At the age of 18 and barely out of high school, Patrick snuck into a movie theatre to see a film by a relatively new director in the U.S. called Ridley Scott – “Blade Runner”. After three viewings and several hours later, Pat emerged with a huge desire to manipulate moving images and sound. It was also at that time that his love for music developed into a strong itch to work at the legendary premier Rock Club and Danceteria – “FIRST AVENUE” in downtown Minneapolis. Eventually, Patrick found a way to conjure up a fake I.D, with the intention of getting into the club to see the “The Stranglers” with the ulterior motive of convincing Steve McClellan (club manager) to offer him a job. In 1982, Pat Epstein became a VJ, at First Avenue (a position which he held until 1986) and cut all of the club’s video wallpaper. Throwing himself into many editing projects, he would often sleep overnight in the club’s mezzanine, manually editing visuals without the benefit of a video-editing controller, which allowed the two machines to talk.
There, he utilized experimental techniques and innovative methods in video editing, creating video wallpaper for the club’s huge video screen and monitors spread throughout the club. During these times, he was recognized by RockAmerica© as the first video artist to pioneer video “scratching”. It was at First Avenue that he first previewed his re-edited or manipulated versions of Prince’s 1999, Little Red Corvette, and Controversy which he had re-cut into elongated dance versions of the original videos while maintaining the song’s original BPMs (beats per minute). This caught the eye of Prince during a visit to the club, which led to directing his first “live” Prince concert and the beginning of a ten-year working relationship between the two artists. Highlights include: “Alphabet Street” Music Video (director/camera), “Sexy MF” Music video-club version (editor), and the “3 Chains O’ Gold” Funkumentary (editor).
Since then; Patrick has directed several live concerts, and various directing and filming projects for Prince and other Paisley Park artists such as – “Tweaking” – George Clinton, “Little Rock” – Eric Leeds. Patrick has had the honor of directing a number of legendary artists such as – Culture Club, The Cure, Motorhead, The Thompson Twins, The Time, Husker Du, The Suburbs…and many others.
It wasn’t long until Pat began developing other experimental ideas and concepts that permitted him to tack on many freelance corporate and documentary projects, which, along with numerous Prince projects, were becoming increasingly frequent and keeping Epstein busy for several years. During this period, he began directing and editing numerous regional and national TV commercials for agencies and production companies across the globe.
Several years with this genre of work acted as a bridge and financial buffer to experiment with other work, including more Music Videos, Hi-End Corporate work, Documentaries, Live Events/Concerts, Non-Profit, Reality TV, and any other opportunity that presented itself to him. From high profile corporate and influential Rock & Roll clients to delicate award-winning storytelling with non-profit storytelling from the heart – Patrick has made many clients feel like rock stars all across the globe.
epstein images 