Dave Patten's University of Entertainment

Umm Who? Magazine Featured Article

Featured Musician -- Umm Who? Magazine!!  Read it here.

CASE: The Real Crisis

This is very true.  Very very true.  Everyone is focusing on how to make money, not how to get new GOOD music out there.

"Ask people where they find out about new music.  Baby boomers will be dumbfounded, college students will talk about friends and a small universe of acts and the prepubescent will rave about the hits on today’s radio and in gossip columns, but what happens when they reach adolescence and want something meatier?"

I urge you to read the blog post, educate yourself a bit :)

http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php/archives/2010/03/23/the-real-crisis/

Screenwriter

Writing is so hard to do, I have so much respect to authors and screenwriters out there.  I'm trying to pull together a short screenplay for Josh West and I to put into production this spring.  I know with my new equipment and a few new kids I've met this semester who want to help out (only after they saw "Inside" were they interested... of course lol) I can make a great short film.

Narrative fiction is a heck of a lot different from music videos.  The film technique and direction is almost polarized, believe it or not.  In music videos, you are constantly making quick cuts to keep the audience interested.  Rarely do you show a clip for longer than 2 seconds.  In narrative shorts, shots are longer and focus is on the character and dialogue more so than what's going on on-screen.  So it will no doubt be a challenge.  I'm pretty excited.

The question is, how long to make it?  I've done a lot of research on festivals and well, you really need to know how you want to distribute your film before you even start writing it!  There are so many restraints in the festival circuit... your film is 10:01 minutes?  Well, now you're out of short short category and into regular shorts.  Oh your synopsis is 251 words instead of 250?  Well you're DQ'd and you just wasted $45 on your entrance fee!  haha stuff like that.

I'm testing the waters with "Inside" first.  We'll see how it goes.  But as far as screenwriting for short films is concerned, Linda Cowgill is the know-all-end-all of knowledge.  If you are anywhere near interested in writing, pick up one of her books and you'll be good to go.

Withoutabox.com

Musicians Friend is to musicians as Withoutabox is to filmmakers/screenwriters.  I'm working on submitting "Inside" to a bunch of festivals.  You have to create a great looking press kit with all the works: synopsis (French and English...), screenshots, cast, crew, bios, director's statements, press clippings, etc.  Pain in the butt!  Here's a PDF of one of the EPK versions, in case you are interested:

Download "Inside" EPK

But I got it done yesterday morning with my coffee machine at the ready.  So now all I have to do is find the right festivals.  It's a challenge.  "Inside" would get DQ'd as a short film almost immediately, because there is so much music.  Thus, I have to find festivals that have music video categories.  Then, I have to check when the early bird deadline is and how much the entrance fee is.  Some of these festivals cost $75 to enter!  Yeah right!  Sundance, for example, screened 100 films out of the 9,400 they received last year.  Those odds are terrible!  You might as well throw your money away.  At least for someone in my situation.  I'm looking for a great success rate.  I want to be able to say my films have made it to jury'ed festivals and won.  People don't know how big or small these festivals are!  It's all about having the stats.  That's my focus.  With those stats South9 Entertainment will have even more clout!  Bahahah.

So throughout the week I'll be updating my EPK, editing text, changing pictures, trying to make things great.  And when I find some good festivals, I shall submit.  Hopefully this summer I'll get a few letters in the mail saying my film has been accepted!  Fingers crossed.

Re: James McMurtry At The Mint - Bob Lefsetz

I read Bob Lefsetz's newsletter about once a week.  Bob is an extreme realist, and tends to look at the glass as half empty, but I can respect that, because someone has to talk about all the bullcrap that goes on in the music industry.

In his latest post he states: "I often wonder what it would be like to go to college today."  Welp, Bob Lefsetz, here I am.  Dave Patten, 21 year old aspiring songwriter and musician who is fully embracing the safety-net method.  Why the heck not?  I attend Temple University's film school, and yes, we students of today have just as much time on our hands as you did back in the day.  Most spend their weeknights at the bar or fake-studying in their dorm rooms with a case of beer.  Youth still have the same needs to socialize -- but technology has pretty much ruined it.  Now, instead of sparking up conversation with the pretty girl, you both pretend to respond to text messages or emails, acting like you're busy so you don't look like a loser at the bar talking to no one... it's almost funny.

