Personal Effects Videos in roughly chronological order
Hi-Techs - "Pompeii," "Screamin You Head"&"A
Woman's Revenge"
From the Channel 31 show "After Hours," recorded sometime in 1980-81.
Hi Techs (who became part of Personal Effects) performed these 3 songs on
Channel 31. The original version of "Pompeii" was released on "The
City That Brought You...Absolutely Nothing" - put out by Tom Kohn and
Marty Duda. "Screaming You Head" and "A Woman's Revenge" were
side A and B of the second Hi Tech's single and was released on Dick Storm's "Archive
Records" label.
To view this video in high quality, go
to YouTube and select the "watch in high quality" link.
Personal Effects - "Don't Wake Me"
Video by Steve Black, 1982 or 1983.
Steve shot the film footage, then printed out each frame
and colored them with colored pencil and then reassembled the frames
onto video. The song appeared their first 12" EP on Cachelot Records.
To view this video in high quality, go
to YouTube and select the “watch in high quality” link.
Personal Effects - "Magic"
Video by Duane Sherwood, 1982 or 1983. This is his commentary:
Magic was the first Personal
Effects video. The song came from their first 12" EP
on Cachelot, but this video was done a while before that. The audio track
is from a ruff mix, done before some overdubs and a final mix in NYC for the
record. I think they recorded it with Dwight at PCI. This was always my
preferred mix. The video was shot on a small cassette 3/4" portapak.
We tried another idea for the video before this one. We set up the bands
equipment onstage in the empty Highland Park Bowl one Friday afternoon and
shot a number of takes. Don't recall why we didnt like it but the idea
got scrapped. After kicking a few other ideas around, the final plan was
a 2 part video - the band playing in a warm intimate interior setting, & then
Paul & Peggi out on a date in the cool blue nite.
We shot the nite driving stuff first. Actually second, I took some quick
shots of Peggi as she was putting on her makeup before we headed out, but
didnt plan to use it. Location-wise, East Ave had just been repaved from
Penfield Rd to St John Fisher. So I shot Paul & Peggi driving back & forth
on that smooth new road, back & forth for about an hour as the
sun set. This was early spring.
The 3 of us were crammed into the front seat of that big car they used to
bomb around in, with a cassette mix of the song playing thru the P&P
ghetto blaster. I think we probably became a little conspicuous, as
it got darker, since I'd taped a 100W spotlight on the hood of the car pointing
inside to light them up. By dusk it looked so bright as they went down
the street, Paul could barely see to drive. these were the days before
low light video cameras.
After that we headed up to Seabreeze. Jeanne Perry came with us to
assist. We asked some teenager running the ticket booth if we could shoot
some video in the park & he said yeah, so in we went. Try getting
away with that today. First stop was the amusement ride and I have
to say there was a certain universal justice to Paul & Peggi winding
up in a big coffee cup. I have to give Paul credit, he did double duty on
that ride. He had to hold the spotlight in his right hand during the
closeup, to light them as the ride whipped them around. And at the same time
he had to try & keep his stomach in his mouth. His expression at the
end of the first shot on that ride is worth a thousand words.
Then we hit the driving games inside the arcade, for a little thematic continuity,
with just a couple of lines being lip-sync'd. And fate smiled on us
when the flash of the photo booth went off right on time. P&P had that
photo-strip on their fridge for years after.
The band performance footage was shot at Paul & Peggi's house on Hall
St, where the band also rehearsed & later recorded a full album. The
living room was emptied, and a hasty abstract paper mural was painted to
cover the doorway. My 1950s living room lamps are in there too. We
did a few takes, and varied the lighting for mood.
There was a second edit, but this one is truer to the song so thats the
choice.
To view this video in high quality, go
to YouTube and select the “watch in high quality” link.
Personal Effects - "Low Riders"
Video by Duane Sherwood,
1983.This is his commentary:
Personal Effects second video
was shot onstage at Scorgies on a Sunday afternoon, and thats as much as
I can pin it down, datewise. Its sentimental for me
because it shows the Scorgies lighting system, which wasnt big yet very versatile.
Best club lights in town.
The song was influenced by a recent trip Peggi & Paul had taken to San
Francisco where they'd been fascinated by the Low Riders they'd seen in the
Mission District. They came back with these great books full of latino & low
rider drawings. We shot a bunch of them on slides & started fooling around
with ideas that would eventually grow into the full multi-media shows at
the Top of the Plaza and Community Playhouse.
Some other band's equipment was set up on the stage when we got there so
we moved their stuff off, except for the congas which Paul played. With a
bunch of incense to set off the lights & strike the Botannica feel, and
the cassette playing loudly thru the sound system & monitors, we shot
for 3-4 hours.
We had to turn off all the house & bar lights for the shoot so it was
really dark everywhere else in there. As a matter of fact, at one point
I walked right off the stage into the dark while I was shooting, and fell
flat onto the dance floor with the camera in my hands.
To view this video in high quality, go
to YouTube and select the “watch in high quality” link.
Personal Effects - "Drifting Apart"
Video by Duane Sherwood,
1984. This is his commentary:
The third video I did for P.E. was Drifting Apart. Its from the album "This
is It", which I'd helped the band record in Peggi & Paul's
house on Hall St. The lo-fi basement recording vibe of the album also
fueled the concept for the video. Lo-fi, home made, & experimental.
The video was shot at night in the living room of my apt on Bobrich Dr. We
had just gotten a video camera at work that could be switched to shoot in
negative, so I was anxious to try it out. I placed Peggi on a chair next
to a video monitor that was displaying the video output. Turned off
all the lights and lit her straight on with my super 8 movie projector (no
film running thru it). The flicker of the warm yellow tungsten lamp came
out light blue in the negative image, and gave a nice shimmering effect on
her face.
