On Friday, I had the marvellous opportunity of going to the Aesthetica Short Film Festival (ASFF) in York, which is a celebration of independent film from across the world. They take a look at a multitude of genres, and I focussed on the presentations and masterclasses on music videos. I went to a masterclass held by representatives of
Beggars Group, Craig and James, and listened to their advice on what makes a "good" music video. This obviously relates to my A2 project, so I made a lot of notes as the guys spoke of their experiences.
The main points that I picked out from the lecture are:
- Don't make the video too complicated, this will only confuse the audience and discourage them from watching the video
- Make sure the music fits the visual
- Don't include "too many kooks"
- Make sure that the audience is in the band's world when they watch the music video, as, after all, a music video is used
- Be as original as you can
- Be true to what you believe makes a good video
- Be passionate about your project
- A good music video should be simple, as less is more effective
A quote that Craig said that really stood out to me was,
"A good music video will always stand out. Most don't make impact, they just exist."
Craig also went into detail about how music videos are a marketing tool for artists, and that you have to create a good video to encourage audiences to visit the video again, or even just listen to more of the artist's work. He said that there is now an element of 'people power' with music videos, as fans now have an input in creating a band's success. Through the use of social media, and video sharing websites such as YouTube, fans can create parodies, lyric videos and band-oriented accounts where they can share a band's video, song or even images. As the Internet is a global phenomenon, the band will be broadcast to a worldwide audience, something that would never have been possible many years ago.
James, who was Craig's editing partner, gave us a few tips about editing a music video:
- You have to be musical about things. You have to consider the beat and tempo of the song, and he said that it also helps if you play an instrument yourself as you will therefore have a rhythmic element about you (I play a couple of instruments myself, so I did a glorious fist-bump at this tip)
- You have to review the changes you've made and decide if that tiny little correction you made has actually made the video better or worse. You can over analyse your video, and sometimes question yourself, but just be sure that you're happy with the final outcome
- If you produce a rough cut of your video, try to make it as close to what you imagine your final piece would look like in order to allow others to see your vision
Overall, I found the trip to ASFF extremely useful. It was eye-opening for me, to actually listen to stories from people who have worked in the industry for years but started as a Media student just like myself. The trip also gave me a chance to have a moment of self-reflection, as I have been looking at my planning and have decided that I need to be a lot more in-depth about my decisions and visions in order to meet the standard of the industry, as I hope to be a part of the media industry one day and know that I cannot slack in my pre-production tasks.
