Mindpool officially started out in 1998, when a young video director with a big imagination got his break: being asked to shoot his first music video, The Beastie Boys’ “Three MCs and One DJ.” He followed that by producing The Beastie Boys’ “Video Vanguard” set at the MTV Music Video Awards later in the year, cementing the idea that he needed a creative space in his hometown of Milwaukee. Josh Adams had the idea to open a place for producers and directors to collaborate on content development. An editing suite with a few cameras was what he envisioned. Thus Mindpool Live originated. And today, 18 years later, it’s so much more.
Starting Out
Adams graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh after studying video production and filmmaking in the early 90’s. He caught a break in that his aunt (Christine Strand) happened to be the video director on a Tina Turner tour at the time. She was looking for some content ideas, and Josh had made a few pieces he gave her to view. She presented some of the work to the powers that be, and the next thing you know, he was employed as an AD at 24 years of age. “This was back before the days of super automation,” Adams says. “They needed someone to run the ARTI on the tour. It controlled the tape decks and set E-Mems on switchers. This was back when we used Beta SPs to play back content, and everything had to be aligned in order of sequence. You couldn’t just type in a command and hit ‘Go,’ like today. I had to advance and rewind tapes and make sure they were sitting in the right clip when the time came for the cue.”
After wrapping up Tina Turner’s Wildest Dreams tour in 1997, Adams was keen to expand his skillset and starting by operating a Jimmy-jib camera for Yanni. While home on a break, his friend Dave Neugebauer told him he should call this guy who was looking for a young person to direct some video, so he did. Later on, he got a call back from a band management person who was looking for a guy to do some work with the Beastie Boys. After that, he got another call from Mike D, one of the band members, to chat. By 5 p.m. that same day, he had his first gig as a video director.
“I showed up on site for rehearsals, and Paul Normandale had designed this big video structure out of display monitors. It was supposed to hang in the center of the arena, as we were playing in the round. The problem was, it arrived on site weighing too much to actually hang. So I was instructed to do something else with all the video elements.” In the end, Josh built a DJ platform out of the video modules and hung another 40 monitors at staggered heights from trusses. He had minimal amount of content on the tour and had to resort to his imagination. Thus he developed live feeds of sock puppets performing live on camera with the band and whatever other wacky ideas he could come up with. “I was just a young man sitting on the floor with my little video rack and a handful of Robocams, without a game plan. But it worked. After that, I spent some time with the Barenaked Ladies the next year. It was a proper show, with camera operators and a real switcher. After that tour, I hung up my touring shoes for about 10 years.”
Ideas and Expansion
Adams devoted his time to networking around Milwaukee and shooting local commercials and producing corporate media content for shows. Promo videos for local sports teams came into play. “I got a call from the Milwaukee Bucks, the local NBA team. It was two days before the season opener. They said they’d ‘like to do something as the opening piece for the season. Whatcha got?’ I asked for a half hour to think about something.” He did.
Milwaukee has a local restaurant owner/celebrity actor named Mark Metcalf. His original claim to fame is playing “Neidermeyer” in Animal House. Adams called him up and suggested they make a short film about the history of the Bucks while walking the streets of Milwaukee. The actor was down for it, and within 24 hours, Mindpool Live had shot the footage, edited the piece and delivered it to the sports team. It garnished great reviews and got Josh his first regional Emmy award for the Chicago/Midwest region. “I think it was for ‘Best Promotional Broadcast Video’ or something like that.” he states. More work soon followed with Milwaukee’s MLB baseball franchise, the Brewers, as well.
During the ensuing years, Adams found his business expanding with gear and employees. Around 2009, he started acquiring flypacks, projectors and LED modules to do his own shows. Eventually, he became a complete video service provider for shows, though he does point out that his gear is predominantly used on his own shows and he’s not a typical rental house for gear. With that came the need for more space, and by 2014, he found himself a new warehouse in his current location in St. Francis, located just south of the city.
