Videomaker Article: Making Music Videos

Technically, this is my first Videomaker article. Shame on me. At least I helped myself out by helping film Cabaret and Letters!

This article, like a lot of articles featured in the magazine, focused on making music videos. It emphasized the importance of being original when coming up with an idea. It also pointed out that you don’t have to be limited in your ideas just because of your budget. I think the advice is really helpful to our class in creating concepts for our music videos.

Music videos are typically referred to as MVs. MVs have two major elements to them: 1) the logistics and 2) the aesthetic style. Logistics are the realities that need to be considered when planning the video. Aesthetics are the artistic elements of the video and how it is presented. There are three general styles of MVs. The first features strictly musicians onstage or on-location, and they are the only elements. The next is a Narrative Story, which tells a short interpreting the meaning of a song, and they usually involve actors as elements of the story. Musicians may also be involved as the storytellers. The third style is an Abstract Montage, a compilation of images and sequences that, while they may not relate to the song, can still be very stimulating.

Jessie Jackson, Jr. and Ali Santana, two rising names in the industry, were interviewed in the article.

Jackson is an independent film maker and directed a music video called Oh Jesus. He went to school to learn cinematography, but much rather preferred to direct. He usually starts making music videos by listening to the song, sometimes closing his eyes and visualizing his own concepts. He creates an aesthetic style based on his budget, which he feels “decides how to shape the look of the video.” While he appreciates abstract imagery, he feels that featuring the musician in the video best expresses the theme of the song. Simplicity, he says, is something that is greatly underappreciated. Basic shots sometimes make the video. While he uses a Mac Workstation and FCP Studio for his production work, he emphasizes that you don’t have to constantly chasing after the latest technology because 1) that doesn’t necessarily mean you know what you’re doing and 2) you waste a lot of money doing it.

Like Jessie, Santana also starts by listening to the song and visualizing what’s happening on-screen. Her father is a film director and her mother is a photojournalist, so she is greatly influenced by their work. Working with MTV, she likes to tell stories that reflect her experiences as a teenager. She feels that an artist’s lyrics serve the same function as a script does for a movie, and they are very important to consider.

Okay, that’s all for me! I’m working on my Behind-The-Scenes mini-documentary for the Cabaret DVD, and coming soon: Survivor by Destiny’s Child. Muahahaha!!!!

Samstar