Music Videos

A couple weeks ago my good friend asked my if I would be willing to be the sole director/film-er/editor/distributor/etc. of his bands music videos. To say the least, I was up for the challenge. I had never filmed a music video before and I felt I was able to do it. Now having said this, I have never heard his band before. This makes it very difficult to come up with ideas for a music video having never heard the music before. It can change the mood of the video (whether upbeat and fun, or serious/sad etc.) and so I decided to start watching a bunch of music videos to get inspiration for this project I am to undertake.

If you want a fun or upbeat music video, there is no further to look than OK Go's MV (music video) talent. From the Rube Goldberg machine to the green
screen
color fusion to the wallpaper men (and women) dancing and performing in different ways to the classic and popular "Treadmill Video", OK Go is one of the best and most inspiring experiences out there. Now obviously I don't have the time or resources to make a camo marching band or a time lapse at the park. However they have given me many ideas which I could implement into a MV that would have an upbeat and/or fun mood.

Another set of videos I have been watching have been the Lonely Island videos. I don't think I could ever use this kind of material in such a small budget music video, but you never know when something might help you out. So I have been watching such classics as (and please note these are the clean versions as I have no knowledge as to the age range of my readers) I'm on a boat and Boombox or even Like a Boss (Crazy by all standards remember). Now I don't think there would be times when I could use this kind of stuff in the MV that I will be making, but then again its good to be well rounded just in case. I have noticed some techniques that could be applied in the after effects to add a little here and there. Maybe having watched those could help me out after all.

Another band that I listened/watched because of there MV talent is a local band called Menomena.
From there Child Food Fight which brings a smile to your face, filming of this Wet and Rusting recording and finally the animated life of a worker bee (not your typical one by any means) in Evil Bee. I feel I learned a lot from those videos. I don't know how much I will be able to use in terms of the videos I'm shooting, but you never know.

Having watched so many different types of MV (more than just those let me tell you) I hope that I know have the knowledge I need to film my friends MV. However, like I said at the beginning, I don't know what to do yet because I don't know what the songs sound like. You can't make a MV without the music. So once I listen to them and film them, I will be sure to post them up here so you people can bask in my glory... or something like that. So, yeah...

-Zam