Figuratively speaking...

I've been perplexed by the plethora of music "wannabes" that are claiming fame to their names and have no following and no exposure (like myself, except I don't carry that delusional ego).  I've also noticed a growing number of self-titled critics of music and the industry and noticed they have no experience in music whatsoever other than they listen to it (not even avidly at that).  These days that old saying really seems to ring true that "everyone's a critic".  Simultaneously, "they" criticize with no respect.

The superfluous wave of criticism got me stirred up.  I've been avidly participating in this industry for the better half of a decade semi-professionally at the very least.  With 2 published albums  (1, 2) I know the game well enough to have some say.  I bet I've worked harder at honing my craft and building my business than most of those self-claimed critics do at their day jobs (no offense).  Not to say that anyone working right now isn't working their butts off, but let's face it, a multitude of the work out there is a whole lot easier (at least mentally) than trying to build a brand and identity in music.  It's time consuming, relentless, and extremely iffy at best.  Music has a notorious reputation for being the "bad choice" as a career.  That reason is the primary reason why most musicians never move past hobby-stage.

I'm sure at some point in life everyone's at least touched a musical instrument - or if not, at least seen a band or someone perform live.  Any serious musician can attest to the classic case of parental annoyance if they were lucky enough to start at a young age: "Stop playing that and do your homework," education is more important, is it not?  In today's economic climate this might sound something more like "put down that instrument and get a real job already".   The musically talented will surely tell you it's still taken them years to develop any sort of sound.

But we all know this already, don't we?  we know some distant relative or friend of a friend; or perhaps a coworker's dorm-room mate's boyfriend's uncle's cat who was owned by a complete stranger that by day works at a local retail chain or some conglomerate fast food resturaunt (because let's face it, fast food chains are the last American business model still standing proud) and then leads a 2nd life by night playing shows whenever they can scrounge any sort of time free to find a place willing to let them go up in front of any audience to play.

Truthfully, how often do we go to shows? I'm willing to bet a majority of us out there have only been to maybe 2 or 3 concerts in a lifetime, 2-6 small coffee-house shows with a small-time band playing small-time songs wanting to sound as big and amazing as possible, in front of maybe 10+ crowd who's really just there for the friends who invited friends to come check out "Hey, it's that one band" and then pointing "look, it's (insert random acquaintance)" as the crowd just kind of lackadaisically sits there half-interested in wanting to get up and dance and half-daydreaming of being somewhere else. My guess is that somewhere else is with their other "cool" friends who went off to the bay area to go club-hopping and chugging alcoholic beverages like it's a last-man-standing contest.

Anyone who's attempted to do so has faced the multitude of obstacles: mental, emotional, physical, and financial, that come with trying to create a successful music career.  Let's start with Billy (completely random name for my hypothetical situation) here.  Billy's 23, fresh out of college with a degree in guess what?... Business Communications!  Sounds great, but his passion is music.  He's been playing guitar self-taught since he was 12.  Awesome!  Motivated guy...  He learned a few chops from playing along to Van Halen and got sucked into the hardcore scene before Emo kids took it over and trashed the place before leaving like it was someone else's house party and the neighbors just called the cops.

Billy Found a few friends who decided to pick up drums, bass guitar, and started jamming together on regular occasion.  They spend a few months learning a couple cover songs and decide to be bold and write a few of their own.  Already 4 months in and they're all feeling confident, and Billy wants to take it to the next level.  Before they can go anywhere, the band needs a frontman (also commonly known as a singer).  Everyone else is too afraid to step up so Billy takes the limelight and grabs a mic.  The first sounds of this band with vocals are... less than pleasant.

Alright, Billy's hopes are a little rattled but he can shake it off; so singing isn't as easy as belting it out into the microphone.  He spends more time practicing vocals and guitar together and memorizing their new material whenever the band can't get together to practice. Which is usually 1-2 times a week for a few hours a day at most, since everyone has part time jobs and that awful jazz called bills.  After another month (that makes 5 in total) they are playing confidently in their garage for the neighbors to hear (with the occasional call to the cops about the noise of course).  Billy and the band's lucky day just happens to be now because there's a battle of the bands at the new local music shop that just opened up in town.  Things are looking great, opportunity's-a-knockin'!  Billy signs up the band and has one more month to get everything dialed in.

Their first time on stage at 6 months in, and everyone's got jitters and they rush through their material with anything but finesse.  It's alright though, people in the audience liked them enough to want to hear more.  Billy has the idea that the band should get serious, see's the audience reaction and wants to make the next step...  I bet you all right now Billy is only thinking one thing in his head... "How cool is this!?"

