hard to find nor too expensive, but professional video/film is gonna cost ya. amateur photographers would be willing to do it for free or a small cost, but there aren't many amateur videographers, and especially not many with decent cameras.

if you want my advice (and it's free, mind you) is to find a really great photographer to shoot you in a studio and live on stage, and forget about any video work until you come across an opportunity. many many great bands have no video's to speak of, and do quite nicely.

good luck!
nick

[Relic]

all good advice thusfar, thanks guys.

[B-NoteCowboy]

In my opinion (as a photographer) proper stage photography is an art that's very hard to get right.

Flash photography of a stage show sterilizes the shot and eliminates all the atmosphere of a stage by cutting through the smoke and the lights.

However.... it's very tricky to get the right light balance to get sharp tightly focused shots without them being too dark.

But if you get the right photographer who can do this, great stage shots make a LOT of diff in your promo kit.

Make sure your video has good audio. Because it won't matter if it looks good and sounds like butt.