garageCube

just a matter of seeing how many members their are that use/visit this site
if theirs only 131 member in the whole world who vj (metaforically speaking)
then what the f*** are/ we doing as a whole ??????
art/ club visuals are i think the icing on the cake when you go out clubing
or going down to your local cafe bar late on a saturday nite
so why is it so impossible to get more gigs ?
if you lve in london you may have a good base of clubs to work on
to try to get gigs
when you yhink that their are 3 dj,s to every 8 people
then their must be at least 1 vj per 100,000 people just in the uk alone
swhere is the best place to get as a collective the best oppotunities to get more gigs either in the uk/ europe or even the usa
any info would help
andy

Check http://www.vjcentral.com

In Japan and Europe VJ'ing is as accepted as DJ'ing. In the U.S. it's getting better. It's just a matter of what one is willing to do.

It says more about the club culture in Japan and Europe than it does about attention to VJs per se... I think the kids just think of clubbing as an ingrained part of their lifestyle, so those involved, being the providers of music and vision, for their nightlife-style, get some attention. I wouldn't say equal acceptance though. I don't want to split hairs but, VJing's "acceptance" depends largely on the fame and name of the VJ. Yes there are a couple here who get some press, largely because they cross over into other media, design, goods design, original pieces, art crossover etc.

This also points to the way Japanese kids fiend for information about stuff, who's hot, whats in, particularly within various subculture's and all gets much more attention than in the states.

But then DJs always get paid, and VJs only "might" get paid and if they do, only get a small percentage of the take of the DJ. Everyone's there for the music anyway, so one can't complain, but it is also a costly hobby, and I don't foresee it paying for itself, at least here in Japan. I had a promoter joke casually about how he didn't see the need to put the VJ name on the flyer at a rather large event that we didn't even get paid at!! While the night before we did a much smaller event and got paid, not alot mind you, but paid nonetheless.

My feeling is that this is going to slowly change. There is a lot more interest in live video. The VJ thing appears to originate primarily from the dance scene. But a lot of electronic music groups that are influencing every genre almost require video these days. Also the music biz in general is in flux in terms of how it makes money.
If you're a band/musician/song writer it will be likely in the near future that going on tour will not exist to promote the music of the band but to promote the show of the band/musician/song writer. A lot of the big name acts already do this. The hardware for this used to be quite expensive but now one can invest in a laptop, some software and a sub $1000 projector and hit the road. There are probably other costs that I have mentioned but I would say no more then $5000 tops. I don't think we would be looking at a vast amount of money but at least enough to make a decent living. Of course this is largely dependent on the level of talent and energy that one puts into doing visuals.
Personally I am not a big fan of the VJ/Disco thing although I do have a reverence for it in terms of it's roots in this field (and I certainly don't turn down a paying gig). I really enjoy working with musicians/bands and finding out how to try and effectively compliment their message with video.
Bottom line at this point though is that I do it because I like doing it.

WELL its good to c people taking an interst in what i've wrote
it was a bit a rant in general
well my 4th (i think) gig of this year is coming up*not as posted for april 1, i forgot about the other 3)
as a vj thing goes i do it as a hoby, i really like going to do clubs as well as bands when i get the chance, in fact i've done visuals for several bands including a world music festival
but still not got the break to do it full time,,,,
you see i'm not trained in media at all or even work in it
its all self taught,
my real job is as a vehicle technician plus other skills i've picked up on the way but being 37 and coming into this arena with other people younger than me i find i need to prove its not age at all.......
people think that i'm much younger than i look so its a bonus
in the collective i'm in the combined age is about 140 years (4 people)
and the amount of equipment has got larger in one way
eg =mx 50, mx 12, v4, 2 cannon projectors, 1 sanyo ?, 2 lap tops, 2 x-shuttle box's the list is endless
so i've the equipment to do a 3 screen gig
and the gigs are a bit thin on the ground but i still love to see people faces at the end of the nite

KILLERLOOP wrote:just a matter of seeing how many members their are that use/visit this site
if theirs only 131 member in the whole world who vj (metaforically speaking)
then what the f*** are/ we doing as a whole ??????
bla...

not everyone is using a mac?