Folks, this might seem easy, but it's tough.  You know why? We haven't even started yet.  Billy doesn't have the first clue about building a business.  Business?!?!  What am I talking about?  This is music!  This is going on stage and performing killer tunes and getting noticed and signing to huge labels and making tons of money and making awesome records that sell like Ihop's pancakes on Sunday after church!  To everyone who just agreed with that sentence, close this page, go back to looking up porn (guys) or oogling at the latest pictures of Channing Tatum (girls) and get some rest, you've got a long day of work ahead of you at your day job tomorrow, which I highly suggest you keep.

So, having just offended everyone out there by now, you can guess that jaded view of the music industry is pretty old, but it's still true to a lot of people.  Because they don't know what exactly goes on behind those closed doors they assume it's magic.  So, just what goes into the business of music?  We all think we know the answer, and it should be simple enough right?  You're a band/artist and you perform in front of people, make money, produce cd's and gain lots of exposure... right?  That sentence is such a gross underestimation of just how complex the whole process can be.

First off, just how does a band go from local garage band to being a professional band?  That's easy to answer, not so easy to do.  Billy's band got lucky, and started gaining exposure the moment they played at a battle of the bands contest.  Most bands out there don't start that way.  In fact, most of them started in high school playing gigs at festivals, markets; wherever they could get a PA system and someone willing and desperate enough to put an act in front of any audience (usually for free for both).  After all, Billy and the band only make enough money at their jobs to save up for the occassional new set of strings, drum-heads, and a couple cables.  Billy took the extra effort to save up for a small practice PA system to get the vocals into the practice sessions.  Now that's taking initiative.  But let's add up just how much would be spent to create this band so far:

• Starter Bass: $180
• Bass Amp for practice and gigs: $650
• An instrument cable: $15
• Sturdy strap: $25
• Extra set of Bass strings for backup: $8
• A Bassist needs some picks for certain songs right?:  $4
• Bassist needs a care kit: $23
• Gig bag for instrument as well: $30
• Total for the bassist = Roughly about $1,030 after tax

___

• Decent quality guitar for the frontman: $700
• Guitar amp with all the cool bells and whistles: $665
• Instrument cable: $15
• Guitarist needs some picks too:  $4
• Definitely needs a stylish strap: $20
• That amp needs a speaker cable: $5
• Definitely needs some good guitar strings for shredding: $12
• Guitarist needs an instrument care kit: $23
• Gig bag for the instrument of course: $15
• Total for the guitarist = roughly $1,610 after tax

___

• A decent drum kit:  $650
• Snare stand: $47
• A cymbal pack: $570
• Hihat stand: $40
• A crash stand: $32
• A ride stand: $48
• A few sets of drumsticks (includes a drum key): $20
• Kick drum pedal: $100
• Extra heads for snare and toms:  $45
• Extra head for the kick: $36
• Some padding to soften the kick: $21
• and a drum throne: $30
• Total for the Drummer = roughly $1,810 after tax

___ 

• Frontman's heavy duty wireless mic setup, because we're hip nowadays: $640
• Small practice PA system: $340
• Long Speaker cables x2: $30 ($15 each)
• Mic cable for the wireless setup to the PA system: $5
• Mic stand, so the frontman can play his guitar and sing: $20
• Frontman equipment total =  roughly $1,140 after tax

So, while many of them have built up this collection of gear of a number of years playing and practicing.  Collectively,  they've invested around $5,600 into their gear.  Now, on top of that, there's things that need replacing and care regularly for these active "cool-cats" of rock.  The consumables the band needs to upkeep their gear are equally as important, so lets say they stay on top of everything really well, and actually have to go through these on a monthly basis:

• Set of Bass strings: $8
• Bassist might need new picks, he and the guitarist share:  $4
• Good guitar strings for shredding: $12
• New heads for snare and toms:  $45
• New head for the kick: $36
• New sticks as the old ones break and wear down: $8
• Total cost per month = $125, collectively

That's some serious cash right there already.  I bet none of you were expecting this huge of a list, were you.  Well, it's definitely a whole heck of a lot cheaper than what it used to be!  Compare this to the massive collection of guitars Eric Clapton just has to have, or the huge concerts being put on by the chart topping bands and you can imagine how that price quickly escalates;  drummers buy new gear to get different sounds, guitarists upgrade their "rig" and expand their sounds, Bassists get bigger and punchier stacks to get that "kick your chest in the balls" low-end.  It doesn't end there either!  What about capturing that sound?  After all we're talking about the music industry right? Then we must be talking about CD's and albums.
 
Alright boys and girls, time to get out your wayback machine (yeah I said it, i'm lame).  Let's head back to Abbey Road Studios in London where that famous old band of the 60's recorded most of their albums: The Beatles.  Why the Beatles?  Because.  There, I figured that got your attention.  Let's take a look at how a typical breakdown of all the pieces in play here.