“I did a lot of research when Mindpool decided to invest in video tiles. I chose the Barco C8v modules after many shoot outs. They were delivering a beautifully processed picture with a brightness of 8000 nits, which is incredibly bright. The tiles had an IP66 rating, so they could be used in outdoor scenarios with no weather damage.” Eventually the company purchased 380 panels of this product and were pleased with the rugged resilience it has displayed over the years, as the tiles are still kept in use. Recently, Mindpool found a company from Montreal named Theatrixx Technologies that builds their own LED modules. “We decided to go with this new xVision Touring LED Wall 6.4 mm panel. It has an all-black face, zero reflection and offers a 4500-nit output. But with the beautiful contrast in this product, it’s just as bright as the 8000 nit stuff.” They purchased the IP65 indoor/outdoor rated modules.
Of course, Mindpool has a strong presence at Summerfest, an annual celebration that happens in downtown Milwaukee, one of the world’s largest festivals with 11 stages and more than 800 acts playing during the 11-day run on purpose-built grounds. “We started out providing video on the main stage (Marcus Amphitheater) for bands that weren’t carrying video and needed I-Mag screens. We started out doing six shows in a season. Now we have video elements on six of the stages at Summerfest. We also have several Barco W 20k FLEX projectors on site as well helping out with I-Mag as well as promo videos in between acts.”
As we tour the grounds Josh points out the central command trailer, a TV truck rented for the duration of the festival. Hard Camera feeds from three of the stages come directly into this truck where the feeds are mixed and edited then rerouted through a permanent fiber system to all the LED walls and projectors on site. Each stage appears to have different configurations of video. While the projectors are not in use during the day, it’s easy to see the images on all his screens despite the scorching hot sun. At another location, Adams points out his own Mindpool truck. “It can get old showing up on site and being shoved in a corner somewhere with little or no ventilation. We built out a trailer that can easily fit two separate flypacks to cut cameras, and it has AC.” Josh is also providing three camera packages for the festival that utilize Sony HXC cameras.
Getting his foot in the door at Summerfest had to be something he strived for, but as Adams tells it, stuff just kind of falls in his path. “When I see a need, I try to react swiftly using all the knowledge we’ve gained as a company. I don’t jump in and buy gear just so I have it. As my business expanded, we grew our inventory as deemed necessary.” Adams happened to be in his prior building one day about 17 years ago, when he started talking to a couple of other guys by chance who had adjacent offices. After a while, he mentioned what he did. Turns out these fellas booked a lot of the bands for Summerfest. Eventually, they hooked Mindpool up to provide some video elements at the festival. The window just kept getting wider over the years.
Along the way, Josh decided he needed some help with the ever-expanding business. “This job comes with a lot of hats. For instance, this year, we are producing promotional videos at the festival every day. This content has to be edited overnight and posted on Summerfest.com daily. Plus, many of the bands that play at the festival have agreed to be filmed in some manner during their performance for archive and promotional use. We interview bands as well and end up putting out two edited pieces a day online. Someone has to make sure the clearances are there for all the performance rites.” This is where his wife Sandi Anderson Adams comes in — just one of her hats, so to speak. About five years ago the business had grown to the point where Adams needed a full-time partner, and what better person to bring on board than his wife. “She has been managing and producing large events in the Milwaukee area for years, so she understands the landscape. She’s also a former non-profit association executive so she brings a lot to the table from a business perspective.”
Ten Years Down the Road
Despite not touring, Adams kept his fingers in the live music biz. He took gigs such as directing video at Coachella and other one off musical events. But that changed around 2011. “Five years ago, Mindpool was in a pretty good place when an opportunity came up. Seems the Foo Fighters had a couple weeks of Canadian dates, and they were looking for a video director. I said, ‘Sure, what’s a few gigs.’ Well, that’s turned into five years now. I love it, and it’s worked out great. I could watch those guys every night. So I talked it over with my business partner Sandi. We knew we had a strong team in place and felt the time was right for me to be able to step away and participate in this extraordinary opportunity.” In the end, Adams reckons, the Foo Fighters gig hasn’t hurt his business. While it’s not a Mindpool account, “I certainly have to think that this has networked into a few gigs for us. We are in a pretty good place right now.”
For more information visit www.mindpoollive.com.
