First Family of Music Videos
Trevor and Eileen have been offering a service to musicians that so far exceeds the value they receive that every band on the First Coast should should be contacting the Bild’s production service, Ordinary to Extraordinary Life, OTEL Productions, to see how they can have quality video services provided at a fraction of the cost that bigger production houses charge. Trevor told First Coast Life, “We actually started off just taking stills at local events. We had a couple of DSLR cameras that we shot with and we saw a need for video so we started experimenting with shooting live music. At first our audio wasn’t great but we bought some software to assist in better audio quality. It wasn’t easy, I mean we had a learning curve there that we weren’t really expecting, but by tinkering with the video we got much better.”
Eileen pointed out, “We really had a passion for both music and for photography and we began shooting musicians and then getting to know the artists that we were shooting. Then as we got into the video portion of our work word sort of spread and the artists started getting word of what we were doing. And we started doing quite a bit of networking and meeting more musicians and getting our name out there.”
Getting experience producing music videos involved a lot of volunteer work and eventually Trevor and Eileen saw a niche that needed filling in producing videos for bands that gave the artists something to send out electronically so venue owners could see what the band was all about. “At first we noticed that the bands had a hard time coming up with the money to pay for professional video production,” Trevor said. “Eventually I realized that when bands did benefits they weren’t getting paid so I contacted some venues to see about booking bands and the band would allow the venue to pay me and Eileen and we would shoot a set and cut a video from their show.” So an idea was born and Trevor called it Play For Production which allowed the musicians to play one gig and get a video that included a medley of several songs, or a demo with contact info included, along with separately cut videos of up to seven songs. “It was a great tool for bands to use to promote themselves to the people around town who actually booked the gigs at a variety of locations.”
Eileen added, “What made it work so well for us is that Trevor is retired and we found an opportunity for him to get paid to sort of turn a hobby into a profession.” Then added, “And what makes it work long term is that we are filling a need that this music community needed but didn’t have before. And something I want to add is that we have had one band that has signed a contract and is out touring doing concerts and selling albums. And we have one solo artist who is booking weddings and private events and constantly receives compliments on his videos. We have a five star rating!” Enter Covid in 2020 and the entire live music industry came to a virtual standstill. “Covid slowed us down for a few months,” Trevor said, “but after three or four months we began getting busy again. And then Covid opened the door for some new opportunities.”
OTEL Productions soon found themselves in the television business through opportunities on ROKU TV. “We produce several channels on ROKU,” Trevor added. “We have 2 Roku channels we are extremely proud of. Rebel TV, a division of Red Rocket TV Productions owned by Leon Jonjock, and our sister channel OTEL MUSIC VIDEOS owned by us, OTELproductions.” A major part of the content is submitted to Trevor and Eileen from artists, promoters and distributors and ends up being seen worldwide through a medium that without, some of this music would never be heard outside the local friends and families of the artists.
To get the word out, Eileen has created an online network that allows industry people to network with promoters, managers, radio personnel and more. “It’s been very rewarding for us,” Trevor pointed out. “It has put us in contact with people all over the world, but more importantly it has allowed us to help the local artists in Jacksonville, the people we know personally and get them international exposure.”
For the future of their productions Trevor and Eileen are now working on OTEL Universe, a collection of content that will include music, talk, business services and much more. One thing for sure is that OTEL Productions has survived the epidemic and come out stronger than ever. To learn more about their ROKU activity and how it might possibly help your band or your business, contact the Bilds through Facebook or at their website oteluniverse.com.
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Mike is a native First Coaster and was a leading figure in surfing and skateboarding for most of his life. After promoting music for many years on the local music scene, Mike now brings a unique perspective to FirstCoast.Life as a contributing writer.
One Response
I love you both! Thank you for all that you do… You both have been wonderful!
Perhaps you can do a music video for me when you head this way…let me know what I need to do & your fee!
Looking forward to seeing you both soon.
Peace & much luv,
Jenny Snow