I expected to get some video feedback with her image on the monitor, but
I didn't expect the alternating positive & negative effect that we saw
when we turned it on. It makes sense, the negative of a negative is
positive, then the negative of a positive is negative, and so on & so
on. I just didn't expect it.
Being that the album had been recorded basically live, the art purist in
me didn't want there to be any edits in the video, so it was shot all in
one take. We rehearsed the few moves and then shot 3-4 takes. The
one that came out best was the 4th take, tho there was actually better video
feedback in the instrumental section of the 3rd. I kept 4th take intact & used
it whole. As I say, those were the purist days.
Some time after finishing it, I entered it in a video festival that the
American Film Institute was co-sponsoring with Sony out in L.A. ,"Visions
of the U.S." I only entered it because I saw that Laurie Anderson
was a judge. I thought I might meet her one day and this could be a
way to start a conversation. I was a fan.
To my surprise, Drifting Apart won 1st prize in the Music video category. I
got a trip to Hollywood for the awards ceremony, and a new Sony 8mm video
camera as the prize.
To view this video in high quality, go
to YouTube and select the “watch in high quality” link.
Personal Effects - "Bring Out the Jazz"
Shot in 1984 by an RIT sudent.
To view this video in high quality, go
to YouTube and select the “watch in high quality” link.
Personal Effects - "Nothing Lasts Forever"
Video by Duane Sherwood, 1985. This is his commentary:
Nothing Lasts Forever is from
their album "It's
Different Out There". The beginning credits of the clip show Russ Lunn listed
second as producer, but he should be first. He got the equipment from R. I. T.,
which is also where it was edited, shot the band performances, and also took
care of the transfer of the super 8 film footage to video.
We wanted a 'change of seasons' vibe for the clip, which was shot in the
autumn, and first made plans to shoot in highland park by the lilac area
where there were these huge beautiful flower beds. We could only shoot
on weekends and there were a few rainy ones before it became possible. When
we finally showed up with all the gear, we found the parks dept had removed
all the plants for the winter.
So a little more scouting & we settled on a dense wooded area of Mendon
Ponds Park. It was dark in there among the trees so we rented a 1000W
generator. I borrowed two 500W scoop lights from the Sutherland stage
and hung them from tree branches to fill in the area with some light.
I didnt want to have Paul playing drums out in the woods so I gave him a
violin, and Robin a cello, to mimic the string sections in the song. Robin
already played cello so she was able to teach Paul how to look convincing. We
shot the performances and most of the super 8mm 'home movie type stuff' on
the same day, We got only a few band takes as the weather was getting colder & that
was taking a toll on camera & deck batteries.
I also had some video from a summer weekend in the Thousand Isles with P&P,
where we shot a bunch of footage boating thru the seaway with no special
plans for it. It fit the change of seasons vibe so I used it. I also shot
a quick idea at R.I.T. with Peggi moving little stones around on a glass
table as a camera shot from beneath. Don't know why thats in there
now, but I did at the time.
Russ & I edited the clip late one nite at R.I.T. where he worked as
a TV studio manager. Guests werent allowed in there after hours so
at 11:30 PM I had to hide in a toilet stall in one of the bathrooms with
my feet in the air, as the guards came thru on their rounds. Russ
came & got me when the coast was clear. We edited all night and
then at 6:30 AM I had to go back to my hiding stall when the guards came
thru again.
To view this video in high quality, go
to YouTube and select the “watch in high quality” link.
Personal Effects - "Darlin"
Shot in 1985 or 1986.
This song appeared on Personal Effects' LP "Mana
Fiesta" released on Restless/Enigma Records.
To view this video in high quality, go
to YouTube and
select the “watch in high quality” link.
Personal Effects - "I
See Heroes"
Video by Duane Sherwood, 1986. This is his commentary:
The last video I did with
Personal Effects was I See Heroes, which is from the album "Mana Fiesta". I had
gone to NYC for the summer to take film making classes at NYU, and went out
to the 1963 Worlds Fair site to shoot some super 8 film, 1 roll I think. I
didn't know what to do with it. I also wanted to pursue shooting some
more in negative video, which we'd begun doing with Drifting Apart. So in
my mind this is sort of a post apocalyptic sequel.
Other than the Worlds Fair footage, the whole thing was shot in my office
at Sutherland High. The guys in the AV club helped me set it all up. We
shot Peggi singing, reflected in the back side of a silver mylar yearbook
poster, flexing it slightly to stretch the image. Behind her on a movie
screen was a film loop of the 1st flight over Hiroshima, after dropping the
bomb in WWII, which I'd snipped out of a library film and then reinserted
after we were done.
To describe the rest of the techniques used might get boring, but I will
say that fate once again smiled on us when I got a broken video camera in
to check out & send for repair. Dont know what happened but all
the colors were psychedelic. I called Peggi at home, told her to get
out to the school asap. Thats the Peter Max looking, color saturated,
footage where Peggi looks like she's floating sideways with her head on a
pillow. We shot for 1/2 hour & then I shipped off the camera.
To view this video in high quality, go to YouTube and
select the “watch in high quality” link.
Personal Effects -"Testify" and "Love
Potion"
Recorded on the Rochester show "Dance Beat" hosted by Scott Spezzano in 1986
or 1987. These songs appeared on Personal Effects' LP "Mana
Fiesta" released on Restless/Enigma Records.
To view
this video in high quality, go
to YouTube and
select the “watch in high quality” link.
