Okay so you ready to put a visual behind that amazing track you have right? The fans have been asking for it and you're ready to deliver. Unfortunately that budget is a little bit on the broke side of things. Let us expand on how the artist/director relationship werks!
Some artist will pick a director based off their treatment. It is important to view the full body of work. There are many who are great writers but not the best of executors. Don't let the money be the reason you couldn't fully communicate your message to your audience.
The willingness to collaborate on both sides is one of the most important things. Once you’ve made the match, as an artist, you have to have a lot of trust and be able to let go and let the director realize his/her vision. And the director also has to realize that this is a representation of the artist/band’s song, and they have to be willing and able to collaborate with that band. It’s hard sometimes for bands to allow directors to set visual to their music. Because, when artists are writing a song, a lot of times they have a very visual idea of what a video might look like, but it’s very often a two-way collaborative process.
Think about looking on some of the music blogs and look at the new videos that are being made. The level of difficulty increases by 10 when you can only reference videos by Hype Williams and Spike Jonze that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, that they saw when they were 15. It is a good look to check out sites like Pitchfork and Video Static – the places that show new music videos – and see things being done in budget ranges that are very realistic. I think if you’re an artist getting into video, that’s a good way to educate yourself and see what’s out there. It can serve as a great table for what may be necessary.
What is also really important is to be open. A lot of times bands will come with a written treatment that outlines, shot by shot, exactly what they want. The problem with doing that is they don’t understand what things cost or how things are executed. Bands need to let go a little bit and be open to where the video can go visually instead of putting themselves inside a very rigid box.
Technology has been both a gift and a curse. A gift considering the type of things you can do in post production now. On the opposite end of that is it's made things a lot cheaper to execute. It’s very hard to watch such amazing, creative work being done and seeing people not always being well compensated for it. Directors work long hours, put their hearts and souls into the process and often make just a few thousand dollars (or less) on some of the videos.
Instead of shooting scenes from NY to LA why not settle for whatever is in your backyard. Definitely no need to waste money on travel expenses. It is a bonus if you near a city such as New York, L.A, Atlanta and other cities that are production hubs. The idea of working with what you have instead of with what you don’t have is actually really important. A lot of artists have platinum taste, but a silver budget. Some of my favorite videos have been some of the cheapest created! Maybe not everyone agrees but the lower the budgets are, the more creative you have to be. Everybody really pitches in. That can bring about some of the most amazing work ever.
At the end of the day you have to be honest with yourself. If the funds aren't looking right, then you know asking for a star studded video is out of order. It will be necessary to give your director time to brainstorm and create some magic.
We want to know your take... leave a comment below.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Type Comments Here...