10 from Radar Music Videos - read on for 10 from Mo Ali and Orson Nava
1 Watch a lot of low budget music videos: videos.antville.org, shots.net, shotsringout.com, youtube and the playlists at youtube.com/radarmusicvideos, are all good sources.
2 Have a distinctive and individual voice. How does your mind work? Be different. Do things differently. Having a new way of seeing or interpreting life is very interesting.
3 Choose who you make music videos for. There’s more opportunities on the internet than you could possibly follow up. Research competitions – do the prizes take you where you want to go - more money, equipment, promotion, professional contacts? Research unsigned bands. Check out band’s MySpace sites – have they got lots of friends? Send them pitches. Use the self service ads and the competitions opportunities here too.
4 Check out distribution opportunities – can you promote your film yourself or are you bound by copyright or other agreements?
5 Turn your constraints into opportunities – if you’ve got lots of time but no money, is stop frame or lots of (free) locations an opportunity? If you can only shoot at night, what possibilities does that generate?
6 Keep it simple and explore the idea well. Some ideas: film a skill – it’s interesting to see someone being adept – drawing, juggling, building a wall, running up walls. Use an effect – stills, patterns. A clever approach – a single take, the same spot different backgrounds, a dwarf man just nearly out of shot.
7 Plan everything and save time, money and anxiety. Storyboard, shotlists. Communicate with your crew. Sorting out problems in post production is a pain and often expensive.
8 For no budget shoots and calling in favours, at the very least supply food and drink. Say thanks again to everyone after you’ve finished your shoot. Don’t forget camera and lighting hire companies and post production houses. If you can send them a copy of your film, it’s a great way to give something back. Have people think you’re great to work with.
9 Get some headlines.
Enter your film into music and film festivals (there’s a list of the best here on this blog). Winning awards or getting shortlisted or even just getting selected gets you attention and raises confidence in you as a new filmmaker. If you can distribute your promo online, choose sites where you can get good results – or even just help the band network their MySpace page – then you can say your promo got 100,000 views.
10 Have fun or you might as well be working in whatever other job you’d hate to do.
And the next set of tips are courtesy of the very fab Mo Ali and Orson Nava, music video directors
11 Get educated – there’s a lot of courses around that can teach you technical skills, give you access to equipment, introduce you to other filmmakers and potentially support your future filmmaking.
12 Find running jobs, an invaluable way to pick up skills and insights into every aspect of filmmaking. Plus if you’re lucky, you’ll get a paid job with the people you run for.
13 Develop teams around you – make long term relationships with people who’ll support what you’re doing.
14 Study your art – watch music videos with the sound off to just look at the construction of videos, learn how they tick.
15 Listen to your track over and over (Mo Ali does it about 1,000 times) and get to know it inside out.
16 If you’re doing a pitch, remember it’s a sales document – write about your concept and your video persuasively, create image boards.
17 If you’re making work for bands, deliver work on time. Get known as someone who keeps their word and who doesn’t waste people’s time.
18 Visit camera, lighting, post production houses and get to know them, introduce yourself. Create relationships with them and stick with them when you get budgets to work with, they might help you when you haven’t got much budget.
19 Make lots of work, get good at what you do
20 Don’t be afraid of the word no – everybody gets no’s and don’t be afraid of it. Chase the yes's.
Thanks to Mo and Orson
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