Video and Rock & Roll

An early publicity shot for the band Flesh.

When I was fresh out of college and working in Local Access TV, I had a side job for a Boston band called Flesh. I was the official photographer/videographer for the band. During the late 80's and early 90s live rock & roll was huge in Boston. Flesh had a large following and made the rounds in Boston and then later in Los Angeles.

During my time as photographer/videographer, I was responsible for making sure all shows were recorded so that the band could review and improve their show. Taking photos of the band's performance was also part of my role, but my big responsibility was making sure the introduction video was ready to go at show time.

Flesh was one of the few bands of the time to incorporate video into their live performance. Some of their intro videos were simply clips from films that meant something to the band, but one of their most popular was a "Meet the Band" video. The video was a humorous look at what each member of the band did in their free time. The video was made on a zero-budget, but was a lot of fun to make for me and the band members. The script was written by the guitarist (Mark Cherone) and myself and then tweaked by the rest of the band once we had the basic concept.

If you're just getting started in video, the trick is to get experience by working on video projects. Sometimes that's a catch-22 when you can't get a job without experience and can't get experience without a job. My advice is to keep busy on your own, and work on any creative project you can. Sometimes working on a personal projects allows you to flex your creative muscles more than a paying gig. The trick is to always keep busy in the craft.

Below is that video I did for the show intro. We had a lot of fun making it, and it still brings a smile to my face when I watch it.

A couple of other projects I worked on with Flesh: