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Video project rocks out photo by Bob Pennell By Bill Varble The club is rockin�, a writhing roomful of young people in red light and blue fog and the loud, bouncy beat of Automatic 7, a young, L.A.-based band. A bad-news babe in high-heeled boots, short skirt and leather collar strides through dancers to the stage. They part for her like water for Moses. She takes a hit from a silver flask ... Cut. "Guys, spread the kids around a bit," says director John Foote, a calmly intense guy in a tank top that shows a tattoo. "You look good out there," he adds to the kids. Foote, of Medford-based Land Mind Productions, is directing a video that could turn up on MTV some day, or as streaming video on the Internet. The dancers, several dozen Rogue Valley young people, answered a casting call put out by casting director Jeff Tabler. They can expect to be here into the wee hours, Tabler says. Wednesday afternoon is hot in the club, an old pear warehouse in south Medford that�s now home to Land Mind. The walls are stuffed with insulation. Overhead lights shine on the dancers. Light and sound gear and a trap set crowd a stage where the band is set up at one end of the high-ceilinged room. A camera rolls on a dolly behind the stage, and a video monitor behind a curtain reports the action. Three days of shooting are scheduled to wrap up today. A live concert featuring the band Friday night will be shot as it happens on five cameras and recorded on 16-track audio equipment. Johnny Hulett, 26, Automatic 7�s guitarist, and his bandmates came to Medford to shoot the video because he and Foote have been tight friends since they worked in television together in Los Angeles eight or nine years ago. "We�re blessed with a lot of kids," he says. "They�re troopers, doing it for free." Hulett says the video is the story of a really bad relationship from his past. "A girl sort of ruined my life," he says. "In the video, we take it to an extreme. She�s a drunken, pill-popping wreck." Foote and Hulett plan to develop the video in all formats, DVD, CD-ROM, the works. But there�s a lot of work between then and now, and it starts with Foote taking everybody through the scene again. "Ready? Playback." Scott Glenn, of Rogue River-based Wolfpack Productions, has the tune cued up. At Foote�s signal, the room fills with punky, high-energy music, and kids bounce and dance. A blue spotlight shines through the fog, giving it a properly decadent hue. A guy with a big board frantically fans fog onto the dance floor. Nicole, the love interest, marches in with her flask. Foote stops the action. "This is the last time we�re gonna roll on this scene," he says. "So we need it just right. Remember exactly where you�re at. "They do it again. And again. At a mixing console, Glenn is using the CD version of the song "Broken Record" from the band�s CD, "Beggar�s Life." Hulett plays his guitar, but it�s not plugged in. "Waft that smoke through the crowd," Foote says. This time Nicole drinks and makes hot eyes at Hulett from the front of the stage, and he points at her over his guitar. They do it again and again. Kids dance, stop, dance some more, stop, dance again, stop. Foote tells them to take a break. "We spent a day and a half looking for people," Tabler says. "Hunkish types who like the music and don�t mind standing here. "One such is Windy Gish, 19, of Central Point. She auditioned for the part of Nicole and didn�t get it, but she came aboard as an extra, one of the dancers. Her acting teacher at Rogue Community College told her about the shoot. Gish wants to study law, but she also likes theater. "This is good experience," she says. Unlike Hulett�s experience with the woman Nicole is based on. But then, as Hulett says, "It made for a nice song." Obituaries | Sports | Business | Classifieds | Tempo | Prime Times | So Oregon Sites | Outdoor Journal | Subscribe | Contact | Movies | Advertise | Real Estate Showcase | Archive | Editorials | Letters to the editor | Religion | Wake-up Call | NIE | Cyber Chef | Job Network | So Oregon Weather | WSJ Northwest | Forums | AP Wire | AP Money | F.A.Q. | Awards Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The Community Newspaper Subsidiary of Dow Jones & Co, Inc Copyright �The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA