Never Say Never

I wrote recently that while the new mobile device video cameras captured moments that would not be available without their ease of portability they weren't suitable for commercial work. What do I know? Last week I watched a videographer shooting live bands for a client. One of the two cameras covering the stage was the size of a deck of cards, duct taped to a tripod in a fixed position. When I asked him about it he said it "only" shot 720p but the footage mixed fine with his larger prosumer 1080p unit, which he shot handheld. Having fixed coverage of 100% of each act meant he could move around with the handheld cam, filling in what he missed while doing so with footage from the locked down mini. In a matter of a week or so the band members will get links to their performances on video (edited in Final Cut Pro he told me) and he'll submit an invoice. So I guess it won't be long before I'm gaffer-taping my BlackBerry Playbook to a tripod in search of my fortune.

    I was among the performers being immortalized at session 21 of Toronto's League of Rock finale.

From the left we've got Colin, me, Gavin, Ivan and Scott. We did a four-song set in front of a lively and generous crowd composed largely of friends and family of the 25 or so band members involved in five separate groups. A few days prior to the showcase we were in Toronto's Noble Street Studios with the opportunity to record one of our tunes with professional production and engineering. We have David Barrett and Douglas Romanow to thank for those monster contributions to the outcome. Our selection, "No Excuses" by Alice in Chains was for me a tribute to the late Layne Staley, the band's lead singer. You can give our version a listen right here.