Cinematic Superhero

Caught my friends, Jets Overhead at The Commodore in Vancouver last night. It was the first club show of theirs I’d seen since traveling on tour with them in June, and I gotta say it sounded great! The band’s been tearing it up over the last month, playing in NYC, LA and at Neil Young’s renowned Bridge School Benefit concert in the bay area.

Last night’s show was the first one on a Canadian tour supporting Lights, a 22 year old pop-star who’s known for her intergalactic synth rock tunes, and for incorporating self produced anime into her shows. The animation features her as “Captain Lights,” a space crusader fighting evil forces trying to remove all the music from the universe…

Her music’s not my style, nor really is the animation, but her performance is impressive, as is the persona she’s created for herself. It’s easy to see why she’s drawn such a fan base, and it of course reaffirms what all the media gurus are saying about attracting an audience: create a strong personal brand, develop multiple points of entry across different forms of media, know and interact with your supporters, etc…

Of course, this is all much easier said then done and to do this work requires a colossal effort IN ADDITION to the colossal effort one must undergo to actually create the work. The challenges are finding the time and staying focused… at least these are the challenges for me…

Another busy day – began researching and thinking about the Down2Earth website. Funding, content, goals, etc… should be a very exciting project assuming everything comes together. I’ll be curious to see what kind of subjects we can get to participate.

Then, it was off to pick up gear for the Connecting4Change conference I’m shooting this weekend.

Finally, it was meeting the crew for the filming this weekend. Two interviews book-eneded a dinner with the crew, Ward Mailliard (head of Mount Madonna School’s values program) and Charles Holmes (organizer of the C4C conference).

However, as great as all that was, easily the highlight of my day was a serious catchup session with Angela Kendall, the uber talented video artist who I don’t see nearly enough. She and her creative partner, Brian Dutkewich, are the forces behind Transmission2Media, the Vancouver production house that’s responsible for a ton of awesome music vids and EPKs for bands like Tegan and Sara, Jets Overhead and Death Cab for Cutie.

For over an hour, Ange and I  bemoaned the state of the independent industry and how little real work there is out there. It’s a tough, tough time to be doin’ what we do and I feel extremely fortunate that I have any gig at all right now… let alone one that I’m so proud to be apart of.