For a local band, the battle to get recognized by record companies is a long, excruciating and many times hopeless fight. But it can be accomplished, usually by using valuable self-promotional tools such as live performances and well-put-together media kits.

Index Case, a four-piece metal outfit hailing from Indianola, has decided to take it one step further. The band, with the help of True Player Entertainment and D Philms, is recording a seven-minute music video.

The shooting for the video was done at two different locations: the group’s studio – The Dex Inn – and at Frank’s House of Rock in Des Moines. Frank’s resides in what was the Southridge movie theater and is a venue for both local bands and smaller national acts such as Beanbag and LA Symphony.

One look around the abandoned theater where the video is being shot instantly says this is no low-budget production being done with a home camera.

Crew members wearing Dingeldein Philms (based out of Davenport) shirts are frantically running around, trying to perfect the lighting and run cables. Director Chad Calek, CEO of the Los Angeles-based True Player Entertainment, begs the Index Case fans brought in to serve as the audience to listen to him as he tries to give directions for the shoot.

“Please guys, you need to really emphasize the sway, OK. You need to lean as far to each side as you can if we want this to look right.”

Meanwhile, D Philms founder and director of photography Phil Dingeldein tells actress Angela Von Stein exactly what she needs to do for the next shot. And the band, well . they patiently stand on stage with instruments in hand, waiting for the shoot to begin.

Finally Calek takes his spot in the director’s seat and the words “camera rolling” can be heard. The music starts, the crowd sways (although not like Calek wanted), and Von Stein, who plays the part of vocalist Joe Ansley’s conscience, enters the theater and goes through her part. At their cue, the crowd starts to mosh and soon Calek says “cut” and the shoot is over. The mosh pit pit clears, except for Ansley’s teenage sister who accidentally got caught in the middle of the pit and suffered a blow to the nose.

This process is repeated a couple of times before the fans are herded out of the theater while the crew takes about 40 minutes to set up for the next shots. This is what Von Stein, the crew, the band and the extras will be doing all weekend.

The process has been a definite test of patience and work ethic for those involved, but they say it’s worth it.

“Yesterday was 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.,” says Joe Ansley. “Twelve hours of shooting for a minute and 58 seconds on tape, it’s just crazy. Two hours to set something up and tape for 20 seconds – over and over again. It’s a lot of headaches, but it’s going to look good.”

“Why Dreams Bleed,” the song the video is being shot for, is from the band’s new album. It isn’t just footage of the band playing live either; in fact, the concept for the video was developed by Ansley and revolves around the theme of one’s conscience being both a good and a bad entity. The video, much like the song, has a definite dark and eerie appearance.

“We wanted to just create one of the most innocent looking things because to us one of the eeriest things in the world is innocence,” Ansley explains.

The video is going to be used not only as a promotional tool for Index Case, but for True Player Entertainment and D Philms as well. The two companies recently merged and would like to expand into the world of music videos. Both Calek and Dingeldein have experience in the world of movies; Calek co-wrote and co-produced “The Private Public” and Dingeldein has worked on films such as “Mommy” and “Mommy 2.”

“What we are going to focus on is original motion pictures like independent films and music videos,” Calek says. “The first thought I had was we know we can make them, so let’s make them and show people so we can get in the game.”

And that is exactly what they are doing with this video. A good example of the magnitude of this project is the fact it is being shot in high definition, a new filming process that allows video film to resemble 35-mm film.

“It’s cutting edge. `Star Wars Episode 1′ was shot in HD,” Calek says. “It appears exactly like 35-mm film. Think of traditional video in something like `Three’s Company’ and then think of `Star Wars.'”

“Coming into it I didn’t think it was going to be as amazing as it is,” Ansley says. “I mean, the equipment we are using alone is just ridiculous.”

While the crew is setting up for the final shots of the day, anxious fans, some of whose parents are impatiently waiting to take them home, eagerly wait in line to get autographs from the band.

Soon though, it’s time to get back to the grindstone. A couple more hours are spent on four more shots. One of them is a scene where Von Stein finally finds Ansley on stage and is exuberant that she has discovered her other half. As she stands at the front of the stage gazing at Ansley, he gets an inch from her and screams in her face.

“Can we have her close her eyes, I can’t do that again, its too weird with her staring at me,” Ansley says into the microphone after the shoot. “I’ve been chewing gum for the last hour though, so was that all right?” he asks Von Stein.

The shot is soon finished, as are the remaining shots scheduled for that day. Shooting is done about an hour and a half ahead of schedule. Calek and the band thank the fans for spending a whole day of their time working for free. But the fans don’t mind; they are convinced they will soon have their faces on MTV.

The crew sits down and takes its first real break of the day, glad to have this one on the books but knowing they still have one whole day left. That’s a wrap – at least for now.