First off, there's all the band members, 3 guitarists, a bassist, and a drummer.  Vocals would be carried out by various members, a couple more prominently than others.  There's the band's manager, and then there's the label, (referencing their most known album Abbey Road)Apple, and then the entity of the recording studio and it's engineers and producers etc...  Right away you can tell the number of people involved in this endeavor of recording their album is pretty numerous.  That's a lot of mouths to feed, all expecting to get paid for their work.  Next up, the facilities, location, and the equipment, the spaces aren't tiny or cheap on rent, and I'm sure you can't even imagine for that time the equipment is outrageously expensive to get and maintain / operate.  This takes a serious amount of money to make something as simple as an album that someone can pick up at a store and listen to.

Just take a look at some of the preview page over at The Beatles' Book site.  The book is an invaluable resource for any producer, recording engineer, musician, agent, or any other job in the music business model as it has real-world documentary insight into every aspect of it.  Just look at the breakdown of the equipment categories they cover:

• Mixers
• Outboard gear
• Microphones
• Tape Machines
• Speakers & Amplifiers\
• Effects
• Studio Instruments

The multitude of technology (including the musical instruments) takes a lot of know-how to run, and a lot of money to acquire, and maintain.  Those recording engineers wore lab coats; geeky electronics geniuses with electrical engineering chops at the very most.  Couple that with the era and that technology in general was still very young and not commonplace.  Imagine how outrageously expensive that kind of equipment must have been.  This is the peak of the Major Label Studio era as I like to call it.

This stuff is so enormous in cost and skill to use that it's reserved for only the highest caliber businesses and specialists (cough - recording studios - cough) because most laymen wouldn't have the first clue how to operate any of it.  This sort of specialization was key to the success of the music industry then, and possibly why music was so different compared to today's music.  Songwriters focused on writing songs, performers focused on practicing and performing them, and the recording studios with engineers and music producers focused on recording and producing records.

Pretty simple right?  If only it had stopped there.  Technology kept advancing and getting more and more affordable.  Not just that, it kept getting better!  Fast forward to the mid 70's with the introduction of digital domain making it's debut in the audio industry via Tape storage.  Soon, in the mid 80's the revolution of the compact disc fueld by the new era of digital recording blows the doors to the music scene wide open.  Let's take U2 for example, Pretty big name and even bigger studios abroad with their Joshua Tree album.

Digital technology is beginning to sweep across the industry making it more affordable, but the Analog domain technology is still the mainstay as it's been a proven and reliable way of recording; and bands like U2 are doing some pretty amazing things with the technology at more cost-effective prices than before.  Things continue to get cheaper, but again, still reserved for big budget studios.  For this album, they had the funding and actually set up a studio in a house outside Dublin, Ireland.  Had technology not improved it wouldn't have been possible for them to do this.  Simultaneously, a new home-based technology was sprouting alongside computers - Pro Tools.

When Pro Tools hit the mass market and peaked as computers were gaining momentum in the consumer marketplace, It would slowly consume the music world from the bottom up.  This was the first DAW to come around and catered to home musicians wanting to record but couldn't afford access to big time studios.  As we progress through the 90's and now, technology picked up at such an amazing pace, that recording technology is more affordable, and ubiquitous than ever.  In fact, it's actually 10x cheaper to start a home "recording studio" than it is to buy a car!  This is the part where I get tricky with numbers.   Want to see just how it breaks down?

Let's consider all the equipment that's really necessary for a single musician to start recording his or herself at home, absolute barebones basics:

• First off, you'll need one of these: A typical desktop nowadays can easily handle audio recording tasks, so with a screen, keyboard, mouse and tower (full package) expect around $1,000 U.S.D.
• 2nd off, you're going to need a DAW: The industry standard Pro Tools is usually a safe bet though there are plenty of others out there just as good to choose from, as well as the plethora of equipment it can take to get audio recorded.. but for now, this nice little package will be more than enough to get you started: Guitar Center's awesome package sets you back a cool $680 roughly, covers a recording interface, software, microphone, stand, cables, and studio reference speakers, pretty sweet eh?
• So, this is where it starts to get unique according to the individual, so I'm going to say that in this hip, digital-heavy lifestyle we've all adopted in this day and age that computer saavy folk will probably have no issues with me referencing virtual instruments instead of physical ones.  My first guess is at this point you'll probably need some type of input device: a USB keyboard should do fine at roughly $170, we're already starting to push beyond barebones basics here.
• Seeing as how the pop culture right now centers around hip-hop, pop-dance, electronic stuff I won't spend any money on actual music gear here because that's actually pretty expensive nowadays when you add up all the instruments one could collect.  For now, let's round up some virtual instruments instead that would more than cover what's needed to make "hit tunes". Reason does a fairly good job; there are literally a ton of specialist and high-quality professional Virtual Instruments from around the globe that can do better, but Reason has a very eclectic library of sounds to choose from that are all production quality-ready for any composer / artist to produce complete songs in.  That's going to be another $300.  Learning curves aside, the internet has infinite educational value nowadays: First google search result brought me Free Reason tutorial videos

Assuming you've already got creative ideas and the experience in crafting music know-how to pull off what you want to achieve, all that's left is to start recording right?  So, at a minimal budget of somewhere around $2,500 U.S.D. we've got a home-based recording studio that actually is extremely powerful.  Did I come in under my mark? I believe I did.  In fact, It's actually cheaper than starting a real band.  Remember Billy's band?  That was a collective $5,600 just for the instruments and gear to perform the music.  To top that off, they'd have to spend weeks writing the songs and practicing them to near-perfection.

So, here we are in this long-ass blog about the music industry and you're probably thinking "wow he's totally lost his argument".  It really couldn't be any easier now to make music than ever before, and this is totally 100% true.  Well, Let's bring Billy in.  Gone is his band, he just wants to write the music on his own without all the fuss of the politics that go on; the drummer can't keep it straight with the scheduling, and the bassist can't focus long enough in between the phone calls from all the hot chicks wanting to get with the sexy bass-player (because he plays bass, right?). Now, with all that noise out of the picture Billy can get in control of the creative license for a moment and actually make something.

The virtual instruments give him a good sound for the bass and the drums, and with Pro Tools and his microphone he can record his live guitar sounds and his voice and viola, instant song!  Wow, that's easy!  Why aren't you all doing it too?!  Except recording is only 1 tiny phase, and usually it happens way later in the process.

What Billy just did was a Demo.  Sorry Billy, but you're guitar skills are better than your audio engineering chops.  You've got a ton of "bleed" sound coming from your speakers into your microphone while you were recording guitar and vocals; Not just that, but the recording just doesn't sound right.  The virtual instruments sound fine aside from some things being somewhat louder than others should be.  What's the problem?  Why doesn't it sound like a cd?

Here's the secret the recording studios don't want anyone to know.  This is super secret because once the word is out... it won't change a thing.  Those recording studios have tons of expensive gear, we know this; Billy knows this.  Well that recording software Pro Tools must not be good enough, right?  Except Pro Tools is actually in over 80% of all studios (big budget and project alike) as even studios are centered around the DAW and Computer now.  In fact, they tend to use the same effects you get with the software that Billy and we all get with our version we buy from the local music shop.

It must be the mic, crappy low-end technology showing its true colors it seems!  Also not true,  read any of the plethora of recording trade magazines like EQ (go ahead, take a look at the $100 SM57 credited), Mix, Computer Music, and they'll quote famous engineers giving away their dirty studio secrets recording the latest chart topping-band and you'll find the microphone lockers have a surprising number of "cheap", or "lowend" mics.

Then perhaps it's just your room, sorry Billy; that's it - it's the room man.  While the room really does make all the difference in a recording, Billy was recording pretty "dry" sounds where the sound of the room wasn't majorly affecting the sound.  So what is it then?  First off, I can tell you Billy doesn't know the first thing about what happens after recording.  It turns out there's actually some more steps involved.  While I show Billy here where the Compressors, limiters, EQ,'s and other effects plugins are in Pro Tools and Reason; he's only going to get more and more confused and the "allure" of making music easy is going up in smoke with his temper.  Calm down there bro, your recordings aren't half-bad.

What sets apart those huge sounding professional cd's coming from big bands?  Go grab your favorite cd and take a look at the names on there.  I can guarantee you'll find way more than just the band members.  It takes engineers, assistant engineers, mixing engineers, assistant mixing engineers, mastering engineers, assistant mastering engineers, digital editors, producers, A&R personnel, A&R Coordinators, Marketing Directors, photographers, album design artists, guitar technicians, Drum Technicians, studio or session musicians for backing parts, lackies, and sometimes even outside influences (composers, lyricists, etc..) that have their spot in the project.  Those engineers spent their time learning about compressors and E.Q. and microphone polar patterns , the producers learned how to manage the project and coordinate and budget the stages of production for the artist and record label; everyone has their place and something they've specialized in.

Did you know there's actually 3 stages of making an album?  Billy didn't.  Billy's still stuck in the recording phase, and already there's a lot to manage and consider at that point.  The final stage that comes next is actually even more tedious and time consuming, and that's the art and craft of mixing, and mastering.  In fact, these two processes are so in-depth that you can find studios that only specialize in one particular process.

