MR

I know the video ideas have been thrown around for years. And, yes, it’s true that videos do not really have the impact they used since eMpTyV doesn’t play them. But videos are still a solid promotional tool. If you go to the Stever link in my sig you will see a video she made for the song “Funeral Mute”. She made the video herself with just a camcorder. Videos no longer have to be expensive to be effective. Journey needs to make a video to post on their MySpace, Yahoo Music, AOL Music, MSN Music, etc.

So here is my idea.

I know the band has a poor track record with concept videos. And concept videos are more likely to cost a lot of money. Hopefully the band filmed their time in the recording studio with Kevin. Journey needs to show us what it is like working with Arnel. We need to see the chemistry. Plus, I would think that Arnel’s passion for the songs would be most noticeable while recording. Many of us were won over by JSS based on the affect he had on the band while on tour. Even when we didn’t think he sounded like Journey we saw the energy, the revitalization of the band, on the stage. That is what sold us on the change. And that is what we need to see from this new incarnation of Journey. We need to see the creation process. We need to the band working together. We need to see the guys goofing off. We need to see Kevin directing traffic. We need to see it all. Make this similar to the “Nothing Else Matters” video Metallica did. But this should just be the first part of the video.

The second part can work ever without the first, so if they didn’t film the recording process it’s OK. With the band going to Chile for 3 shows, they need to film everything they can while down there. All three shows should film at least the song they want to release. And since the band has never been to South America I would like to think they would be doing the tourist thing as well. FILM IT. Film the guys checking out the sites in Chile. Show off Chile. Show the guys hanging out together. Film the fans if they notice the guys. And, of course, show the band blowing the roof off in front of 30,000 fans! The fans of Journey need to be sold on Arnel.

The video footage could all be caught on Digital Camcorders and easily edited together. Give the cameras to crewmembers, friends, and family. It doesn’t have to cost a ton of money and it doesn’t require any additional work by the band. After that, spread the video everywhere they can. If the music rocks and the fans believe in the band then the video can spread. I know it won’t go viral, but it will allow people to pass it around. Word of mouth is the new rule when promoting. A video will get your music out there and it could make people care about the band again.

And don’t forget to get 3 or 4 new songs on your MySpace page (How are you going to work around Sony/Legacy?) AND on your official website. People MUST hear the new music. And they want to hear it BEFORE buying the CD or the tickets. Stream it on your site in low quality, but have the whole songs…not just :30 second samples. You NEED people to talk about Journey. Get them excited. Show us why you picked Arnel!

Neal, are you listening?

I like the idea of filming the band in the studio to give us an idea of the music and their chemistry with Arnel and releasing some videos of that.

And although I'm sure Chile has some beautiful tourist attractions not sure I want to see the band chumming around in what might be or seem to be forced interactions. Sounds a little too much like a Monkee's episode to me. Some footage of the concert and the crowd's reaction would be good to see.

Hope Journey has some of these ideas in mind. Lately they have seemed to be their own worst enemy in terms of promoting the band.

ahhh...sort of like the way Tommy Shaw himself made the "Everything All the Time" video to save the band half a million dollars.

http://www.styxworld.com/goout.asp?u=ht ... t=styxnews

Making the Video: The Story
by Tommy Shaw

For most bands today, videos may be the second most important promotional tool they can harness behind making a great album with well-written songs. The challenge is that videos are so costly to produce that the dollars spent can’t justify the need or the time involved. History has shown us that the creation of a four-minute movie can cost a band a half million dollars, money that gets swallowed up with directors, producers, crews, stages, caterers, unions, travel, etc. And when the end result doesn’t serve you as the major promotional tool it was intended to be, you end up feeling more like the tool than the star.


Those days have changed and you might not even know it yet.


I’ve been interested in photography since my early teens when I convinced a local camera store owner to let me walk out of his store and pay payments on a brand new black body Nikon F with the Photonic FTN viewfinder and 50mm normal lens. Between that and a used Mamiya medium format portrait camera and Yashika Super-8 movie camera and an inexpensive enlarger, I began my love affair with photography that has been part of my creative inner life only a couple of years shorter than my music career. Earlier this year, STYX spent three weeks touring the UK with Deep Purple. We traveled on a tour bus from Glasgow to Brighton and everywhere in between, taking day trips all the way through as there were never any distances too daunting to make on a show day. In the dressing room in Nottingham, I picked up our Canon 5D with the 17mm lens, turned it facing me and fired off a burst of 38 shots in multi-shot mode while spinning in a circle, keeping myself centered in the frame. I played them back by spinning the wheel and watching in the viewfinder and was surprised how interesting it was to see it animated like that. I stuck the card in my Mac Powerbook and dragged the files into iMovie, set the time for 00:00:03 seconds per frame and suddenly there was a video playing back with all beautiful 12.8 megapixel frames looking back at me. I handed the camera to STYX drummer Todd Sucherman, then to singer/keyboardist Lawrence Gowan and instructed them to do the same. Thus the process was begun.



Each day, I disappeared to the back lounge of the bus on the way to the next tour stop, loading in the next batch of high resolution photos into iMovie. Soon there were so many photos that it took longer and longer to save, but by that point, my obsession had taken over and I was hooked. Over the course of stops at Stonehenge, London’s Wembley Arena, Bornmouth, Glasgow, rest stops, parking lots, stores and anywhere else I could get anyone to perform for me, I gathered clusters of stills and by the time we finished the tour, the files had grow to over 8 gig of photos. By this time I was starting to edit, shuffling segments and shortening bits to make room for the content I now had.



At first I laid in a demo of a new song I’d been working on, but as the band begin to see it take shape and fall in love with this unreleased song, it was James Young who suggested that I switch to “Everything All The Time” since we would be focusing on that track for our (now current) summer tour. To highlight the visuals of my vocals, I used my old Canon PowershotS500 in video mode to take the final shots. By now I had moved the files to my desktop G5 Apple computer because the bulk of the movie was too much for my laptop to handle with enough speed. After several weeks, I finally gave in and proclaimed its completion. I played it for my wife, and encouraged by her reaction, began testing it on friends and eventually accepted the fact that it was really quite entertaining and needed no caveat or disclaimer before viewing.



While this technique might not be what rings your creative bell, the fact is with a little imagination, some fearless exploitation of the tools on board a Mac computer and your personal digital camera(s), a video can be made for next to nothing, or as in this case, absolutely $0.00 other than my obsession and the time it took to put it all together.



Happy editing!



Tommy Shaw

the finished product:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0v-THSCrXME

Cool story One_up.

That is exactly what I am talking about.

I don't really understand the technical info. But a video log of the band might help to patch, to some degree, the disconnect with the band some fans feel.

I think this is a great idea. I see no reasons why they could not do something like this, except for the fact that they would have to do something. They've clearly been against doing anything above and beyond the call...but if they're serious about this incarnation of the band, there's no reason not to have more things for the fans.

See, I see this as a way for them to get a video done with the band actually having to do anything more than what they would already be doing.