You reminisce on the old days of college, I reminisce on the old days of high school lol.  Back then, if I were stuck in a group project with a pretty girl it was almost a guarantee that I could make something happen :)  In college, everyone comes to class with their hoods up and ipods playing, takes notes, and bolts out of class.  There is no longer any interaction.  Yeah it sucks.  Used to be easier.  But whatever.  If it isn't a challenge, it's not worth it.

We have laptops, you didn't.  We have the internet, you had the big old library.  And yes!  Our TVs display color!  Ok, maybe you're not that old haha but you see the trend...
I take full advantage of the situation.  I enroll in all night classes that meet once a week.  I have a 19-credit semester and a 4-day weekend every week.  I can write the standard 3-5page midterm in about two hours with the access of the internet.  I have never gone to the library in my 7.5 semesters of college (with a 3.67 GPA thank you).  I don't need to.  Everything is instantaneous online.  Thus, I have time to spend on projects of my own, like music & music videos...

BAM!  Here I am, 21 years old taking meetings in NYC every other Thursday or Friday afternoon with labels like Hollywood Records, RCA, J, Zomba Label Group, etc.!  And yes, I read your blog -- I don't give a darn about the labels!  Well, wait, let me explain...  One of the best parts about taking these meetings is that I can blog about it and post pics to my facebook page, so my fans perceive me as a rising star!!  That alone makes it pretty clear how much the music biz has changed.
I have over 55 YouTube videos, 1.5+ million views on my videos alone (and no I don't use auto-play-bots or pay for plays...) 10,000 people on my email list, my websites facebook myspace vimeo twitter youtube purevolume jango pandora typepad wordpress YOU NAME IT are all up-to-date and managed by... me.  I love it.  I figured out what I want to do with my life a lot sooner than most people, which is why I am where I am.  I'm not going to grovel at the label's feet... yes, they are still a juggernaut when it comes to marketing and promo and I would love to team up with them, but if their "cautious" steps result in passing on me, no prob.  I am the independent you always talk about.

If I didn't have my laptop and iPhone, I'd probably die.  But if I were going to school when these weren't invented, I'd be fine.  My love for music will never change, only my circumstances and surroundings will.  I have adapted to the most cost/beneficial situation I could find.  Yes, every move I make is premeditated.  Hey, it's worked out pretty well so far!  I guess going on tour across America for four years and getting signed is the more 'romantic' or 'dreamy' or 'classic' rock-star story but f-that.  I want a degree to fall back on, and I'm 2 months away from it.  I want my music to be heard by everyone, and I'm 1.5 million listens deep.  I want to do what I want, and my production LLC is pulling in profits to the point where I can (almost) make a living :)  Isn't that what we're supposed to do?  "Isn't life about enjoying the ride?"

I'm sure it's tough for you to comprehend how my generation could possibly be entertained by MTV's Jersey Shore or American Idol (I sometimes wonder myself) but your parents were wondering the same thing as you passed the bong listening to Dark Side of the Moon with the lights off, your incense burning and your tye-dye bandanna holding back your long hair!  It just happens.  Tis the gap between the generations.

No worries Bob Lefsetz, college is still awesome.  Success is still the end goal, but money isn't everything (cliche alert!).  Most people give up the dream of being famous or getting drafted mid-college anyway.  Being wired-in is just the way we do things now, just as free-love and hippie jam bands were your pass times.  All I know is that I have nothing better to look forward to lol... the internet, iTunes and terrible TV sitcoms are all I've ever had.

I drink a lot of milk with my cookies, and the glass is always half full.

http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/

Damage Control

Met with DJ Damage at Temple yesterday to talk some business and make big plans for this spring semester.  We came to the conclusion that the live show needs to be the primary focus.  Jason Jordan at Hollywood Records is really interested in seeing my live show in front of my fans, so we need to make that happen!  Damage is actually the one who brought all of this into action -- he made a presentation on my music to his Music Entertainment class last semester.  Jason Jordan happened to stop in for the presentation (he is pals with the professor of the class).  He loved my music!  And so history was made haha.

Afterwords I headed back home so I could work on updating a few of the websites, as well as edit some video and play guitar.  The usual.  Here's my new laptop spot in the kitchen:

photo by Dave Patten via Nikon D90

Band Practice

Stopped by Josh West's house this afternoon to work on the live show.  Our duo act is the first step in the process.  Once we get things down between the two of us we can add a drummer and the rest of the crew.  But as far as the shows at Puck's on Thursday and at Maxwell's March 5th are concerned, Josh and I are the headliners.