Even with the revolution of the digital era and virtual processing on the computer bringing down costs, Billy could easily take a few years just to learn how himself, or even just barely start using the equipment he already has for all these functions.  After all, the the stuff he bought is certainly capable of it.  The labor involved is so intensive, because there is so much to control and so much to be aware of that Billy here can just take his recording to one of those studios and spend a fraction of the tuition it would cost him to go to school and try to learn how to do it himself.  Or at the very least, save him countless hours toiling away trying to achieve that "cd" sound when a professional can do it promptly and with precision.

I know Billy personally, he started music at the same time I did when I was a kid.  I went down the recording path and Billy took the performer path.  While we are at similar levels of skill we are worlds apart in our experiences in our craft.  Billy would have to spend years catching up to me as a recording artist and engineer.  Likewise, I would have to put in countless hours a day practicing an instrument or the like to catch up to Billy's finesse with his guitar solos.  That said, there is a hefty amount of respect to be had for any particular function in the industry as we witness the power of making music shift from the hands of the big budget studio to the hands of the individual.

There's an endless sea of music being put out from just about everyone on the planet it seems nowadays.  Some of it is amazing, but it's rarer now to find great compositions or beautiful masterpieces as we've entered the era of digital consumerism.  The landscape of the music industry has changed from creative war reserved for those with the specialists of their craft, to that of the DIY music house.  We've witnessed the fall of rock and the live band being the main attraction to the perfect auto-tuned electronic pop and dance tunes played until they're played out at clubs; those same songs get recycled in an endless wave of remixes by the DJ-gone-producer.

RPM Challenge Day 2

Day 2 officially came to it's end and it couldn't have come soon enough.  Demoing 2 songs and getting more ideas solidified for the album design. 

While most of today was getting stuff on paper, and "demo" status in Sonar here at my project facility (or as I like to call it, Home) we did have a few other side projects that came up and things that we won't show until the video blog!  The video blog should start getting pretty interesting, hopefully should make for some decent entertainment!

So, as far as the project goes; just a bit of info now as far as the soundtrack goes: with Steven interested in doing lyrics, and his heavy augmentation of the story for the "film" the soundtrack is based on going through some serious drafting and plot work.  Way to go Steven.  While he goes off on a tangent with the story and works on developing things as detailed as the characters involved, and miniature plots within, we've gotten the basis for the inspiration we need to create the songs.  We've started picking out the order and sequence for roughly where the songs should lay in the soundtrack, and just what inspirational soundtracks should help us hone in on the various interlude sounds. 

There's also been various discussions on recording techniques we want to hit on.  Without giving away too much (don't worry we'll do that in the video blog), we discussed doing a song in mono, using recording techniques that pay homage to the Beatles era, all the way to experimenting with some Mid-side drum recording, experimental layering techniques with electric guitar, mixing philosophies... the list goes on.

Fun times, busy times, all times.  It's only going to get busier as we head into production, 2 songs in demo and thought out, 8 more to go, lyrics after, and a very compact schedule.  Be sure to check our facebook updates for some quick recaps and photos of our work throughout the month.  Also, if you want to jump into discussion on the RPM project, be sure to head over to our discussion page on facebook and leave your feedback!

A Dashboard Confession

It's been a long October moving swiftly and not so diligently through a TV series concept and getting it off the ground.  Let's start at the beginning shall we?

A couple months ago my friend who happens to own a nice Sony Z1u approached me about a possible job opportunity he had been brought into the fold on.  This job consisted of developing and operating a production company around a tv series concept.  Lots of promises and lots of changes and rescinding on said promises later, and one bunk storyline and proof of concept after another we arrive at Friday October 15th.

The producer has me cabbing him around first to pick him up and we go to meet our private investor company whom, after an hour and a half or so of bantering and not even talking business really - decided to hand our producer a final check for the "production".  I can't go into detail on how much exactly but it's a generous amount to actually do something business-like with.

The plans change about 3 times in the span of an hour after getting said funding and our producer decides on a whim and without anything packed, that he wants me to drive him out even further to oakland with a stop in pleasanton so that he can fly out to vegas that same day.  God knows what for...

I advised that we get a business license set up, start planning out a rough schedule, and book hotel(s) and come up with a budget, as well as a contract that weekend so that we could have everything on solid ground before we depart for Vegas on Sunday by car.  Now,

• Lesson #1: never do anything without at least 10% pay up front.

• Lesson #2: Have binding documentation as to what the nature of everything is and how everyone is to be compensated (a contract, basically).  

