This weekend, video production team Good Day RVA expands into the world of live music with “A Good Day In RVA,” an all-day event taking place at Hardywood Park Craft Brewery on Saturday.
This weekend, video production team Good Day RVA expands into the world of live music with “A Good Day In RVA,” an all-day event taking place at Hardywood Park Craft Brewery on Saturday. Good Day RVA, a nine-dude collective, shares one common, heartwarming goal: to promote music they like in the city they love.
“We started working on the 48 hour film festival, and we were really just jazzed to create a film together,” said Chris Damon, the collective’s co-founder. “We were like, ‘We should keep this going. What can we can do that would be cool that would spotlight the Richmond art scene?’”
The guys’ solution? Something Damon calls “live performance takeaway shows,” aka cool live music videos of some of Richmond’s most prominent indie bands, shot in some of the city’s most notable and recognizable locations.
Founded by Damon, Matt Cowan, Evan Hoffman, and Will Weaver in July 2102, Good Day RVA strove to “be a vessel for the Richmond music community,” said Hoffman. The following September, the collective released their first video, Black Girls’ “Club Bangin,” shot at the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in Hollywood Cemetery.
Since then, the guys have released live videos for Houdan the Mystic, Nelly Kate, and White Laces. They’ll release a video for Andrew Alli and John Small next week. Good Day RVA also just did an official video for Black Girls – a first for them. It’s for their song “Soul Tornado,” and you can watch it below.
If a group of dudes filming pretty music videos on Super 8 film in everybody’s favorite Richmond spots isn’t enough to crack your icy shell, it should be pointed out that the guys from Good Day RVA fund all of their live videos out of pocket. From production to editing, everything is free to the bands.
This is where the Hardywood event comes in. On May 17, Hardywood Park Craft Brewery will present “A Good Day in RVA,” a festival that will boast 14 bands, including Richmond heavyweights The Trillions, Snowy Owls, Hot Dolphin, Navi, Night Idea, and Heavy Midgets. The event will be free, but a portion of the proceeds with go to benefit the collective.
“Hardywood was certainly the business to approach,” said Damon in regards to how the fest came about. “They have such a great philosophy on DIY ethics and on supporting the local community.”
The guys have been told that the fest is projected to be one of the biggest events in Hardywood history, second only to the release of the brewery’s Gingerbread Stout.
Despite the event’s magnitude, the guys aren’t spending any money just yet. “It’s very possible that we’re not going to come up on this financially. This is literally for exposure for the film collective,” said Damon. “And later on, there’s going to be [an] Indiegogo campaign, where we’ll hopefully get some money.”
Right now, the guys work out of cofounder Will Weaver’s house on a “little laptop, on a little table.” They also borrow almost all of their equipment. “We need [money for] a computer, hard drive space, cameras, Super 8 film, generators, props, locations,” the guys say, laughing. “These [videos] are few and far between for financial reasons, and we’re looking for some sponsors. If we were to have the backing… I think we could certainly do a lot more.”
The collective hopes to eventually get enough funds to pump out live videos every six weeks. They also want to, in time, expand to filming short stories and narratives.
“Everyone’s so supportive, everyone been’s so amazing,” said Damon and Hoffman in conjunction. “The whole point of existing is to showcase Richmond’s creative community.”
Awwwww!
The event at Hardywood will happen on Saturday May 17 from 2 to 10 pm. For more info, click here.
