Steve Stokes: Freelance Videography and Sound
I was fortunate enough to get hooked up with an organic wine company in California. They give me wine and I write them music and edit videos. I’d say, it is a pretty good deal, and their wine is fantastic. My favorites are the Chardonnay and the Red Zinfandel. Check out the video and song I did for them last month. It will surely make you thirsty:
This is a video that I did with my band mate and long time friend John Toomey. We shot this as a preliminary for a potential advanced drum lesson DVD. So drummers, stay tuned for that.
In this lesson, Nashville drummer John Toomey shows how to play 6 way independence on drumset. That’s right 6 different patterns using 4 limbs.
ZD YouTube FLV Player
In February of 2009, The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra came from New York to perform the world premier of Bob Brookmeyer’s 2008 / 2009 new music at the Missouri Theatre. The music is cutting edge progressive jazz for large ensembles and will surely blow you mind.
The VGO is a descendant of the Thad Jones – Mel Lewis Orchestra and has been performing at the Village Vanguard in New York for over 30 years. Brookmeyer is nearly 80 years old and has been composing since the 50s. He was commissioned to write new music by the “We Always Swing” Jazz Series in Columbia, MO. Jon Poses was instrumental in making this happen. Artists House Music hired me to document this important event. As it turned out, I ended up making a short film about Bob Brookmeyer’s commissioning and compositional techniques.
Watch the documentary and see the process of how Bob Brookmeyer composes music, rehearses the band, and conducts. The documentary also gives a brief history of the Vanguard band. Or, sit back and watch the premier. Enjoy!
Tim Hall was that guy in college that was always just a little bit better than me at audio engineering and at metal guitar licks, but only because he got to Loyola University one year before me. So after a week of knowing Tim, I decided if I couldn’t beat him, then I might as well join him. We became good friends, band mates, drinking buddies, and he showed me everything I know about Pro Tools. He managed to get paying sessions, and I managed to sit in on them. Those were some very enlightening moments for me.
I think our proudest moment together, was when we smashed 8 other bands in front of 200 screaming college students at Loyola University’s 2007 Battle of the Bands:
Yep, that’s Tim playing the orange guitar in his underwear in front of a Marshall fullstack…and me on drums. Good thing all those promo videos worked in our favor.
Or maybe the best moment was when he ripped the solo on the same song in the studio earlier that year (Credits to Joshua Paris and Sam Holton):
Wow, I know what you are thinking. Can I buy this song on iTunes? Of course you can: 
But now, Tim has really done it. He just got married to the lovely Mrs. Kori Whalum Hall. (Yes she is Whitney Houston’s saxophone player’s daughter – Would Tim have anything less? – NO, HE’S FROM TEXAS.) About to enter his last semester of his Masters Degree in Audio Engineering at MTSU, Tim has been published in mix magazine. If you are looking for some good studio and miking techniques and tips for how to do a speedy session right, check this article out. Congratulations Mr. Hall:
“It was just another day at MTSU until 4 p.m. rolled around and 40 students, a string section, a drum corps, bass player, improvised choir, vocalist, two Grammy Award-winning engineer/producers, a few camera operators and myself walked into Studio B with only four hours to record every element of a song our professor, Dick Williams, had chosen to release internationally. None of us had met or rehearsed together, and we didn’t know exactly what we were about to record…” Read the whole article at MixOnline.com here.
This is a highlight video from the October SMC Chicago event. Get a glimpse into what goes on at the events. Enjoy guest interviews, an introduction by SMC Chicago Founder Barbara Rozgonyi and SMC Chicago President Jeff Willinger, and a sneak peak at the panel discussion. Thanks to Gregg from Big Teeth Productions for hooking me up with the Social Media Club. Thanks to Smiley With A Knife from New Orleans for letting us use their music.
Here is the full panel discussion from the October 22, 2009 Social Media Club Chicago event. Thanks to Artists House Music for hosting this video. Artists House is a video-based non-nonprofit music educational site. But don’t be fooled, it is an excellent source for entrepreneurs of any field.
Hi everyone, I just added a music page with this fancy new mp3 widget I picked up, thanks to Premiumbeat. So far, I only have two albums that I have recorded up, but I will be trying hard to get all my music on here for people listen to before long. Let me know what you think of the songs. Check it out:
Here is a video I edited for Artists House Music a while back. This is Jim Dickinson a world-class producer. He produced some Stones albums and Aretha Franklin records, and countless southern rock bands. Unfortunately, he died last August. Sticky Fingers is one of my favorite albums of all times, so I figured this would be a good first post on my blog in order to commemorate Mr. Dickinson.
In this video, Dickinson talks about what it was like working with the Rolling Stones. At one point he says that the piano player refused to play minor chords. So, they had to get a stunt double to come in for parts of Wild Horses. If I remember correctly, Dickinson played piano on parts of the album also. The shot is a little drab (that’s what you get when you combine the videographer with the interviewer), but there is some great content in this video. Check it out.
Welcome to Stoked Studios, this site is under construction. Stoked Studios is a video production company that specializes in filming live events for web, television, and new media. For rates and information please contact Steve Stokes:
email: stevensstokes@gmail.com
twitter: @steve_stokes
phone: 251.751.3235
snail-mail: 2439 W. Cortez, Chicago, IL 60622
Thanks for visiting. Please check back soon for more updates.