I've known these for a while and our producer rushing out to Vegas despite my advising not to go made me very uneasy about the project.  However, he did pay for the travel (somewhat) around that day; he also paid 10% up front for both me and my partner to "get us out there".
So, Sunday October 17th, we depart late afternoon after a brief conference with our producer over the phone.  We have no idea what he's been doing out there the whole weekend.  I asked him to book us the hotel in the morning so we can have everything arranged for us to just come in and unpack when we get there at night.  The producer didn't book the room until we got into Vegas...  To make things worse, the next morning we were up early and on time to get prepped and ready to leave so we could make it to the shooting location we needed to be at by 9.  Our producer - being completely unprepared and came out with nothing but the clothes on his back, demanded I cab him to a bank and then to a Wal Mart to buy clothing and some miscellaneous items.  We also needed to purchase some groceries to minimize food expenses but we didn't have time.  Our producer bought himself new clothes just for the day (not the week), and we picked up some missing items we simply forgot to pack like shampoo and conditioner.

• Lesson # 3: make sure everyone is clear on expenses.

That being said, our first major shady act of the day, our producer says "so how should we split this? you guys pay for your stuff, I'll pay for my share of what we're all using?"  Now because he's carrying a minimal amount of cash I decide to go ahead and just pay for what we needed to get.  Except, in-case of any legal affairs later on that might happen down the road; i opted not to pay in cash, and instead use a credit card that hadn't been used in a while - no balance to pay.  For legal purposes I can show I was the one paying these expenses and track exactly how much I should be getting reimbursed for.

So just what is our jobs on this project, you might be asking...  Well, since I am in all ways not bound to any NDA agreement, and I myself actually wrote the contract (notice this is not notarized nor am I any type of legal representative, this is just purely for clear and concise documentation as to what the project is and who is responsible for what).

Crush The Record Production Contract

On behalf of Crush The Record Production, I ___________________________(Executive Producer)  hereby appoint ___________________________(Production manager, Production Sound Mixer) and ___________________________(Director of Photography, Digital Imaging technician) as project employees, and enter into the following terms of agreement:

1.       Terms:    ----- ----- on behalf of Crush The Record Production shall be known as Executive Producer.  Cameron Bashaw for the duration of the project shall be known as Production Manager, and Production Sound Mixer.  ------- ---, for the duration of the project shall be known as Director of Photography, and Digital Imaging Technician.  The three negotiating entities shall collectively be called the “parties”.  The pilot episode production for Crush The Record Production shall be called “the project.”

2.       Definition:     The parties wish to enter into the project on behalf of Crush The Record Production for the purpose of creating the pilot episode of a TV Series concept which technical descriptions shall be entered into agreement orally. The agreement discussed in this contract on behalf of all parties is for mutual assurance of satisfaction with exchange of services for compensation.

3.       Crush The Record Production Contract:  

a.       The Executive producer shall be responsible for handling the financing of the project which includes

                                                               i.      Handling of all fund(s) generated by project from initial private 3^rd parties and/or commercial entities entering into business with Crush The Record Production, and accept ON BEHALF OF Crush The Record.

                                                             ii.      Payment of employees and those associated directly with project.  Anyone involved in project doing work for hire directly for Crush The Record Production (i) only as considered part of video production (ii) involved in front of, or behind camera as a “personality” for Crush The Record Production (iii) not as a third party already being compensated by alternate source whether in front of, or behind camera.

                                                            iii.      Proper compensation shall be provided by the end of the project duration, and paid in full.

b.      Production Manager shall be responsible for organizing documents, and schedules, and coordinating the project once on-location and operating

                                                               i.      Handling of any task relating to disclosure of documents within project team and to third parties if necessary with approval of executive producer.

                                                             ii.      Coordinate with Executive producer on organizational tasks and oversee the project operation

                                                            iii.      Manage progress of day to day shooting and scheduling according to viable content that can be obtained throughout.

                                                           iv.      Create and organize documents and any bookkeeping throughout duration of project.

c.       Director of Photography shall be responsible for delivery of video content and production value throughout the duration of the project

                                                               i.      Creative control and consistency of videography throughout production

                                                             ii.      Communicate effectively with Production manager and Producer to obtain the shots needed for project, and stay on task.

