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THE DIGITAL GIGALOW

AND IT BEGINS:

It was in 1995 when I decided to go into the Military. After Boot Camp and AIT, I was stationed at Fort Stewart, in Hinesville, Georgia. Hinesville is thirty minutes north of Savannah, Georgia.

On the Weekends I would head to Historic Savanna to hang out the clubs. At the time I was into alternative music and would hang out at a club call The Zoo. This club was three stories. In the basement there was a cigar bar, on the ground floor was a dance club and on the top floor was a live band venue.

I would hang at the live venue where I saw Bush, Drill, The Violent Femmes, blew traveler, just to name a few.

One night I went to The Zoo and the Live Venue was closed due to the club not being able to find a band to play. I was upset, yet decided to go to the dance club. The night started out slow, but as the party started to get going, I was mesmerized. The Lights, the music, the DJ mix two separate track, everything blew my mind. Right then, I knew my place in the music industry. I rushed out and purchase a Pioneer mixer and two Technics 1200. 

The local record store had very few dance tracks, yet I purchased everything they had. I wore those vinyl plates out. I self taught myself how to mix tracks, which tracks work together by pitch and when to bring a track in and out. 

I started playing at private parties in Hinesville and got noticed by the owner of Twister Saloon. He was looking for something different during the week and he gave my friend and i a shot. This was a country western, line dancing bar. I get on the decks and throw on Tracy Lords and the dance floor cleared. It flipped me out. The owner was about to kick me off the tables, when this SMOKING HOT Cowgirl came out and start dancing. Next thing you know, the dance floor started filling up. The crowd was line dancing to Lords of Acid. It was CARZY!!!!!! from then on, I played Thursday nights until I was discharged from the Military.

I knew I needed to get where the action was so i sold my equipment and hitchhiked down to Fort Lauderdale. Fort Lauderdale being the closest I could get to South Beach, I set my roots. I got a job and a place to live. I saved my money and purchased a new DJ setup. For the next two years, I not only saved my money to move to South Beach, I honed my DJ skills. 

I moved to South Beach and rented an efficiency at The London House. I go a job at a new bar opening up called The Laundry Bar. I started out as a Clothes cleaner during the day. I moved up to head barback, not being a drinker is some of the reason.

On the one year anniversary, The owner wanted a DJ and I volunteered to DJ for free. I was playing Trance at the time and brought in a big crowd, many that would not have stepped in the bar. The owner was impressed and booked me for Thursday nights. I know, Thursdays, always Thursdays…LOL!!!

After a couple of months, I was introduced to my good friend Armando Groove. He was a DJ at Twist and started introducing me to industry insiders. Then I started picking up jobs at various parties and clubs. I have been DJing ever since.

Armando started looking into the video side of the party and that started me thinking, maybe I can do that also. I picked up and new MacBook and a copy of Resolume. I started honing my skills and got the honor of doing video at Club Set during Winter Music Conference.2012. I was trained by Armando and the Resident VJ. I learned how to use Madrix. I worked there for about six weeks before I was replaced. See I came to the club during a management change and the manager that was leaving liked my work, while the new manager brought someone in that they liked better. No hard feelings, that is club politics. It just makes me want to prove that I am the best at what I do. You know the saying, 'I let my haters, be my motivators', well that is how I roll.

I have done she work at a new club on South Beach called Bamboo. This Club is different from your average club, do to the fact they have a dance group that does a show. When the club was originally built, it was a theater that held dinner theater shows. 

The new owners put some serious money into this club. There is a $250,000 LED system. On the stage, there two screens, one on top of the other. The top screen rotates down to make a platform for the dancers and moves up and down. There is a DJ Booth in the middle of the stage and there are two side tables that lower into the floor of the stage. All three have LED panels on them. On the side walls of the club, there are three floor to ceiling panels. There are three LED screens on the outside of the balcony where the VJ Booth is. Then you have a huge screen in the back of the VJ booth and two screens under the balcony. All this is run by a 5 blade sever that gives you five fields of play.

….And here we are.

PHILOSOPHY:

It is a, dog eat dog world out there and a club is a place to go to unwind from reality. A club should take you to an alternate reality. Every club employee has their part in making the guest unwind. The bar tenders pour the elixirs of the gods. The DJ mixes the audio reality while the VJ mixes the visual reality. Do not forget about the light man. It is a team that makes the party.

There is really only one difference in the DJ and VJ, this is media. While the DJ mixes music, the VJ mixes video. The work load on both is the same. A DJ needs to create mixes, get new music, line it up and know the music. This is the same for the VJ except the VJ uses video. 

Being that I am a HD VJ, my work load is greater. This is due to video production. Finding HD video is a hard thing. While there is a lot of 1080p video out there, there is more 720p. 720p video has to up scaled to 1080p. This is a time consuming mission.

