11:06
An eighteenth birthday, with new lighting
On YouTube this video is called GIG LOG, 18th Birthday. My 1st use of LED Messenger
What this lesson teaches
A short gig log with two useful things in it: a failure handled calmly, and a cheap idea that lands better than it should.
The laptop is dead
He brought discs of current tracks to use through a laptop, and the laptop will not power up at all. Possibly the transformer; he does not know.
And the warning that follows: if you are a DJ who uses a computer, do not rely on it.
What is notable is how little drama there is. He has the rest of his music with him, so the night happens anyway. That is what the backup lessons in this stage are describing - not heroics, but having enough redundancy that a dead laptop is an annoyance rather than an ending.
Lights on a pool table
The room is small - he is set up right beside the pool table - and there is physically not enough space to put a tripod up.
So the lights go on the pool table.
His own assessment: not the best place in the world. And then the consolation, which is the practical half: they are not going to get knocked off.
That is the real constraint in small venues. The ideal position is frequently unavailable, and the choice is between a compromise that is safe and an ideal that somebody will walk into.
The LED sign
The nice idea, and the reason this log exists.
He sets a scrolling LED message unit against the wall reading the birthday boy's name and happy birthday, and leaves it there for the evening.
The entry method is the one from an old mobile phone keypad - press 2 once for A, twice for B - and his point is that once you know it, you can get somebody's name up in thirty seconds, which is what makes it usable mid-gig rather than a setup task.
Why it works as entertainment: it is the same thing as the laser-text service in the pricing course. Somebody's name on the wall, visible all evening, is a personalisation that costs nothing to produce and that the client notices immediately.
And the night itself
His summary, and it is a good description of the job: there were not many people, but it does not matter. You work at them.
The metaphor is the right one: you start turning the wheel slowly, and eventually it turns by itself. The momentum builds, the atmosphere arrives, and that is what they wanted.
A small turnout is not a failure. It is a slower start.
Contents of the video
0:00 Check out some of the bands, etc
Alright folks, it's the end of May 2008. Got an 18th birthday party this evening in Aberystwyth and prior to that there is Castle Rock which is, believe it or not, by a castle in Aberystwyth so that should be fun as well. So what we'll do first is we'll go and check out Castle Rock and maybe interview a few people, say hi. Check out some of the bands, etc. And then we'll go to the gig. We'll see you in a minute. Right, here we are folks at Castle Rock. What's your name, sir? Oh, it's Barry. Barry, and where are you from, Barry? Aberystwyth. Yeah, how long have you lived here then? Oh, well, about ten years. Yeah, and you've just turned... You've only been here for about half an hour or so, haven't you? Yeah, yeah. And you're chilling out, relaxing with your sister. That's right. And sisters, typical lady, just been shopping. That's it. Clothes...
3:05 I plugged it in and nothing
So are you here for the rest of the day or just... I know, it's beautiful isn't it? There's lots of people here and we are actually in Aberystwyth. There's loads of people here enjoying themselves. Nice one. I'm trying to make the most of what I've got actually. I'm slanting right back bang next to pool table. A bit of a bugger today because I brought the DVDs from Mixmash because they've got like the latest tracks on for me to use and the bloody laptop's not working. So, word of warning folks, if you are a DJ that uses a PC and you rely on your laptop Don't rely on it because I don't know what's wrong with it. I plugged it in and nothing. Could be the actual transformer. I'm hoping. We'll have to see. Anyway, got set for a few more lights. Right, I brought the LED messenger so we'll try and get that plugged in later on. And what I've generally done, or what I've basically done is put a lot of the lights on the pool table because I have not physically got enough room to put a tripod up.
Here we are, this place is called Brunham Lodge. It's near Pingle Ice, top of Aberystwyth. Right here we go, I don't know if you can actually see that now. The lad whose birthday it is is called Mark. He's outside with all his mates enjoying themselves because it's lovely in there. But it's just a nice evening and I've got the LED messenger and I put Mark happy birthday. And it's quite cool, it didn't really take that long.
4:39 Pause the camera for a second
And I think that'll be a nice effect against that wall for the rest of the evening, really. As you can see, I've got the... Alright, not the best place in the world to put the actual lights, but like I said, there's not much room here. And I suppose one beauty about putting them on there, they're not going to get knocked off, are they? So there you go. Pause the camera for a second. Right, there you go, I've got it there. Alright, it's not the best place in the world to put it, but... Bearing in mind, it's quite bright so it's still light outside. There's a good effect there. Say hello! Right, give you a general idea of bearings. Now down that sort of direction is the Aberystwyth Arts Centre. You can just about see the top of it there and also in that direction is Castle Rock. This control, basically all I did, I pressed E, the edit, and then
It's exactly like a mobile phone really. You've got A, B, C on number 2, D, E, F, G, H, I. So for example if you want A, press A. Or say if you want to B, press it twice, A and then to B. And if you want a space, you hit space. And when you're ready, you press enter. And then that's it. So in a sense, once you get used to it, I suppose you haven't really got to think, oh shit, you know, you've got to spend half an hour trying to sort it out because you can't really sort of, you know, within 30 seconds get someone's name up. I actually think that that's cool. It's cool because basically what you've got, you've got almost your own light that you can mess around with and you don't... Videos on tiny tips for mobile DJs. Now, again, a tip for you guys out there. Any new video I do or Brian does, if you've got a new video out, just link it. Just put it as your new video as a video response. Also, when you see the new videos that I'm going to be doing based on small tips
For mobile DJs, and ideally they'll be like, I don't know, 30 seconds long. If you've got any tips and you want to do some videos, say 30 seconds long, then do them and stick them as video responses. So there you go. Good night, it was a very good night tonight. There weren't that many people, but it doesn't really matter because, you know, you work at them, you get them going. It's almost, it's a case of, you know, you start turning that wheel slowly but surely and eventually, It will turn by itself. You know, the momentum is there, the atmosphere is there, and that's what matters. That's what they want. Anyway, I'm going home now. Practice and enjoy. Thank you.
This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.
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