DMP is a collective of photographers, videographers & sound engineers who produce and document live shows to expose the talents of everyone involved.
People gather, imbibe, get to know one another, listen, dance and revel in the moment. A few months later, they can relive the experience online or stumble across a show they’ve missed.
Photo by Mark Smith
From April 2008 until March 2010, DMP had booked 45 original bands & musicians local to Greensboro and/or surrounding counties in North Carolina to perform under our hot lights. Our media team, numbering over 50 independent professionals, have produced 45 live albums & music videos over that time period, as well as more than 2,600 photographs.
Moving Forward
Community building; promoting the Greensboro music scene; helping bands become DIY in distributing their craft; connecting with the local creative community — we’re extremely happy with the results of our first few years. Quite frankly, it has been a blast. Unfortunately, a monthly production with an all volunteer staff is turning out to be unsustainable, so we’re making a shift in our approach in order to continue to do what we love.
Getting Artists Paid
Musicians receive a good amount of empathy when it comes to not getting paid for their craft, but there are plenty of talented sound engineers, photographers and filmmakers struggling to make a living as well. So as we support musicians by providing professional quality media of their performance for no charge, DMP has decided to focus on developing an avenue for actually paying these other independent artists.
DMP is now actively pitching the documentation of gigs to venues, labels and bands, from near and far, using our existing released media as a portfolio. Here’s how we envision it working:
- Once musicians decide upon the artists they’d like to work with, we’ll work with our media makers to provide estimates for sign-off from the bands
- While booking the show, we’ll encourage the venue to establish a door cover that can take care of the expenses of the DMP crew
- If the bands do their job and get family, friends and fans to turn out to support them, they’ll continue to receive our media for free — the difference being that 5 to 8 independent artists will get paid for the production & post-production work
- If they can’t draw enough of a crowd to cover costs, the remainder will be paid out by the bands. Even in this worst case scenario, the bands will get great value for what they pay out of their own pockets
From time to time, we’ll put on a free show for a special occasion or you’ll find us documenting a house party. We’ll play it by ear. Either way, we’ll continue to be out there, documenting live shows.
Hope to see you out.
Sean Patrick Coon
Executive Producer / Managing Editor
CONTACT INFO
If you’re interested in booking a DMP show, or participating, please contact one of the following people:
Executive Producer, Managing Editor: Sean Patrick Coon
Manages promotions, creative direction, sponsorship inquiry and show logistics. Contact directly with inquiries for having DMP work your venue or show.
Music Director: Don Ravon
Interfaces with musicians, recording engineer, mixes albums and coordinates media team output.
Photography Lead: Elizabeth Lemon
Coordinates interested photographers, manages photo community, critiques, uploads and exhibits.
Film Lead: Michael McQueen
Coordinates interested videographers, manages music video releases.
Sound Lead: Dan Bayer
Coordinates interested sound engineers, mixes albums, lead recording engineer.