When the digital age crept up on the record industry, no one could have foreseen the effect home recording would have on it. (Not to mention file-sharing.) But digital video is causing its own ripples—now, even local artists can create high-quality videos for promotion. What the industry originally tried to head off as “video singles” are finally becoming reality, and as these two local releases prove, they can be done with the kind of precision quality one used to have to go to the coasts for.

Timothea’s Time For Change and Lance Ellis’ Voodoo Love are good, solid videos, the former a smoky blues-soul lament that proves how far this torch singer has come on record, the other a slightly more repetitive seduction that splits the difference between smooth jazz and adult-contemporary R&B. But you likely won’t be buying either disc unless you already like the song, and so the real story here is what director Aaron Walker of Terpsichore Movement does with both.

For her part, Timothea does her thing on the Columns Hotel stage while a cast of retro characters tell their own stories in the rooms themselves; sharp eyes will spot Henry Butler, Coco Robicheaux, and Walter “Wolfman” Washington among the mugs, thugs, and tarot readers. (No DVD extras, though.) The Ellis disc is broader, tooling around the river parishes in a cherry ’57 T-Bird, diving into a computer-animated tarot card, and showcasing Mahogany Blue in late-’50s girl-group period dress. The Ellis “single” may be worth purchasing for the extras alone, which include behind-the-scenes shots of guest stars like “Big Al” Carson and a telling interview with Big Chief Monk Boudreaux (who Walker’s already done one documentary on). Both discs prove that local artists may soon be able to control their image the way they control their music. And in the increasingly visual communications world, that can’t hurt. (Visit lanceellis.com or timothea.com to inquire about getting these for your own.)