                                                            iii.      Directs Digital Imaging Technician on all creative aspects of videography

d.      Production Sound Mixer shall be responsible for delivery of audio content and production value throughout the duration of the project

                                                              i.      Handling of audio equipment and content quality, including jobs of boom operator and Utility Sound Technician

                                                            ii.      Maintain audio equipment

                                                          iii.      Deliver audio content to executive producer for review and editing

e.      Digital Imaging Technician shall be responsible for

                                                               i.      Handling of video equipment and content quality

                                                             ii.      Operate and maintain video equipment

                                                            iii.      Deliver video content to executive producer for review and editing

4.       Mutual Agreement of the following terms outlining the proper compensation of the following parties by the Executive Producer: Production Manager and Production Sound Mixer, Director of Photography.

a.       Prerequisites:  The employed parties agree to (i) arrive at Las Vegas no later than Sunday, October 17^th for check-in, unpacked and prepared for production. (ii) Begin production schedule on Monday, October 18^th, conclude no later than Friday, October 24^th. (iii) Production team is allowed short-leave, but must return no later than Sunday, October 24^th, checked-in, unpacked and prepared for production.  (iv) Begin production schedule on Monday, October 25^th, and conclude no later than Saturday, October 30^th.  (v) Production team will leave Las Vegas on Sunday, October 31^st, ending production duration. (vi) Work per-Diem: set compensation for day, hours can be more or less than state labor laws as long as lunch break and breaks are provided.

b.      Per-Diem  compensation:    The employed parties shall be paid for the duration of the project per day for services rendered and equipment operated and maintained.  Each party member shall receive the value of $------- per day.  The duration of the production shall be no less and not to exceed 11 days.  The total compensation to employed parties across the duration of the project will reach $----- to be paid to ------- --- for the jobs of Director of Photography and digital imaging technician, and $----- to be paid to Cameron Bashaw for the jobs of Production Manager and Production Sound Mixer.

c.       Coverage of expenses:    The employed parties shall have reimbursement for travel expenses incurred throughout the duration of the project as stipulated during development.  Executive Producer holds the option to either:

                                                               i.      Pay directly for any expenses incurred throughout the duration of production (i) based on its relevance to project, (ii) necessity to travel for project including but not limited to gas, lodging, food, and utilities for production.

                                                             ii.      To reimburse expenses incurred throughout the duration of production (i) based on its relevance to project, (ii) necessity to travel for project including but not limited to gas, lodging, food, and utilities for production.

d.      Exclusions to coverage of expenses include items that are purchased for personal use or have no necessity to travel or stay throughout the duration of the project.

                                                               i.      Miscellaneous items and personal habit materials purchased are considered personal purchases and not to be covered by fund(s) generated by and for Crush The Record Production.

                                                             ii.      Excessive purchases of any items that cannot be properly documented for production or have no receipt with which to claim.

e.      Proper documentation and clear and concise reporting by Production Manager to accurately document all expenses incurred; Production manager is not responsible for acquisition of receipts from all parties.

5.       Disclosure  of this agreement herein provided solely for the purpose of identifying parties, services, and compensation shall be considered for good and valuable measure sufficient to all parties for the purpose of conducting the project.

a.       All parties arrive to mutual agreement and act according to common code of conduct including but not limited to: professional behavior, representation of the company values, adhere to any dress code, and punctual attendance according to any derived schedule.

b.      Any and all compensation is considered final and non-refundable.

c.       Any exemption from transactions must be weighed with good and valuable measure within reason upon breach of any of the terms stated in this agreement.

Upon reading and agreeing to the terms stated in the agreement, Each party hereby validates and enters into business of the project.  Proof of this shall be supplied by signing below.  Each party must sign each copy of this document as required for authenticity.

Now, without going into a detailed day-by-day description, I'd like to describe more of the useful experiences that were derived from this whole project.  From someone who's come from a studio background and this being the first travel / on-location production, there was a lot of learning going on for me.

First off, business to business side of things were developing relations with the raceway association, the company building the car for their client to compete in the upcoming race event, and then getting a hold of the parts companies being used on the car that is being captured for the tv episode to see if they want any involvement.   The producer is actually decent at pulling in interest from companies but that's fairly easy considering they have a budget to spend on things like advertising and marketing.

Working with what's really only a 2-man crew: 1 camera operator, and 1 production sound mixer tripling as Boom Operator, and utility sound technician; was not actually that bad, but limited the scope of what we could achieve as far as capturing "cinematic shots" for the TV series' look and feel the producer wants. 
Working with only mono for external mic to capture sound and our location primarily being a large machine shop for fabrication, everything was extremely hard to capture.  To add to that, while our producer wants the end result to feel very "weekly movie" the true aspect of production is fully reality / documentary as we spent most of our time in the "hurry up and wait" mode.  We captured 90% of the footage as we were able to shoot them, if things happened (and often they did) we just got rolling and shot what we could without interfering too much in the business. Aside from a few key dialogue moments, a lot of the footage would probably end up on B-roll or secondary footage used without any real audio or character focus.