We actually practiced for four hours... felt like a good 45 minutes haha... towards the end we just started jamming out, letting the music take over.  Believe me, it's a lot more fun to space out into random 15-minute jams than it is to play a bunch of 3 minute songs :) But no worries, we got it out of our systems!

video filmed via iPhone by Dave Patten

The set list is coming together great!

Butterflies

I'm pretty sure every performer gets butterflies.  It might not be nervousness as much as excitement, but they get them.  Fortunately (or unfortunately, I haven't decided yet) for me, they kick in the day before.  A few hours or minutes before the show I could care less -- I think it's because at that point there is no time left to improve any part of my performance, so I am at ease and just go with the flow.

But right now, as I sit here eating my PB sandwich and milk in my apt on my lunch break from practicing, they float continuously in my stomach.

I plan to pretty much practice my piano and guitar set lists all day, so I can play them with my eyes closed.  That kind of confidence is priceless when it comes down to the actual performance.  I also have a few pages of possible questions I might be asked in the meeting, so I can immediately answer with confidence.  I'll be studying those as well.

This is pretty much my only focus between now and tomorrow morning around 11 when I have to get on the road.  I'm not one to get my hopes up too high, because it just causes stress and sucks when you get let down haha but I feel like I'm in a pretty sweet spot...

• 1.5 million youtube views on my channel
• 4,000 subscribers
• 3,000 myspace "friends"
• 2,000 fan email list
• 1,500 facebook fans
• 5 full albums released independently
• Write, record, produce and perform all of my songs
• Produce and Direct my own music videos... resulting in 1.5 million views
• Been gigging in bars since I was 16, performing in venues as big as the House of Blues

If they aren't interested in these stats and what I have to offer, then my suspicions are confirmed: labels are retarded.

All speculation aside, Hollywood Records would be a great home for me.  Their marketing and promotions juggernaut, if used appropriately, could really benefit both parties extremely well.  I'm interested in making a career out of music, not becoming a one-hit or one-summer-wonder.  I write and produce my own songs with an extremely low budget, so I wouldn't need much up front.  I'll take all the risk, because I know my music will prove my worth in the end.

Hopefully Mr. Jordan will see things in the same light.  I love music, and when I write it is a 100% emotional experience.  But I'm not so ignorant as to overlook the business side of entertainment.  Without it no one would hear my music.  As an artist, my primary focus is to get my music out to as many people as possible, so they can enjoy it like I do.

Tomorrow at 5pm we'll see what happens.

New Camera

Everyone is so obsessed with HD now that my camera rig is falling way behind.  I'm trying to get some work doing music videos for other artists, so I need to have the most up-to-date equipment (so annoying).

So I started scouring the internet for what's new, to figure out what's up.  I went straight for the digital SLR's with HD video capability.  I'm obsessed with shallow depth of field, and without a 35mm lens adapter (=~$2,000 on top of the $2500 for the camera) you can't get that look.  SLR's have interchangeable lenses for different looks, and they're small and convenient.

Canon has the MarkD II for like 6000000 dollars and Nikon has the D700 or D3 for same price.  But these cameras cost so much because they have so many features tailored toward still photography -- when you look at the specs, the HD video capabilities are all identical.

So I'm upgrading to the Nikon D90 (I have all nikon lenses, no sense in buying a canon).  It's HD video recording is identical to the D300s ($1700) and the D700 ($2500), so I grabbed it for $699.  My camera right now will sell for around $2500.  So I'm in the clear!  This is going to be a great new investment.  If I land 1 gig for $2k I'll have made double what I spent and the customer will be more than satisfied!

Should be great to film with a new HD look, I'm excited to get to work!

Location Scouting

A big part of pre-production for a film or music video is finding the perfect locations for scenes to take place.  If the atmosphere isn't fitting, it doesn't matter how good acting or camera work is, it will look strange.

My neighbor happens to have a "library-room" in their house.  It's like the living room was converted into a small library -- fireplace, lounge chairs, and books on every wall -- perfect for a psychologist's office for my music video, "Oh No".

So I typed up a proposal for my neighbor and went over to talk to her.  She was more than happy to oblige my request!  So we now have an amazing location secured for filming -- next Sunday 12-3 here we come!