Barleyjuice Press Kit Video

[Jimmy Carbomb]

Chuck Fishbein has completed a version of the Press Kit video, and it's available for viewing/downloading on the website. If you get a chance to take the time and review it, we would greatly appreciate feedback on what's there so far. It's for promotional appeal for festivals, stage owners, and promoters. Thanks in advance guys!

http://www.barleyjuice.com/PressKitVideo.asp

[Aaron]

Jimmy, the video is absolutely fantastic! It's more proof that I've got to get down to FW to see you guys.

[dana]

Jimmy, that video is spectacular! Very, very professionally done.

Who produced that for you? They did an awesome job.

You guys look like you have a blast playing together. I'm sure you're a hit wherever you play.

Thanks for giving us the opportunity to see the video.

dana

[dana]

Oh yeah, there's a tutorial that comes with Final Cut Pro that has swing dancing in it to show you how to use the software. It has a similar feel to your video. How cool would it be to have your video instead. That would definately get kilts out to the masses

Maybe you should contact Apple...

dana

[highlandtide]

Kyf said he wanted to send me a new press pack, now I see why! Great stuff!

[lrpddrummie]

Farmer Jimmy,

Chuck did an amazing job, but no surprise considering his credentials. Oh yeah concrats on the wedding. Mine is on April 8th and it is just starting to sink in. Oh My!! Any way, can't wait for the shows in March, I am so looking forward to throwing more drunkin fools off the stage at the Tir Na Nog again this year.

Paul

[Rigged]

Jimmy! Great video! I like the music a lot. I'll have to see if the wife will free up a credit card to buy us an album.

[GMan]

Great stuff Jimmy! It is WONDERFUL

[Colin]

Awesome video Jimmy. I think I need some Barleyjuice in my CD collection now.

[Rufus]

First, I want to say that you guys did a great job with the EPK. It's nice to see that someone used a good video camera so you got some top notch looking footage. You wouldn't believe the number of people who film some crap on grainy old camcorders and think they've got a professional product.

I have a couple of comments/suggestions, but know that they're offered in the spirit of constructive criticism. I'm offering these from my experience of being a television and film production student, and two years work experience of being a video editor making internet video.

The main comment I have about the content is about the beginning. The first 30-40 seconds is too long! People who see this kind of stuff see these all the time. You basically have 10 seconds to catch and keep their attention. I liked the black and white piper at the beginning, but after that, the whole section with the lovely backgrounds and the Barleyjuice banner that lasts forever got, well, kinda boring. I was thinking, "Get on with it!" Seriously, I'd highly suggest you cut a good 20 seconds off of that intro. I'd hate to see you guys go through all this work, just to have some press agent stop it after 30 seconds of fluff because they were bored. After that, when the band finally plays, your editor chose to use some shots of the crowd. That's a great idea, but the people he used appear slightly bored. If you're going to cut to shots of the crowd, you need really high energy shots. I'm sure you could get one of Magnus and Rocky jumping around screaming or something. Shots of people sitting calmly clapping half-heartedly makes the band appear to be only moderately interesting. Those clips made me cringe!!

The next section is more technical issues. I'm not sure about your delivery methods, so I'll throw out a few general ideas. I'd suggest that you create a CD-Rom for general press delivery. Find someone who knows Macromedia Flash well, and have them design a top-notch interactive CD for you. This way, your EPK will look good, medium cost is cheap ($.02 for a blank CD), and you can include more information than just the video. I'm guessing you're not just relying on internet delivery, since you went to the effort and cost of producing this EPK.

Here are some things about the internet delivery. First, your server is SLOW! I tried downloading the video, and was getting 24KB speed from your end. I'm not sure if your server has streaming capability, but that's always the best option. If you've got questions about the streaming stuff, PM me and I'll bore you to death in a response. Second, WMV??? Aaaaaaaarrrgggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! I can't tell you how much I hate Windows Media, because of what total crap it is!! People like it because the encoder is free...but so is syphilis. There are a couple reasons why I hate WMV, but compatability issues is probably the biggest. Windows Media for Mac is a joke, and a number of WMV files just won't play correctly on a Mac. Since most press people use a Mac, this is worth considering. Also, WMV just doesn't handle rapid motion at all. Check out the small clip of Irish dancers, and you'll see what I'm talking about. They're just blobs of pixels shifting around on the screen, rather than human beings. Also, I don't know if it was just my computer having problems, but the timer bar only went to 50 seconds, even though the video is much longer than that. I had to stop the video at work, and had to start over at the 50 second mark, instead of being able to go back to the place I was at. You might want to look into this.

I'd strongly suggest that you guys make QuickTime videos. You can upgrade your QuickTime player to QuickTime Pro for $30, and be able to make the QuickTime files. I'd suggest you make Mpeg4 (.mp4) videos, since they're small files with great quality. You can also create a "skin" for the QuickTime player that would be Barleyjuiced too. The best option is to have Windows Media files available (for the suckers), QuickTime, and RealMedia files too. This way, your audience has options. If you guys need help with this, I could make the QuickTime and RealMedia files for you. Let me know.

Wow, this is the longest post that I've ever written before! Too bad I sound like the biggest nerd ever, and sadly that's not N.E.R.D.!