When I Dj/VJ, I like to start out hard to let the club goers know where we are headed for the night, then i bring it down to nothing and build it back up. I finish with video, audio or both that sums up the night. This formula works very well and gets GREAT results.

ABILITIES AND ATTRIBUTES: 

CUSTOM GRAPHICS AND EFFECTS: I create my own custom graphics using Quartz Composer and Blender. Quartz Composer is a graphics building application that is provided to all Apple Developer members. Blender is a 3D Animation application that you can use to create 3D objects and graphics. Using these applications I can create whatever I want. Rendering in blender is time consuming but the reward can be magnificent.

HD VIDEO MIXING: I download content from the internet, rip from Blu-Ray and create my own content. All the video I use is in HD. While my computer is capable of playing 1080p video, multiple layers of 1080p gets a little choppy, so I use 720p when VJing in the club for better performance. I can record that video and upscale it to 1080p. I have the clips in a 720p resolution, and a 1080p resolution. I have both so that when I am able to update my computer I will have the 1080p ready to go.

VIDEO MAPPING: Video Mapping is taking an object and make it come to life. Most of the time you will see the done on building and large structures, yet you can do this in a club setting. While projectors are used on building, LED Screens can be can be mapped also. If all the LED Screens are setup as one, I can map each screen to play something different or the same thing. I can map any LED setup you throw my way, even if they are LED Strips. 

CUSTOM CONTROLLERS: You want your DJ and VJ booths to look like the bridge U.S.S. ENTERPRISE, from Star Trek the Next Generation, I am your man. I create my own controller using TouchOSC. This allows me to communicate wirelessly to my computer. This allows me to free roaming in the club while controlling the video, audio, or both. In the past, I have gone down on the dance floor and let the party goers mix the video. They LOVED it!!!!

PROJECTS IN THE WORKS: I have recently started hacking the XBOX 360 Kinect. I have been having some fun with it. I have the ability to project video on moving object, like humans. So, if I had multiple Kinects, I can project on multiple dancers in the club. Also i have been working on a controller using the Kinect. This kind of controller is sort of like the computer Tom Cruise used in the movie, The Minority Report, except there is no glass and it can not be seen. So, a dance in front of a Kinect can control the video as they dance. Pretty cool, yet very hard to get the right setup and a professional dancer that is willing to take directtion are the only issues with these setups.

I have also been working on a video projection project for the Dhite House. I am trying to create and non biased history of the Presidents of the United States and project the video on the White House. I am creating 3D Animation of the White House and incorporating in with audio and video of our Presidents. 

GOALS IN LIFE

Everybody should have goals that they want to accomplish. Most should be goals that are obtainable, but you should have goals that area near impossible. These goals are what gives us a reason to excel in our profession. 

I only have 4 real goals that I want to accomplish in my career. This first is getting a club residency. I want to bring a club up to the 21st Century. While many club systems are not capable of what I can provide, that does not mean that they can not 21st Century. If a club was willing renovate, I would like to be on the ground floor. This would allow for an incredible set up.

My second goal would be to tour and do video with a top 20 DJ. Going on tour with a Top 20 DJ would not only get me exposure, it would help me hone my skills for my ultimate goal. See, I can map HUGE stage screens, and touring would allow me to doing on a larger scale.

The third Goal, would have to be, own my own club. Owning my own club would allow me to do as I pleas with my alternate reality. I would have LED Screens on every surface, and architecture covered in LED panels. I would have different theme nights and have the video correspond with theme. Say, the theme was a Toga Party, the the video would be Greek in nature. I would create 3D Animation of Greek Ruins and build them for the ground up. The mapping of a club can go really for and I would push the limit.

The forth, last and ultimate goal would be to project video on the White House. I know I said I was working on the video for this goal, but I have not proceeded further than that. There are major security issues with projecting on the White House and I have a way to confront this problem. My Congresswoman is the head of the DNC and I have been waiting for a meeting with her. I plan to present her with a video presentation of what the project would look like. 

That is not the only issue, projectors are the next issue. To do a project like this, you need to do it right. The projectors would cost between 50K and 100K. I might have a work around for that. I am working on a proposal for a certain projector company to donate the projector just of this project. This would be my near impossible goal.

TOOLS OF MY TRADE: 

MacBook pro with 2, 500gb SDDs
iPad with TouchOSC
XBOX 360 Kinect
M-Audio Firewire 410
1080p video camera
Resolume 4
Mad Mapper 1.2
Ableton Live
15,000+ HD Video Clips
5,000+ HD Grphic Clips
1,000+ Custom Graphics
750+ Video Filters

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