I have no crew - this is a total 1 man no budget operation - I readily admit that I have no clue what I am doing and I have no experience in doing this, but when you look at the progression of each DVD you can see that I am getting better at both the editing and the filming. I realize that what I do is not going to be like watching a cable TV show - but that is OK because REAL hot rod guys dont really care about the cute announcer going around some event talking to people.......they wanna see the cars. The reason I focus on this genre - I cant afford anything else so I film the cars that I could possibly have in my garage (exceptions would be some of the way cool kustoms or hot rods that have some racing history - those I will not be able to touch either) I am a travelling salesman - selling hot rod DVDs, Rat FInk merchandise, posters, stickers, etc - anything that has to do with the kustom kulture scene. I go from town to town (on the road 42 weekends last year from Yokohama to Syracuse NY) and I hear people tell me about what they wish they could see on video..........while most people love the other stuff that is out there like Hot Rod Havoc and Mad Fabricators........they tell me that the music of the Hot Rod Havoc is far too raucous, you are not able to HEAR the cars, and that it is way too short. The other thing I hear from people is that Mad Fabricators will show an event in a matter of 7 minutes, never giving time to actually look at the cars and they tend to use the crazy editing / effects that sometimes make it harder to see some of the details of the cars being shown. I love BOTH of these DVDs and think they are at the top of the heap when you compare them to us or Jalopy Showdown, Billetproof, Viva Las Vegas, Paso Robles, Mooneyes, Free To Wander, Road to Bonneville, or other independent> productions. I just think there is a niche that needs to be filled that may cater to people that actually want to see the cars and hear them.......even when we have music on in the background - you can always hear the cars going by 100% of the time. I enjoy this aspect of my business cause I get to learn a LOT of info about these cars and the guys that do this themselves. I have a project '35 Ford 5 W coupe and talking to guys out there on the road have helped me quite a bit on getting this thing started. One of the favorite aspects of the DVD is the music selections. I love all kinds of music except for the stuff that is now called country (in fact it is nothing more than 70s rock). This is why you hear a huge variation on the music side of our DVDs. Everything from western swing, to rockabilly, surf, roots rock, blues, hard rock, garage, psychobilly, instrumental, power pop, etc whatever I think is going to do well with a segment, that is what gets placed in there. I get bands emailing me quite a bit asking if they can be part of the project and sometimes I say yes - other times I have to say no - and sometimes I will place them in the maybe pile and come back to them a few months later. If you know of any bands - dont hesitate to have them contact me through the myspace site at http://www.myspace.com/vintagetorque I have also actively gone after certain bands that I really enjoy as well..........Rumblejetts, Dirty Kings, Beat Killers, the Von Ehrics, The Phantom Jets, The Ghastly Ones, etc Once I have explained to them what is> up and how the music will be used - they have let us use some songs-and I am eternally grateful! Future will be more of the same - however I am trying to get an actual short documentary done as well about a certain car builder that shall remain nameless untill all the final arrangements can be made. Will hope to have final commitments wrapped up by mid August on that. Til then - if you see a camera sticking out of a window following you down the road - dont shoot me - its just a camera.
John Wells
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
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