The entire first week was primarily spent at the shop with the fabrication company building the car for their client to race.  the Second week we started getting other footage needed while still basing our operations at the shop.  By Tuesday, October 26th, we had private access to the Bull Ring track at the Vegas Speedway to shoot some B-Roll footage of the track itself, as well as from the stands, some trucking / dolly shots, and transition shots. Thursday we started shooting interviews and prepping for Friday's practice, and Saturday's event.

Friday was perhaps one of the longest days we spent out there as we tried to get there as early as possible to get footage of the last bits being worked on the car, while our producer spent time with his dad who came through for the day, as well as at the track setting up onboard camera shots with a very lucky turnout.

Our producer was lucky enough to have a couple reps from Go Pro buy into the concept of the show and loan us 6 Go Pro Hero HD cameras with mounting kits and memory cards.  Our producer set them up on the cars, while we stayed at the shop to wait around to capture the last moments of the car being built and hopefully catch them doing the first engine firing and tuning.

Friday's schedule for the Bull Ring consisted of practices for all the different leagues and classes of cars on teh track that day.  The first SMRA practice session was at 4:15 pm, then again at 6:15 pm, 8:15 pm, and finally at 10 pm.  the two of us stayed at the shop the entire day waiting around for our shots which didn't actually happen until 10 pm finally when they got the top wing fully assembled and on the car.  By now, 3 practice sessions had already happened and 2 competitor cars were at the garage already being worked on by their teams due to complications on the track.  After a good 20 minutes of clearing out the cars and getting our car prepped for it's first run, we set up and were ready to shoot the first firing.

Because of the type of design and the way the cars work, they have to be push-started, and our location made it feasible for the company to do this with their own trucks get the car in place, we were able to get static shots of the whole process, which at first, consisted of us running around the whole block keeping up with the push-truck and the car as they did laps around the building to make several passes at starting the car.  The whole firing attempt was successful but with some tuning needed on the engine which they promptly just pulled into the garage and started working on.  We rushed inside and stayed handheld through the rest of the shot and captured some amazing dialogue (compared to the rest of the production we'd done thus far).

Saturday we were up bright and early even though we had ended late the night before.  With some typical delays from our producer we still made it to the track early enough to beat traffic of the race event.  After checking in and getting our pit passes we started rolling out immediately and prepping gear for initial shots in the pits with the vaious racers.  The first practice session started at 1:15 pm, the 2nd at 3:15 pm, qualifying at 5:15 pm, and the main feature at 8:30 pm.

3:15 pm rolls around and we made it up to the track to start filming the practice session and plan out camera angles and get b-footage of the practice.  We weren't expecting to be involved in a crash on the track at 150+ mph!  The #85 car had a problem during his deceleration at the end of the straightaway on the track coming into the 1st turn and barreled toward us with a broken front axle.  The car slammed into the barrier at more than 150 mph and got airborne, slamming up against the upper fence where we were  filming a good 4-7 feet to our left.  Luckily no one other than the race driver was injured.

However the impact was extremely severe and he is hospitalized.  While we waited and watched what we could before the racing association cleared out the track area of all bystanders, we reviewed our tape and realized we had caught footage of the accident as it happened.  We showed the racing team that wanted to know what happened, and representatives of the track and racing association that asked to see what happened.  They also asked for a copy of the footage of just that portion for insurance purposes.  We cooperated with and respected their wishes and destroyed the footage after.

I just found out today however, that he is still alive, had just come out of surgery but is in stable condition though critical. Our prayers go out to the race team and family.  It was quite an unforgettable experience...

The show, however, rolled on.  Even with a 2 hour delay on the track from the crash, the qualifying round still happened about about 7:15 pm, and the main feature at 9 pm.  For the main feature we were able to get clearance to get down on the inner ring of the track behind the barriers.  After the race we finished up with some interviews of the various people racing, as well as final interviews of the builders and car owner we followed throughout the production.

Now, production may have ended Saturday, but we have still been very busy.  Sunday was an all-day drive back home, a very long and not very pleasant drive.  What was originally just me and the camera guy turned into his gf, and our producer riding home with us.  Everyone got home and unpacked pretty much killed the entire day, so on Monday we were supposed to capture footage.  Monday was pretty much everyone's rest day so I took it upon myself to work on some of the various other projects that need managing.

So, here we are at late last night.  My camera guy brings over the equipment and tapes so we can start capturing.  today we just brought the producer the footage we captured so far, as well as getting my primary payment.  Up next is discussing reimbursement of all the travel expenses.

All in all, I highly disliked the experience working with a shady producer, who's completely unprofessional.  That being said, the experience has allowed me to prove to myself I am capable of operating such a project at a professional capacity, whether or not I can put put this experience on a resume.