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[Jimor]

Hi all,

A couple months back I posted a link to the "pilot" of a music showcase program I was producing. I've been updating progress in the Blog Thread, but now it's reached the point for a real announcement and its own thread so I don't derail that one.   

(Some of this is repeat info for those who read the blog or previous thread, but for anybody new, they don't have to track those down.)

On Tuesday, June 9th, at 10pm PDT, my music showcase program, _Songwriter Sacramento_, debuts on local cable channel 17. While it's "only" a cable access show, I think we managed to make a program that's far above the standard access fare, both in content and production values. It will also stream online at that time, link down below for that.

It's a one-hour show featuring a musical performances and an interview focused on one local artist. This episode is Autumn Sky, a young singer/songwriter who has an amazingly powerful voice and a depth to her writing that means she could hit with a major label at any time.

I really wanted something that a viewer could come away really knowing both the music and the artist as a person, and I think the format I came up with works to do that.

We tape the music in the station's studio with a full 3-camera broadcast quality set of equipment, then I tape the interview separately. I then edit the interview in between the songs, using the answers to questions about each song as the lead-in, plus other general questions about the artist's process and background.

This means I can arrange everything in post-edit to build something of a story about the artist. This is where my prose writing and editing experience has really come in handy. This "discovery" and showcasing of new talent also scratches the same itch as when I editing my fantasy webzine.

I have to give a lot of credit to my director, Dan Lorenzo, and the camera crew, they really gave me a lot of pro-quality shots and transitions that really highlight the performance nicely.

I have three more really great local songwriters lined up for future shows, but for now the schedule will be erratic until I establish enough consistency to obtain a regular timeslot from the station.

Anyway, for more info:

http://www.myspace.com/Songwriter_Sacramento
  My page that will have updates and other information, and eventually the full episodes.

http://www.AccessSacramento.org/
  Home page of the station. The online streams are accessed from the front page, the "Channel 17" button in the case of my show. The 3 airings:

June 9th, 10pm PDT
June 10th, 2pm PDT
June 11th, 6am PDT

The artists lined up so far:

http://www.myspace.com/AutumnSkyMySpace
http://www.myspace.com/AllOnSeven
http://www.myspace.com/RickyBerger
http://www.myspace.com/JustinFarren

Until then, if you want to see the half-hour "pilot" I shot with Autumn on my camcorder to test my format concept.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=55047063

Anyway, I hope some of you get a chance to tune in when these air and let me know what you think.

If anybody has questions about how they might be able to go about this where you live, I'll see if I can help point you in the right direction. I also have a few tips on how you can make shoots with your own camcorder look and sound better than the average YouTube clip. 

[billiumbean]

I remember the post you made about this before.  I've since become a fan of Autumn's and have talked to her on her 'Space, and I have you to thank for that.  I guess that means the show works.  Can't wait for new installments.

[Jimor]

Cool, thanks, that's very satisfying to hear. There are 9 songs in the full show, and only 1 repeat from the pilot, and while we covered some of the same ground in the interview, there's still a lot of fun new stuff, and even her answers to the similar questions have new angles.

When she was in for the taping of my show, Autumn charmed the heck out of everybody at the station, and they ended up asking her to appear on their weekly live talk show as well. 

[billiumbean]

That suits her. 

[Jimor]

Autumn had a nice writeup in the local daily newspaper today, both print and online.

Front page link for now online at http://www.sacbee.com/
Near bottom, both for the article, and pictures of her CD release show

Individual links for when it disappears from front page:
http://www.sacbee.com/172/story/1917051.html
http://www.sacbee.com/photos/gallery/1920380.html?mi_rss=Photo%20Galleries

I also just booked the studio for the session with All On Seven for Tuesday June 16th, so onward and upward!

[Jimor]

Nice blog article on the third artist in my lineup, Ricky Berger. A couple of videos included that show why I picked her, with one showing her playing keyboard and glockenspiel at the same time. 

Also a reminder that tonight is the first show. Link for internet viewing up in first post.

[Jimor]

I've been talking about this in the blog thread, but I've taped the studio portion of the 2nd episode with All On Seven. Still need to do the interview portion with them, but I'm really happy with how the music part has turned out. 

In the meantime I've created a YouTube page for the show. There a clip of Autumn on there now to start things off. When the 2nd episode airs, I'll fill in the rest of the show. I'll probably upload another clip or 2 in the meantime.

[the_pied_piper]

This is really impressive. I am especially amazed by the quality of the camera work on what i'm guessing is a fairly low budget show. Hope you can keep it up and get the chance to showcase this for a wider audience.

[Jimor]

Thank you. I have to say that the crew I lucked into is absolutely fantastic, and they work for pizza! In fact that has been the largest expense for each of the 2 tapings so far. 

But seriously, the volunteers I managed to get have either worked professionally around town, or are gearing up to try to get jobs in the business, so they're actually right up there with anybody working at the local affiliates. They just happened to like the vision I had for the show, have all been really impressed with the talent I've brought into it, and just are really having fun stretching their creative muscles for once. So many of the access programs are local interest talk shows, and while valuable to the community, they are rather dry to shoot.

I would like for this to be more than about me plugging my show all the time, though, and I know there are a lot of musicians or just fans of cool local music on the boards here, so if anybody has questions on how to find these kinds of resources in your area, ask away.

I can also give a good amount of tips on how to get more out of a camcorder than just the standard "here's me in my bedroom playing guitar" youtube video. All it takes is just a little knowledge about lighting and sound tricks to make a huge difference.

[Jimor]

Just finished editing episode 2 of my show, and to justify the bump, I added another clip from Autumn's episode (when #2 airs, the whole show of #1 will go online).

I know I'm getting repetitive, but wow, I can't believe how well this one has turned out as well. Still lots of little things to work on and improve, but the overall effect is way beyond what I had ever hoped for. 

[Jimor]

OK, while I'm waiting for word on an air date, I decided to post up a teaser clip. Just 1:40, but shows a touch of interview and start of the song. BTW, cutest drummer EVAR! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7POa7JC_Dg8

[Jimor]

Was following a YouTube breadcrumb trail, and came across this video of All On Seven's Kayla in a drum clinic with her instructor (at the time, now she's also an instructor at his school) Mike Johnston. 

[Jimor]

As promised, the whole Autumn Sky show is now online:

http://www.youtube.com/SongwriterSacramento

Automatic Playlist link to see the whole show as presented.

Episode #2 with All On Seven will be streaming online at http://www.AccessSacramento.org/ at 11:30 pm Pacific time on Tuesday July 28th.

The taping with Ricky Berger last Tuesday resulted in some great footage as well. I do the interview with her this Thursday.

Things keep rolling.  

EDIT: FUCK! 

Not only did I get the Channel wrong when telling everybody (it was the sister station Ch 18, and that was my fault for misreading the note), but the online feed was stuck on their bulletin board, so probably nobody who wanted to see it was able to find it. Shit. I'll have to see if they can reschedule, there are enough filler slots they can use.

What I'll do in any case is put it all online on my youtube and myspace pages much sooner than I planned (I was going to wait for ep#3 to air) so everybody can view it at their leisure.

[Jimor]

OK, full episode for All On Seven is up on either

http://www.youtube.com/songwritersacramento
http://www.myspace.com/songwriter_sacramento

There's a music beat writer from Examiner.com who is interested in doing an interview later about the show, and
http://ukulelehunt.com/blog/ highlighted one of Autumn's songs which has been generating a nice number of hits.

Feeling much better about things right now.